''Peel Slowly and See'' is a five-disc box set of material by

the Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1964. Its classic lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and percussionis ...

. It was released in September 1995 by Polydor.

Compilation

The name of this box set comes from the instruction presented on vinyl copies of the band's debut album to peel back the banana sticker featured on the cover. The set includes all four studio albums by the Lou Reed-era line-ups of the Velvet Underground, alongside demo recordings and live performances, some of which had been previously bootlegged, and some of which had never before been released. '' Squeeze'', recorded after Reed's departure from the band, is not included. ''

The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1964. Its classic lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and percussionis ...

'', the band's self-titled third album, uses the "closet mix",

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

's mix of the album that gives more emphasis to the vocals, and was the mix used on the original release. The band's fourth album, '' Loaded'', is presented with "full-length versions" of three of its tracks, " Sweet Jane", " Rock & Roll" and "

New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

". ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' journalist David Fricke wrote extensive

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

in an accompanying booklet, which also pictured many items of Velvet Underground

memorabilia A souvenir (French language, French for 'a remembrance or memory'), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memory, memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collecte ...

from the collection of guitarist Sterling Morrison.

Track listing

All tracks written by Lou Reed except as noted. All tracks performed by the Velvet Underground except † by the Velvet Underground & Nico; and ‡ by Nico. With the exception of "Prominent Men", the tracks on Disc One feature multiple takes of each song.

Personnel

;The Velvet Underground * John Cale –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

, viola, keyboards (discs 1–3); lead vocal on "The Gift" and "Lady Godiva's Operation"; organ and viola on disc 5, track 15 * Sterling Morrison –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, bass guitar, backing vocals, co-vocal on "The Murder Mystery" *

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

, guitar,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, harmonica * Maureen Tucker –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

(discs 2–5), lead vocal on "After Hours" and "I'm Sticking with You", co-vocal on "The Murder Mystery". * Doug Yule – bass guitar, keyboards, guitars,

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

(disc 4–5); lead vocal on "Candy Says", "Who Loves the Sun", "New Age", "Lonesome Cowboy Bill", "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'", "Ride into the Sun" and "I'll Be Your Mirror" (live). ;Additional musicians * Nico – lead vocal on "All Tomorrow's Parties" (both single and LP versions), "Femme Fatale", "I'll Be Your Mirror", "Melody Laughter", "It Was a Pleasure Then" and "Chelsea Girls"; backing vocals on "Sunday Morning" * Adrian Barber – drums on "Who Loves the Sun" and "I Found a Reason" *Tommy Castanaro – drums on "Cool It Down" and "Head Held High" * Billy Yule – drums on "Lonesome Cowboy Bill", "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'", "Ocean", "Some Kinda Love" (live) and "I'll Be Your Mirror" (live). ;Technical staff *The Velvet Underground – producers (disc 1; disc 3: 1–7, 14–16, disc 4, disc 5: 17–18) * Andy Warhol – producer (disc 2: 1–12) *The Velvet Underground & Nico – producers (disc 2: 13) * Tom Wilson – producer (disc 2: 14–15, disc 3: 8–13) *Geoff Haslam, Shel Kagan and The Velvet Underground – producers (disc 5: 1–10, 15–16) *Adrian Barber – producer (disc 5: 11–14, 19) * Brigid Polk –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

(disc 5: 17–18) *Spencer Drate, Judith Salavetz, Sylvia Reed, Smayvision – design

References

{{Authority control Albums produced by John Cale Albums produced by Lou Reed Albums produced by Andy Warhol Albums produced by Tom Wilson (record producer) 1995 live albums 1995 compilation albums The Velvet Underground compilation albums Polydor Records compilation albums Polydor Records live albums