A while back the people at the Andy Warhol Museum that are charged with the task of combing through the massive pile of personal belongings the artist left behind unearthed a reel to reel audio tape. This tape contained what is known as the Scepter Studios Sessions or the Norman Dolph Acetate by the Velvet Underground.
This session was recorded on April 25, 1966, prior to the recordings that were used for the The Velvet Underground and Nico album, also known as the banana record because of Warhol’s painting of a banana that was used for the cover art. It was believed that the only remaining evidence of the Scepter Studios session were two acetates that were created in order to check levels and that was it. Everyone involved believed that the tapes were either misplaced, destroyed or recorded over which happened with alarming frequency in the 1960s and 70s.
One of the acetates is known to have ended up in a private collection with the owner choosing not to disclose who they are. The second acetate ended up on the auction block ten or so years ago. The person who bought it made a decent needle drop recording of it and posted it online as a free download. The recording was scratchy and riddled with pops and skips because acetates were only meant to be played once or twice in the studio before tape was rolled. This recording ended up being pressed to vinyl and came out a few Record Store Days ago. I have it on the shelf but never spent much time with it because of the quality issues.
That is why coming across the tape in Andy Warhol’s archive is such a major discovery. It was thought that this session was lost to history with the exception of the aging and degraded acetates.
The archivists at the Warhol Museum did their due diligence once the tape was found and had it transferred to digital before the tape crumbled. They then went to work on setting up an exhibit to show off their new discovery.
The exhibit included photos and films from the time of the recordings as well as every piece of information that is known about the session. The original tape and any other noteworthy physical items were on display in the entryway before the exhibition space itself. The walls were covered with black curtains and there were screens on either end of the space.
Films of the band members that were shot by Andy Warhol were played on the screens in a loop along with the restored audio of the Scepter Studios session. There were couches and chairs so people could sit and observe the films while taking in the music. Strategically hung on the walls around the room, there were photos and more placards with information.
The room was kept intentionally dark because the focus of the exhibit was audio and people were meant to use their ears more than their eyes to experience it. All in all, it was a very well put together way to display this bit of music and art history that the museum had discovered.
In order to avoid the crowds, I tried to go on a Tuesday afternoon after I had a dentist appointment but struck out. The museum is closed on Tuesdays so I had to suck it up and go to a public tourist attraction on a Saturday.
I was there shortly after they unlocked the doors and already noticed a large amount of strollers and unsupervised children running about. This did not bode well for me.
I took a faster than usual walk through the galleries to see what pieces may have been rotated in since the last time I was there. I was trying my level best to get ahead of everyone and it felt like it was working for a brief moment.
I got to the floor with the Velvet Underground exhibit and took the time to read all of the displays and check out all of the items before entering the main area. I entered the room knowing full well what I was about to hear but I still wasn’t ready for its impact and the way it was being presented. I walked in to the sound of John Cale’s viola on “Black Angel’s Death Song” which was the sonic equivalent of walking into a wall. I almost teared up from the sound of it. It was an overwhelming and effective way to present the music and it hit me like a ton of bricks.
The only other people in the room were an older woman that was sitting on one of the couches, watching the films and a museum employee. I made a loop around the room to check out the photographs and to read the other information on the walls. After that I took a seat at the opposite end of the room so as to not bother the woman that was there.
I was able to sit quietly and absorb the exhibit for about a song and a half before the rest of the masses showed up. There was a swarm of rapidly aging/balding white men with beards, glasses, plaid button down shirts, beige cargo shorts and flip flops. It was like an invasion of the hipster pod people.
They were all loud as hell and felt compelled to mansplain at the top of their lungs some little factoid about The Velvet Underground that they thought only they knew. It was as if they were trying to explain why IPAs tasting like freshly squeezed dog urine is actually a sign of quality when it comes to shitty beer.
While they were busy running their mouths, they were letting their ill-behaved spawn run wild through the exhibit. If you make the initial mistake of having children and then the follow up mistake of raising them free range, why do you need to make it everyone else’s problem?
It's a museum not a goddamn playground. If you wanted to trundle about a museum for a few hours, you should have left your kids at home to play with the cutlery or in the car with the windows rolled up.
It was clearly an art exhibit where the art was meant to be experienced with the ears. That means you should try shutting the fuck up for five minutes. And by the way, that little tidbit of Velvet Underground information that you think is so special and only you know has been written about in books and articles for over the past fifty years in addition to being printed on the displays out in the hall and on the walls.
These were the same kind of dickheads that check out the guitar set ups of the bands they’re about to see as if they'd know what to do with any of the pedals. And that’s if their wives would allow them to play guitar at home because it would make too much noise and wake the napping children or disturb the cookout or whatever the fuck suburban hipster douchebags do when they congregate in their spare time.
Needless to say, it was time to go before I ended up on the evening news. “Angry middle-aged man physically removed from the Warhol Museum for putting dipshits in their place. More at eleven.” Although, probably not because of the local media's incessant need to report on lottery numbers and football and little else. There are reasons why I shouldn’t be allowed out in public and other people could possibly be the main one.
I made a quick exit and about a half an hour later I was in my living room with a fresh cup of coffee and The Velvet Underground And Nico playing at such a volume it probably caused structural damage to my house.
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