| Squeeze | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by The Velvet Underground | ||||
| Released | February 1973 | |||
| Recorded | 1972 in London, England, United Kingdom | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 33:30 | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Polydor | |||
| Producer | The Velvet Underground | |||
| The Velvet Underground chronology | ||||
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Squeeze is the fifth and final studio album to be released under the Velvet Underground name. It was primarily written and recorded by singer-guitarist Doug Yule in a London recording studio, following the departures of Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison. Drummer Maureen Tucker, while still technically a member of the band at this time, was not involved in the recording, reportedly due to cost-cutting measures.
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The Velvet Underground, which at that time consisted of Doug Yule (vocals/guitar), Willie Alexander (keyboards/vocals), Walter Powers (bass guitar) and Maureen Tucker (drums), had toured the United Kingdom and The Netherlands in October and November 1971 to support its latest album, Loaded, which had been written and recorded when Lou Reed was in the band, and which had seen a European release in March 1970. The plan was to record a second and final album for their record company, Atlantic Records, afterwards,[1] but Atlantic had lost faith and decided to issue an archive recording from 1970 featuring Lou Reed, Live at Max's Kansas City, instead.[2]
After the tour, band manager Steve Sesnick managed to get a recording deal with Polydor UK to record a final Velvet Underground album. Alexander, Powers and Tucker were sent back to the United States by Sesnick, however, presumably for him to retain maximum control over the finished product.[3] Thus, although Squeeze was released nominally as a Velvet Underground album, Yule was the only Velvet to actually perform on it. Yule later said, "I don’t think Moe [Tucker] would have been expensive in money, but too costly in terms of 'management', meaning that she didn’t take a lot of bullshit and would have taken a lot of 'handling' on Sesnick's part."[4] Yule also recalled that the album "was done with just me. All the basic tracks were laid down with drums and me. Ian Paice of Deep Purple played the drums. So he and I would lay down a track. How much interplay can you have when all it is one guitar or a piano? You can hear that, it's kind of dead. I think you get more when you have 3 or 4 people playing together, they feed off each other, they work together and something comes out of it, it's bigger."[5]
The eleven songs that make up Squeeze were written by Yule and recorded with the help of Ian Paice, with additional occasional saxophone and backing singer assistance. They range from Beatles-like whimsy ("Crash") via pop to typical 70s rock ("Mean Old Man"). Yule later recalled, "I remember sitting on a plane writing extensive notes on the mixing of the album...I sent it to Steve and none of my suggestions were taken, I'm sure he didn't even read it. He mixed it for the best possible commercial success...It's really embarrassing...I gave what I had at the time. There are parts of it I hate and parts I don't. But if I had to do it over again, it would be a completely different album, with different people and have nothing to do with Sesnick."[6]
| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
Squeeze was recorded in the autumn of 1972 and released in the United Kingdom, France, Germany (all 1973) and Spain (1974).[7] No singles were taken off it and the album did not chart. Yule assembled a backing band consisting of Rob Norris (guitar), George Kay (bass guitar) and Mark Nauseef (drums) to tour the United Kingdom in November and December 1972 to promote the upcoming album; a live recording from this tour is included on the 2001 live box set Final V.U. 1971-1973. After the tour, during which they were deserted by Sesnick, Yule also called it quits, bringing the Velvet Underground to an end.[8]
Squeeze saw a number of re-issues in France during the 1970s and early 1980s. It has been out of print since, and has not been issued on compact disc. The status of Squeeze in the Velvet Underground's recorded canon is generally regarded as dubious. In the early Seventies, the NME Book of Rock counted it as "a Velvet Underground album in name only".[2] The 1995 CD boxed set Peel Slowly and See includes the four studio albums from the Lou Reed era of the band, but excludes Squeeze; in the liner notes, David Fricke dismisses it as "an embarrassment to the VU discography." Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine says "it doesn’t just ride the coattails of VU’s legacy but deliberately co-opts their achievement -- but it’s listenable, something its reputation never suggests."[1]
In 1995, Yule described the recording of Squeeze being "like the blind leading the blind, me leading myself. That's what came out of it, I don't even have a copy of it. But it's kind of a nice memory for me and kind of an embarrassment at the same time. I wish I had my eyes wider open, but it was nice to get my name and my songs out there."[9]
All songs written by Doug Yule.
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