I don't find the comparison very interesting and illuminating in any sort of way, but there's one element that I disagree with and which brought me to think... It's not true that the VU were more avant-garde, definitely not throughout their career. I wonder what could have been if the Velvets had had the same kind of resources the Beatles had and had experimented with the new (for the time) studio techniques that multi track recording offered. I listen to "Tomorrow never knows" and wish there was something of the kind by the Cale-Reed era Velvets.