Despite Loaded being the single most joyous, polished and pop work the Velvet Underground would make, the album came at the single most tumultuous for the band. Lou Reed’s personal life saw his affair with a married woman come to an end, and the people around him be ravished by the drug style he talked about candidly in his songs. The production of the album also had its share of turmoils; despite her name being on the linear notes, Maureen Tucker would not have composed a single hit of percussion on the album due to understandable reasons of pregnancy (those duties instead going to multiple people, including Doug Yule and his brother). Add to that a lack of complete control over the finished product – Lou Reed would speak candidly about the mix and cutting of “Sweet Jane” in particular – and a controlling manager called Steve Sesnick who fits every stereotype you can think about the manipulative and money grabbing producer, and Lou Reed found himself disenfranchised with the band he had set up, which also wasn’t having much success. By the time Loaded came out, becoming the band’s most commercially successful work, he would no longer be in the band, and the founding members would move ever so closer to disbandment.
But despite all that, that backstory doesn’t transfer itself to Loaded in a prominent way that it did for White Light/White Heat. There are definitely signs of it, with a melancholy that permeates throughout stories of loss and even poverty, but no more so than any record the band ever released. Instead there is a self conscious effort to make the accessible record the band in possible can make, both in the music and in an emotional sense. With that direction came a further prominence of Doug Yule, who would be lead singer on four of the ten songs on the album, and the guitar would have a greater influence from both the pop rock of the time and the blues rock that inspired it. In the release of the Deluxe Editions of Loaded that came out the previous year – as had been done so for every Velvet Underground album prior – a surprising number of music writers came out of the woodworks to deride this album, at least in comparison to the rest of their discography, for its safer and populist production and writing resulting in something substantially weaker.
But there we get the Lets Dance issue, where people don’t look at the intent of the record itself and judge by the preconceived notions on what they expect the artists to be. Because in the sense of judging by intent Loaded is the most direct, most instantly pleasurable record in their whole collection, with some of the best and most iconic songs the band constructed. Now. in turn, I would also be willing to say that this is the weakest of the band’s four records (gun put to my head); I miss the more stripped down, evocative percussion on the band’s other three records that is gone in Tucker’s absence, and there are one or two songs that I think suffer vocally in a way that wasn’t apparent on the previous rougher production (at this point the band had also switched studios). Regardless, the more optimistic feel of Loaded makes it a unique entity onto itself in the Velvet Underground catalogue, and the production and writing here also sees a transitional period between the last days of Lou Reed as band leader, and of Lou Reed as solo artist.
The mixture of pop and melancholy is very clear in the opening song “Who Love the Sun”, a title that is both inquisitive and derisive depending on your mood. The music is more Monkees than Beatles, with triangles ringing alongside bouncing bass and smooth clean guitars as Doug Yule again introduces the album with his more naive sounding vocals (backed with simple but effecting backing harmonies almost straight out of a barbershop quartet). This contrasts beautifully with the lyrics themselves, dejected and world weary after what appears to be a break up, maintaining that state even as the weather changes around him.
After that we get the one two punch of what, at one time, were the band’s most popular songs – and still very much classic todays – the first being “Sweet Jane”. Despite my assumptions upon my first listens it is not about Mary Jane, but instead the lives of couple Jack and Jane, both of whom engage in transvestitism and go to ordinary sounding jobs, and in the extended bridge give each other wine and roses. Though Reed is a character in this song too, one who gives tangents on the nature of an absurdist life, women and villains. Though I’m with Reed that the key change of the coda gives the entire song a kind of beautiful grave, a portion of which is missing with keeping the singular pattern. But even still the bright combinations of guitar, particularly in the intro, are simply gorgeous.
As too is “Rock & Roll”, which builds upon the musical structures of tradition style rock & roll with a more rumbling, acoustic base on the low end guitar, as the drums to an almost skiffle pattern and allow both Reed and his guitar to screech at whim (particularly in the outro which closes the track). As a song about the saving and transcendental power of rock & roll music, it would be strange if the music couldn’t serve as evidence for that salvation, but fortunately it almost certainly does. Both these two big hit have a similar rambling, joyous pattern to Reed’s lyrics, and here he also meets with ecstatic screams having the life saving saving vibe the song requires (if you read too much into the amputation line, it can almost be taken literally).
Like the song is taking the title literally, “Cool It Down” turns down the heat of electronic guitars and, with the exception of the quiet guitar lines, is predominately defined by a constant acoustic guitar rhythm and pianos gradually taking more of a prominence. There is still a heated sexuality to the track in general, with a narrator looking for what sounds like a prostitute who can love him by the hour, but whatever the relationship is by the end he sounds commanding and pissed off at the whole think. With that Reed taking the Dylan nasal snarls to another level with the multi track vocals, and there’s a level of attitude with his voice with the pianos that reminds me of Combat Rock Clash on occasion (or maybe it should be the other way round).
Both sides of Loaded end with quieter ballads, and the first is the more minor and diminish chord led “New Age” (led again by Doug Yule). The lyrics are addressed to a “fat blonde actress”, and range from a deifying reverence to a pretty passive aggressive tone about either her divorce to her seeming, increasing irrelevance (it was said to originally be about Reed’s girlfriend, though with the changes to all the details of the person in question I don’t think it is about anyone specific). With the chords progressions, ringing guitars, piano, organs and backing vocals, there’s a certain gospel element brought into the equation of this song, which brings the fame as religiosity feel into full motion.
After another short burst of choral vocals, Side Two begins with the incredible rough and blues rock influenced stylings of “Head Held High”. In some respects this song returns to the noisy aesthetic found on those first two records, particularly with the fuzzy bass, but it goes even further with Lou Reed doing his best Mick Jagger doing James Brown that really contrasts with the aspirational lyrics you could have expected Yule to have sung (I bet there were some debates). Still, as a result of the gravel in his voice, it makes the song feel like the optimism of a well fought life, the guitars in turn both gruff and triumphant.
It says something that “Lonesome Cowboy Bill” could be the low point of an album, but I would have to see this is the weakest track that made it on to a Velvet Underground album. It is of a piece with the pastiche songs that the Beatles did at the end of the end of their career, but weirdly compared to those this one plays it so safe that it ends up sounding just like a typical country/rock& roll song. I think the song could have benefitted from Reed as lead vocalist; Yule’s voice has a more western feel, but Reed has the gruff intensity that would other stop this song from feeling a little light weight. But still it’s not all bad, in fact its still good; the guitars and piano are fast and intense, the prominent bass is quite fantastic and the key change during the bridge really has the intensity of a new dawn in the old west.
The next song, “I Found A Reason”, is among the strongest and sweetest songs on the whole record. Starting from the point of the quiet ballads featured prominently on The Velvet Underground, it moves into a mix of doo-wop with the backing vocals of the band, and even a bit of soul/Ink Spots with the spoken word monologue that occurs half way through the song. Again the uplifting songs in the Velvet Underground discovery come with the idea of self-imposed purpose, with that repeating refrain of “Oh I do believe/You’re all what you perceive/What come is better that what came before”. All that comes together with beautiful, delicate guitar work that results in a song of calm assurance, and with the images of the high roads and searching for purpose comes close to the kind of sound that would define 70’s/80’s Americana.
“Train Around the Bend” definitely continues with that travel imagery – which now that I think about it, combined with the front cover of the mystical smoke from the train station, is a central theme of the album – plays fuzzy guitar and piano chords, and steady drum toms, that chug along like the central vehicle. It’s another pastiche style song, but unlike the previous it has Reed more passionate vocals to back it, making that search that eventually descends into a directionless journey have a much more prominent feel (a feel that is emphasised by the songs fade out, as though the people of the story are stuck in a recurring loop).
This feeling extends to the final song on the album, with the images of money strapped and distanced people in “Oh, Sweet Nuthin’” (with a title that brings to mind the feel of Walt Whitman). For all intents and purposes this is a straight up blues song, and with themes of weariness and poverty does not feel like a pastiche but the genuine article (which is quite a rare feeling to achieve from white, art school types from the centre of New York). And like the the best blues the music is joyous despite of and because of those things, a remarkable, consulate breakdown of emotion as typified by this songs fantastic solo, armed with rallying drums and guitars that feel like real, cathartic cries. It’s an ultimately sad song, but unlike “After Hours” the song isn’t ultimately overcome by that sadness. Instead the band’s career ends as it should, with melancholic but beautiful escape.
And that would be it for the band called The Velvet Underground. Despite attempts by the rest of the original lineup, each would break off either through their own free will or the shattering by a expectant studio not wanting to pay members a certain amount of money. They wouldn’t know what an influence their four years of music would have for the future of rock music, but at least they could be assured that, with a short but impenetrable great discovery, had put the band to res…
*inaudible*…Sorry…*inaudible*…What do you mean a fifth?…*inaudible*…how does that count as a Velvet Underground release…*inaudible*…well what if I tell you I really don’t want to do it?…*inaudible*…*tussle*…*gunshot*…fuck it, we’re doing something else.
What did you think, though?
The Velvet Underground Album Rankings
- White Light/White Heat
- The Velvet Underground and Nico
- The Velvet Underground
- Loaded