Deconstructing the music of The Velvet Underground: Who Loves The Sun.

A deep dive into the music of The Velvet Underground.

7 min readApr 9, 2021

Background

‘Who Loves The Sun’ is the first song on ‘Loaded’, the Velvet Underground’s fourth studio album. Loaded was recorded between April and August 1970. It was released by the Atlantic label on 15 November 1970. The album’s name refers to Atlantic’s request to create an album loaded with hits.

Lou Reed left The Velvet Underground on 23 August 1970. He was not happy with the final mix of Loaded as it had been changed without him being consulted.

‘Who Loves the Sun’ was the A-side of the first single from the Loaded album. It was initially released in April 1971.

Personnel

‘Who Loves the Sun’ was recorded by Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, and Doug Yule. Doug Yule performed the lead vocal on ‘Who Loves the Sun’. Although she was credited on the album sleeve Maureen Tucker didn’t play drums on Loaded due to her pregnancy at the time. Adrian Barber, the producer for Loaded played drums on ‘Who Loves the Sun’.

What's it about

The lyrics deal with the subject of having a broken heart and not caring anymore.

Metrics

Key: A major
Meter: 4/4
Tempo: 130 BPM
Length: 2:50

The chords of the A major scale

The chords of the A major scale are: A major, B minor, C# minor, D major, E major, F# minor, and G# minor flat fifth.
Their chord notations are: A, Bm, C#m, D, E, F#m, G#mb5
Their scale degree names and Roman numeral notations are: Tonic (I), Supertonic (ii), Mediant (iii), Subdominant (IV), Dominant (V), Submediant (vi), and Leading Tone (vii).

Rhythm

The guitar strumming pattern appears to be:

1–2 & 3 & 4 &
This sounds like: One, Two and, Three and, Four and.

Form

Intro — (1 bar)
Verse 1 — (8 bars)
Verse 2 — (8 bars)
Chorus 1 — (16 bars)
Verse 3 — (8 bars)
Verse 4 — (8 bars)
Chorus 2 — (14 bars)
Bridge — (4 bars)
Chorus 3 — (16 bars)
Outro — (4 bars)

The total number of bars = 87 bars.

Breakdown of form

Intro

The intro is one bar long.
(1) The intro starts with a D major chord been played on the bottom 4 strings. (D, F#, A, D).
This is followed by four harmonic intervals played on the bottom 2 strings. A harmonic interval is when two notes are played together at the same time.
(2) The A and E notes are played together to create a harmonic fifth interval.
(3) The F# and B notes are then played together to create a harmonic fourth interval.
(4) The E and G notes are then played together to create a harmonic minor third interval.
(5) Then finally the A and E notes are played together to create a harmonic fifth interval.
Then it’s straight into the first verse.

Verse

The verse is 8 bars long.
It has 1 chord per bar.
It has 4 beats per bar.
The chord notation for the verse is:
A — G# — A — F#
D — Dm — A — A
The Roman numeral notation for the verse is:
I —VII — I — VI
IV — iv — I —I

In the first 4 bars, the verse moves from the Tonic chord (A major) (I) down a semitone to the major version of the Leading Tone chord (G# major) (VII), back to the Tonic chord (A major) (I) and then down to the major version of the Submediant chord (F# major)(VI).

The final 4 bars of the verse are made up of a major-minor plagal cadence. Starting on the Subdominant chord (D major) (IV), the verse moves down to the minor version of the Subdominant chord (D minor) (iv), before resolving on the Tonic chord (A major) (I) which it then lingers on for 2 bars.

The first 4 bars of the verse contain 2 chromatic chords. Chromatic chords contain at least 1 note that doesn’t naturally belong to the song's key.

The A major scales F# minor chord (F#, A, and C#) has had its minor third note (A) raised to a major third note (A#). This results in an F# major chord (F#, A#, and C#).

The A major scales G# minor flat fifth chord (G#, B, and D) has had its minor third note (B) raised to a major third note (C) and its diminished fifth note (D) raised to a major fifth note (D#). This results in a G# major chord (G#, C, and D#).

The 6th bar of the verse also contains a chromatic chord. The A major scales D major chord (D, F#, and A) has its major third note lowered to a minor note (F). This results in a D minor chord (D, F, and A).

Notice how the chromatic chords G# major, F# major, and D minor fall on either the 2nd or 4th beats of the bar and not on the 1st or 3rd beats of the bar which are usually stronger.

First Chorus

The chorus is 16 bars long.
It has 1 chord per bar.
It has 4 beats per bar.
It has 2 phrases.

First phrase

The chord notation for the 1st phrase of the chorus is:
B — E7 — A — A
The Roman numeral notation is:
II — V —I—I
It is played 3 times.

Second phrase

The chord notation for the 2nd phrase of the chorus is:
B —D —A — A
The Roman numeral notation is:
II — IV —I — I
It is played one time.

Note’s on the chorus

The chorus starts on a B major chord which is a chromatic chord in the key of A major. The A major scales B minor chord (B, D, F#) has had its minor third note (D) raised to a major third note (D#). This results in a B major chord (B, D#, F#).
The Major version of the Supertonic chord (B major) (II) acts as a secondary dominant chord of the dominant chord of A major (E major) (V). This is often written as V of V.
The first phrase of the chorus contains a perfect cadence. This is when the Dominant chord (E dominant 7th) (V7) resolves to the Tonic chord (A major)(I).
The Circle of fifths progression is a progression where the chord's root notes are related to each other by ascending fourths or descending fifths.
For example, the progression D major— G major — C major — F major would be a circle of fifths progression. The root of the D major chord descends by a fifth interval to the root of the G major chord. The D note is a fifth above the G note. The root of the G major chord then descends by a fifth interval to the root of the C major chord and so on.
The first phrase of the chorus contains a Circle of Fifths. The progression starts on the Major version of the Supertonic chord (B major)(II) which descends a fifth interval to the Dominant chord (E major) (V). This then descends a fifth interval to the Tonic chord (A major) (I) on which it resolves.
The second phrase of the chorus contains a plagal cadence where the Subdominant chord (D major)(IV) moves to the Tonic chord (A major)(I).

Second Chorus

The second chorus is 14 bars long.
It also has 2 phrases.
The 1st phrase is the same as the 1st choruses' 1st phrase.
It is 4 bars long and is played 3 times.
B — E7 — A — A
II — V7 — I — I
The second phrase is 2 bars long.
It uses the first 2 bars of the 1st phrase.
It is played once.
B — E7
II — V7

Bridge

The bridge is 4 bars long.
The chords drop out during this.
A single 4 bar riff is played for the whole duration of the bridge.
The riff contains the A, B, D, and G# notes from the A major scale.
The riff also contains the chromatic notes A#, C, and F.

Third Chorus

The 3rd chorus is 16 bars long.
It has 1 phrase.
It reuses the 1st phrase of the 1st chorus.
It is repeated 4 times.
B — E 7— A — A
II — V7 — I — I

Outro

The outro is 4 bars long.
It has 1 chord per bar.
It has 4 beats per bar.
It reuses the 1st phrase of the 1st chorus.
It is played once during which the song fades out.
By the end of the 4 bars, the song has faded out.
B — E7 —A — A
II — V7 — I — I

Observations

The song is 87 bars long. (100 %)
The Intro takes up 1 bar of the song. (1.15 %)
The verses take up 32 bars of the song. (36.78 %)
The choruses take up 46 bars of the song. (52.87 %)
The bridge takes up 4 bars of the song. (4.6 %)
The outro takes up 4 bars of the song. (4.6 %)

From this, we can see 52.87 % of the song consists of its choruses. This is more than half of the song. The verses take up 36.78 % of the song. The intro is only one bar long, taking up 1.15 % of the song. Both the bridge and the outro are 4 bars long. Each one takes up 4.6 % of the song.

The intro is short and sweet. The song is straight into the first verse after one bar of music. The choruses are twice the length of the verses. The choruses are based on a Circle of fifths progression, one of the strongest progressions there is. Once we get past the last verse the remaining 43.7 % of the song is made up of choruses and a short 4 bar bridge. The song quickly fades out over the course of 4 bars of the chorus. There are no extended intros, bridges, or endings.

Atlantic may have requested an album loaded with hits, but the Velvet Underground didn’t let them have it all their own way. The song’s structure and upbeat music all pointed to an attempt at writing a hit song. However, the song's lyrics were loaded with pessimism.

If you enjoyed reading this article or found it useful then please look out for further ones like this. I’m intending to deconstruct some more songs soon.