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Doug Yule

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Wikipedia

Douglas Alan Yule (born February 25, 1947) is an American musician and singer, most notable 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.

The Velvet Underground

1968-1970

When Lou Reed fired bassist and multi-instrumentalist John Cale from The Velvet Underground in 1968, Yule (who had befriended the band in 1967) joined as Cale's replacement. He made his first studio appearance on their third album, The Velvet Underground (1969), playing bass and organ, as well as singing lead vocals on the ballad "Candy Says". On the fourth album, Loaded (1970), his role became more prominent, singing lead vocals on several songs ("Who Loves The Sun", "New Age", "Lonesome Cowboy Bill", and "Oh Sweet Nuthin'", and playing six instruments (including keyboard and drums). Yule's brother, Billy, also joined in on the sessions as a drummer, as Maureen Tucker was pregnant and, therefore, absent for most of the recording.

1970-1973

The rivalry between Yule and Reed (plus the tension between the band and manager Steve Sesnick) led to Reed's departure from the Velvet Underground in 1970. Yule, Tucker and Sterling Morrison, however, decided against disbanding the group, and recruited Yule's friend Walter Powers to replace Reed.

However, Morrison soon left in 1971, and was replaced by Willie Alexander on keyboards. The band would tour again, though, by 1972, Tucker and Alexander had also decided to leave. Despite this, Yule went back into the studio in 1973 (this time with Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice and two unknown session musicians) and recorded what would be the final album released under the Velvets banner. Squeeze was both a commercial and critical fiasco, and has since been removed from the official Velvet Underground canon. Yule soon retired the band's name that same year.

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 Elliott Murphy album as well. After American Flyer's second album was released in 1977, Yule retired 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 an obituary for Sterling Morrison, who died in 1995. He took up the violin and began to record again in 1997. 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. He also featured on the Moe Tucker live album Moe Rocks Terrastock.

However, Reed and Cale blocked him from the Velvet Underground reunion in the early 1990s despite Morrison's wish that he be included. Yule was excluded from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when the Velvets were inducted in 1996.

Personal life

Yule lives in Seattle, Washington, with his son Dan. He plays fiddle and builds violins in Ballard. In 2006, he played bass on a brief tour with The Weisstronauts, a Boston surf-rock group.