Lou Reed’s last concert with Velvet Underground

At the beginning of 1970, Lou Reed he already had a foot outside the Velvet Underground. At his devolving, it must be said that the band had been dissolving a piece by piece for several years. The manufacturer/manager Andy Warhol It was fired by Reed after a single album together, their 1967 debut, “The Velvet Underground & Nico” (Read the review here). In turn, Nico He left the band, followed by the co-founder John Cale In 1968, after participating in the construction of the band’s second album, “White Light/White Heat”. In 1970, the band’s main members were Reed, the guitarist Sterling Morrisonthe drummer Moe Tucker and the bass player/multi -instrumentalist Doug Yule.

This went well for the band’s third album, “Loaded”the tucker did not contribute much: it was on maternity, and let its parts be recorded by Session Man. Morrison was also busy, divided between the study and completion of university studies in New York. But Reed was already tired before the album release in November 1970. The final mixing was in fact completed without him.

In 2004 speaking with Classic Rock he explained: “The drop that made the vase overflows much earlier. It was only a terrible thing with the manager. When the manager feels more important than the artist, or he is in competition with the artist. It is always a bad situation. You know, the manager has an apartment and the artist sleeps on the floor near the fireplace like a shepherd dog.”

The reference was a Steve Sesnickwho according to Reed had created “a fracture” to himself and Yule during the realization of “Loaded”. Nonetheless, the band’s record label was enthusiastic about the new album: they thought that “Sweet Jane” He had a good potential to be a radio success, Reed was not interested in this thing. “I was not suitable for that place. I didn’t want to be part of a national successful pop group with a sequel.”

The situation reached the culmination in August 1970. After about two months of residence at the Max’s Kansas City in New York, Reed played his last concert with the
Velvet Underground
on August 23. Ironically, the concert was recorded on a tape by a friend of Warhol named
Brigid Polk
and transformed into a 1972 album entitled
“Live at Max’s Kansas City”
. Lou returned to his parents’ house in Long Island, found work as a dictilographer in his father’s company and began writing poems instead of songs.

At the US magazine Rolling Stone in 1989 confided: “When I left Velvet underground, I brought the suitcases. I had enough. So I did the typery for two years. My mother when I was at high school always said to me: ‘You should learn the dictitimate. He gives you a reference point’. He was right.”

In an interview from 2013
Lou Reed
He said: “They said that I would never write anything good like ‘Heroin’. Then they said that if I had left the Velvet underground, I would never have been good as I had been to the Velvet underground.” Of course, Reed showed that they were wrong, in particular with
“Transformer”
(
Read the review here
) of 1972, an album of great influence in the world of glam rock. Reed would return to the
Velvet Underground
With Tucker, Cale and Morrison in the early 90s for a tour that eventually ended with another break.

After his last performance with the
Velvet Underground
In 1970, Reed thought about his future in music. He said to Rolling Stone, “Did I want to do it alone? I wanted to have a band? I just wanted to write songs, without even getting on stage? I am the last person in the world that I would ever have thought to get on a stage. Some really like to be in the spotlight. I don’t. What I like is the song and interpret it.