The Classic Years

  1. I'm Not Sayin (2:48)
  2. The Last Mile (2:27)
  3. I'll Be Your Mirror (2:14)
  4. Femme Fatale (2:38)
  5. All Tomorrow's Parties (2:48)
  6. The Fairest of the Seasons (4:07)
  7. These Days (3:30)
  8. Little Sister (4:23)
  9. Chelsea Girls (7:23)
  10. No One Is There (3:37)
  11. Ari's Song (3:21)
  12. Frozen Warnings (4:02)
  13. Nibelungen (2:43)
  14. Janitor of Lunacy (4:00)
  15. Abschied (3:02)
    Translation
  16. Afraid (3:27)
  17. Secret Side (4:03)
  18. You Forget to Answer (5:06)
  19. The End (9:29)

03 No fade out
05 Single voice edited stereo version



The End

The End
(The Doors)

This is the end, beautiful friend,
This is the end, my only friend.
The end of our elaborate plans,
The end of everything that stands,
The end, no safety no surprise,
The end, I'll never look into your eyes again.

Can you picture what we'll be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need of some stranger's hand
In a desperate land ?

Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane,
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain.

There's danger on the edge of town,
Ride the King's highway, baby.
Weird scenes inside the gold mine,
Ride the highway West.

Ride the snake,
Ride the snake to the lake,
The ancient lake.
The snake is long, seven miles,
Ride the snake.
He's old and his skin is cold.
The West is the best
The West is the best
Get here and we'll do the rest
The blue bus is calling us
The blue bus is calling us
Driver, where're you taking us ?

The killer awoke before dawn,
he put his boots on.
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall.
He went to the room where his sister lived
And then he paid a visit to his brother.
And then he, he walked on down the hall
And he came to a door and he looked inside.
"Father ?" "Yes, son ?"
"I want to kill you. Mother, I want to ..."

Come on, baby, take a chance with us,
Come on, baby, take a chance with us,
Come on, baby, take a chance with us
And meet me at the back of the blue bus.

This is the end, beautiful friend,
This is the end, my only friend.
The end, it hurts to set you free,
But you'll never follow me.
The end of laughter and soft lies,
The end of nights we tried to die,
This is the end.

The Classic Years US CD Chronicles 314 565 185-2
US CD Chronicles 314 565 185-2
1998-09-15

01-02 Immediate single IM 003 (1965)
03-05 from The Velvet Underground And Nico (1967)
06-09 from Chelsea Girl (1967)
10-13 from the marble index (1968)
14-16 from Desertshore (1970)
17-19 from The End ... (1974)

The lady was inspirational in her presence and directness, had the power of a living oscar statue, and more than hang around with the boys she was one, and as such her agenda never scared you,, it propelled you. At the time I knew her she had that gift that advances any work you do with talent, she was with you in the minute, you just thought, she got it before you spoke, you didn't have to translate, edit or change, which led to a truth only encounter. I had the same thing with Keith Richards, still do, and Steve Marriott, would do and that should give you some idea on Nico. We served each other well for those few minutes in '65 when she lent her talent to the launch of Immediate, for in addition to her pop recording for my label, in which she allowed us to unsuccessfully emulate the advanced copy of Elusive Butterfly we had some of the stellar Jackie de Shannon demos we loved; for one of Immediate's heroes was Liberty records and its pubbery arm, Metric Music; Nico also joined us on the launch of Immediate as we promoted thru the factories all over the north of England and Europe allowing me to play irving Thalberg to Nico's award winning Norma Shearer. She accepted the part and played it well, in that The McCoys with Hang On Sloopy went to No. 1 for us but were unavailable and ugly. The Lady understood the rhythm of life, did the movie and moved on to the next part.

Andrew Loog Oldham

Compilation produced by Bill Levenson
Mastered by Suha Gur at PolyGram Studios
Introduction by Andrew Loog Oldham
Essay by Clinton Heylin
Art Direction and Photo Research by Geoff Gans
Photos by Nat Finkelstein, Paul Morrisssey, Guy Webster and Michael Ochs Archives
Project Direction: Terru Tierney
Project Coordination: Catherine Ladis
Special Thanks: Beebe Jennings and Michelle Sangenito at PolyMedia, Steve Poltorak at Warner Special Products, Phil Yarnall at Smay Vision, and Christopher Whent.

© 1998-2011
Serge Mironneau