Walter Powers

Who is Walter Powers?

Walter Powers III is an American bass guitarist best known for having been a member of The Velvet Underground from late 1970 until late 1971.

Walter Powers was born August 4, 1946 in Boston, Massachusetts. Before joining the Velvet Underground he played with future co-Velvet Willie Alexander in Boston-based band "The Lost" from 1964 until 1967, during which time they toured with the Beach Boys, and from 1967 with Alexander and another future fellow Velvet, Doug Yule, in the Grass Menagerie. Walter Powers was also the bass player for a one-album, Boston-based band called Listening.

When Lou Reed left the Velvet Underground in late August 1970, Doug Yule assumed leadership of that band and moved from bass guitar to vocals and guitar. Yule asked Powers to join to fill in the bass spot; Powers played his first gig with the band on November 19, 1970 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Also in late 1970, the band, which at that time consisted of Yule, Powers, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker, recorded two songs for Atlantic Records, the Doug Yule compositions "Friends" and "She'll Make You Cry", which remain unreleased.