The Velvet Underground & Nico - Pop History Vol. 19 flac album

Another oddball compilation put together by the mad German scientists behind this strange beast http://www.discogs.com/Frank-Zappa-And-Mothers-Of-Invention-The-Velvet-UndergroundFeaturing-Nico-Pop-History/release/5527287 (an hilariously innappropriate sequence of tracks by The Mothers and The Velvets with no logic at all behind the track selection).For this 1972 Velvets compilation no more sense prevailed in the Polydor boardroom as the hapless record executives struggled to find novel new ways of milking a few more deutschmarks from the Velvets back catalogue.So once again The Velvet Underground are billed 'and Nico' - yet none of the tracks from the Banana debut are present - the record with which they are most commonly associated. Instead you get a bunch of tracks from Nico's solo debut - an album on which some of the Velvets played - so fair game I suppose.Compared to the Mothers & Velvets album (linked above) the sleeve design of this one is an absolute masterpiece - creating a psychedelic wonderland out of the darkness and gloom of the original VU third album sleeve. For reasons unknown the magazine Lou held on the original sleeve has been replaced by a cigarette (or a 'reefer' perhaps).If you'd found a second hand copy of this in 1978 for £2 you'd have been highly delighted. I see you can still pay under £10 for a copy so maybe, allowing for inflation, it's still a bit of a bargain for this complete curiosity.Obviously - the music contained on this album is absolutely essential and stupendous - but if you feel the need to buy a VU album and you have no prior knowledge of the band - resist the temptation to get this one and just get the first four albums and Chelsea Girl - they will make a lot more sense than this effort.