"Who Loves the Sun" (1970)

In yesterday's post I spoke of Lou Reed as a simple songwriter, the proverbial poet who picked up a guitar and, like Leonard Cohen, made something more (and less) of his words.

What makes Reed's songs more resonant, more memorable, is his band, the Velvet Underground, a band that features John Cale, who, like the Rolling Stones's Brian Jones, is a brilliant colourist; as well as Nico, a vocal interpreter who, at the insistence of the band's first producer, Andy Warhol, allows a selection of Reed's songs their melancholic heart.

But there is another singer in the Velvet Underground, a multi-instrumentalist named Doug Yule, who took over from Reed after Reed left the band in August of 1970.

The song above, selected on the occasion of a bright sunny morning after a Saturday of rain, is a Reed composition, but sung by Yule, who, I believe, is also the author of the four-bar instrumental break (1:57) that enters this song like a meteor crashing to earth.