I discovered the Velvets and the MC5 via the 1980 movie Rock N' Roll High School, which prominently featured their songs "Rock & Roll" and "High School". All their albums were oop then, so my first VU "album" was disc one of Lou Reed's Rock & Roll Diary comp.
My two favorite songs from the album were "Rock & Roll" and "Sweet Jane", so I picked up Loaded as my first official VU album. This was the final Velvet Underground album (except for that Squeeze thing that most people don't count) and Lou Reed had left the band before it came out, so it was a pseudo-posthumous release like Let It Be.
It doesn't sound much like their other albums, but stands up fairly well as a Lou Reed album, with some of his best songs. The first side ("Who Loves The Sun" thru "Cool It Down") is really good, but my favorite song on Loaded (and maybe my favorite VU song) is "I Found A Reason", buried on the middle of side two.
1970 also brought John Cale's post-VU solo debut Vintage Violence, a nice little album that more people should hear.
Forty years on, I think VV holds up better than Loaded.
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