New Age
| Originally Performed By | The Velvet Underground |
| Original Album | Loaded (1970) |
| Appears On |
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| Music/Lyrics | Lou Reed |
| Vocals | Trey (lead), Fish, Mike, Page (backing) |
| Phish Debut | 1998-10-31 |
| Last Played | 1998-10-31 |
| Current Gap | 854 |
| Historian | Mark Toscano |
History
Lou Reed's eccentric gutter-ballad to a used-up piece of Hollywood offal is simultaneously beautiful and vulgar, representing the best of both worlds of The Velvet Underground. The song is often considered one of the diamonds in the rough terrain of Loaded. Though Doug Yule’s portion of the lyrics are blasted for being too blandly and flatly delivered (even, albeit politely, by Reed himself), the song is one of the Velvets’ last few masterpieces. Phish covered this on 10/31/98 during its Loaded set, playing it pretty straight and true to the original album version, despite an extended ending featuring an extremely fiery (if repetitive) Trey solo.
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