So Who Does Love the Sun, Anyway?

Oh, yeah, I had fun.

So I came home to the healing arms of Sweet Mother Music, dug up a project I'd halfway completed, a version I'd done a few weeks ago of "Who Loves the Sun," a bit of fluff from the Velvet Underground's last album, Loaded. I'd already done drums, guitar, bass, and vocals, but there were four bars missing from the middle, which the Velvets had originally filled with a nice little tape edit, some junkie weirdness involving some heavily processed acoustic guitar and some vocal "ahh"s sketching a variation of the main chord progression. I decided to declare that interlude the core of the song, and work my way outward into its outer reaches.

I was seriously jonesing for some orchestral work, and I managed to manufacture it for myself. I played with the original chords of the Weird Interlude, found they might work nicely if I went to a minor key instead, and voila. It now sounds a bit like Ian Anderson might have gotten his meathooks in, circa Songs from the Wood. I don't mind a bit. I've quite forgiven myself for loving Jethro Tull when I was 15, and you should too.

I kinda dig the way that the first half is all strings, while horns (French, trumpet, trombone) take over after the Weird Interlude.

Those goddamned handclaps. I thought I'd mixed 'em back, but now listening on my laptop speakers they're way too present. I'll fix that. One interesting point: The Velvets completely changed the vocal harmonies between the first and second halves of the song, and I've preserved their voicings. The song's not quite the complete sop to commercialism it appears at first.

Here's the thing, anyway. If you hate it, keep it to yourself, OK? I had way too much fun working on it. I wish I was a musician or something.