Hand me down tuesdaY: March 23rd (VU and Those Darlins) “Lonesome Cowboy Bill”

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Somewhere between the ages of 17 and 18 while I was discovering caffeine, nicotine, and dramamine I also opened my heart to The Velvet Underground.  I can’t remember if the cause of my obsession was sparked by my introduction to “Heroin”  in Oliver Stone’s The Doors or if it was pushed along by the never fading scent of patchouli oil that must’ve spilled on my Maxell II of Phish covering Loaded in 1998.

I’m truly not sure but the latter makes sense for three reasons: 1) I have a terrible habit of starting with a bands’ final album (I exclude Squeeze, the Doug Yule album that used the VU name, because of it limited availability and also because no one knows it) and working backwards.  This can work in some cases; The Beatles (Let it Be), Pavement (Terror Twilight), Whiskeytown (Pneumonia).  But a final album can also detract from further exploration into a bands’ back catalogue (at least temporarily); The Replacements (All Shook Down), Genesis (Phil Collins), The Beach Boys (Kokomo), The Grateful Dead (Built to Last)

2) From start to finish, Loaded was my favorite album for at least one year.  Like a tool, I used to conceal a copy of Catcher in the Rye in my back pocket with the cd booklet of The Velvet Underground’s Loaded as a bookmark.  I love(d) it for it’s incredible songwriting, great pacing, and like all other real VU albums, Lou Reed.  I played it nearly every morning.  I remember how the 1-2-3 lineup of “Who Loves the Sun,” “Sweet Jane,” and “Rock and Roll,”  would raise the sun and shine through my bedroom’s dusty blinds melting away the snow, frustration, and residual heartache that nearly every teenage boy bathes in.  Those three tracks also encapsulate their entire musical output by perfectly melding their influential pop sensibilities that can be found all over The Velvet Underground and Nico and The Velvet Underground, and the obscure nature that bleeds all over their first album and most profoundly on White Light/White Heat. Mixed in for great measure and are more dramatic numbers such (“I Found a Reason” “New Age” “Oh Sweet Nuthin”) that really round the album off and help keep it’s musical sanity in check.

3) Lonesome Cowboy Bill

MP3: Lonesome Cowboy Bill- The Velvet Underground

MP3: Lonesome Cowboy Bill-Those Darlins

*By far one of my favorite tracks ever.  Not too frantic but not too tamed either.  Guaranteed to be in your head all day and have others that don’t know the song scratching their heads while you wail the chorus. Those Darlins rip roar through this track and give it a new life.   Here is an amazing live performance with not so good sound.   I guess you’ll need to check them out if you wanna better version;) Happy tuesdaY!