On May 11, 1965, Lou Reed visited a Baldwin, Long Island post office with a sealed, notarized package. The recipient was Reed himself, living at 35 Oakfield Avenue in Freeport, New York. For more than half a century the envelope rested untouched. After Reed’s passing in 2013, a search of his New York studio, Sister Ray, uncovered the envelope on a shelf among unsealed CDs. It wasn’t until late 2017 that anyone showed genuine interest in its contents. Producer Don Fleming, brought into the project by Laura Anderson, helped bring order to Reed’s enduring legacy. When the envelope was finally opened, a five-inch Scotch tape revealed itself as an unexpected treasure: early versions of some of The Velvet Underground’s most enduring songs, recorded before the band’s iconic records even existed.
That tape, meticulously remastered by engineer John Baldwin, has been released in disc form under the title Words and Music, May 1965. It stands as a historical reference point and a recovery project for unreleased Lou Reed recordings, with support from Laurie Anderson and the Light in the Attic label. Future installments are anticipated to offer even stronger sound quality and instrumental clarity, though none can truly capture the tape’s historical significance.
In May 1965, Reed was a 23-year-old songwriter working with Pickwick Records, a label Reed described as a modest echo of Carole King’s success. It was there that he met Welsh musician John Cale, who began nurturing the early concepts that would grow into The Velvet Underground. Around those dates, and possibly on the same day, Reed and Cale reportedly recorded a dozen songs that would become early versions of future Velvet Underground classics, including Heroin, Waiting for a Man, and Pale Blue Eyes. The exact day and location remain uncertain, and Reed’s envelope provides no extra clues.
Protect copyright
The recording project centered on safeguarding Reed’s songs from the demands of copyright administration without going through a full studio process. To that end, the envelope and its contents were notarized to mark the date clearly, and Reed’s voice is audible on the tape before each track, stating Lyrics and Music by Lou Reed. The plan was to reveal the material only if a legal challenge arose with Pickwick Records, a label known for disputes over songwriter rights.
John Cale later described the moment when Reed introduced him to songs like Heroin and I’m Waiting for the Man as teaching him to treat them as intimate, vocal-driven pieces. Those early performances on Words and Music, May 1965, retain lyrics and melodies almost identical to the later recordings on The Velvet Underground & Nico, though the overall sound leans toward blues and acoustic folk rather than the explosive electric edge that defined the band’s later work. This approach mirrors the kind of scene where Bob Dylan sharpened his craft in Greenwich Village.
Laurie Anderson remarked to Mojo magazine that listening to the tape resembles encountering a Folkways recording from the 1930s, noting Reed’s distinctive, raspy voice and a sense that the recording could have been made in a trailer. Her observation invites the question of whether Heroin might be heard as a folk song in a different context, a notion that surprises many listeners.
banned songs
The lyrics of Heroin vividly depict a heroin addict’s relationship with the drug, a theme that stood out in 1965 alongside songs like Help! by The Beatles, which demonstrated a rare maturity in pop songwriting. Waiting for a Man chronicles a Harlem encounter in pursuit of drugs. Reports indicate that Ira Moss, then vice president of Pickwick Records, vetoed the release, a decision that contributed to Reed and Cale’s decision to leave the label and pursue the Velvet Underground more fully.
The project also revisits Pale Blue Eyes in its earliest form, though the lyrics diverge notably from what would appear on the Velvet Underground’s third album after their departure from Pickwick in 1969. John Cale notes the distinctiveness of these early lines.
moment of change
The remaining tracks on the vintage five-inch Scotch tape are largely unknown, save for one exception: Wrap Your Problems into Dreams, a piece tied to Nico’s early solo work and performed by Cale in a somber, monophonic voice that foreshadows a stark, minimalist sensibility the Velvet Underground would later be known for. This era marks Reed and Cale’s evolution into a folk-forward pairing within the group, a shift highlighted by Laurie Anderson.
Among the songs only now heard in their earliest form is Good Lucky Men, a piece with a traditional feel that sparked debate about its origin among researchers. Other items include Barber Song, a curious warning about emotional attachment set against tavern tunes, and Buzz Buzz Buzz, an early rock and roll nod echoing Chuck Berry.
In addition to the vinyl edition and eight-track cartridge featuring ten tracks from May 1965, the collection is available in compact and cassette formats with a bonus of six previously unreleased takes by a young Lou Reed. These include a rendition of Bob Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right and Gee Whiz, an old doo-wop piece Reed recorded in 1958 when he was just sixteen.