The Velvet Forum

* Besides "Sweet Jane," are there any songs on the basic set (tracks 1-10) of Fully Loaded that were attempts to re-create Lou's originally intended edits?

* The Fully Loaded version of "Rock And Roll" is marked "full-length version," yet is shorter (by two seconds) than on the original release. Likewise, the Fully Loaded version of "New Age" is marked "long version," yet is shorter (by 11 seconds) than on the original release. So in what way are these shorter versions "full-length" and "long"?

* Is there concensus on whether the Fully Loaded versions or the originals of "Sweet Jane," "Rock And Roll" and "New Age" are definitive?

* Lastly, what official CD provides the best sounding versions of the originally-released versions of those songs?

We had an interesting discussion about this 15 years ago that went on for 4 pages and drew very few conclusions...

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=396&hilit=Hack+surgery

Thanks. The thread doesn't answer my questions, but does show why they can't easily be answered, which is that we just don't have enough information. I'd forgotten that Peel Slowly And See covers all four albums and thus provides further "data" of Loaded variations, but I don't have the energy to add that third set of versions to my attempt to understand the Loaded variations.

All that said, I think it's safe for me to re-pose one of my original questions, which is whether there's a CD version of Loaded that provides the same versions as the original release. Approximately the same versions, that is, given the nature of reissue production, and in reasonably good fidelity.

I guess any pre-PSAS CD of Loaded would include the same versions as the original LP release.

My feeling on Loaded these days is that Lou seems to have walked away before it took its final form. As such there is no definitive "album as Lou intended it". It also seems like he was a little conflicted even before then, between keeping the integrity of those songs and making everything as tight, commercial and radio friendly as possible. Hence his involvement, as Doug says, in making some of those shorter edits of the songs. I'm sure there's a quote from him about part of why he left was getting worn down by trying to be "all things to all people".

So maybe if he hadn't quit, we'd still have the chopped-up versions of the songs, but the narrative from Lou would have been that he regretted allowing it to happen, rather than that he regretted walking away and letting them do it.

What's the official release date for Loaded?

Nov 1970 wasn't it?

Has there ever been an implication of Lou working on the album beyond his August 23 severance date? Or, of him wishing to but being locked out by Sesnick?

Whatever the exact story, there's no question in my mind that the original album is the definitive version. There is not a single outtake or 'extended version' that is better than the track as it appears on the record, and Lou was no doubt just bitter about having his early solo records competing with Loaded/Maxs/1969.

Sheila Klein wrote: ↑18 Mar 2020 23:41 Has there ever been an implication of Lou working on the album beyond his August 23 severance date? Or, of him wishing to but being locked out by Sesnick?

There's that famous quote from Lou - “I gave them an album loaded with hits and it was loaded with hits to the point where the rest of the people showed their colours. So I left them to their album full of hits that I made.” To me, that implies that once he was done, he was done.

Mark wrote: ↑18 Mar 2020 21:02 Nov 1970 wasn't it?

The earliest review I have been able to find is in the Record World Magazine Nov 21, 1970 issue