Velvet Underground Reissue Highlight: A Bluesy 'I'm Waiting For The Man'

A rather bluesy version of "I'm Waiting for the Man" will be featured on the upcoming 45th anniversary reissue of the Velvet Underground "s third and self-titled album, released in 1969. The remastered edition is set to be released on Nov. 24 on Polydor.

According to Pitchfork, this "super deluxe" version of "The Velvet Undergorund" will include a case-bound book, liner notes by Rolling Stone writer David Fricke and no less than 65 tracks over six CDs. These will consist of remastered mixes of previous studio and live works, but also a version of the New York band's unreleased fourth album recorded in October 1969 to get out of their contract with MGM. Several of these tracks had already ended up on Lou Reed's solo album Transformer.

This version of "I'm Waiting for the Man" was available on the band's 1969: The Velvet Underground Live, released in 1974, but this deluxe edition is actually much cleaner and less scrambled. Compare for yourself:

1974

2014 (or click here)

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Migrant Lives

Migration

What's Driving More Venezuelans To Migrate To The U.S.

With dimmed hopes of a transition from the economic crisis and repressive regime of Nicolas Maduro, many Venezuelans increasingly see the United States, rather than Latin America, as the place to rebuild a life..

Photo of a family of Migrants from Venezuela crossing the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum

Migrants from Venezuela crossed the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum.

David Peinado via Zuma Press

Julio Borges

-Analysis-

Migration has too many elements to count. Beyond the matter of leaving your homeland, the process creates a gaping emptiness inside the migrant — and outside, in their lives. If forced upon someone, it can cause psychological and anthropological harm, as it involves the destruction of roots. That's in fact the case of millions of Venezuelans who have left their country without plans for the future or pleasurable intentions.

Their experience is comparable to paddling desperately in shark-infested waters. As many Mexicans will concur, it is one thing to take a plane, and another to pay a coyote to smuggle you to some place 'safe.'

Venezuela's mass emigration of recent years has evolved in time. Initially, it was the middle and upper classes and especially their youth, migrating to escape the socialist regime's socio-political and economic policies. Evidently, they sought countries with better work, study and business opportunities like the United States, Panama or Spain. The process intensified after 2017 when the regime's erosion of democratic structures and unrelenting economic vandalism were harming all Venezuelans.