The “Listen Again” series went over well enough here in the Los Angeles area that your favorite rockin’ record reviewer decided to follow the lead of some L.A. TV execs and do a spin-off. In this series we once more examine previously-released albums BUT the platters we shall peruse in this particular series will be (Rolling Stone magazine) FIVE-STAR albums. In this edition—as per a request from some friends in the Facebook group You grew up in the Souderton/ Telford/ Harleysville area if you remember...--we discuss the Velvet Underground’s Loaded.
For those not up on your music history, the Velvet underground was a US rock group that was founded in New York City. In late 1964 guitarist-singer Lou Reed met musician and singer-songwriter John Cale. They quickly recruited guitarist friend Sterling Morrison and drummer Angus MacLise to join a group they would first name The Warlocks.
Cale’s buddy showed the band a book about the secret sexual subculture of the early 1960s by Michael Leigh. It was titled The Velvet Underground. The group thought the name was evocative of "underground cinema." Since Reed had already penned a tune named "Venus in Furs" which was inspired by a book about masochism by Leopold's book of the same name. The group unanimously agreed on changing their name to the Velvet Underground.
In 1969 Atlantic Records signed the Velvet Underground to a record deal. The band began work on what would become their final studio album with Reed. The LP would be released on Atlantic’s subsidiary label Cotillion.
The work would be titled Loaded. The idea behind the title was that the label had asked the group to put out an album that was “loaded with hits”. At the time of the recording sessions the active roster included Morrison on guitar, Reed on vocals, piano and guitar, Doug Yule on keyboards, bass, backing vocals, guitar, drums and lead vocals on four songs.
Drummer Maureen Tucker was on pregnancy leave. Nevertheless, she sings on the outtake “I’m Sticking With You” and plays drums on the demo version of “I Found a Reason”. (Both of these cuts would appear on the “Fully Loaded Edition”.)
The completed 40+ minute album would contain 10 tracks—all of which were written by Reed. Side one of this protopunk/pop punk project opens with “Who Loves the Sun”. This cut featured Yule on lead vocals and engineer Adrian Barber on drums. It also includes the two most famous Velvet Underground songs—“Sweet Jane” and “Rock & Roll”. Other cuts included here are “Cool it Down” which featured guest drummer Tommy Castanero and “New Age” which was highlighted by Yules lead vocals.
The flip side opens with "Head Held High". This one once more included guest drummer Castanero as Tucker remained out for most of the recording sessions. Yule would again become lead vocalist on "Lonesome Cowboy Bill". High school student and Yule’s brother Billy Yule would be brought in to play the drums on this track.
"I Found a Reason“and “Train Round the Bend” are the next numbers. The closing cut “Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" follows with Yule singing lead and his brother once more playing the drums.
Reed quit the band in the summer of 1970 because he was being pressured by the band’s manager Steve Sesnick and he was generally disillusioned with the lack of progress the group seemed to be making at the time.
Strangely, the band actually disbanded while they were still laying down tracks and Reed actually left immediately before the platter was packaged stating: I left them to their album full of hits that I made.” The album would be released three months later having been re-edited and resequenced without Reed’s consent.
Reed never authorized the label to cut the "heavenly wine and roses" melody out of "Sweet Jane". His original composition had the melody serving as a bridge to the “plagal cadence two-chord version of the chorus.” The earlier choruses contain a 4-chord riff.
Reed also took issue with the larger cover photo of Yule, being listed lower in the album credits and not being given songwriting credits. (The majority of Reed’s criticisms would be corrected on later releases. Since the release of the 1995 box set Peel Slowly and See “Sweet Jane”, “Rock and Roll” and “New Age” have also been restored to their full-length versions as Reed had written them.
The first pressings of the platter contain no silence between the first two tracks, "Who Loves The Sun" and "Sweet Jane" because the opening note of the latter is heard immediately after the first cut concludes. (Later pressings would sometimes insert a few moments of silence between the numbers. Today, however, all CD versions of the album no longer include the silent break.)
Morrison, too, had some concerns with the finished product. "The album came out okay . . . but it would have been better if it had real good Lou vocals on all the tracks." Even Yule admits that "Lou leaned on me a lot in terms of musical support and vocal arrangements” and that the record “devolved down to the Lou and Yule recreational recording."
Released in November of 1970, Loaded was meant to be a definite commercial album. The aim here was for radio play. Yule reveals that with this album “there was a big push to produce a hit single, there was that mentality, which one of these is a single, how does it sound when we cut it down to 3.5 minutes, so that was a major topic for the group at that point.”
The record was a critical success. It was not, however, the smash hit the label expected it to be. It did, nevertheless, include a couple of the most accessible pop punk cuts the Velvet Underground have ever done--"Sweet Jane” and “Rock and Roll.” (To this day, in fact, both of these tunes are in regular rotation on FM classic rock radio stations.)
In 1987 the album would once more attract attention as it was officially released on CD. Unfortunately, some of the running times on the back cover were incorrect. No explanation was ever given for why this happened. The previously-mentioned multi-disc box set Peel Slowly and See was released in 1995 on Polydor Records and includes longer running versions of "Sweet Jane" and "New Age", outtakes, demos and live tracks.
Two years later (1997), Rhino Records would put out the “fully loaded", double-disc reissue of Loaded. Disc one contained the original ten tracks plus six other tracks. Included here is an outtake, “Ocean”, which features John Cale on organ, alternate takes and a demo written by everyone BUT Reed titled “Ride into the Sun”. Disc two is labeled an alternate album and includes 17 cuts composed of early versions, demos and alternate versions.
The following year (1998) the entire album was covered live by Phish at one of their "Halloweenmusical costume" concerts. In more recent years Allmusic, Blender and Pitchfork Media would all give the recording their highest ratings. In 2003 Rolling Stone listed Loaded as number 109 on their 500 greatest albums of all time list.
The sometimes provocative song lyrics give the band a once unique nihilistic quality to their work. While the group met with only limited commercial success, they are truly one of the 1960s most influential groups. Loaded/Coti.9034 is perhaps the final testament featuring some of the band’s most accessible, charged rockers such as “Head Held High” and “Rock & Roll”. It also includes such passionate ballads as “New Age” and “Oh! Sweet Nothin’”. It remains to this day an essential part of any truly comprehensive collection.
My name is Phoenix and . . . that's the bottom line.
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