Doug Yule
| Doug Yule | |
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Yule in 2009
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Douglas Alan Yule |
| Born |
February 25, 1947 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
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| Gibson EB-3 | |
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.
Doug Yule was born in Mineola, New York, and grew up in Great Neck with five sisters and a younger brother. As a child he took piano and baritone horn lessons. He later said in an interview that he would have preferred violin lessons, but the violin had to be rented and the baritone horn was available free of charge. In high school he played the tuba, as well as the guitar and the banjo, and sang in the church choir.
In 1965–1966 he attended Boston University, where he studied acting. In Boston he met Walter Powers and Willie Alexander of the Grass Managerie. In 1966 and 1967 he played with the Grass Managerie and other bands in Boston, New York, and California.
Yule first met the Velvet Underground at his River Street apartment in Boston, which he rented from their road manager, Hans Onsager, and where the band would sometimes stay when they played in the city. Yule's improving guitar technique caught the ear of Sterling Morrison.
When John Cale left the Velvet Underground at the behest of Lou Reed in 1968, Yule joined the band (then consisting of Reed, Morrison and Maureen Tucker) as Cale's replacement. Yule 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" which opens the album, and co-singing the chorus of the album's penultimate track, "The Murder Mystery", with Maureen Tucker. Yule's contribution to the LP was considerable, and his vocals would later come in handy on the road. When Reed's voice became strained from touring, Yule would sing lead on several songs. While Cale had been a more experimental bass player, Yule was considered more technically proficient on the bass than Cale and his distinct melodic style suited Reed's desire to move the band into a more mainstream direction. Yule's lead vocals can be heard on the song "She's My Best Friend" which was recorded in 1969 and later appeared on the outtakes compilation VU, and on the band's fourth album, Loaded (1970), Yule's role became even more prominent, singing the lead vocals on several songs on the LP ("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 regular drummer Maureen Tucker was pregnant and therefore absent for most of the recording. Yule's lead vocals can also be heard on the song "Ride Into The Sun", which was featured on the Fully Loaded CD reissue of Loaded that was released in 1997.
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