The Velvet Underground

After Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison quit the band, it carried on for a time with Doug Yule becoming the frontman on vocals and guitar. Moe Tucker also stayed with the band after her return from parental leave and they were joined by a new bassist and keyboardist. This lineup toured the Loaded album around parts of North America and Europe in 1971. A fifth studio album was released for a UK record label under the Velvet Underground name: 1973's Squeeze. All members bar Doug Yule were sent back to the United States in 1972 and Yule recorded all parts except the drums by Deep Purple's Ian Paice, saxophone by someone called Malcolm and some unidentified female backing vocals. Recording the album as essentially a Doug Yule solo effort was at the instruction of manager Steve Seswick, who had earlier brought Yule to the band and had long pushed for the Velvets to adopt a more commercial style with Yule at its centre. Yule himself was displeased at Seswick's control of the process. While Yule had been a significant creative force, albeit secondary to Lou Reed, on the celebrated Loaded album, Squeeze is much-maligned. It received terrible reviews, though it has gained some appreciators over the years. It is typically considered a Velvets record in name only. At around the same time as the official Velvet Underground were being reduced to Seswick's Doug Yule project, Lou Reed, John Cale and Nico had also been in Europe for a reunion performance in Paris in 1972, which was bootlegged and eventually released under the name Le Bataclan '72. Footage from this reunion performance is included in this film.

Features Pierrette I (1924)