11. The Velvet Underground – 1969: The Velvet Underground Live

When I was a kid I had this book of Rolling Stone’s top albums, and a lot of the critics had this record in their top 10, so this was the one I bought. It was the first Velvet Underground album I had; I heard this before any of their studio albums. I think it’s awesome. I bought all the other ones after, too, but something about it is so cool: it’s just the band playing, instead of Nico or all the fanfare with Andy Warhol. There’s something pure about it. I heard ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ on this album first, with Doug Yule singing, and I still like it better than the version with Nico singing.