Willie Alexander

"For the football player of the same name see Willie Alexander (football player)."

Willie "Loco" Alexander (born 13 January 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American singer and keyboard player based in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

He played with The Lost, The Bagatelle and The Grass Menagerie before becoming a member of The Velvet Underground in late 1971, joining fellow Grass Menagerie alumni Doug Yule and Walter Powers and replacing Sterling Morrison, who had gone off to pursue an academic career.

With the Velvet Underground, Alexander toured England, Scotland and The Netherlands in support of then-current album "Loaded". After completing the tour on November 21, 1971 in Groningen, the band planned to start recording a new album, but band manager Steve Sesnick sent all of the band but Yule home, presumably to retain maximum control of the product (the resulting album was "Squeeze", released in 1973) and effectively ending Alexander's time with the band.

After leaving The Velvet Underground, he enjoyed a chequered career, both solo and with his Boom Boom Band, that lasts to this day. In-between, Alexander teamed up with Powers to tour France in 1982 for french punk record label New Rose Records, in 1987 opening for Dramarama (band) and in 2006 for a tour with the legendary Boom Boom band.

Albums discography

olo

* "Solo Loco" (1981)
* "A Girl Like You" (1982)
* "Tap Dancing on My Piano" (1986)
* "The Dragons Are Still Out" (1988)
* "Greatest Hits" (1988)
* "Fifteen Years of Rock & Roll with Willie Alexander" (1991)
* "Willie Loco Boom Boom Ga Ga 1975-1991" (1992)
* "Private WA" (1993)

* "The Holy Babble" (1996)
* "Loco in Beantown" (1999)
* "The New Rose Story 1980-2000" (2001)
* "Solo Loco Redux" (2002)

Willie Alexander and the Persistence of Memory Orchestra

* "Willie Alexander's Persistence of Memory Orchestra" (1993)
* "The Persistence of Memory Orchestra: The East Main St. Suite" (1999)

Willie Alexander and the Boom Boom Band

* "Sperm Bank Babies" (1978; authorized bootleg)
* "Willie Alexander and the Boom Boom Band" (1978)
* "Meanwhile... Back in the States" (1978)
* "Pass the Tabasco" (1996 - reissue of the two first albums)
* "Loco Live 1976" (2001)
* "Dog Bar Yacht Club" (2005)

Willie Alexander and the Confessions

* "Autre Chose" (live, 1982)

With The Bagatelle

* "The 11 p.m. Saturday LP" (1968)

With The Lost

* "Early Recordings, Demos, Acoustic and Live 1965-1966" (1996)

With The Velvet Underground

* "Final V.U. 1971-1973" (2001)

ources

# Anonymous. "Velvet Underground ist wieder da!" In: "Sounds", November-December 1971. Interview with the band. [http://www.thomas-oestreicher.de/vu/sounds/ link]
# Henry Daniel. "Velvet Underground". In: "Frendz", November 5, 1971. Interview with the band. [http://home.hetnet.nl/~macplurkis/vu/index.html link]
# Arjan de Weerd. "Despite All the Amputations, the Name of This Band Is Velvet Underground", July 2, 2004. Interview with Willie Alexander on his V.U. stint [http://home.hetnet.nl/~macplurkis/vu/index.html link]

External links

* [http://www.williealexander.com/ Official website]