Judging from the oft-bootlegged tape of the La Cave set, Yule delivered on all accounts, slipping easily from a vicious 'Move Right In' to a startlingly beautiful 'Jesus' and harmonizing beautifully with Reed on the latter. Performing them convincingly is something else entirely, requiring fluidity, flexibility, and, most importantly, a sense of adventure. Now, as any of the thousands of garage bands who have covered the VU know, the songs themselves are not terribly complicated (Reed's famous quote: 'One chord is fine. The 21-year-old's first public outing with the band took place at the tiny La Cave club in Cleveland (where the Velvets had performed the legendary 'Sweet Sister Ray' earlier that year). 2, 1968 _ Yule joined the Velvets immediately following Cale's departure in late September of 1968, and was almost immediately thrown into the deep end. (As it stands, you can check Squeeze out for yourself on Spotify). But it's not quite as bad as some say-and had it been released as a Doug Yule solo LP (he played everything on it except drums, after all), it might be enjoying a renaissance right now, perhaps being reissued by a tastemaking label like Light in the Attic with reviews reassessing its low-key charms. Squeeze is not a great album, by any stretch of the imagination. Pretty much no one is John Cale, a Welsh coal miner's son, genius multi-instrumentalist, and fearless boundary-pusher whose solo career rivaled Reed's over the decades.

The first charge is easy enough to counter. Yule is responsible for the existence of Squeeze, the in-name-only Velvet Underground LP recorded long after Reed, Morrison, and drummer Maureen Tucker had jumped ship. Doug Yule is not John Cale, who co-founded the band with Reed and guitarist Sterling Morrison in 1965 and was forced out due to irreconcilable differences in 1968.

The velvet underground rock and roll