Velvet Underground "Loaded"

[Taverner]

I remember hearing bits and pieces of this album over time. I remember first hearing "Rock and Roll" on a Rock Station out of Reno in 1986. Back then, there was no "classic rock" - there was just rock, and top 40, classical, country, jazz, and several shades of elevator music.

I heard "Sweet Jane" first not by VU, but by the Cowboy Junkies. That album still manages to haunt me.

Bits and pieces - until I finally went out and bought the album in 1994 or so.

Wow - what an album. Every single song on it is great. Yeah Lou Reed hated it. Yeah, Doug Yule put his prints on it. But shit, so did Mo Tucker, Sterling and even John Cale for that matter.

From "Who Loves the Sun" to "Oh! Sweet Nuthin" every single song, every single note - is just fucking inspired.

And now I sit here, playing this album, in a dark mood, with dark foreboding clouds outside. And I sit and enjoy life.

I'm still here

That, alone, is a testament to something. God knows what - but it is not without meaning.