Velvet Underground “The Velvet Underground” 1969. Today, August 26th, is VU drummer Maureen “Moe” Tucker’s 75th birthday (b. 1944). The Velvet Underground was the band’s third album and the last studio LP that Tucker played on. By this time both John Cale and Nico were gone, Cale replaced by Doug Yule who played bass and organ as well as singing lead vocals on “Candy Says.” Tucker rarely sang on VU albums but took the lead on “After Hours,”  because according to Lou Reed “the song was so innocent and pure that he couldn’t sing it himself.” (wiki) Though The Velvet Underground did not do that well when it was released, barely cracking the Billboard Top 200 chart at #197 and that was in ‘85 – over 15 years after its release, in retrospect it has been recognized as one of the best records of all-time by publications like Rolling Stone and NME. It is at times sparse and sweet (the excellent “Pale Blue Eyes”), rocking (“Beginning to See the Light” and my favorite “What Goes On” which VU released as a single), light and folky (on “Jesus,” the b-side to “What Goes On” and “I’m Set Free”) and experimental (“The Murder Mystery” an epic psychedelic organ freak-out with overlapping spoken word cacophony).