| Doug Yule | |
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 Doug Yule (2009)
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Douglas Alan Yule |
| Born | February 25, 1947 |
| Origin | Long Island, NY, United States |
| Genres | Rock |
| Occupations | Musician, singer, songwriter |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, organ, drums, Fiddle, Violin, Cello, Viola, |
| Years active | 1960s – c. 1977, c. 1997 – present |
| Associated acts | The Velvet Underground American Flyer Lou Reed |
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.
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Yule began playing with various bands in Boston in the 1960s. In 1968, he was in a band called The Grass Menagerie, along with Walter Powers and Willie Alexander.
When Lou Reed fired bassist 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". Yule's contribution to the LP was considerable, as his vocals would later come in handy on the road when Reed's voice became strained from touring. While Cale had been a more experimental bass player, Yule was considered more technically proficient on the bass and his style suited Reed's desire to move into a more mainstream direction. On the band's 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.
Lou Reed left The Velvet Underground in 1970. Yule, Tucker and Sterling Morrison decided to continue performing as the Velvet Underground. Yule took over lead vocals and switched main instrument from bass to guitar, and Walter Powers was recruited as the band's new bass guitarist.
Morrison left in 1971, and was replaced by Willie Alexander on keyboards, but Tucker, Alexander, and Powers all left the band in 1972. With other musicians, Yule did two more tours as the Velvet Underground in 1972-73 and recorded the album Squeeze (1973). After the final tour by the Yule-fronted Velvet Underground in 1973, the name was retired.
During an interview for radio on December 26, 1972, Reed was asked if he knew where Doug Yule was, to which he sharply responded, "Dead, I hope." When the interviewer mentioned that he went to high school with Yule and told Reed "You can't say that," Reed retorted that he could and did say it, but that he didn't mean it. (This interview can be found on the American Poet live album, released in 2001.)
After Yule stopped performing as The Velvet Underground, Reed had hung up his post-Velvet bitterness enough to contact Yule to play bass on his solo album Sally Can't Dance (1974).[1] and at Reed's request, Yule joined his band for the subsequent European tour as his guitar player. Following the tour, Yule left the group while Reed resumed work on Metal Machine Music.
After a couple of years off from music, in 1976 Yule was tapped to do session guitar work on Night Lights (1976) by Elliott Murphy, and then he joined the band American Flyer later that year as their drummer and background singer.
American Flyer was an active country rock band from 1976 to 1978, and the band also featured the guitarist Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears. After securing a major-label contract with United Artists, and managing to interest George Martin enough to bring him on-board as their producer, American Flyer's debut album "American Flyer" debuted at #87 on the Billboard Top 200, and they even scored a minor hit with their single "Let Me Down Easy" which debuted at #80 in 1976. Despite the promise showed on their first album, their follow-up album "Spirit of a Woman", (also produced by Martin), failed to chart as high, and didn't carry the momentum the label expected, and the band decided to hang it up.[2][3] After American Flyer disbanded, Yule retired from doing music full-time, and became a cabinetmaker and a luthier of violins.
When the Velvet Underground reformed in the early 1993, Sterling Morrison had campaigned for Yule's involvement, but Lou Reed and John Cale ultimately overruled him, thus leaving Yule off the band's short-lived 6 week reunion tour of Europe, and the subsequent live album Live MCMXCIII. Despite his absence from the brief reunion and the live album, Yule remains a member of the Velvet's business partnership. Following the continual interest in The Velvet Underground, and partly due to the publicity of The Velvet Underground's released box set Peel Slowly and See in 1995, Yule (who had moved to the San Francisco Bay area) returned to public life, giving some interviews to journalists and various fanzines about his time in The Velvet Underground,[1] and he wrote a lengthy obituary for Sterling Morrison, who died that year. Yule was excluded from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when the Velvet Underground was inducted in 1996, despite his heavy involvement with the band's third album The Velvet Underground, and Loaded in particular, which caused some controversy amongst purists of the band's history. Despite the over-look, Yule remains a member of the Velvet business partnership, and will give the occasional interview about his time in the group. After having taken up the violin, Yule began to record music 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 Tucker's live album Moe Rocks Terrastock.
On August 31, 2006, Yule performed for the first time in public in New York City in over 30 years with Mark Gardener of Ride at Pianos.
Yule lives in Seattle, Washington, with his son Dan. He plays fiddle and builds violins in Ballard. In 2006, in addition to his appearance with Mark Gardener, he played bass on a brief tour with The Weisstronauts, a Boston surf-rock group. As of 2007, he is a member of an Old Time band called RedDog.
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   | Velvet Underground Squeeze - bobchaos.com: Velvet Underground Squeeze |
| | Doug Yule Interview - Hometown Has Been Shutdown - People Connection Blog: AIM Community Network |
| | Doug Yule - Hometown Has Been Shutdown - People Connection Blog: AIM Community Network |
| | Foggy Notion - The Velvet Underground web corner called Foggy Notion |
| | RedDog - RedDog: Old-time stringband music in Seattle, Doug Yule, Cary Lung and Tom Collicott |
| | Interview from 2008 about the Velvet Underground and folk music - PRX » Piece » Doug Yule, From Rock Icon to Violin Craftsman |
| | Doug Yule Interview - Head Held High |
| | Doug Yule Interview from Perfect Sound Forever - Doug Yule interview- Perfect Sound Forever |
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