Maps of Music

Loaded (1970)

Where the lyrics of Loaded take you, and where it was really made.

Atlantic wanted an album full of hits, but neither its singles nor the album itself entered the charts, and Lou Reed left the band before it came out.

Key places

Atlantic Studios, New York City (1970)

Recording site Atlantic Studios (New York City) — The recording is listed at Atlantic Studios in New York City. The same studio is named for CD mastering in the Discogs notes. Exact recording dates are not given in the sources. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Loaded: fourth studio album by the American rock band the Velvet Underground
• Released November 1970 by Cotillion, an Atlantic Records subsidiary
• Last album recorded with any of the band's original members
• Lou Reed left three months before release
• Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker left the band in 1971
• Fans often treat it as the last true Velvet Underground album
• Doug Yule stayed, released Squeeze in 1973, and the band dissolved the same year

Background

• A deliberate attempt to gain radio play
• The title refers to Atlantic's request for an album loaded with hits
• The word loaded also carries the double meaning of being high on drugs
• Yule recalled a strong push for a single, with songs designed to be singles
• Reed left the band on 23 August 1970

Recording

• Reed was critical of the final mix and said it was remixed and resequenced without his consent
• Yule said Reed had edited the songs himself
• Maureen Tucker was pregnant and did not play; drums were handled by Yule, Adrian Barber, Tommy Castanero and Billy Yule
• Yule sang lead on four of the ten songs and handled bass, piano and organ
• Reed felt snubbed by being listed third in the sleeve credits and by the large photo of Yule at the piano
• Later releases listed Reed as main songwriter at the top of the lineup

Cover

• Artwork designed by Stanisław Zagórski
• Drawing of the Times Square–42nd Street subway station entrance
• The word downtown is misspelled as dowtown on the cover

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in New York City in 1964; took the name The Velvet Underground in November 1965, from a 1963 book on atypical sexual behavior.
• Classic lineup: Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Moe Tucker.
• Andy Warhol became the band's manager in 1966 and they were the house band at The Factory.

Members

• Lou Reed (singer, guitarist) and John Cale (multi-instrumentalist, Welsh) were the core partnership.
• Sterling Morrison (guitar) and Moe Tucker (drums) completed the classic four-piece.
• Doug Yule replaced Cale in 1968 and later led the band's final lineups.

Career

• Performed with Warhol's multimedia show Exploding Plastic Inevitable from 1966 to 1967.
• Debut The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) sold poorly at release but is now widely hailed as one of the greatest albums.
• Ranked 19th on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time (2004).
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996; received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Lenny Kaye in Rolling Stone: the band sounded looser and more straightforward than before, with an undercurrent beyond a collection of good-time cuts
• Robert Christgau in The Village Voice: genuinely rock and roll, yet really intellectual and ironic, with Reed's singing embodying that paradox
• Billboard: described the music as hooky garage rock

Reappraisal

• Doyle Greene: straightforward rock and roll that abandoned the band's avant-garde work, with Sweet Jane and Rock & Roll marking the band as seminal proto-punk
• Jeff Gonick in Paste: the opening trio of Who Loves the Sun, Sweet Jane and Rock & Roll ranks among the best three-song openings on any rock and roll record
• Michael R. Ross in Routledge's Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century (2014): a near-perfect rock album
• Eric Klinger in PopMatters: a great pop album
• The album has gained critical acclaim in retrospect

Records

• Sold 250,000 copies as of 2013
• Neither the album nor any of its singles entered the charts
• Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums, third edition (2000): number 295
• Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: number 109 in 2003, number 110 in 2012, number 242 in 2020

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Original copies have no gap between Who Loves the Sun and Sweet Jane, and some later pressings add a few seconds of silence
• Reed felt snubbed by third place in the sleeve credits
• Moe Tucker is credited on drums but is now known not to have played on the album
• John Cale is credited on the reissue track Ocean
• Rhino released a two-disc Fully Loaded edition on 18 February 1997, with 17 previously unreleased tracks

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

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