Doug Yule
Douglas 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.
Biography
Early career
Yule began playing with various bands in his native Boston in the 1960s. In 1968, 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 was from New York, but found Boston more welcoming, and played there often. 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 technically 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 rivalry between Yule and Reed.
Taking over the Velvet Underground
The rivalry (plus the machinations of manager Steve Sesnick, who pushed Reed to "put on a show" against his better nature), led to Reed's leaving the Velvet Underground during 1970, just as rivalry between Reed and John Cale had led to Cale's exit two years earlier. Yule, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker (who was briefly replaced by Yule's teenaged 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 Willie Alexander on keyboards, 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 disappeared from the Velvet Underground discography.Yule continued to play with a band called the Velvet Underground until May 1973, when he chose to disband them for good.
Post-1973
After ''Squeeze'', Yule reunited 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, becoming a cabinetmaker.In the mid-1990s, Yule (who had moved to the San Francisco Bay area) returned to public life, giving some interviews and writing a obituary on Sterling Morrison, who died in 1995. He resumed the violin studies he'd abandoned in his teens, 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 concerts in 2000, and the live album ''Live in Seattle'' was released in Japan in 2002.