Loaded: best VU album, rite guys?

it's not the best but it's the one i listen to the most.

yule rulez!

oh hell, i dunno. there is no correct order. they're all both brilliant and kind of irritating, but for different reasons. each one has songs i love and songs i very nearly hate. vu & nico has "venus in furs", "all tomorrow's parties" and "heroin", so it obviously can't be the worst. WLWH has the title song, "here she comes now" and motherfucking "sister ray", so it can't be the worse. self-titled has blankety-blank, and so on. loaded gets written off cuz it's too slick, too upbeat, not weird + dark + experimental like the VU are supposed to be, but it's also got four of the best goddamn rock n roll songs ever written, so haters get the gas face.

i think however that we all can and should agree that ian is wrong, and nico is great.

aero have you heard the remixed/reissued version of the album where lou's vocals are restored? the producer really fucked w/Loaded first time around

kinda doubt that'd make a diff -- it's just the "heavenly wine and roses" bit on sweet jane (which a r&r animal stan doesn't care about) and a somewhat extended new age.
but i could probably go along with loaded being the worst vu record, even though it is a great great album. didn't we already have a long thread about this?

aero have you heard the remixed/reissued version of the album where lou's vocals are restored? the producer really fucked w/Loaded first time around

no I haven't! but

the "heavenly wine and roses" bit on sweet jane (which a r&r animal stan doesn't care about)

tyler has my number, lol

Live '68

aero have you heard the remixed/reissued version of the album where lou's vocals are restored? the producer really fucked w/Loaded first time around

Same producer as the MC5's High Time. Dude either knew how to sniff out a swan-song, or carried a curse.

High Time: best MC5 album, rite guys?

Intro on the Loaded version of "Sweet Jane" is gorgeous.

aero have you heard the remixed/reissued version of the album where lou's vocals are restored?

Where are they restored? To what tracks? Anyway, Dougie Yule's vocals are great on this album.

Fully Loaded has demos/alternates galore, some with lou singing songs that doug sang on the released album ("oh sweet nothing" for ex.). The only differences with the actual album (aside from remastering) are like I said, the heavenly wine and roses in "sweet jane" and the extended outro in "new age." also some awesome VU versions of lou solo songs like "sad song" and "satellite of love".

There's a few extra bars of guitar chording prior to the solo in "Rock & Roll," also.

Yeah I've got that, "restored vocals" suggested songs where Lou's vocals ahd been taken off and replaced with Doug's. Love the version of "I Love You" with *the chuckling Lou on it.

(*The Chuckling Lou <------- sounds like a fiddle tune or sumthin')

love the dylan-esque 'I found a reason' demo so much more than the final version

(Withdrawn?) Single version of "Head Held High"!

while restoring the heavenly wine bit is cool in theory, it doesn't work -- the harmonies are all wacked out and the drummer pretty much flubs his fill. best realization of what lou had in mind for that part might be on the tots live album.

Extended outro on "New Age" doesn't work either, there's something odd about it, like it's been edited wrongly

yeah, like someone is patching in a bass part at the wrong spot.
best version of new age is by farrrrrrr the one on Live 69 w/ Lou singing the original lyrics.

Loaded was the first VU album I heard, and while I liked it, I didn't get the fuss over them until I picked up Another VU. Over the years, the Loaded track that's ended up growing on me the most is Train Round The Bend, which I didn't notice at all back in the day. I may have said this before, but I'm pretty sure that if the lyrics were about buying drugs and having sex with a transvestite, it'd be regarded as one of their best...

Not being contrarian but honest: I listen to Squeeze *way* more than I listen to Loaded these days...

yule rulez!

― buzza, Thursday, March 29, 2012 1:36 AM

doug or billy?

3rd and 4th ones are boring... and responsible for more bad music than anything this side of Led Zeppelin.

WL/WH all the way!

iatee mentioned that great out-take of 'I Found A Reason' which is just beautiful but my favourite track from the Loaded sessions is probably the vocal cut of 'Ride Into the Sun'.

loaded verz of 'sweet jane' def the best one

It's also the only Velvets song you're likely to hear on "classic rock" radio (and always credited to "Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground").

Not being contrarian but honest: I listen to Squeeze *way* more than I listen to Loaded these days...

Confirming this will flag the post for the attention of the moderators.

j/k

Flagged for craziness.

POLL: How many times does Lou Reed say "suckin on my ding dong" in "Sister Ray"?

POLL: Why don't you count 'em up?

'how many times was she on that POLL?'

we've definitely had this argument before

o come on there's no way the third album is better than the banana one? congrats on challops

"Some Kinda Love" = 4 mins of straight garbage

Some Kinda Challops

Between thought and expression lies 4 mins of straight garbage

First time I listened to Loaded I fell asleep about half way through.

Lou probably did as well, depending on what medication he was on at the time

Put garbage on your shoulder.

"Some Kinda Love" = 4 mins of straight garbage

gtfo that song is awesome!

yes it is one of the best songs.

some kinda troll

tyler between 3rd album & debut which do you take?

xp I mean third album is not awful but I feel like SKl right on top of Pale Blue Eyes kills momentum dead; What Goes on is top 10 VU for me, and the Jesus => That's the Story of My Life sequence is perfect, but I mean banana album is unfuckwithable, an album that has room for "Black Angel's Death Song"/"European Son" along with "Sunday Morning" and "Femme Fatale" is such a better candidate for alltimedom imo

not that you asked me, but I'll take the 3rd. I have no use for Black Angel's Death Song or European Son, really.

yeah SKL is way great

Just re-listened to Rock N Roll. Lou does such a funny Dylan impression.

xps probably the debut because of the all-important cale-iness, but it's neck and neck really.

The production's all kinds of wrong on this one and it's got more filler than the others.

"Some Kinda Love" may have more good lines than any song not written by Holland-Dozier-Holland.

^^^otm
off topic kinda, but everyone should watch this thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Et1ceU09_c

BTW It's fun to sing VU songs like you are Bob Dylan.

"Baby be gooood
do whatcha shouuuuld"

^^^ that reader is good shit

Mo + Sterling (who strike me as two people who were fairly hard to impress)

just watched a video of the 1st VU reunion in 1990 and sterling is pretty awesome in his i-don't-give-a-fuck-ness.

Book is actually The Velvet Underground Companion: Four Decades of Commentary, edited by Albin Zak III, is that the same one, Alfred? Interview with Nico is hilarious. The editor wrote two books I've been meaning to read, The Poetics of Rock: Cutting Tracks, Making Records and I Don't Sound Like Nobody: Remaking Music in 1950s America.

yeah i have that one - it has some music students' thesis on sister ray, which compares it to madonna's "like a prayer."

Must have skipped that one.

lol just looked it up, i was wrong -- not "like a prayer" -- "express yourself."

he says that the "harmonic and melodic organization" of both songs "subvert the phallic narrative assumptions of standard western harmony."

Don't go for second best, baby, don't you know you'll stain the carpet?

Perhaps you preferred the prior piece, "Sylvia's Husband," by Donna Gaines.

haha, yeah, there is some interesting stuff in there.
the 1968 review of white light white heat is kind of amazing, too, in that it's simultaneously pretty insightful and totally off its rocker (lots of mel lyman references).

One good thing about the VU being a little under the radar back in the day is there wasn't an ocean of Baby Boomer inkspill about them to contend with. As far as I knew there was only whatever was in Trouser Press or The Voice, the Ellen Willis piece in Stranded and the CREEM guys calling Lou Butch Firbank.

http://scoobydoo.wikia.com/wiki/Butch_Firbanks

haha, yeah, there is some interesting stuff in there.
the 1968 review of white light white heat is kind of amazing, too, in that it's simultaneously pretty insightful and totally off its rocker (lots of mel lyman references).

That had to have been written by Wayne McGuire, right?

indeed!

Ahahaha, thought so!

Guy was apparently a bit of a nutcase with some 'peculiar' views on race and other things

yeah, that's the dude -- some deep investigation here: http://black2com.blogspot.com/2004/08/do-any-of-you-remember-wayne-mcguire.html

I feel the need to respond to the OP with a resounding NO, Loaded suxxx and its defenders are deluded at best, every single one of these songs that has a live version is better served by said live version.

happily deluded, then.

I crap on this album too much, it's such a great record. Listened to it today on the way to the river. "Who Loves the Sun" is the perfect goth Beach Boys song. Twee Anti-Monkees. "I Found A Reason" inventing slowcore w music from the hearts womb. "You are what you percieve" so beautiful so simple so spiritual. A lot of this album is joyful, and joyful in a pure way wo the trappings of perversion and noise found on the earlier more experimental work. The triangle is mixed really loud on "Who Loves the Sun" and I love it.

This is the VU's "LA Woman", the blues rock last gasp, maybe Reed thought the band would be over soon and wanted to do hyper real satirical versions of the west coast hippie rock that the VU was always opposed to. Underneath the good vibes and "Head Held High" there is this sneering cynicism, the too fast punk pace of "Lonesome Cowboy Bill". The urban cowboy who just sleeps around and crashes on couches and needs you to hear him yodelayheehoo. This is Bizarro VU, anti-cheerleaders for the prom king.

There is some soul in this stuff. "Sweet Jane" and "Rock n Roll" are both lo fi Dylan sped up and run through a gospel filter.

"Oh Sweet Nothing" is really amazing. It's a shame The Marshall Tucker Band ripped it off, "Can't You See" is nearly the exact same instrumental performance. It's weird because in their hands it was woman-blaming southern machismo flexing, but in the hands of the VU it is beautiful asexual transcendental ephemeral.

It's weird but I feel like "We're Only In It For the Money" and this have a lot in common.

"Train Going Round the Bend" is AMAZING. Those guitars. It's a track that would fit perfectly on "Slanted and Enchanted".

I must hate Velvet Underground because I love this album - and it's actually one of my favorite albums of all time - but I don't really rate the rest of their work that high. All VU fans I've met think I'm being stupid for rating Loaded as their best but just a listen to, I dunno, 'Sweet Jane' and you can immediately hear the unbelievable scope of this album. Almost every song in here feels joyful and miserable at the same time.
Take a look at these lyrics: “Jack is in his corset/Jane is in her vest/ and me, I’m in a rock and roll band.” the distinction is meaningless. Usually VU use a question and response on their lyrics which is mostly absent from Loaded. In Loaded it feels like they're just observers, not active and critical participants of their environment as they are in other albums. They dropped the dark, bleak band from previous albums and showed how they can contrast the rock rebellious spirit with pop sensibility just as easily.

The original version of the album is unfortunately a travesty: too many inner drama between the band, the label forcing needless edits and remixes of an album which was supposed to be 'loaded' with hits. If you're still unsure about this album the Fully Loaded and Peel Slowly editions correct some of this problems.

It's by far the VU album I listen to the most, but of course it's not as "important" as the others. 12 people on ilm think it's da best
Ranking the Velvet Underground studio albums

Favourite Velvet Underground album (with extra facility) say it's only five.

However, Ten people say it's their Fourth fav VU album

at the university gym last night, the 18-year-olds on the climbing wall were blasting this album, so it must be cool with the modern youth of today

xp haha, thorough msg board this

The original version of the album is unfortunately a travesty

Pardon my French, but this is utter bollocks. Also have never bought the idea that there's some sort of tongue-in-cheek laughing-up-their-sleeves Zappa/Mothers thing going on with this album.

If there is, it's limited to "I found a reason"

Good work on this thread by my friends from the Lou Guest DJ's on WPIX-FM Listening Thread, tylerw and Tom D.

xp agree I never thought of it as an ironic record, not at all like Zappa to me, on the contrary it has a lot of emotional and sincere statements

It seems to be their most mainstream record. Most conventional pop but still has something of a subversive edge.

I have the Fully Loaded version but might grab some version of the forthcoming one.

So once they've got through this they've reissued all the official during the lifetime Lps, or even slightly posthumous in this case. At least of the Lou years. Wonder what they will go onto next? Is there going to be anything further?

Might be nice to get some of the live stuff issued legitimately separately. Not sure on the legitimacy of the old bootleg stuff that has been put out outside of the boxsets. Has any of that been legit or all boot? Just seem to be selling through supposedly legit sites like Amazon.

yeah there are random bootlegs (boston tea party, la cave etc) that seem to be just selling in an "import" kinda way on amazon and elsewhere. not sure if there's some kind of grey area there or if no one cares at this point. I imagine the next thing will be an expanded Live 69, w/ the complete matrix tapes + end of cole avenue. think there's still at least 45+ minutes (maybe more?) of the matrix stuff they annoyingly left off of the last 45th anniversary box set.

xpost yeah I'm probably over-emphasizing the irony, and in half the songs there is definitely no irony things like "Rock n Roll" and "Reason" are as vulnerable as VU have ever been. But I tend to write off the country rock songs and yesterday they seemed a bit sped up and more of a caricature, like mutant versions of songs off "American Beauty", than just deadpan dad rock. I would still recommend the album over any other VU to Grateful Dead fans. Not sure if that was on purpose (I can totally picture Lou being told to write some commercial tracks and sneering at west coast rock "I'll show you how to write a choogle") or VU just has this underlying sinister beauty that shows up no matter what.

Yeah, I sort of think of Loaded (outside of "Rock n Roll", "Reason", and maybe "New Age") as the apotheosis of Lou's Pickwick period tendencies, where questions of sincerity are beside the point.