The many Lou Reed masterpieces cut from The Velvet Underground’s ‘Loaded’
It’s a miracle that The Velvet Underground lasted as long as they did.
David Bowie declared them more influential than The Beatles despite the fact that commercially, that’s like comparing the Atlantic Ocean with a tear on Lou Reed’s cheek. So, it’s a mark of just how innovative their music was that the great Starman could make such a statement and it not sound entirely ludicrous. However, the band had such a faltering journey that we’re lucky they got to exercise any influence on the world at all.
Making art is a slog, no matter how dedicated you may be when it continually fails to earn you any money, esteem or recognition. Especially when the experience of making it is one fraught with swindlers, drug problems, feuds and the come hither of a cushy comfortable life. It’s eye-opening on two fronts when you consider that the revered discography of The Velvet Underground charted as thus upon initial release (not including the sham Squeeze):
- The Velvet Underground & Nico – 171
- White Light / White Heat – 199
- The Velvet Underground – Uncharted
- Loaded – Uncharted
This mind-blowing lack of lift-off disheartened the band, but never once did they decide to ditch their principles, remaining steadfastly imaginative at every damning turn. They had begun as a band all about shifting the centre of art, and they continued to do that until the very bitter end.
They say the day is darkest before the dawn; that’s not exactly how things unfurled for The Velvet Underground. Ahead of Loaded, a flicker of hope bleeped onto their commercial radar. They had just been signed to Atlantic Records, and the label were asking for hits and radio play from the band, promising promotion in return. This prompted Reed to dip into a secret love that the band’s style seemingly belied: AM Radio.
He was already trained in the hit-churning tact thanks to a teenage stint writing novelty songs as a gun for hire at Pickwick Records. However, the band’s mission was to write hits that still had their ‘loaded’ appeal. This was no problem for Reed and the band, who were now so entrenched in their avant-garde outlook, hardened by the hard knocks they continually faced. The blend came together like stirring milk into tea.
Alas, the one stipulation Atlantic had made beyond asking for hits and leaving the rest up to the band was concision. The album was slated to be ten tracks, and they were told to aim those songs under the four-minute mark. The fact that this happened to coincide with perhaps the most fruitful spell of Reed’s songwriting career led to perhaps the most brutal cull of masterpieces in studio history.
Now, it is worth noting that Reed was also mildly disgruntled at this stage, and looking back, you wonder whether he always had half an eye on an impending solo career throughout his time in The Velvet Underground. This would at least explain why the combative rock star was apparently rather blasé about seeing the following string of masterpieces he had written make it to the studio only to be shunned from the eventual tracklisting of Loaded:
- ‘Andy’s Chest’
- ‘I’m Sticking With You’
- ‘Lisa Says’
- ‘Ocean’
- ‘Over You’
- ‘Ride Into the Sun’
- ‘Sad Song’
- ‘Satellite of Love’
- ‘She’s My Best Friend’
Remarkably, despite these tracks (and even more) that Reed would turn out over the course of his glittering career, Loaded would still turn out to be a masterpiece… yet another one that proved a commercial disaster. All the same, it was the last flop that Reed could take. The music industry so bruised him, and the equally brutal scene around it, that shortly after the release of Loaded – a record he described as “phenomenal” – he left to start a job in his father’s office. Alas, the influence his former band would go on to have was already firmly seeded, set to rise steadily over decades, like an oak, hatching its own little forest deep in the outskirts of town.
