Listening to Michael Stipe's slim catalogue of post- R.E.M. songs recently led me to a 2021 tribute album, I'll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute To The Velvet Underground And Nico- an album of covers of all the songs from the banana sleeved 1967 album that invented as many bands as The Beatles or Kraftwerk did. It's a hit and miss affair as these tribute albums often are but there are a few highlights and Michael Stipe's cover of Sunday Morning is one of them with strings by Hal Willner, the New York producer who worked with Lou Reed and Marianne Faithful among others. Stipe's sister Lynda sings backing vocals on the song, the opening tune on an album that is one of his top three records of all time (one of the others being Patti Smith's Horses and the third possibly Television's debut).
It led to me going through my collection in search of other Velvet Underground cover versions- there are many. In the mid- 80s the release of V.U. and Another V.U. gave the Velvets a further shot in the arm, the new slew of previously unreleased songs inspiring a new generation of bands. This is a forty five minute mix of Velvets covers with one unofficial edit- remix thrown in. There are so many I've left out a second edition could easily follow. The Velvet Underground never get old, never get tired, familiarity never breeds contempt. They are a band that keeps giving.
Forty Five Minutes Of Velvet Underground Cover Versions
- Michael Stipe: Sunday Morning
- Lovekittens: What Goes On (Orbient Mix)
- Nhii: What Goes On (Nhiii Remix)
- The Kills: Pale Blue Eyes
- Thurston Moore: Temptation Inside Your Heart
- Cowboy Junkies: Sweet Jane (Mojo Filter Junkie Re- Love)
- Matt Berninger: I'm Waiting For The Man
- Kurt Vile: Run Run Run
- R.E.M.: After Hours (Live 1989)
Michael Stipe's cover version of Sunday Morning is a low key joy, clarinet and guitar leading us in and then Stipe's voice, making the most of Lou Reed's melodies and pop song sensibilities. The bassline is the one from Walk On The Wild Side, a nice little touch.
Lovekittens were a an early 90s indie band who released two singles, one a cover of What Goes On which The Orb produced and then also remixed. Ambient house Velvets with cooing vocals.
Nhii is a Brooklyn producer and musician who remixed/ edited What Goes On in 2020. What Goes On is a key Velvets song, two chords and some psyche organ and that endless Velvets groove. Nhii's edit rumbles in on Mo Tucker's drums and then splices a new rhythm and beat into it, 2020 dance music with a scuzzy edge. There's some acid thrown too and then Lou's vocal arrives, 'Baby be good/ Do what you should/ You know it'll be alright'.
The Kills cover of Pale Blue Eyes is a B-side from a 2012 single, The Last Goodbye. Jamie's guitar tone is perfect, a gnarly, distorted sound that works his amp beautifully. The bit n the middle where the whole song stutters is really cool too. There are loads of covers of Pale Blue Eyes- R.E.M. and Paul Quinn with Edwyn Collins both did memorable versions.
Thurston Moore is on the I'll be Your Mirror tribute album,a cover of heroin with Bobby Gillespie on vocals. This cover from last year is better though, a Thurston Moore live favourite finally recorded in 2025 and then released on Sterling Morrison's birthday (29th August).
Cowboy Junkies cover of Sweet Jane (as edited here Balearic style by Mojo Filter) turned up in last Sunday's mix too, a song I played at The Golden Lion back in February. Cowboy Junkies based their version on the one The Velvets did on the 1969 live album rather than the one from Loaded. Lou Reed approved of this.
Matt Berninger (from The National) and his cover of I'm Waiting For The Man are from the I'll Be Your Mirror tribute. Velvet Underground songs are so well known and so them that bringing something new to them is difficult. Berninger strips the song down into a two chord clank, metal on metal drumming, and his weary, worn voice sounding like he knows exactly what it's like and how it goes when you're waiting for your man.
Kurt Vile's cover of Run Run Run is also from I'll Be Your Mirror. He'd appeared on this blog once before this weekend, one post in fifteen and a half years. Now he's been on it twice more in two days. His cover of Run Run Run is a thrilling take on the song- it's a song that inspired a million bands to play dirty, distorted two chord rock 'n' roll, a fun song to play and Kurt sounds him and his band are having fun. Lou wrote the song on the back of an envelope on the way to a gig and its got one of those casts of Lou reed characters in the lyrics, Teenage Mary, Uncle Dave, Margarita Passion, Seasick Sarah and Beardless Harry all on the hunt for drugs.
We started with Michael Stipe and we finish with him too, this time singing with R.E.M. in 1989 on the Green tour. They were still in the habit of playing covers for encores on this tour- I saw them at Liverpool Royal Court and they did this song there, the last one they did that night. They released four covers Velvets songs during the 80s, three of them rounded up on the Dead Letter Office B-sides album from 1987.