Doug Yule & The Velvet Underground

Jez · Post by **Jez** » 30 Jul 2007 14:16

I'm pretty much in agreement with all of the comments so far.

I think Doug Yule is great and loved what he did with The Velvets. To me they only stopped being the VU on the late '71 European tour. And although I totally accept Final VU as a chapter in their story, I don't have it. One day maybe I'll get round to picking up a copy.

He had of course played with Walter Powers and Willie Alexander before in The Grass Menagerie, a Boston-based band. Has anyone heard anything by them?

And Lou must have had a lot of time for 'his brother' Doug because he hired him on numerous occassions, both in the studio and on tour, in '75.

I agree with Sars' comments about Squeeze. It was a bit of a disappointment at the time it came out I have to say, because of the name on the front and the fact that I was a fan. But it soon grew on me in it's own right. It certainly doesn't warrant being on anyones list of 'worst albums'. I could think of a thousand albums infinitely worse than Squeeze.

Does anyone know if there is a recording of the Unloaded session that Doug did at The Crocodile Cafe in 2000?

And finally, I agree with mg196's comments on Nico. I loved her work on the first album and have remained a fan to this day. But I don't consider her to have been a member of the VU. Unlike Doug.

arjan · Post by **arjan** » 30 Jul 2007 15:50

Jez wrote:Does anyone know if there is a recording of the Unloaded session that Doug did at The Crocodile Cafe in 2000?

Part of Doug's Live in Seattle debut solo album (Captain Trip, 2002) is from the Crocodile Cafe. See this page by Olivier Landemaine: http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/dougy ... iscog.html
The "Crocodile" set includes three VU songs: "Candy Says", "What Goes On" and "Sweet Jane". Could this be what you mean?

arjan · Post by **arjan** » 30 Jul 2007 16:00

arjan wrote:Captain Trip

Hey, I can talk to myself this way!

Anyway, while getting the URL of Captain Trip Records for the post above, I noticed that Captain Trip are doing a VU-related bundle sale. Apparently, you can buy the Final V.U. 4CD set, Maureen's Live in Seattle album, Doug's Live in Seattle album, Willie Alexander's Solo Loco Redux and Loco Live 1976 (with the Boom Boom Band) together for just $ 75 including shipping. Link: http://www.captaintrip.co.jp/sale.html

You'd have to be an überfan to want all of this, but... 8 CDs for $ 75 (a mere ? 55 or about ? 37 nowadays for us Europeans) isn't much money.

I'm not affiliated in any way, it's just that I came across it in a remote corner of the V.U. universe and thought I'd point it out.

Jez · Post by **Jez** » 30 Jul 2007 17:05

Thanks Arjan. That's exactly the set I meant!

arjan · Post by **arjan** » 31 Jul 2007 09:23

Mark wrote:Very true - I don't think there's any question that the edits were done with Lou's involvement, while he was in the band.
However, the fact that Lou was involved in editing those tracks doesn't neccessarily mean that he was happy with them. Although the recording of the album was finished by the time he left, the final sequencing was done afterwards - and he's gone on record as saying that he's unhappy with the track order (decided by Yule/Sesnick/the Atlantic staff producers) as much as the edits.

You're right, let us put a little nuance into it. There is the possibility that there was a certain amount of controversy over a number of the proposed edits, discussion versions of which were made and over which the two/various camps clashed.

Perhaps Reed felt that he couldn't win the argument and walked out, after which all remaining arguments were simply and quickly resolved in the other camp's/camps' favour, including the edits and the track sequencing.

The edits had to be pre-existing, though, because of the short timespan between Reed's departure and the album's release -- unless there was a (number of) frenetic all-night editing session(s). The separation of "I Found a Reason" and "Head Held High", which were shown to be originally a segue, suggests at least one last-minute rethink.

Ari · Post by **Ari** » 17 Aug 2007 23:20

thanks for its answers,

I agree in which yule was contribution, my favorite song of the group is not sung by lou reed, but by yule

¨candy says¨ is my favorite song

in addition those that but I enjoy in ¨loaded¨ they are those that sing

tapeworm a great voice, and put wave to him to the group

arjan · Post by **arjan** » 18 Aug 2007 13:20

Ari wrote:tapeworm a great voice, and put wave to him to the group

translates as

babelfish wrote:solitaria una gran voz, y onda puesta a él al grupo

which is surely not what you meant?!

Ari · Post by **Ari** » 18 Aug 2007 14:48

jajaj fucking translator

never mind...

trickseybird · Post by **trickseybird** » 16 Oct 2007 07:41

I was a bit surprised at the reactions on this thread. Do most Yule fans share the sentiment that he was more important to the band than Cale?

arjan · Post by **arjan** » 17 Oct 2007 20:06

trickseybird wrote:I was a bit surprised at the reactions on this thread. Do most Yule fans share the sentiment that he was more important to the band than Cale?

I am a Yule fan as much as a Cale fan, and I'd say neither is "more important" than the other, they're just different and bring to the fore other aspects of the band.