"I was playing at Max’s and going to summer school at City College, so I was pretty tired. But I remember sitting in Central Park just as the sun was going down over the old Atlantic building and getting my thoughts together. And then it was, ‘Oh well, time to record.’ And I walked over.” – The Velvet Underground guitarist Sterling Morrison
I suppose few things in music give me the shakes quite the way the impossibly memorable guitar lick of “Sweet Jane” on Loaded (1970) is able to hurl me into a nostalgic haze every time I hear it. Of the first four albums made by The Velvet Underground, Loaded never did get its proper dues for several reasons, despite this being the only Velvets album that resembles something of a commercial-sounding record. The band were already falling apart by then: drummer Moe Tucker was absent from the recordings because she was pregnant; main creative force Lou Reed would leave the band about the same time Loaded hit the streets. The record company fucked with three of the tracks without Reed’s consent, most significantly cutting out the “heavenly wine and roses” sequence. Or maybe these song-trinkets of unknown pop quality never had a chance to find traction among longtime fans of the avant-garde Velvets who are more accustomed to Reed’s chronicles of downtown dirt, and were simply pissed off at the commercial road Loaded was heading down with the sublimated moods of “New Age” and “I Found A Reason” – not helped that Lou comes across as being a bit bitter about the so-called “album loaded with hits” he left the band with.
Me, I just really enjoy the sprightly guitar interplay between Reed and the late Sterling Morrison and I find that on Loaded (the proto-punk nobility of “Head Held High” is so underrated), Lou achieving a nice compromise between consummate pop craftsmanship and grittier songwriting concerns.
Take the rather downbeat “New Age”: it’s sung slow and smooth in the ever-boyish voice of Doug Yule and features the subtlest of sounds, but Lou’s lyrics obsess over the career of a washed out movie starlet coming to a precipitous end (“Can I have your autograph? He said to the fine blonde actress/ You know I’ve seen every movie you’ve been in, from paths of pain to jewels of glory”). The doo-wop vocal harmonies are perfectly placed on the “I Found A Reason” while the downbeat “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’” drones on beautifully for seven and a half minutes with the kind of scowling finesse Lou Reed patented. Or maybe it would be enough to say that I have come to include one or two Loaded songs every now and then on mixtapes for girls (not all that many opportunities as suck to speak of, to be honest, but hey), especially those who have no fucking clue who is Lou Reed), or that it is my second favorite Velvets record right after The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967).
I suppose few things in music give me the shakes quite the way the impossibly memorable guitar lick of “Sweet Jane” on Loaded (1970) is able to hurl me into a nostalgic haze every time I hear it. Of the first four albums made by The Velvet Underground, Loaded never did get its proper dues for several reasons, despite this being the only Velvets album that resembles something of a commercial-sounding record. The band were already falling apart by then: drummer Moe Tucker was absent from the recordings because she was pregnant; main creative force Lou Reed would leave the band about the same time Loaded hit the streets. The record company fucked with three of the tracks without Reed’s consent, most significantly cutting out the “heavenly wine and roses” sequence. Or maybe these song-trinkets of unknown pop quality never had a chance to find traction among longtime fans of the avant-garde Velvets who are more accustomed to Reed’s chronicles of downtown dirt, and were simply pissed off at the commercial road Loaded was heading down with the sublimated moods of “New Age” and “I Found A Reason” – not helped that Lou comes across as being a bit bitter about the so-called “album loaded with hits” he left the band with.
Me, I just really enjoy the sprightly guitar interplay between Reed and the late Sterling Morrison and I find that on Loaded (the proto-punk nobility of “Head Held High” is so underrated), Lou achieving a nice compromise between consummate pop craftsmanship and grittier songwriting concerns.
Take the rather downbeat “New Age”: it’s sung slow and smooth in the ever-boyish voice of Doug Yule and features the subtlest of sounds, but Lou’s lyrics obsess over the career of a washed out movie starlet coming to a precipitous end (“Can I have your autograph? He said to the fine blonde actress/ You know I’ve seen every movie you’ve been in, from paths of pain to jewels of glory”). The doo-wop vocal harmonies are perfectly placed on the “I Found A Reason” while the downbeat “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’” drones on beautifully for seven and a half minutes with the kind of scowling finesse Lou Reed patented. Or maybe it would be enough to say that I have come to include one or two Loaded songs every now and then on mixtapes for girls (not all that many opportunities as suck to speak of, to be honest, but hey), especially those who have no fucking clue who is Lou Reed), or that it is my second favorite Velvets record right after The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967).
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