Doug Yule - Classic or Doug?:

what universe is Loaded's greatness disputed?
Some people think it's a cartoon version of the Velvets. Lou left before it was done and I think at some point he sort of disowned it or disowned parts of it, IIRC.

Hahah. Fret not, I was sitting in the back with a couple of other board folks, around the corner from the side stage, so we heard the show rather than saw it. I have, however, been known to run at the mouth loudly.

if any members of VU are present, please accept my apologies, and hello! great to have you on board. as it were.

not so classic for: squeeze and that american flyer album (which i wanted to like!)

speaking of brother doug, the fully loaded liners mention some recordings the VU did immediately following lou's departure--ie with sterling morrison, moe tucker and yule. anybody ever hear these? do they "circulate?"

I agree w/pretty much all the "classic" moments listed on this thread so far - especially the vocals on "Oh Sweet Nothin", "New Age" and "Candy Says", which are beautiful. "Who Loves the Sun" too.

Glass Menagerie

45:
1 End Of The Line/Troubled Mind (Revolve 208) 1968

A San Francisco outfit who formed in 1967 but fell apart the following year. Mike Shrieve, of course, later went on to play for Santana and Godula later joined Together, a 1969 San Francisco band which did not record.

There was at least one other act using the Glass Menagerie moniker, and their track Mad Threads can be found on Off The Wall, Vol. 2 (LP). Could this be the same Glass Menagerie which came from Boston, and featured a pre-Velvet Underground Doug Yule. Answers on a £50 note please!

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/hate/2000/12/advent-calendar-of-filth11-doug-yule/

Doug replies to Tanya!

I missed this, no doubt you all saw this, but hey.

I wuv Dougie

Brilliant response.

Good for Doug. He's unassailably classic, for the vocal on O Sweet Nuthin alone

Sorry, FT, this needs to be here too:

From Doug, obv...

1-I’m not mad at the world for undervaluing my contributions. More the opposite, I’m constantly amazed at the over emphasizing of the VU.

2-I’m not mad that I wasn’t invited to the R&R Hall of Fame. I like David Bowie’s comment that it’s an inappropriate institution for Rock and Roll. Beyond that, the Hall of Fame is really just a money making venture for someone, one more productification of art and effort, one more exploitation of childishly naive musical hopefuls, wannabees and usedtabees.

rev.

He's unassailably classic, for the vocal on O Sweet Nuthin alone
He also plays the guitar solo on this song ... Little known fact!

Really? Sounds like Sterl to me.

http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/articles/lowdown/lowdown.html

Nice

Doug owns that album, really -- he's probably the one most responsible for its sound ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA22FoRBSBI

the yuletide spirit spreads across ilm

And on earth, peace to men of good fortunewill

meant that to be a strikeout, not italics

Our own tylerw weighs in with some Yuletide Candy:
http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/976-in-defense-of-the-velvet-undergrounds-doug-yule

thx for the plug!

speaking of brother doug, the fully loaded liners mention some recordings the VU did immediately following lou's departure--ie with sterling morrison, moe tucker and yule. anybody ever hear these? do they "circulate?"

― tylerw, Wednesday, February 23, 2005 9:26 PM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

10 years later, i am still interested in hearing these! also holy shit, i've been posting here forever.

it took me years to notice that he sings on VU songs. Is it just me or does his voice sound ridiculously like Lou's?

dunno, he sounds pretty distinctive on Loaded to me (i may have confused the two of them on "she's my best friend" from VU at first). i imagine Lou was pretty much telling him how to sing though.

I think most people would be surprised to learn that it's Doug Yule and not Lou singing Candy Says, O Sweet Nuthin and New Age. For years I just thought it was Lou singing high.

Also, it's total bullshit that he isnt in the rock and roll hall of fame.

he isn't???? that's horrible. talk about adding insult to injury.

and i too would like to hear these immediate post-lou recordings.

not sure of the inner workings of the R&R hall of fame, but yeah, he wasn't invited to the induction ceremony. i imagine he's listed as a member somewhere in there?

the RRHF website doesn't list band members.

sometimes these things are victims of band politics. i wonder if lou was not OK with doug being invited? or something similarly petty?

might've just been that the "band" at that point (ie the one that had recently reunited) was reed, morrison, cale and tucker...
from upthread
1-I’m not mad at the world for undervaluing my contributions. More the opposite, I’m constantly amazed at the over emphasizing of the VU.

2-I’m not mad that I wasn’t invited to the R&R Hall of Fame. I like David Bowie’s comment that it’s an inappropriate institution for Rock and Roll. Beyond that, the Hall of Fame is really just a money making venture for someone, one more productification of art and effort, one more exploitation of childishly naive musical hopefuls, wannabees and usedtabees.

1-I’m not mad at the world for undervaluing my contributions. More the opposite, I’m constantly amazed at the over emphasizing of the VU.

that's kind of sad. on the one hand he insists that he bears no sour grapes. on the other hand, he proves the opposite.

ha, well i'm listening to the second fret show released w/ the Loaded box set and i can imagine, if i were in the band, being bewildered that anyone would want to listen to such a lo-fi tape of such a weird show (much less that a major record label would release it!)

http://www.dougyule.com/

dunno, he sounds pretty distinctive on Loaded to me (i may have confused the two of them on "she's my best friend" from VU at first). i imagine Lou was pretty much telling him how to sing though.

More likely he was just trying to sound a bit like Lou, as you point out in your article he was pretty much an inexperienced kid in comparison to the rest of the band. He sounded a lot less like Lou (allliteration, that's how poets are) on "Squeeze".

haha there's the famous story of David Bowie meeting Yule in 1970 or so and spending an hour thinking he was finally talking to his hero Lou Reed.
and later in the 70s Yule subbed for Lou at a show (in New Zealand i think?) when Lou was too wasted to go on, and apparently fooled a fair amount of the crowd.

I never confused Yule for Reed – the voice was too damn high and sweet, especially on stuff like "New Age" (maybe Reed should've sung that one).

His voice had a sort of blank quality which suited songs like "Candy Says" (especially) and "New Age", pleasing avoidance of over-emoting. I'm sure I've said it before but I think of him as the Richie Furay the Velvet Underground.

... of the Velvet Underground.

Oh c'mon!

I mistook Doug for Freddie and the Dreamers on "Who loves the Sun", not Lou.

btw thread title is a false dichotomy. clearly he is both.

Took me years to figure out that Yule sang "Candy Says" etc, largely because he does Lou's "Sunday Morning" voice.

yeah for years I had no idea Doug sang anything, although now their differences are quite noticeable - Doug's voice doesn't have the sharp edge that Lou's does.

this reminds me of an essay in which Dave Marsh discussed Steely Dan's "Do It Again" and wondered at how well David Palmer managed to imitate Donald Fagen's cadences.

"that's kind of sad. on the one hand he insists that he bears no sour grapes. on the other hand, he proves the opposite."

how is that sour grapes? i mean, do you think anything when you were 19 years old was the most amazing thing ever? that's like actually believing high school was the best years of your life levels of sad.

https://darrenhayman.bandcamp.com/track/doug-yules-velvet-underground

That box set, reviewed in song.

I like Hefner a lot, but that song is horrible. A few years ago this bunch of Italians did an amazing tribute to VU (probably the best one out there) and included "Little Jack" without comment, which makes me very happy. It's easily one of the best songs on the compilation, so fuck you Lou Reed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgQ3rcVHrGc

"little jack" is definitely the standout

Cool piece, Tyler!

Loaded was the first album I got into and I was totally confused abt who sang - initially figured it must be Cale (who I didn't know at the time) but then read that Lou sang lead in vu and theorized he had a kind of weird and bright voice in the 60s... I now realize it was Doug all along!

Doug "Gepetto" Yule

http://www.dougyule.com/uploads/images/day1.jpg

Lol

This thread has taught me that Yule sang lead on "Candy Says". I always thought it was Reed.

Still amazed anyone thought this, but hey.

yeah! "Candy Says" does not sound like Lou to me at all.
but i can actually understand wondering if it was actually Lou singing on some of the first VU record ... when I first heard it as a kid, the only other Lou I knew was New York, so when I put "Sunday Morning" on I did think at first that maybe it was this John Cale fella singing. But I was a liner note devourer in my youth, so I got sorted pretty quick.

you can hear what Lou sounds like singing "Candy Says" here: http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2014/10/30/the-velvet-underground-candy-says-boston-dec-12-1968/
think it's one of the only times he attempted it.

At the beginning thought it was all Lou singing since I didn't know any better, except for obvious Cale on WL/WH. Figured he was young and could still sing sweetly when needed. Also when I first started listening to the Beatles as a bairn, couldn't tell their voices apart either.

No, that's Doug, not Lou singing--
--SWEETLY

This is one of my favorite thread titles.

yeah, for a long time i also though it was lou singing on stuff like candy says and who loves the sun. it might seem obvious in retrospect that it's not his voice, but a lot of people start listening to velvet underground without knowing that doug yule was ever involved in the first place. plus, candy says/who loves the sun are both the leadoff tracks on albums that are a lot of people's introductions to VU, so you just kind of assume it's lou singing at first.

it's definitely odd - generally accepted that Lou kicked Cale out of the band so he could have more control over things ... but then he hands off the lead tracks of the next two albums to the new kid. maybe that's the *ultimate* control.

Right! Somehow of a piece with inducting Official Band Enemy Number One into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

i never knew Yule sang on Loaded for years, i thought it was Lou trying for a mannered kinda softness in his vocals.

I had no idea Reed inducted Zappa, that's pretty funny. Given the Havel nameczech (sorry) in the speech I wonder if that was the common point of reference that softened things

Doug had to take over some of the Loaded songs because Lou kept blowing his voice out during the concurrent to the sessions Max's residency.

yule never know

This is one of my favorite thread titles.