• Velvet Underground Punk

The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in 1964 in New York City by singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Ste. 'Heroin' by The Velvet Underground from the album 'The Velvet Underground and Nico'.

Contents. Background Loaded was a commercial effort aimed at radio play, another step away from the -influenced experimental days of their earlier albums. The album's title refers to Atlantic's request that the band produce an album 'loaded with hits'. Singer/bassist said, 'On Loaded 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. And I think that the third album to a great extent shows a lot of that in that a lot of those songs were designed as singles and if you listen to them you can hear the derivation, like this is sort of a Phil Spector-ish kind of song, or this is that type of person song.' Reed was critical of the album's final mix. He left the Velvet Underground on August 23, 1970, but Loaded wasn't released until three months later, in November.

After its release, Reed maintained in interviews that it had been re-edited and resequenced without his consent. One of Reed's sore points resulting from that unauthorized re-editing was that the 'heavenly wine and roses' melody was cut out of '. In the original recording, this part was intended to provide a perfectly flowing bridge to a full-fledged two-chord version of the chorus (earlier choruses in the song have a 4-chord riff). In Reed's initial solo performances, he would include the verse (see for instance ), until 1973, when he would routinely leave it out, as the bridge fits less well in a more hard rock version (as heard for instance on ). However, the post-Reed, Doug Yule-led Velvets always performed the song with the verse included.

A career-spanning retrospective of Reed's recordings with the Velvet Underground and as a solo artist, which Reed compiled himself, uses the shorter version. When asked about the shortened versions of 'Sweet Jane' and ' and Reed's long-standing claims that they were re-edited without his consent, Yule claimed that Reed had in fact edited the songs himself. 'He edited it. You have to understand at the time, the motivation was.

Lou was, and all of us were, intent on one thing and that was to be successful and what you had to do to be successful in music, was you had to have a hit, and a hit had to be uptempo, short, and with no digressions, straight ahead basically, you wanted a hook and something to feed the hook and that was it. 'Sweet Jane' was arranged just exactly the way it is on the original Loaded release exactly for that reason—to be a hit! 'Who Loves The Sun' was done exactly that way for that reason—to be a hit.' Reed also felt snubbed by being listed third in the credits on the album; and by the large photo of Yule playing piano; and by all the songwriting credits improperly going to the band, rather than Reed himself. Newer releases have satisfied many of Reed's concerns: he is now properly acknowledged as the main songwriter for the album; he is listed at the top of the band line-up and, since the 1995 box set, another mix is available, restoring 'Sweet Jane', ' and 'New Age' to the full-length versions Reed had originally penned. Although she is credited on the sleeve, the album does not feature Velvet Underground stalwart, as she was pregnant at the time.

Drumming duties were performed mainly by, session musician Tommy Castanero and Doug Yule's brother. Lou Reed commented that ' Loaded didn't have Maureen on it, and that's a lot of people's favorite Velvet Underground record, so we can't get too lost in the mystique of the Velvet Underground. It's still called a Velvet Underground record.

But what it really is is something else.' Had strong feelings about Yule's increased presence on Loaded, saying: 'The album came out okay, as far as production it's the best, but it would have been better if it had real good Lou vocals on all the tracks.'

While Morrison contributed guitar tracks to the album, he was also attending and juggling his time between the sessions and classes, leaving most of the creative input to Reed and Yule. Doug Yule claimed that 'Lou leaned on me a lot in terms of musical support and vocal arrangements.

I did a lot on Loaded. It sort of devolved down to the Lou and Yule recreational recording'.

Of the ten songs that make up Loaded, Yule's lead vocals were featured on four songs: 'Who Loves the Sun', which opens the album, 'New Age', 'Lonesome Cowboy Bill', and 'Oh! Sweet Nuthin'. In addition to his lead vocal parts, Yule handled all of the bass, piano and organ duties, and also recorded several lead guitar tracks. The guitar solos on 'Rock and Roll', 'Cool it Down', 'Head Held High' and 'Oh! Sweet Nuthin' were all played by Yule. Original copies of the album have no silence in between the first two songs, 'Who Loves the Sun' and 'Sweet Jane', with the first note of the latter being heard at the precise moment the former completely fades. Some later pressings break the segue with the insertion of a few seconds of silence.

All CDs of Loaded retain the original segue without the silence. The artwork for the album features a drawing of the subway station entrance, with 'downtown' misspelled as 'dowtown'. Reception. This section needs expansion.

You can help. (February 2017) Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating A (10/10) (favorable) Legacy In 2003, Loaded was #110 on Rolling Stone's reissue of their. The album contains two well-known Velvet Underground songs, 'Sweet Jane' and 'Rock & Roll', both of which are still heard regularly on classic rock FM radio stations. The album was covered live in its entirety by rock band as one of their ' ' concerts on October 31, 1998. In 2012, lead guitarist cited Loaded as an influence on. Loaded has sold 250,000 copies according to Nielsen Soundscan. Track listing All songs written.

Title Length 1. 'Who Loves the Sun' 2:45 2. 'Cool It Down' 3:06 5. ' 5:11 Side two No. Title Length 6. 'Head Held High' 2:58 7. 'Lonesome Cowboy Bill' 2:45 8.

'I Found a Reason' 4:17 9. 'Train Round the Bend' 3:22 10. Sweet Nuthin' 7:29 Reissues The album was officially released on on July 7, 1987. Some of the running times located on the back of the CD case are incorrect.

For instance, 'Sweet Jane' is marked 3:55 while it is in fact about 3:18; 'New Age' is marked 5:20 while it is closer to 4:39. Peel Slowly and See. Main article: Loaded was compiled on the fifth disc of the comprehensive, five-year-spanning, which was released on September 26, 1995. The disc features longer running versions of 'Sweet Jane', 'Rock & Roll', and 'New Age' as well as demos, outtakes and live performances. Fully Loaded released Fully Loaded, a two-CD reissue of Loaded, on February 18, 1997.

It contains numerous alternate takes, alternate mixes, and demo versions of Loaded songs and outtakes, including performances by Maureen Tucker (the demos of 'I'm Sticking with You', vocals, and 'I Found a Reason', drums). There is also an 'orchestral' alternate-take recording of 'Ocean' for which the liner notes erroneously credit on.

Velvet Underground Punk

According to a 1995 interview with, who played organ on the recording, the strings used on the track were two cellos and double bass provided by session musicians who followed Yule's musical chart and instructions, and he couldn't recall Cale ever coming to the sessions. Music journalist contributed extensive to Fully Loaded. Disc One (Original album with bonus tracks) No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. 'Who Loves the Sun' 2:45 2. ' (full-length version) 4:06 3.

' (full-length version) 4:43 4. 'Cool It Down' 3:06 5. ' (long version) 5:07 6. 'Head Held High' 2:58 7. 'Lonesome Cowboy Bill' 2:45 8. 'I Found a Reason' 4:17 9. 'Train Round the Bend' 3:22 10.

Sweet Nuthin' 7:29 11. 'Ride into the Sun' (Demo), Morrison, Reed, 3:20 12. 'Ocean' (Outtake) 5:43 13. 'I'm Sticking with You' (Outtake) 3:06 14. 'I Love You' (Demo) 2:03 15.

'Rock & Roll' (Alternate mix) 4:41 16. 'Head Held High' (Alternate mix) 2:15 Disc Two (Alternate album with bonus tracks) No. Title Length 1.

'Who Loves the Sun' (Alternate mix) 2:59 2. 'Sweet Jane' (Early version) 5:22 3. 'Rock & Roll' (Demo) 4:45 4. 'Cool It Down' (Early version) 4:14 5.

'New Age' (Full-length version) 5:44 6. 'Head Held High' (Early version) 2:48 7.

'Lonesome Cowboy Bill' (Early version) 3:14 8. 'I Found a Reason' (Demo) 3:16 9. 'Train Round the Bend' (Alternate version) 4:36 10. Sweet Nuthin' (Early version) 4:04 11. 'Ocean' (Demo) 6:27 12. 'I Love You' (Outtake) 2:03 13.

' (Alternate demo) 2:51 14. 'Oh Gin' (Demo) 2:54 15. 'Walk and Talk' (Demo) 2:47 16. 'Sad Song' (Demo) 3:43 17. 'Love Makes You Feel Ten Feet Tall' (Demo) 4.09 Loaded 45th Anniversary Reissue A six-CD reissue of the album released in October 2015. Disc 1.

'Who Loves the Sun'. 'Sweet Jane' (Full Length Version). 'Rock and Roll' (Full Length Version). 'Cool It Down'. 'New Age' (Full Length Version).

'Head Held High'. 'Lonesome Cowboy Bill'. 'I Found a Reason'. 'Train Round the Bend'. 'Oh! Sweet Nuthin'. 'I'm Sticking With You' (Session Outtake).

'Ocean' (Session Outtake). 'I Love You' (Session Outtake). 'Ride into the Sun' (Session Outtake) Disc 2 – Promotional Mono Version. 'Who Loves the Sun' (Mono). 'Sweet Jane' (Mono). 'Rock & Roll' (Mono). 'Cool It Down' (Mono).

'New Age' (Mono). 'Head Held High' (Mono).

'Lonesome Cowboy Bill' (Mono). 'I Found a Reason' (Mono). 'Train Round the Bend' (Mono). 'Oh! Sweet Nuthin' (Mono). 'Who Loves the Sun' (Mono Single Version).

'Oh! Sweet Nuthin' (Mono Single Version). 'Rock & Roll' (Mono Single Version). 'Lonesome Cowboy Bill' (Mono Unissued Single) Disc 3 – Demos, Early Versions and Alternate Mixes. 'Rock & Roll' (Demo).

'Sad Song' (Demo). 'Satellite of Love' (Demo). 'Walk and Talk' (Demo). 'Oh Gin' (Demo). 'Ocean' (Demo). 'I Love You' (Demo). 'Love Makes You Feel Ten Feet Tall' (Demo Remix).

'I Found a Reason' (Demo). 'Cool It Down' (Early Version Remix). 'Sweet Jane' (Early Version Remix). 'Lonesome Cowboy Bill' (Early Version Remix).

'Head Held High' (Early Version Remix). 'Oh!. Lol Henderson; Lee Stacey (February 1, 1999). Mendelsohn, Jason; Klinger, Eric (January 9, 2015). Retrieved June 25, 2017. Perfect Sound Forever.

Reed, Lou, interviewed. Liner notes, p. Deming, Mark. Retrieved 20 July 2005. (January 12, 1992). Retrieved July 29, 2013. Christgau, Robert (March 11, 1971).

Retrieved 1 December 2011. Revised version posted at.

Retrieved 13 April 2006. Berman, Stuart (November 2015). Pitchfork Media.

Retrieved 4 November 2015. (December 24, 1970). From the original on 2007-06-29. Retrieved 4 July 2007.; Hoard, Christian, eds. London: Fireside.

Retrieved 1 December 2011. Portions posted. Retrieved 1 December 2011. April 2012 issue.

. Website Past members. The Velvet Underground was an American band formed in 1964 in by singer/guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, guitarist, and drummer (replaced by in 1965). The band was initially active between 1965 and 1973, and was briefly managed by the, serving as the at and Warhol's events from 1966 to 1967.

Their debut album, (with German-born singer and model ), was released in 1967 to critical indifference and poor sales, but over time has been critically acclaimed; it was called the 'most prophetic rock album ever made' by in 2003. The band's integration of rock and the achieved little commercial success during their existence, but they are now recognized as one of the most influential bands in rock, and music. The provocative subject matter, musical experimentation, and often attitudes explored in the band's work would prove influential in the development of and. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the band No. 19 on its list of the '. In 2017, a study of 's catalog indicated the Velvet Underground as the 5th most frequently cited artist influence in its database. The band was inducted into the in 1996.

Nico at 's, where she performed with the Velvet Underground, circa 1967 At Warhol's insistence, Nico sang with the band on three songs of their debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico. The album was recorded primarily in Scepter Studios in New York City during April 1966, but for reasons unclear, some songs were rerecorded at in, along with the new song ', later in the year with producing.

The album was released by Verve Records the following year in March 1967. The album cover is famous for its Warhol design: a yellow banana sticker with 'Peel slowly and see' printed near the tip. Those who did remove the banana skin found a pink, peeled banana beneath.

Eleven songs showcased the Velvets' dynamic range, veering from the pounding attacks of ' and ', the droning 'Venus in Furs' and ', the chiming and celestial 'Sunday Morning', to the quiet ' and the tender ', as well as Warhol's own favorite song of the group, '. Would later describe 'All Tomorrow's Parties' as a 'mesmerizing masterpiece'. Closing out the album was the avant-garde ', followed by the lengthy, feedback-laden ', which Reed dedicated to his Syracuse professor. The overall sound was propelled by Reed and Nico's deadpan vocals, Cale's droning viola, bass and keyboards, Reed's experimental avant-garde guitar, Morrison's often - or -influenced guitar, and Tucker's simple but steady and tribal-sounding beat with sparse use of cymbals. A technique used on many songs was the 'drone strum', an eighth-note rhythm guitar style used by Reed.

Although Cale was the band's usual bassist, if he switched to viola or keyboards, Morrison would normally play bass. Despite his proficiency on the instrument, Morrison hated playing bass. Conversely, some songs had Reed and Morrison playing their usual guitars with Cale on viola or keyboards, but with nobody playing bass. The album was released on March 12, 1967 (after a lengthy delay by Verve) and reached No. 171 on Top 200 charts.

The commercial growth of the album was hampered by a legal claim: as the album's back cover included a photo of the group on stage with an unauthorised image projected behind them of actor from a Warhol motion picture, Emerson made a claim of $500,000 ($3,669,661 in 2017 dollars ) for use of his image. Instead of compensating Emerson for damages, MGM Records canceled all distribution of the album for nearly two months until the legal problems were settled (by which time the record had lost its modest commercial momentum), and the still was airbrushed out of the remaining copies of the album. By the time the record was re-distributed into stores, it faced stiff competition in the marketplace. The album was re-distributed at nearly the same time as in June 1967, which further hindered the release. Regarding MGM/Verve's delay in releasing the album, Warhol's business manager once offered the following: 'Verve/MGM didn't know what to do with The Velvet Underground and Nico because it was so peculiar. They didn't release it for almost a year.

Tom Wilson at Verve/MGM only bought the album from me because of Nico. He saw no talent in Lou Reed.' In 1982, said that while the album sold only 30,000 copies in its early years, 'everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.' White Light/White Heat and Cale's departure (1968). Main article: Nico moved on after the Velvets severed their relationship with Andy Warhol. Reed once commented on their leaving Warhol: 'Warhol asked do you want to just keep playing museums from now on and the art festivals?

Or do you want to start moving into other areas?' I thought about it, and I fired him. I never saw Andy mad, but I did that day. He was really mad, called me a rat. It was the worst thing he could think of.' Was soon brought in as a replacement manager, much to the chagrin of Cale, who believes that Sesnick tried to push Reed as band leader at the expense of band harmony.

Both Cale and Reed called Sesnick a 'snake' in different interviews after leaving the band. In September 1967, the Velvet Underground began recording their second album, with Tom Wilson as producer. The band performed live often, and their performances became louder and harsher and often included extended.

Warhol arranged for the band to get an endorsement deal with which enabled them to use Vox equipment, which included special effects pedals and an organ, for free. Sterling Morrison felt they were the first American band to get a Vox endorsement. Sterling Morrison offered the following input regarding the recording: There was fantastic leakage 'cause everyone was playing so loud and we had so much electronic junk with us in the studio—all these fuzzers and compressors., who is ultra-competent, told us repeatedly: 'You can't do it—all the needles are on red.' And we reacted as we always reacted: 'Look, we don't know what goes on in there and we don't want to hear about it.

Just do the best you can.' And so the album is fuzzy, there's all that white noise.we wanted to do something electronic and energetic. We had the energy and the electronics, but we didn't know it couldn't be recorded.what we were trying to do was really fry the tracks. Cale has stated that while the debut had some moments of fragility and beauty, White Light/White Heat was 'consciously anti-beauty'. The title track sets a harsh opening; bassist Cale overdubbing a piano that has been described as 'a cross between and '.

Along with brash songs like ' and ', there was the darkly comic 'The Gift', a short story written by Reed and narrated by Cale in his. The meditative 'Here She Comes Now' was later covered by, and, among others. The album was released on January 30, 1968, entering the Billboard Top 200 chart for two weeks, at number 199. Tensions were growing: the group was tired of receiving little recognition for its work, and Reed and Cale were pulling the Velvet Underground in different directions.

The differences showed in the last recording sessions the band had with John Cale in 1968: three -like songs in Reed's direction ('Temptation Inside Your Heart', 'Stephanie Says' and 'Beginning to See the Light') and a viola-driven drone in Cale's direction ('Hey Mr. Further, some songs the band had performed with Cale in concert, or that he had co-written, were not recorded until after he had left the group (such as 'Walk It and Talk It', 'Ride into the Sun', and 'Countess from Hong Kong'). Reed called Morrison and Tucker to a meeting at the Riviera Cafe in the without Cale's knowledge, and informed them that Cale was out of the band; when Morrison objected, Reed said it was either Cale was sacked or the Velvets were dissolved. Neither Morrison nor Tucker were happy with the idea, but faced with a choice of either no Cale or no band at all, the pair reluctantly sided with Reed.

It has often been reported that before Cale's departure (following White Light/White Heat) there was a struggle between his creative impulses and Reed's: Cale's experimentalist tendencies had contrasted with Reed's more conventional approach. According to Tim Mitchell, however, Morrison reported that while there was creative tension between Reed and Cale, its impact has been exaggerated over the years. Cale played his last show with the band at the in September 1968 and was fired shortly afterwards. According to Michael Carlucci, a friend of, 'Lou told Quine that the reason why he had to get rid of Cale in the band was Cale's ideas were just too out there. Cale had some wacky ideas. He wanted to record the next album with the amplifiers underwater, and Lou just couldn't have it. He was trying to make the band more accessible.'

Ultimately, Morrison was dispatched by Reed to tell Cale that he was out of the band. Doug Yule joins and The Velvet Underground (1969). The Velvet Underground with Yule; from left to right: Reed, Tucker, Yule, and Morrison Before work on their third album started, Cale was replaced by musician of the Boston group the Grass Menagerie, who had been a close associate of the band. Yule, a native New Yorker, had moved to Boston to attend as a theater major, but left the program after one year to continue playing music. Yule had first seen the Velvets perform at a student event at Harvard University in Cambridge in early 1968, and when the band played at the Boston Tea Party later that year, the band stayed at Yule's apartment on River Street, which he happened to be renting from their road manager, Hans Onsager (who worked closely with their manager ). It was during this period that Morrison heard Yule playing guitar in his apartment, and mentioned to Reed that Yule was practicing guitar and was improving quickly.

It was following this discussion that led to a phone call from Steve Sesnick inviting Yule to meet with the band at in New York City in October 1968 to discuss joining the Velvets before two upcoming shows in Cleveland, Ohio, at the club La Cave. Upon meeting Reed, Sesnick and Morrison at Max's, Yule was asked to handle bass and organ duties in the band, and he would soon contribute vocals as well. After several months of shows in the US, the band swiftly recorded their third album in late 1968 at in Hollywood, California, and was released in March 1969. The cover photograph was taken. The LP sleeve was designed by Dick Smith, then a staff artist at MGM/Verve. Released on March 12, 1969, the album failed to make Billboard's Top 200 album chart.

The harsh, abrasive tendencies on the first two records were almost entirely absent on their third album. This resulted in a gentler sound influenced by, prescient of the songwriting style that would soon form Reed's solo career. While Reed had covered a vast range of lyrical subjects on the first two Velvet Underground albums, the lyrical themes of the third album were more 'intimate' in nature.

Reed's songwriting also covered new emotional ground as well, as heard in the songs 'Pale Blue Eyes', 'Jesus', 'Beginning to See the Light', and 'I'm Set Free'. The personal tone of the album's subject matter resulted in Reed's desire to create a 'closet' mix that boosted the vocals to the forefront, while reducing the album's instrumentation. The second (and more widely distributed) mix is the stereo mix done by MGM/Verve staff recording engineer Val Valentin. Another factor in the change of sound was the band's Vox amplifiers and assorted fuzzboxes rumored to have been stolen from an airport while they were on tour and they obtained replacements by signing a new endorsement deal with. In addition, Reed and Morrison had purchased matching, but Doug Yule plays down the influence of the new equipment. Morrison's ringing guitar parts and Yule's melodic bass guitar and harmony vocals are used prominently on the album. Reed's songs and singing are subdued and confessional in natureand he shared lead vocals with Yule, particularly when his own voice would fail under stress.

Doug Yule sang the lead vocal on 'Candy Says' (about the ), which opens the LP, and a rare Moe Tucker lead vocal is used on 'After Hours', which closes the album, because Reed felt her 'innocent' voice was more believable for a sad song. The album has the experimental track 'The Murder Mystery', which utilised all four band members (Reed, Yule, Tucker and Morrison) reading different lyrics, sometimes simultaneously, as well as the ballad 'Pale Blue Eyes'. Year on the road and the 'lost' fourth album (1969) The Velvet Underground spent much of 1969 on the road both in the US and Canada, and not making much headway commercially. Despite these commercial setbacks, the band focused on performing live shows on the road, playing both re-worked songs from their past albums, and debuting new songs that would find their way onto the album, such as 'New Age', 'Rock and Roll', and 'Sweet Jane'. While the band continued to do extended improvisations in their live shows, by 1969 they were focusing on tight live performancesand several of the live shows the band played during this period would end up released as live albums many years later. The live album (with Reed, Yule, Morrison & Tucker) was recorded in October 1969 but not released until 1974, on Mercury Records, at the urging of rock critic, who worked in for Mercury at the time. Nelson asked singer-songwriter to write liner notes for the double album.

In his notes, Murphy described a scene 100 years in the future, with a student taking a class on 'classical rock'n'roll' and listening to the Velvet Underground. He wondered what the student would make of the music and concluded, 'I wish it was a hundred years from today (I can't stand the suspense)'. During this period the band played a series of shows in November 1969 at the Matrix and the Family Dog venues in San Francisco; recordings of these shows were released in 2001, as a triple live album, which included the line up of Reed, Yule, Morrison and Tucker. During 1969 the band recorded on and off in the studio, creating a lot of promising material (both singles and one-offs) that were never officially released at the time due to disputes with their record label. What many consider to be the prime songs of these recording sessions were released years later, in 1985, in a compilation album called. The album VU marks the transitional sound between the whisper-soft third album, and the band's movement to the later pop rock song-style of their final record,. Two of the songs the Velvets recorded during this period were later used on film soundtracks: 'Stephanie Says' was used in the 2001 film; 'I'm Sticking With You' has a rare Moe Tucker–Lou Reed dual-lead vocal track, with Doug Yule accompanying on piano, and was included in the film.

The rest of the recordings, as well as some alternative takes and instrumental tracks were later bundled on which was released in 1986. After Reed's departure, he later reworked a number of these songs for his solo records over the years: 'Stephanie Says', 'Ocean', 'I Can't Stand It', 'Lisa Says', and 'Andy's Chest', as well as 'She's My Best Friend', which had been originally sung by Doug Yule. By 1969 the MGM and Verve record labels had been losing money for several years.

A new president, was hired and he decided to cancel the recording contracts of 18 of their acts who supposedly glorified drugs in their lyrics, including their many controversial and unprofitable acts. The drug or -related bands were released from MGM, and the Velvets were on his list, along with and 's. Nonetheless MGM insisted on retaining ownership of all master tapes of their recordings and according to an MGM representative in a article from 1970, 'it wasn't eighteen groups, Curb was misquoted. The cuts were made partly to do with the drug scene—like maybe a third of them had to do with drug reasons. The others were dropped because they weren't selling.' Lou Reed would later remark in the 1987 issue of that while he didn't believe that MGM dropped the Velvets for drug associations, he did acknowledge, 'We wanted to get out of there.' Loaded, Tucker's pregnancy and Max's residency (1970).

Main article: signed the Velvet Underground for what would be its final studio album with Lou Reed: Loaded, released on Atlantic's subsidiary label Cotillion. The album's title refers to Atlantic's request that the band produce an album 'loaded with hits'. Though the record was not the smash hit the company had anticipated, it contains the most accessible pop the VU had performedand two of Reed's best-known songs'Sweet Jane' and 'Rock and Roll'.

By the recording of Loaded, Doug Yule played a more prominent role in the band, and with Reed's encouragement, sang the lead vocal on four songs: 'Who Loves the Sun', which opened the album, 'New Age', 'Lonesome Cowboy Bill' and the final track, 'Oh! Sweet Nuthin'. Yule once commented on the recording of Loaded: 'Lou leaned on me a lot in terms of musical support and for harmonies, vocal arrangements. I did a lot on Loaded. It sort of devolved down to the Lou and Doug recreational recording.'

While the third Velvets' LP was recorded mostly live in a collaborative atmosphere, the bulk of Loaded was crafted in the studio. In addition to handling all the bass and piano duties on Loaded, Yule also contributed several lead guitar tracks and doubled on drums as well (notably on the songs 'Rock and Roll' and 'Sweet Jane') since Moe Tucker was absent on maternity leave to have her first child, a daughter named Kerry.

During the sessions, Sterling Morrison resumed his studies at the and although he contributed guitar tracks to the album, he began to split his time between classes, the sessions and the gigs at Max's, thus leaving Reed and Yule to handle the bulk of the arrangements. Although Tucker had temporarily retired from the group during the sessions due to her pregnancy, she was credited as playing on Loaded; the drums on the album were actually played by several musicians: Doug Yule, engineer, session musician Tommy Castanaro, and (Doug Yule's younger brother), who was still in high school at the time. It was during the Loaded recording sessions that the Velvets secured a now-legendary nine-week residency (from June 24 – August 28, 1970) at the New York nightclub, playing two lengthy sets per night, and showcasing altered arrangements of older songs from their previous albums, as well as showcasing the new material that would soon make up Loaded. The Velvets' Max's live line-up consisted of Lou Reed, Doug Yule, Sterling Morrison and Billy Yule on drums in place of Tucker, who would not return from maternity leave until after Reed's departure. Reed's last live performance with the band at Max's was informally recorded and was released two years later in 1972 as, also on Atlantic Records. Reed's departure and release of Loaded (1970) Disillusioned with the lack of progress the band was making, and facing pressure by manager, Reed decided to quit the band during the last week of the Max's Kansas City shows in August 1970. Although Reed had informed Tucker, who was attending the show but not playing with the band because of her pregnancy, that he planned to leave the group on his last evening, he did not tell Morrison or Yule.

In a 2006 interview, Yule said Sesnick waited until one hour before the band was scheduled to take the stage the following night before notifying him that Reed wasn't coming. 'I was expecting Lou to show up, I thought he was late.' Yule blamed Sesnick for Reed's departure.

'Sesnick had engineered Lou's leaving the group. He and Lou had a relationship where Lou had depended on him for moral support, and he trusted him, and Sesnick basically said 'screw you.' It must have been hard for Lou to hear that because he depended on him, so he quit.' While Loaded was finalized and mixed, it had yet to be mastered and was not set to be released by Atlantic until November of that year. Reed often said he was completely surprised when he saw Loaded in stores. He also said, 'I left them to their album full of hits that I made'. Reed was perturbed about a verse being edited from the Loaded version of '.

' was changed as well: as originally recorded, its closing line ('It's the beginning of a new age' as sung by Yule) was repeated many more times. A brief interlude in 'Rock and Roll' was also removed. (For the 1995 box set Peel Slowly and See, the album was presented as Reed intended; the 'Fully Loaded' two-disc edition includes the full versions of 'Sweet Jane' and 'New Age'.) On the other hand, Yule has pointed out that the album was for all intents and purposes finished when Reed left the band and that Reed had been aware of most, if not all, of the edits. Live at Max's, Squeeze & Final VU shows (1970–73) With manager Steve Sesnick looking to fill bookings (following the departure of Lou Reed), and with the pending release of in November 1970, the band, now with Sterling Morrison on guitar, Moe Tucker on drums, on bass, and Doug Yule taking over lead vocals and guitar, went on the road to promote the album, playing shows around the U.S.

Sterling Morrison had obtained a bachelor of arts degree in English, and left the group in August 1971 (following a show in Houston, TX), to pursue a Ph.D. In medieval literature at the. He had packed an empty suitcase and when the time came for the band to return to, he told them at the airport that he was staying in Texas and quitting the band—the last founding member to quit. Morrison's replacement was singer/keyboard player.

This line up of the band played several shows in late 1971 in England, Wales, and the Netherlands to support the 1971 European release of Loaded, some of which are collected on the 2001 box set Following a single US show in Pennsylvania in early January '72, the Velvets lineup of Yule, Tucker, Alexander and Powers disbanded. In May 1972 Atlantic released, the recording of the Velvet Underground's final performance with Reed (also with Doug Yule, Morrison, and Billy Yule) made by a fan, on August 23, 1970. Due to publicity around the release, and growing interest in the Velvet Underground in Europe, Sesnick was able to secure a single album deal with Polydor in the UK, and a handful of promotional shows were booked in the UK in November and December 1972. After Sesnick reached out to Yule, a new Velvet Underground lineup was quickly assembled by Yule to do the UK shows.

This brief lineup of the Velvet Underground consisted of Yule, Rob Norris on guitar, George Kay (Krzyzewski), bass guitar, and, drums. After Sesnick failed to show up in London to meet the band with the necessary money and equipment, they played the handful of dates to secure enough money for flights back to the US, and Yule left the band when the brief tour ended in December 1972.

It was also during this period in the UK that Sesnick had secured studio time for Yule to record the album under the Velvet Underground name virtually by himself, with only the assistance of drummer and a few other session musicians in an unspecified studio. While Moe Tucker was personally slated by Yule to play drums on Squeeze, Sesnick vetoed his decision and claimed she was 'too expensive' to hire.

Squeeze was released in February the following year, 1973, in Europe only, with minimal promotion by the label, and was held in low regard by fans and critics. Notes that the album received 'uniformly terrible reviews' upon initial release, and in the early 1970s, the NME Book of Rock counted it as 'a Velvet Underground album in name only'.

When asked about Squeeze, Yule hinted that band manager Steve Sesnick orchestrated the album purely as a money ploy. 'Sesnick dumped the second iteration of the band in England with no money and no equipment and just left us there to find our way back. He gave me six copies of Squeeze as pay. I never got any money.

When you sign with or you get an advance. He not only made an arrangement with them but actually signed as me and took the money.' Despite the negative reviews of the album upon its initial release, in recent years the album has been revisited by both critics and musicians with more sympathetic and favorable reviews. In 2011 music writer included Squeeze in his 'Criminally Overlooked Albums' series for, and in a lengthy review of the album, offered the following positive assessment of Squeeze: 'if you pluck it from the shackles of its murky back-story, Squeeze is nothing short of a quintessential listening experience.'

The UK band took their name from its title according to band member, who offered the following opinion of the album in a 2012 interview: 'It's an odd record, but the name came from that, definitely. In a retrospective way I really enjoy it. It has kind of a naivety about it.' Although Yule had put an end to the Velvet Underground in late 1972, in early 1973 a band with him, Billy Yule on drums, Kay on bass and Don Silverman, guitar (he later changed his name to Noor Khan), played two shows (in Boston and Long Island, NY) and was incorrectly billed as 'The Velvet Underground' by the tour's manager. The band members objected to the billing and according to Yule, the promoter was not supposed to bill the band as the Velvet Underground. In late May 1973, the band and the tour manager parted ways, thus bringing the Velvet Underground to an end until the original line-up of Reed, Tucker, Morrison and Cale would reunite in the 1990s.

Post-VU developments (1972–90) Reed, Cale and Nico teamed up at the beginning of 1972 to play a concert in Paris at the. This concert was bootlegged, and finally received an official release as in 2003. Before that, Cale and Nico had developed solo careers.

Nico had also begun a solo career with Cale producing a majority of her albums. Reed started his solo career in 1972 after a brief sabbatical. Sterling Morrison was a professor for some time, teaching Medieval Literature at the University of Texas at Austin, then became a captain in Houston for several years. Moe Tucker raised a family before returning to small-scale gigging and recording in the 1980s; Morrison was in several touring bands, including Tucker's band.

Yule subsequently toured with Lou Reed and played on the latter's album, and Yule (at Reed's request) also contributed guitar and bass tracks to Reed's album, that can be heard in the Bonus Edition of the album (which was released in 2002). Yule became a member of, then dropped out of the music industry altogether before reappearing in the early 2000s. In 1985 Polydor released the album VU, which collected unreleased recordings that might have constituted the band's fourth album for MGM in 1969 but had never been released. Some of the songs had been recorded when Cale was still in the band. More unreleased recordings of the band, some of them demos and unfinished tracks, were released in 1986 as Another View. On July 18, 1988, Nico died of a cerebral haemorrhage following a bicycle accident.

Czech dissident playwright was a fan of the Velvet Underground, ultimately becoming a friend of Lou Reed. Though some attribute the name of the 1989 ', which ended more than 40 years of rule in Czechoslovakia, to the band, Reed pointed out that the name Velvet Revolution derives from its peaceful nature—that no one was 'actually hurt' during those events. Reed has also given at least one radio interview where he stated that it was called the Velvet Revolution because all of the dissidents were listening to the Velvet Underground leading up to the overthrow, and this music was an inspiration for the events that followed.

After Havel's election as president, first of Czechoslovakia and then the Czech Republic, Reed visited him in Prague. On September 16, 1998, at Havel's request, Reed performed in the White House at a in Havel's honor hosted. Reunions and death of Morrison (1990–96).

This section does not any. Unsourced material may be challenged and. (February 2017) In 1990, Reed and Cale released, a song cycle about Andy Warhol who had died in 1987. Though Morrison and Tucker had each worked with Reed and Cale since the Velvet Underground had broken up, Songs for Drella was the first time the pair had worked together in decades, and speculation about a reunion began to form, fueled by the one-off appearance by Reed, Cale, Morrison and Tucker to play 'Heroin' as the encore to a brief Songs for Drella set in, France. Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison also joined John Cale for an encore at his show at New York University on December 5, 1992. The Reed–Cale–Morrison–Tucker lineup officially reunited as 'The Velvet Underground' in 1992, commencing activities with a European tour beginning in Edinburgh on June 1, 1993, and including a performance at Glastonbury which appeared on an front cover. Cale sang most of the songs Nico had originally performed.

As well as headlining (with as the opening act), the Velvets performed as supporting act for five dates of 's. With the success of the Velvet Underground's European reunion tour, a series of US tour dates were proposed, as was an broadcast, and possibly even some new studio recordings. Before any of this could come to fruition, Cale and Reed fell out again, breaking up the band once more.

On August 30, 1995, Sterling Morrison died of after returning to his hometown of Poughkeepsie, New York, at age 53. When the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, Reed, Tucker, and Cale reformed the Velvet Underground for the last time. Doug Yule was absent. At the ceremony, the band was inducted by Patti Smith, and the trio performed 'Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend', written in tribute to Morrison. NYPL reunion and death of Reed (2009–13) In December 2009, to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the band's formation, Reed, Tucker and Yule (with Cale not present) gave a rare interview at the. The Velvet Underground continues to exist as a New York–based partnership managing the financial and back catalog aspects for the band members. In January 2012, the surviving members of the band initiated legal action against the over unauthorised use of the debut album's banana design.

Forty-fifth anniversary box sets of the band's first four studio albums, including significantly expanded bonus material, appeared from 2012 to 2015; the live box set, comprising remixed and remastered versions of a series of professionally recorded 1969 performances, also appeared in 2015. On October 27, 2013, Lou Reed died at his home in Southampton, New York, aged 71. He had undergone a liver transplant earlier in the year. John Cale responded to Reed's passing by saying 'The world has lost a fine songwriter and poetI've lost my 'school-yard buddy'.

Legacy The Velvet Underground have been considered among the most influential bands in rock history. Their first four albums were included in Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. They were ranked the 19th greatest artist by the same magazine and the 24th greatest artist in a poll by VH1. In 1996 they were inducted into the. Critic considers them 'the number three band of the '60s, after and '. Wrote that 'Few rock groups can claim to have broken so much new territory, and maintain such consistent brilliance on record, as the Velvet Underground during their brief lifespan. the Velvets' innovations - which blended the energy of rock with the sonic adventurism of the avant-garde, and introduced a new degree of social realism and sexual kinkiness into rock lyrics - were too abrasive for the mainstream to handle.'

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from Issue 3 of, December 1966.