It's the rarest of live albums whose songs add anything to the majesty of the original studio recordings. This one adds immeasurable data to the Velvet's story. Without 1969: Live we might never have known that they were more than just an art outfit, that they could actually rock with fury. Check out Reed's strumming on "What Goes On" if you want to have your mind blown. None of these staples of the V.U. catalogue can be truly known without hearing these fully formed, fleshed-out versions, so for history's sake alone we must treasure this. History's tragedy of course is that we get to hear the excruciatingly light applause--it sounds like there's only 10 people in the room at some points--after each course in ass kicking. They were wrongly under-appreciated in their time, and for this we must all pay forever by playing this record constantly. --Gene Booth