Sweet Jane

The Velvet Underground leader Lou Reed wrote this song as a surreal look at the life of a rock star. Reed included the song in his live sets; it appeared on his album Live at Max's Kansas City in 1972 and on another live album, Rock n Roll Animal, in 1974. The version on Rock n Roll Animal, which was recorded at a New York show on December 21, 1973, features the twin-guitar work of Steven Hunter and Dick Wagner, who Reed employed to rock out his songs on tour. Released as a single, this live version of the song heralded a new sound for Reed, one he quickly abandoned when he fired Hunter and Wagner at the end of the tour and disavowed the album. Reed released his intentionally awful Metal Machine Music album the following year, while his bygone guitarists joined Alice Cooper on tour, with Wagner becoming Cooper's songwriting partner. In our interview with Dick Wagner, he explained: "He claims that he didn't like the Rock n' Roll Animal album, but at the time he sure loved it. A lot of the songs were from the Velvet Underground days, and I wanted to take them out of that placid performance of the songs and make it more for the concert stage and the stadiums, so I did some majestic arranging with some of the songs - that's what I do. Within the context of the band and how to deliver the songs, it really worked. I guess Lou doesn't really like it that much, but that's kind of a lie."

This was Reed's attempt at writing a hit for the Velvet Underground, who were highly influential, but commercially doomed. Loaded was the band's last album, and the title was a reference to the record company mandate that the album be "Loaded with hits." There was a great deal of acrimony during recording of the album, and Reed left before it was finished. In his absence, "Sweet Jane" was edited down, with a wistful coda removed from the song. This angered Reed, who told Rolling Stone magazine that if he knew they were going to press on with the album, "I would have stayed with them and showed them what to do." The full version of the song can be heard on the album Live at Max's Kansas City, recorded in 1969.

This song appears on the album 1969: The Velvet Underground Live, which was released in 1974. This is the double album with the famous gatefold revealing a leggy model in sparkling go-go boots and hot pants showing some can, on a vibrant green background; very sought-after by today's VU collectors. There, "Sweet Jane" has a significantly different chord progression and lyrics; it was still a work-in-progress. Captured on the bootleg recording of Lou Reed's last night performing live with The Velvet Underground, which happened through the tail end of the Loaded sessions, is one Jim Carroll. As told in The Velvet Underground: An Illustrated History of a Walk on the Wild Side, Carroll can be heard ordering a Pernod and discussing the drug Tuinal. Carroll would later write The Basketball Diaries.