Bands In The Family:
Nico, Lou Reed, John Cale, Moe Tucker, Eno and Cale
Notes:
The Velvet Underground came to define the look, sound and attitude of rock 'n' roll New York. They built their reputation on the lower east side as house band for Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable, a travelling party/art installation that delivered maximum sensory impact through the vehicles of blazing light shows, noisy rock and rampant drug use. The band soon tired of the Warhol connection, with Reed in particular eager to forget art and get on with the rock. After two albums he and Cale went their separate ways, and the album Loaded was essentially a Lou Reed solo project. Not long after, The Velvets were no more, survived by their tremendous impact on underground rock.
Links: The Wild Side of Lou Reed
poems, bootlegs and more Moe Tucker's TajMoeHal is
an incredible site run by Moe herself Rock 'n Roll Animal
concert listing, bootleg page and more
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The Velvet Underground Loaded Atlantic, Released 1970
By 1970, The Velvet Underground had already carved its legacy into rock. That Lou Reed cared not at all about that legacy is obvious on Loaded.
No, the legacy that concerned him was the one he had inherited - from the blues, Stax R&B and early rock 'n' roll. Loaded is Lou Reed's "roots" record, and it sees VU turn back from the fringes of rock and prove just how close they were to its heartbeat.
"Sweet Jane" is that heartbeat, rock's three essential chords scoring a bold romantic riposte from the man labeled rock's greatest cynic. "Rock & Roll," likewise, is a big-hearted manifesto set to a shuffle so insistent that you can hardly deny its optimism: "Despite all the computations/ You could just dance to the rock 'n' roll station.. ." Emboldened by the purity of the sound, Reed for once seems free of the demons that haunted most of his lyrics. It's downright touching.
It comes back of course; the distance, the sarcasm and the bitterness. But that's no tragedy: no one could deliver a middle finger like "Cool It Down" or a twisted parable like "Head Held High" with the brutal efficiency of Lou Reed's Velvet Underground. Melodic and powerful, the band justify Reed's search for back-to-basics barroom rock. Despite the redirection, Loaded sent The Velvet Underground out on top.
