Release and Reception
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Squeeze was recorded in the autumn of 1972 and released in the United Kingdom, France, Germany (all 1973) and Spain (1974). No singles were taken off it and the album did not chart. Yule assembled a backing band consisting of Rob Norris (guitar), George Kay (bass guitar) and Mark Nauseef (drums) to tour the United Kingdom in November and December 1972 to promote the upcoming album; a live recording from this tour is included on the 2001 live box set Final V.U. 1971-1973. After the tour, during which they were deserted by Sesnick, Yule also called it quits, bringing the Velvet Underground to an end.
Squeeze saw a number of re-issues in France during the 1970s and early 1980s. It has been out of print since, and was released on compact disc in 2012 by Kismet Records. The status of Squeeze in the Velvet Underground's recorded canon is generally regarded as dubious. In the early 1970s, the NME Book of Rock counted it as "a Velvet Underground album in name only". The 1995 CD boxed set Peel Slowly and See includes the four studio albums from the Lou Reed era of the band, but excludes Squeeze; in the liner notes, David Fricke dismisses it as "an embarrassment to the VU discography." Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine says "it doesn’t just ride the coattails of VU’s legacy but deliberately co-opts their achievement -- but it’s listenable, something its reputation never suggests." In March 2012, Classic Rock included the album at 28 in their list of The 50 Worst Albums of All Time.
In 1995, Yule described the recording of Squeeze being "like the blind leading the blind, me leading myself. That's what came out of it, I don't even have a copy of it. But it's kind of a nice memory for me and kind of an embarrassment at the same time. I wish I had my eyes wider open, but it was nice to get my name and my songs out there."
Read more about this topic: Squeeze (The Velvet Underground Album)
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