The Velvet Underground Popularity Myth Pt.17 – June 1967

June 6, 1967

1967

The Velvet Underground Popularity Myth Pt.17 – June 1967

June 1967

My earlier notes state that “the first pressing of the album had entered the charts in mid-May 1967, at No. 199 but was recalled in early June. As a stop-gap for getting it back into the shops, Verve pasted over the offending photo until they could later airbrush it. This second release would not come out for another five months though, leaving the unavailability of the album to choke sales which, as may be demonstrated below were starting to become sufficient.” However, based on some of the evidence suggested below this may require some further investigating due to the increase in reviews, advertising and seeming availability of it in the shops. There certainly appears to be evidence to suggest that the snickered cover was made available earlier or that the withdrawal was later.

4th June, The Bangor Daily_News has a local record store featuring the album as one of their ‘top sellers’

10th June. The Toronto Star review. The album becomes available in Canada. Interestingly, it mentions that it came out in the US ‘four months ago in New York’ which could suggest that it was actually available in February rather than March. And of course, there were reviews made available in February. While it’s common practice for review copies to be sent to the larger press in advance there is the potential of this being less likely for the Ohio based Troy Daily News who placed their review on the 24th February.

Confusingly, the Canadian release did not feature the Warhol banana. Instead it featured the back cover of the US release, complete with Emerson torso. This is a doubly strange move as the available information suggests the lawsuit triggered a withdrawal of this image. Richie Unterberger told me via email that ‘Emerson took legal action about the cover by the end of March, and the label started to use the sticker by mid-April. I found information about the court case in the Andy Warhol archives at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.’

This does raise a question. Why would MGM Canada release this during a legal issue? Of course, Discogs may be correct to state the Canadian album was released at the same time as the US edition but there appears to be any documentation to suggest it was available before June 1967. The US ‘lawsuit’ sticker was in place mid-April so having the Emrson Torso on the front of the Canadian issue is odd!