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Doug YuleDouglas Alan Yule (born February 25, 1947) is an American rock and roll musician (bass guitar, organ, guitar and drums as well as singing), famous for being a member of The Velvet Underground from 1968 to 1973. He is the brother of Billy Yule. Biography Early career Yule began playing with various bands in his native Boston in the 1960s. In1968, he was in a band called The Grass Menagerie, along with Walter Powers and Willie Alexander. In 1967, he met The Velvet Underground for the first time. The band had recently moved from New York to Boston. Doug Yule became a friend of the band, but he was no big fan of their music. Joining the Velvet Underground When Lou Reed fired bass player and multi-instrumentalist John Cale from The Velvet Underground in 1968, Yule joined as Cale's replacement, playing his first gig with the Velvets at October 4. He appeared at the third Velvet Underground album, The Velvet Underground (1969), on which he sang lead vocals on the ballad "Candy Says". Yule, a techically good pop musician, fit well into Reed's new, more poppy Velvet Underground. On the fourth album, Loaded (1970), Yule's role was more prominent. He sang lead vocal on the songs "Who Loves the Sun", "New Age", "Lonesome Cowboy Bill" and "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'", was credited playing six instruments and was even listed above Reed on the credits at the sleeve - leading to a rivalisation between Yule and Reed. Taking over the Velvet Underground The rivalisation led to Reed exiting the Velvet Underground, just like rivalisation between Reed and John Cale had led to Cale exiting two years earlier, in 1970. Yule, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker (who was partly replaced by Yule's brother Billy Yule due to pregnancy) decided not to disband the group, and recruited Yule's friend Walter Powers to replace Reed. However, Morrison left the group in 1971, leaving total control of the Velvets to Yule. Morrison was replaced by keyboard player Willie Alexander, and the band went on tour. By late 1972, the band was practically Yule alone, and he went in the studio with Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice and two unidentified session musicians to record a last Velvet Underground album. The album, Squeeze, released in 1973, could be considered a Yule solo album - he wrote all the songs, sang them and played most instruments. The album became a fiasco, both commercial and critically, and has all but disapperead from the Velvet Underground discography. Yule continued to play with a band called the Velvet Underground until May 1973, when he chose to disband the band for good. Post-1973 After Squeeze, Yule re-united 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 Elliot Murphy album as well. After American Flyer's second album was released in 1977, Doug Yule disappeared from music. In the mid-1990s, Yule (who had moved to the San Francisco Bay area) returned to public, giving some interviews and writing a necrology on Sterling Morrison, who died in 1995. He 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 concert in 2000, and the live album Live in Seattle was released in Japan in 2002. Being discredited as a Velvet Underground member Of all the six main members of the Velvet Underground (Yule, Reed, Cale, Morrison, Tucker, and Nico), Yule is the one given less credits. The reasons may be that he didn't play on their classic debut album, plus the fact that Squeeze is so hated. However, Yule played on more Velvet recordings that both Cale and Nico did, and he was an important figure for the sound on the albums he appeared on. Yule was not included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when the Velvets was inducted, and he didn't join their reunion in the early 1990s. Squeeze is rarely counted as a "real" Velvet Underground album, many VU biographies do not mention it at all, and few newer reviews of it do actually say anything about the quality, just that is isn't a proper VU album. To quote Yule, he has become "Lou's evil twin". Discography As a member of The Velvet Underground With Lou Reed As a member of American Flyer Solo External links Yule, Doug Yule, Doug Yule, Doug Yule, Doug Yule, Doug Yule, Doug Yule, Doug Yule, Doug Yule, Doug
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