Willie Alexander

A Philadelphia native, Willie “Loco” Alexander moved to Boston, U.S.A. and took over from Lou Reed when he left the Velvet Underground in 1971, recording the album 'Squeeze'. After various solo recordings in the early 1970s, Alexander formed the Boom Boom Band and released the eponymous, punk style 'Willie Alexander and the Boom Boom Band' which got substantial airplay on college radio stations at the height of the punk movement, with tracks such as 'Radio Heart', 'Kerouac' and a substantially re-arranged rendition of 'You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling' that is, in effect, a different song. That album was followed by 'Meanwhile Back in the States', which sported the radio hit 'Mass Ave'.