Doug Yule
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| Doug Yule | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Douglas Alan Yule |
| Born | February 25, 1947 |
| Origin | Long Island, NY, United States |
| Genre(s) | Rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer, songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar, vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, organ, drums |
| Years active | 1960s - c. 1977, c. 1997 - present |
| Associated acts | The Velvet Underground American Flyer Lou Reed |
Douglas Alan Yule (born February 25, 1947) is an American musician and singer, most notable for being a member of The Velvet Underground from 1968 to 1973. Though he is sometimes overlooked in the history of the V.U., Yule was actually in the group longer than founding member John Cale.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early career
Yule began playing with various bands in his college town Boston in the 1960s. In 1968, he was in a band called The Grass Menagerie, along with Walter Powers and Willie Alexander.
[edit] The Velvet Underground
[edit] 1968-1970
When Lou Reed fired bassist and multi-instrumentalist John Cale from The Velvet Underground in 1968, Yule (who had befriended the band in 1967) joined as Cale's replacement. He made his first studio appearance on their third album, The Velvet Underground (1969), playing bass and organ, as well as singing lead vocals on the ballad "Candy Says". On the fourth album, Loaded (1970), his role became more prominent, singing lead vocals on several songs ("Who Loves The Sun", "New Age", "Lonesome Cowboy Bill", as well as "Oh Sweet Nuthin'", and playing six instruments (including keyboard and drums). Yule's brother, Billy Yule, also joined in on the sessions as a drummer, as Maureen Tucker was pregnant and, therefore, absent for most of the recording.
[edit] 1970-1973
The rivalry between Yule and Reed (plus the tension between the band and manager Steve Sesnick) led to Reed's departure from the Velvet Underground in 1970. Yule, Tucker and Sterling Morrison, however, decided against disbanding the group, and recruited Yule's friend Walter Powers to replace Reed.
However, Morrison soon left in 1971, and was replaced by Willie Alexander on keyboards. The band would tour again, though, by 1972, Tucker and Alexander had also decided to leave. Despite this, Yule went back into the studio in 1973 (this time with Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice and two unknown session musicians) and recorded what would be the final album released under the Velvets banner. Squeeze was both a commercial and critical fiasco, and has since been removed from the official Velvet Underground canon. Yule soon retired the band's name that same year.
[edit] Post-1973
After Squeeze, Yule reunited with Reed, playing with him on tour and on the album Sally Can't Dance (1974), as well as joining the mainstream rock combo American Flyer. He appears on both Velvet Underground live albums released in the 1970s, Live at Max's Kansas City and Live 1969. He guested on an Elliott Murphy album as well. After American Flyer's second album was released in 1977, Doug Yule disappeared from music, becoming a cabinetmaker.
In the mid-1990s, Yule (who had moved to the San Francisco Bay area) returned to public life, giving some interviews and writing an obituary on Sterling Morrison, who died in 1995. He satisfied a lifelong ambition by beginning to play the violin in 1997, began to record again in 1997, and a song called "Beginning To Get It" appeared on the compilation A Place To Call Home in 1998. He played some concerts in 2000, and the live album Live in Seattle was released in Japan in 2002. He also featured on the Moe Tucker live album Moe Rocks Terrastock.
Doug now lives in Seattle WA,with his son Dan, plays old time fiddle and builds violins in Ballard. In 2006, he played bass on a brief tour with The Weisstronauts, a Boston surf-rock group.
[edit] Criticism/Lack of Credit
Though he is generally given less credit than most other Velvet Underground members, Yule played on more studio recordings than either Cale or Nico, and was a major influence on the sound of the albums he contributed to, particularly "Loaded". It is argued that Yule's lead vocals and backing harmonies were a definite strength for the band, and became more prominent in the bands' recordings once Reed's voice became strained from touring. Indeed some fans and rock writers have at times wrongly attributed Yule's contribution on some tracks to John Cale (most notably "What Goes On"), so seamlessly had Yule integrated into the band's setup in 1968. Yule also provided an interesting yin to Reed's yang, with his resemblance as a younger, "cuter" Reed (Reed can be heard referring to Yule as "my brother Doug" on the Live 1969 LP). Despite the supposed animosity between Reed and Yule leading to the disintegration of the Velvets, it must be noted that Yule was the first VU member that Reed invited to play with him post-VU, inviting him to play on the album Sally Can't Dance and tour with him for a year after the album's release. History has revealed that manager Steve Sesnick was probably the most to blame, pitting Yule and Reed against each other during Reed's final year with the Velvets.
However, Reed and Cale blocked him from the Velvet Underground reunion in the early 1990s despite Morrison's wish that he be included (so that Morrison would not have to switch to bass when Cale played viola or keyboards). One can assume this was because Yule released his own work under the Velvet's name in 1973 (Squeeze). The reunion's cementing of Reed-Cale-Morrison-Tucker as "the" Velvets is probably the main reason Yule was excluded from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when the Velvets were inducted in 1996.
[edit] Discography
[edit] As a member of The Velvet Underground
- The Velvet Underground (1969)
- Loaded (1970)
- Live at Max's Kansas City (1972)
- Squeeze (1973)
- 1969: The Velvet Underground Live (1974)
- VU (outtakes compilation, 1985 [1968-1969])
- Another View (outtakes compilation, 1986 [1967-1969])
- Chronicles (1991)
- Peel Slowly and See (box set, 1995 [1965-1970])
- Final V.U. 1971-1973 (live box set, 2001 [1971-1973])
- Bootleg Series Volume 1: The Quine Tapes (live, 2001 [1969])
- The Very Best of the Velvet Underground (best of, 2003 [1966-1970])
[edit] With Lou Reed
- Sally Can't Dance (1974)
[edit] With Elliott Murphy
- Night Lights (1976)
[edit] As a member of American Flyer
- American Flyer (1976)
- Spirit of a Woman (1977)
[edit] Solo
- Live in Seattle (2002)
[edit] External links
- Doug Yule - fansite
- Velvet Underground Squeeze - essay about the later, Yule-led days of the Velvet Underground and their final album
- Doug Yule Interview - from 1994
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