The Velvet Underground – Loaded

Analogue Productions (Atlantic 75 Series)

 

Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Atlantic Records!

 

Final Velvet Underground album featuring founding member and songwriter Lou Reed

 

180-gram 45 RPM double LP

 

Mastered directly from the original master tape by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound

 

Pressed at Quality Record Pressings

 

Tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jacket by Stoughton Printing

 

After The Velvet Underground cut three albums for the jazz-oriented Verve label that earned them lots of notoriety but negligible sales, the group signed with industry powerhouse Atlantic Records in 1970.

 

Label head Ahmet Ertegun supposedly asked Lou Reed to avoid sex and drugs in his songs, and instead focus on making an album "loaded with hits." Loaded was the result. It was the group’s swan song, with Reed leaving the group shortly before its release. With John Cale long gone from the band, Doug Yule highly prominent (he sings lead on four of the ten tracks), and Maureen Tucker absent on maternity leave, this is hardly a purist’s Velvet Underground album. Still, AllMusic gives the album 5 Stars and Pitchfork calls it a "perfect rock ‘n’ roll record — 40 minutes long, five songs to a side, and not a single wasted note."

 

Loaded is the sort of proper album that feels like a greatest hits collection, with each track thoroughly inhabiting and mastering a dominant rock archetype. Although the songs "Sweet Jane" and "Rock & Roll" distinguished the band as a "seminal proto-punk" act, "The trifecta of ‘Who Loves the Sun,’ ‘Sweet Jane’ and ‘Rock & Roll’ is among the best three-song openings on any rock and roll record," wrote Paste contributor Jeff Gonick

 

Analogue Productions has given Loaded the deserving full reissue treatment: Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, and housed in a tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jacket by Stoughton Printing.

 

This copy is not numbered

 

A1 – Who Loves The Sun – 2:50

A2 – Sweet Jane – 3:55

A3 – Rock & Roll – 4:47

B1 – Cool It Down – 3:05

B2 – New Age – 5:20

C1 – Head Held High – 2:52

C2 – Lonesome Cowboy Bill – 2:48

C3 – I Found A Reason – 4:15

D1 – Train Round The Bend – 3:20

D2 – Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ – 7:23

 

Recorded At – Atlantic Studios

Pressed By – Quality Record Pressings

Mastered At – Sterling Sound

 

Drums – Moe Tucker

Rhythm Guitar, Piano, Vocals, Lyrics By, Composed By [Song Composition] – Lou Reed

Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Composed By [Song Composition] – Sterling Morrison

Organ, Piano, Bass, Drums, Lead Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Lyrics By, Composed By [Song Composition] – Doug Yule

Percussion [Assistant] – Adrian Barber, Bill Yule, Tommy*

 

Producer – Geoffrey Haslam, Shel Kagan, The Velvet Underground

Engineer [Re-mix] – Geoffrey Haslam

Engineer [Recording] – Adrian Barber, Geoffrey Haslam

Mastered By – Ryan Smith