![]() ![]() It was tedious.”ĭespite Cale following his criticism with a rather staid rendition of the folksy “Chinese Envoy,” off the 1982 solo album Music for a New Society, his point’s an easy one to understand. It wasn’t based on hard work and musical…a certain amount of musical…extrapolation. “The band went out on the road and developed a whole different style of playing. “However innovative it was, it never lived up to its promise,” Cale says about the Velvets, lounging next to After Hours host Donnie Sutherland. Thing is, though, Cale sounds nonplussed and figured the whole thing went sour relatively quickly. In a 1983 interview, John Cale sits heavily on a couch, answering questions about his past, his time in the Velvets and founding an ensemble that inarguably disrupted the trajectory of American rock music. And inside the next two years, the band was ostensibly finished. Loaded, the Velvet Underground’s fourth and final studio album with any significant remnant of its founding members, was issued in 1970. Frustrated by elusive commercial success the leader of one of the most decadent bands in history bailed out and went home to live with his parents, before re-emerging a couple of years later to solo superstardom.It was decaying. But despite containing some of Reed’s greatest compositions the hits did not materialise. What is most evident throughout 'Loaded', and in contrast with the more primitive quality of their earlier (albeit more influential) recordings, is this band can really play. Again the half ends with a stadium-like anthem, the beautiful epic 'Oh! Sweet Nuthin’' with multi-instrumentalist Doug Yule’s lovely bass lines, and his brother Billy’s scatter gun drumming. The power subsides slightly on “side two” with the country rocker 'Lonesome Cowboy Bill', a pretty ballad 'I Found a Reason', and 'Train Round the Bend' which is more characteristic of the Velvets’ earlier sound with Reed yearning for a return to the neon lights of the city. The first half ends with the anthemic 'New Age' that builds gradually to a thrilling singalong climax: "Something’s got a hold of me, but I don’t know what." The next three songs roll into each other almost indistinguishably each a classic of efficient straight forward rock with infectious hooks and great lyrics: 'Sweet Jane' (arguably Reed’s greatest ever song) 'Rock and Roll' (“her life was saved by Rock and Roll!”) and 'Cool it Down' (“she’s got the power, to love me by the hour!”). The change in style is evident immediately on 'Who Loves the Sun' which is so reminiscent of the hippie pop coming out of California in the late 60s (and ironically the complete antithesis of early Velvet Underground) that somewhere there must be undiscovered kaleidoscope video footage of the band performing this single in flower shirts standing on round podiums. John Cale, responsible for much of the band’s avant-garde edge with his electric viola thrashings, had also left following musical differences with Lou Reed who was now ready to write pop songs in response to the new record company’s request for an album “loaded” with hits. Much less celebrated than their famous banana covered debut, 'Loaded' is often dismissed by diehard Velvet fans as not sounding like The Velvet Underground, which ironically is not necessarily a bad thing for many listeners! Indeed by the release of this, their fourth album in late 1970, mentor Andy Warhol and his out of tune chanteuse Nico had both moved on, and drummer Moe Tucker was on maternity leave. ![]() THE VELVET UNDERGROUND'S LOADED - MUCH BETTER THAN THE BANANA ONE! ![]()
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