The Velvet Underground – Loaded (1970)

“Loaded is the fourth studio album by American rock band the Velvet Underground, released in November 1970 by Atlantic Records‘ subsidiary label Cotillion. Despite having a number of singles originate from it, the album itself failed to chart. It was the final album recorded featuring founding member and main songwriter Lou Reed, who left shortly before its release. Other founding members Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker would leave in 1971. … Loaded was a commercial effort aimed at radio play, and the album’s title refers to Atlantic’s request that the band produce an album ‘loaded with hits’, with a double meaning about the word ‘loaded’, that can also mean ‘full of drugs’ or ‘really high on drugs’. Singer/bassist Doug Yule said, ‘On Loaded there was a big push to produce a hit single, there was that mentality, which one of these is a single, how does it sound when we cut it down to 3.5 minutes, so that was a major topic for the group at that point. And I think that the third album to a great extent shows a lot of that in that a lot of those songs were designed as singles and if you listen to them you can hear the derivation, like this is sort of a Phil Spector-ish kind of song, or this is that type of person song.’ Reed was critical of the album’s final mix. He left the Velvet Underground on August 23, 1970, but Loaded was not released until three months later, in November. After its release, Reed maintained in interviews that it had been re-edited and resequenced without his consent. One of Reed’s sore points resulting from that unauthorized re-editing was that the ‘heavenly wine and roses’ melody was cut out of ‘Sweet Jane‘. In the original recording, this part was intended to provide a perfectly flowing bridge to a full-fledged plagal cadence two-chord version of the chorus (earlier choruses in the song have a 4-chord riff). In Reed’s initial solo performances, he would include the verse (see for instance American Poet), until 1973, when he would routinely leave it out, as the bridge fits less well in a more hard rock version (as heard for instance on Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal). However, the post-Reed, Yule-led band always performed the song with the verse included. A career-spanning retrospective of Reed’s recordings with the Velvet Underground and as a solo artist, NYC Man (The Ultimate Collection 1967–2003), which Reed compiled himself, uses the shorter version. …”
Wikipedia
In a Rock & Roll Band: The Velvet Underground’s ‘Loaded’ at 50 (Audio), Spotify (Audio)
Loaded: Re-Loaded 45th Anniversary Edition
Discogs (Video), Discos – Loaded: Re-Loaded 45th Anniversary Edition
amazon: Loaded (Remastered), Loaded: Re-Loaded 45th Anniversary Edition (5CD/1DVD)

1970: Sterling Morrison, Lou Reed, Moe Tucker and Doug Yule