On May 11, 1965, Lou Reed went to a post office in Baldwin, Long Island, New York. send a package sealed and certified by a notary public. The recipient of the mail was Lewis Reed, a resident of 35 Oakfield Avenue, Freeport, New York. So himself. For 52 years, the envelope with the package remained intact. In 2013, shortly after Reed’s death, he was found in the musician’s New York office, Sister Ray, where he shared a shelf with unsealed CDs. But until late 2017, no one had a real interest in exploring its content. producer Don Flemingchosen by Laura AndersonTo bring order to the musician’s legacy, Reed’s widow finally decided to open the envelope. What he found there was an unexpected treasure: a five-inch Scottish tape. Earliest known versions of some of The Velvet Underground’s most iconic songs.
The contents of this tape, remastered by engineer John Baldwin, now appear in disc format with the prose title. ‘Words and Music, May 1965’It is a work presented as the first reference. A recovery project of unreleased Lou Reed recordings Powered by Laurie Anderson and Light on the Attic label. Future installments are likely to surpass this in terms of solid quality and instrumental solvency, but it is very difficult, if not impossible, to even come close to their historical significance.
In May 1965, the 23-year-old Reed was working as a songwriter. Pickwick Records (she described herself as “a pathetic version of Carole King”) and it was on this job that she met the Welsh musician. John CaleIt was he who began developing the embryo of a group that would soon become The Velvet Underground. Around these dates (supposedly the same day as the 11th, but Cale can’t remember the exact day or location and Reed’s cassette envelope gives no information on this), both they recorded a dozen songsIncluding early versions of future classics from the New York band like ‘Heroin’, ‘Waiting for a Man’ and ‘Pale Blue Eyes’.
Protect ‘copyright’
The purpose of the recording was none other than that. copyright shield About songs without going through the painstaking process of recording compositions by Lou Reed. That’s why he notarized the package, making the shipping date clearly visible, and that’s also why the musician’s voice is heard on the tape before each piece: “Lyrics and Music by Lou Reed”. The idea was to open the envelope only in case of being sued for ‘copyright’ with Pickwick Records, which has a bad history of disagreement with songwriters on its staff.
John Cale wrote “What’s Welsh for Zen?” with Victor Bockris. In his autobiography, when Reed first taught him songs like “Heroin” and “I’m wait for the man”, “I played them like songs people”. And that’s exactly how they sound in the versions from ‘Words & Music, May 1965. The lyrics and melodies are nearly identical to those of the recordings on ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’ LP two years later, but the sound is much closer to blues and acoustic folk This was heard at the Greenwich Village joints where Bob Dylan sharpened his claws, rather than the daunting electrical breach that would turn the band’s first two albums into cult pieces among the rock avant-garde.
“Listening to the tape is like coming across a Folkways recording from the 1930s,” Laurie Anderson recently told ‘Mojo’ magazine, referring to the historic record label specializing in traditional American music. “She has a creepy, raspy voice. suggests it was recorded in a trailer. And you wonder: Is ‘heroin’ a folk song? People will be very surprised.”
banned songs
The words of ‘Heroin’, a vivid depiction of a heroin addict’s addicted relationship with the substance, were especially pronounced in 1965, ‘Help!’ The Beatles were an example of audacity and maturity in pop songwriting. The same can be said for ‘Waiting for a Man’, which chronicles the adventures of a poor devil who wants to buy heroin in Harlem. According to various testimonies, Ira Moss, Vice President of Pickwick Records, vetoed their release. songs a decision that ultimately causes Reed and Cale to leave the company and focus their efforts on the formation of The Velvet Underground, as they find them inappropriate.
The group’s third major classic to appear ‘Words and Music, May 1965’ In its prehistoric version it is ‘Pale blue eyes’, but in this case the lyrics differ significantly from what was heard in the canonical recitation collected on the third LP recorded after The Velvet Underground’s departure from 1969. John Cale.
moment of change
The rest of the tracks on that old five-inch Scotch tape are hitherto unknown with one exception. ‘Wrap your problems into dreams’Part of Nico’s first solo LP, sung here by Cale, whose gloomy, monophonic voice is already loud somehow prefigures disturbing minimalism This would characterize her contributions to Velvet. “This is when Lou Reed and John Cale began to evolve into folk duo The Velvet Underground,” emphasizes Laurie Anderson.
It stands out among the songs that see the light for the first time ‘Good Lucky Men’ (Unrelated to the composition of the same title Reed included on ‘Berlin’), a folk song with such a traditional feel that producer Don Fleming turned to expert musicologists to try to clarify whether it was a version (it doesn’t seem like that). They also deserve special mention ‘Barber song’a strange warning about the dangers of emotional attachment offered between tavern hymns and ‘Buzz Buzz Buzz‘, early rock and roll in the style of Chuck Berry.
In addition to the vinyl edition (and eight-track cartridge!) containing 10 songs recorded in May 1965, the new album is available for purchase in compact or cassette format. the added bonus of six previously unreleased recordings by a very young Lou Reed Including a version of Bob Dylan’s song ‘Don’t think twice, it’s all right’ and ‘Gee Whiz’ (popularized by Bob & Earl, among others), an old doo wop number the New York musician recorded in 1958. he was only 16 years old.