Masterpiece: Loaded

[Today: The Velvets shoot for the charts and make a masterpiece instead...]

Lou Reed has consistently written some of the best character sketches in rock, and his work (and by extension, The Velvet Underground’s) has always more closely resembled short stories than mere songs. Unfortunately, the subjects of many of those sketches (junkies, queers, etc) have combined with VU’s avant-leanings to overshadow the excellent songcraft that lies at the heart of the group’s genius.

Recorded in the summer of 1970, Loaded was the Velvets’ fourth album, and second without sturm-and-droner John Cale. Here they dispensed with Cale’s noisy nonsense and made a batch of mostly straight ahead songs that count optimism and survival as prominent themes. The songs also feature vocal harmonies that are tight and affecting, and help sell lines like “What comes is better than what came before” (from the underrated ‘I Found A Reason’). In places the group sounds for all the world like they’re doing their best Beach Boys impersonation. This is the most accessible Velvet Undergound album, by a Manhattan mile.

Much of the above paragraph has caused critics to wring their hands over this album. It’s not a traditional VU effort, and it has a pop sheen that Lou Reed would more or less eschew for the rest of his career. The fact that he left the band before production on the album was complete has tarnished its legacy. Reed himself has disparaged both the production work and track listing.

But forget all the sniping – Loaded is flawless. The title reportedly was the group’s answer to Ahmet Ertegun’s request for “an album loaded with hits.” Reed delivered an incredible cache of songs that include ‘Sweet Jane’ ‘Rock & Roll’ and ‘Oh! Sweet Nuthin’. None of it hit, of course. But it did prove that even when they polished things up, the VU were destined to sound uniquely like themselves – if not a bit better.

Listen: Oh! Sweet Nuthin’

Tags: Loaded, Lou Reed, Velvet Underground