Rating: 9/10

Top Track: ‘Sweet Jane’

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. If anyone has been keeping track, I post one of these review-ish things every Thursday. The Mothers’ “Freak Out!” was a special exception for my dad’s birthday. Today’s album is Velvet Underground’s “Loaded”, released in 1970 and the main cause of Lou Reed’s exit from the band (side note: I will be covering one of Reed’s biggest albums real soon, wink wink). My dad actually had two copies of this album and the one I pulled out and am currently listening to is the more beat up of the two. The corners of the sleeve look like they’ve been chewed on and it also has been split so that it opens like a book, which it is not supposed to do. It’s obvious that my dad bought this record second-hand as the name ‘Phillip Gonzalez’ has been penned into the front cover. It’s all taped up and faded, but I think it just adds to the proto-punk aesthetic. Man, I hope this thing doesn’t start skipping. It sure crackles a lot, but that’s just part of the vinyl experience; some albums are well-kept and in good condition and some are loved just a little too much and end up almost falling apart. Kind of like The Velvet Underground.

Sorry, I got distracted singing along to ‘Sweet Jane’, what a classic. Unlike most vinyl records, there is no pause between ‘Who Loves the Sun’ and ‘Sweet Jane’, the first two tracks on the record. Those gaps are actually visible on the record itself as black blank spaces between the raised grooves which are, of course, the songs. The gap between those first two tracks is barely visible, almost nonexistent. Lou Reed, arguably the frontman of the group since he wrote most of the songs and provided most of the lead vocals, was upset about this song in particular because he claimed it was re-edited without his consent. He was upset the “heavenly wine and roses seem to whisper to her when she smiles” melody was cut out in order to make the song shorter; which is why it’s a little over 10 seconds longer on streaming platforms than the original vinyl. The intent of the melody was to provide a nice flowing bridge between the song’s earlier 4-chord riff and it’s 2-chord riff towards the end. The reason it was cut was because Atlantic Records wanted each track on the album to be treated as a single, but I’ll get to that later. Personally, I prefer the bridge left in, it just adds that something extra. Too bad the producers wanted the song under four minutes. The simplicity of the guitar riffs and the vocals from Reed make this song my favorite on the album.

Reed left shortly after the album’s recording, three months before it was even released in fact. Which is why many people consider this fourth studio album the “last true Velvet Underground album”. In addition to his claims about the re-editing, he also felt snubbed by being listed third in the credits on the back cover, the song credits going to the band instead of himself and the wide picture on the back of bassist Doug Yule playing the piano in the studio. While I’m talking about credits, Maureen Tucker (also called as Moe Tucker) was credited with drums on the album even though she was pregnant during recording and does not actually appear on any of the songs. Most of the drumming was actually performed by Yule, session musician Tommy Castanero, recording engineer Adrian Barber and Yule’s brother Bill. A lot of people wore a lot of hats during the making of this album and it must have been super hectic, but boy is it a gem. Even the cover artwork done by Stanislaw Zagorski featuring the Times Square subway entrance is imperfect with “downtown” misspelled as “dowtown”. Go ahead, scroll up and check it out.

The meaning behind the title of the album “Loaded” is that the goal of this album was that it was supposed to be “loaded” with singles. With of course the added double meaning of being “loaded” with drugs, I mean, we’re talking about 1970 here. The album was a commercial effort by Atlantic to get some radio play. Which is why the original pressing of the album’s length is 39:48 compared to 40:35 of the “full length version”. The band had already gained some commercial recognition by working with Andy Warhol on their first album, “The Velvet Underground & Nico”. You might recognize the album cover of Warhol’s famous banana painting. The band also had a surprise hit with ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ off of their previous album, “The Velvet Underground”. This album did, in fact, end up being their most commercially successful album, but ended up driving the band apart. Founding members Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker would leave the band in 1971. The fifth and final studio album featured none of the Reed-era members other than Doug Yule who wrote and recorded most of the album himself. This brings up an existential question for me as a fan of music. Would I rather have a band I love implode while making one of the greatest albums ever or have the band stay together pumping out mediocre record after mediocre record. It’s a tough one. All I can say is thank you, Velvet Underground. Thank you for the wonderful music. Also, if they hadn’t have broken up, we wouldn’t have Lou Reed’s amazing enigmatic solo career. To wrap this thing up, I just want to comment on how The VU’s sound on this album was unlike anything people had heard at the time and sparked inspiration in a lot of young musicians who went on to create the underground punk movement of the late seventies. Classic rock or proto-punk, this band was amazing.