The documentary briefly, but fervently, touches on the battle of the bands, but it exposes a larger gap between the Atlantic and Pacific. “Even if they are both bands and artists who are experimenting and drawing from all kinds of unorthodox traditions and music, and trying to fold that into what’s possible in rock and roll,” he says. Lou Reed’s songs were populated by society’s outsiders, John Cale and Zappa both drank from the well of the Avant Garde sounds of music concrete, and John Cage. Both bands had serious musicians with classical backgrounds. ![]() Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention had more in common with the Velvet Underground than other California bands. ![]() The feud might not make sense on the surface. “But this is entirely the history, this is well documented.” “This comes from them, this doesn’t come from me,” Todd Haynes tells Den of Geek. When The Velvet Underground were playing Los Angeles in 1966 as part of Andy Warhol’s art collective, The Exploding Plastic Inevitable, they ran afoul Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. This disconnect is glaringly featured in a segment about the band’s first trip to California. While much of the youth of the Aquarius age wanted to let the sunshine in, the band preferred to close the door, so they’d never have to see the day again. Frustrated by elusive commercial success the leader of one of the most decadent bands in history bailed out and went home to live with his parents, before re-emerging a couple of years later to solo superstardom.In The Velvet Underground, director Todd Haynes expertly captures the outsider quality of the titular band. But despite containing some of Reed’s greatest compositions the hits did not materialise. What is most evident throughout Loaded, and in contrast with the more primitive quality of their earlier (albeit more influential) recordings, is this band can really play. ![]() ![]() Again the half ends with a stadium-like anthem, the beautiful epic Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ with multi-instrumentalist Doug Yule’s lovely bass lines, and his brother Billy’s scatter gun drumming. The power subsides slightly on “side two” with the country rocker Lonesome Cowboy Bill, a pretty ballad I Found a Reason, and Train Round the Bend which is more characteristic of the Velvets’ earlier sound with Reed yearning for a return to the neon lights of the city. Something’s got a hold of me, but I don’t know what. The first half ends with the anthemic New Age that builds gradually to a thrilling singalong climax: The next three songs roll into each other almost indistinguishably - each a classic of efficient straight forward rock with infectious hooks and great lyrics: Sweet Jane (arguably Reed’s greatest ever song) Rock and Roll (“her life was saved by Rock and Roll!”) and Cool it Down (“she’s got the power, to love me by the hour!”). She’s got the power, to love me by the hour! The change in style is evident immediately on Who Loves the Sun which is so reminiscent of the hippie pop coming out of California in the late 60s (and ironically the complete antithesis of early Velvet Underground) that somewhere there must be undiscovered kaleidoscope video footage of the band performing this single in flower shirts standing on circular podiums.
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