The Velvet Underground’s ‘Loaded’ set for nine LP vinyl reissue

A limited edition vinyl reissue of The Velvet Underground‘s ‘Loaded’ has been announced.

• READ MORE: The Velvet Underground review – revisionist doc reworks narrative of New York rock and rollers

‘Loaded (Fully Re-loaded Edition)’ is a new vinyl box set that includes nearly all of the music from its expansive 2015 CD reissue but comes with nine LPs boasting stereo, mono and “full-length” mixes of the original album.

Demos, studio outtakes and live recordings also feature in the box set and several tracks will be available on vinyl for the first time.

The £250 box set is available to pre-order here exclusively via Dig! ahead of its March 24 release. It’s limited to just 1,970 copies.

‘Loaded (Fully Re-loaded Edition)’comes in a deluxe, foil-wrapped slipcase containing the vinyl, a poster of the album’s cover art, and an illustrated booklet with liner notes by Lenny Kaye that appeared in ‘Loaded: Re-Loaded 45th Anniversary Edition’.

In addition to the nine LPs, the set also comes with four 7″s that reproduce the official singles and B-sides released from ‘Loaded’.

The songs ‘Rock & Roll’ and ‘Who Loves The Sun’ both come in the generic record sleeves used at the time by Cotillion, the band’s label. The former is being reissued for the first time ever because the original release was cancelled in 1970, while the latter is being reissued for the first time since 1970. The other two singles come in picture sleeves originally released in Europe: ‘Head Held High’ in France and ‘Sweet Jane’ in Germany.

‘Loaded (Fully Re-loaded Edition’ opens with three different versions of the original studio album: remastered stereo and mono mixes, plus a “full-length” version featuring extended takes of ‘Sweet Jane’, ‘Rock & Roll’ and ‘New Age’.

Early versions of ‘Oh! Sweet Nuthin” and ‘Lonesome Cowboy Bill’ as well as alternate mixes for ‘Rock & Roll’ and ‘Train ’Round The Bend’ feature, as do songs that eventually appeared on frontman Lou Reed’s 1972 solo debut (early versions of ‘Ocean’, ‘I Love You’ and ‘Ride Into The Sun’).

Those studio recordings are bolstered by a selection of live performances recorded before ‘Loaded’ was released in November 1970, including a show at Second Fret in Philadelphia in May 1970.

A fan, Bob Kachnycz, who hitchhiked to the gig recorded it on reel-to-reel as The Velvet Underground played just as a trio that night: Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison. and Doug Yule. The three bandmembers alternated between bass and drums to fill in for Moe Tucker, who was pregnant at the time. The show recording is available for the first time ever on vinyl and uncovers early performances of several songs destined for the album: ‘Cool It Down’, ‘Rock & Roll’ and ‘New Age’.

Meanwhile, the second performance was recorded in New York City at Max’s Kansas City nightclub on August 23, 1970, the day that Reed left The Velvet Underground.

Several songs from the show were released in 1972 as the live album, ‘Live At Max’s Kansas City’. In 2004, Rhino released a remastered version of the live album that was expanded to include both sets the band played that night.

Featured on two LPs in the new collection, the recordings touch on all the band’s past albums with live versions of ‘I’m Waiting For The Man,’, ‘White Light/White Heat’, ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ and ‘Sweet Jane’.

‘Loaded (Fully Re-loaded Edition)’ tracklist / *marks vinyl debut:

Loaded: Original Album (remastered):

Side one:

‘Who Loves The Sun’
‘Sweet Jane’
‘Rock & Roll’
‘Cool It Down’
‘New Age’

Side two:

‘Head Held High’
‘Lonesome Cowboy Bill’
‘I Found A Reason’
‘Train ‘Round The Bend’
‘Oh! Sweet Nuthin”

Loaded: Promotional Mono Version (remastered)”

Side one:

‘Who Loves The Sun’
‘Sweet Jane’
‘Rock & Roll’
‘Cool It Down’
‘New Age’

Side two:

‘Head Held High’
‘Lonesome Cowboy Bill’
‘I Found A Reason’
‘Train ’round The Bend’
‘Oh! Sweet Nuthin”

Loaded: Full-length version (remastered):

Side one:

‘Who Loves The Sun’
‘Sweet Jane’ – Full-length version*
‘Rock & Roll’ – Full-length version*
‘Cool It Down’
‘New Age’ – Full-length version*

Side two:

‘Head Held High’
‘Lonesome Cowboy Bill’
‘I Found A Reason’
‘Train ‘Round The Bend’
‘Oh! Sweet Nuthin”

Loaded – Fully loaded version (remastered)

Side one:

‘Ride Into The Sun’ – Session outtake*
‘Ocean’ – Session outtake*
‘I Love You’ – Session outtake*
‘I’m Sticking With You’ – Session outtake*
‘Rock & Roll’ – Demo*
‘Sad Song’ – Demo*

Side two:

‘I Found A Reason’ – Demo*
‘Satellite Of Love’ – Demo*
‘Oh Gin’ – Demo*
‘Walk And Talk’ – Demo*
‘Ocean’ – Demo*
‘I Love You’ – Demo*
‘Love Makes You Feel Ten Feet Tall’ – Demo*

Side three:

‘Cool It Down’ – Early version*
‘Sweet Jane’ – Early version*
‘Lonesome Cowboy Bill’ – Early version*
‘Head Held High’ – Early version*
‘Oh! Sweet Nuthin” – Early version*
‘Who Loves The Sun’ – Alternate mix*

Side four:

‘Sweet Jane’ – Alternate mix*
‘Lonesome Cowboy Bill’ – Alternate mix*
‘Train ‘Round The Bend’ – Alternate mix*
‘Cool It Down’ – Alternate mix*
‘Head Held High’ – Alternate mix*
‘Rock & Roll’ – Alternate mix*

Live At Max’s Kansas City: Expanded version (remastered)

Side one:

‘I’m Waiting For The Man’
‘White Light/White Heat’
‘I’m Set Free’
‘Sweet Jane’

Side two:

‘Lonesome Cowboy Bill’
‘New Age’
‘Beginning To See The Light’
‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’

Side three:

‘Pale Blue Eyes’
‘Candy Says’
‘Sunday Morning’
‘After Hours’

Side four:

‘Femme Fatale’
‘Some Kinda Love’
‘Lonesome Cowboy Bill’ – Version two

Live At Second Fret, Philadelphia (1970)

Side one:

‘I’m Waiting For The Man’*
‘What Goes On’*
‘Cool It Down’*

Side two:

‘Sweet Jane’*
‘Rock & Roll’*
‘Some Kinda Love’*

Side three:

‘New Age’*
‘Candy Says’*
‘Head Held High’*

Side four:

‘Train ‘Round The Bend’*
‘Oh! Sweet Nuthin”*

7” singles

‘Head Held High’ b/w ‘Train ‘Round The Bend’ – French picture sleeve
‘Rock & Roll’ b/w ‘Lonesome Cowboy Bill’ – Cotillion sleeve
‘Sweet Jane’ b/w ‘Rock & Roll’ – German picture sleeve
‘Who Loves The Sun’ b/w ‘Oh! Sweet Nuthin” – Cotillion sleeve

Meanwhile, in other The Velvet Underground news, last year the earliest known demo of the band’s song ‘Heroin’ was released.

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