Loaded: Fully Loaded Edition (CD)

The Velvet Underground

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Amoeba Review

John Schacht 06/16/2010

The last VU record featuring Lou Reed – and therefore in-all-but-name-only the final VU record – didn’t make stars of the band either, despite a concerted studio effort to gussy things up and the appearance of two eventual staples of classic rock radio. The slinky “Sweet Jane” and “Rock and Roll” – a straight-ahead rocker featuring Reed in full-on NYC hustler street-patter mode – became anthems of the age and ironic examples of how “pop” the band could have sounded without losing its darker, street-wise nature. The band had been dropped by their jazz-oriented label Verve and signed to Atlantic’s imprint Cotillion, where label owner Ahmet Ertegun allegedly asked the band to keep the drug and dark-side references off a record he hoped would be “loaded with hits” -- hence the snarky, double-entendre title. And while there may not have been anything as obvious as “Heroin” or “Venus In Furs” here, Reed’s songs don’t waver much from their dark-underbelly and loneliness themes, even if the narratives come in the band’s most accessible songs. “New Age” (sung by John Cale replacement Doug Yule) features an encounter between a star-struck fan and washed-up film actor suffering from the same debilitating loneliness; the doo wop-flavored “I Found A Reason” may include Yule’s chuckle-worthy, spoken-word lament in the bridge -- “I’ve walked down life’s lonely highways/hand-in-hand with myself” -- but with its graceful pace and Reed’s Zen-like chorus (“what comes is better than what came before”) the song reads transcendent; and with “Who Loves the Sun,” “Lonesome Cowboy Bill” and the 7-minute stretch-out “Oh, Sweet Nuthin’” (all sung by Yule, by the way), you can hear permeating effect country rock was having throughout the late-60s landscape. Portions of the record were excised by the label – including a whole verse and bridge from “Sweet Jane” and a short portion of “Rock and Roll” – which allegedly led to Reed’s departure, though that’s disputed by other VU members on the record. Those, incidentally, did not include drummer Mo Tucker, who was pregnant during the making of the album. (Thirty years later Loaded: The Fully Loaded Edition was released, which restored the excised song parts and added alternate takes and outtakes, of which “Ocean” is the obvious highlight.)

Track Listing

Disc 1 Titles	Artist	Length
1. Who Loves the Sun	The Velvet Underground	02:45
2. Sweet Jane [Full-Length Version]	The Velvet Underground	04:09
3. Rock & Roll	The Velvet Underground	04:45
4. Cool It Down	The Velvet Underground	03:06
5. New Age	The Velvet Underground	05:09
6. Head Held High	The Velvet Underground	02:58
7. Lonesome Cowboy Bill	The Velvet Underground	02:45
8. I Found a Reason	The Velvet Underground	04:17
9. Train Round the Bend	The Velvet Underground	03:22
10. Oh! Sweet Nuthin'	The Velvet Underground	07:29
11. Ride Into the Sun [Demo] [Bonus Track]	The Velvet Underground	03:23
12. Ocean [Outtake] [Bonus Track]	The Velvet Underground	05:45
13. I'm Sticking With You [Outtake] [Bonus Track]	The Velvet Underground	03:09
14. I Love You [Demo] [Bonus Track]	The Velvet Underground	02:05
15. Rock & Roll [Alternate Mix] [Bonus Track]	The Velvet Underground	04:44
16. Head Held High [Alternate Mix] [Bonus Track]	The Velvet Underground	02:15

Disc 2 Titles	Artist	Length
1. Who Loves the Sun [Alternate Mix]	The Velvet Underground	03:08
2. Sweet Jane [Early Version]	The Velvet Underground	05:29
3. Rock & Roll [Demo]	The Velvet Underground	04:45
4. Cool It Down [Early Version]	The Velvet Underground	04:17
5. New Age [Full-Length Version]	The Velvet Underground	05:42
6. Head Held High [Early Version]	The Velvet Underground	02:53
7. Lonesome Cowboy Bill [Early Version]	The Velvet Underground	03:18
8. I Found a Reason [Demo]	The Velvet Underground	03:15
9. Train Round the Bend [Alternate Mix]	The Velvet Underground	04:40
10. Oh! Sweet Nuthin' [Early Version]	The Velvet Underground	04:13
11. Ocean [Demo]	The Velvet Underground	06:10
12. I Love You [Outtake]	The Velvet Underground	02:55
13. Satellite of Love [Alternate Demo]	The Velvet Underground	03:19
14. Oh Gin [Demo]	The Velvet Underground	02:56
15. Walk and Talk [Demo]	The Velvet Underground	03:00
16. Sad Song [Demo]	The Velvet Underground	03:41
17. Love Makes You Feel Ten Feet Tall [Demo]	The Velvet Underground	04:12

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