Amoeba Music

Amoeba SF is excited to present a listening party for the new Lou Reed release, Words & Music, May 1965 (via Light in the Attic), on October 21st at 5pm. Hitting the streets that day, Words & Music, May 1965 will be available on Cassette, CD, 8-Track, and various LP versions, including a Deluxe Edition double 45 RPM pressed on 180 gram vinyl plus 7". Enter to win an LP and get a free poster at the event. Must be present to win.

Released in tandem with the late artist’s 80th birthday celebrations, the album offers an extraordinary, unvarnished, and plainly poignant insight into one of America’s true poet-songwriters. Capturing Reed in his formative years, this previously-unreleased collection of songs penned by a young Lou Reed, recorded to tape with the help of future bandmate John Cale, and mailed to himself as a “poor man’s copyright” remained sealed in its original envelope and unopened for nearly 50 years.

Long before he was at the forefront of New York’s underground music scene, two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed (1942-2013) was a young songwriter, seeking to navigate his sound and establish his career. A self-taught guitarist, the shy, Long Island-bred artist spent much of his youth seeking refuge in rock & roll. As a teenager, Reed released his first single with his high school doo-wop group, The Jades. Yet, aside from that 1958 single and a narrow selection of Velvet Underground demos, there has been little opportunity to experience the full scope of Reed’s early artistic development.

Produced by Laurie Anderson, Don Fleming, Jason Stern, Hal Willner, and Matt Sullivan, the album features newly-remastered audio from the original tapes by GRAMMY®-nominated engineer, John Baldwin. In their notes for Words & Music, May 1965, Fleming and Stern recall finding two particularly exciting tapes in the offices of Reed’s company, Sister Ray Enterprises. The first captured several of the artist’s formative recordings, including a 1958 rehearsal with The Jades (also known as The Shades). The tape also offers a snapshot of Reed’s foray into folk music around 1963-1964, while he was attending Syracuse University. Accompanied by his acoustic guitar and harmonica, the artist covers Bob Dylan’s ”Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” plus an instrumental rendition of “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down” and “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore.” Reed also delves into the blues with the brief “Lou’s 12-Bar Instrumental” and his “W & X, Y, Z Blues.”

The second tape that Fleming and Stern uncovered was even more intriguing: a 5-inch reel-to-reel that had been sitting in a sealed, self-addressed envelope for nearly five decades. By notarizing and shipping the package—postmarked May 11, 1965—Reed was securing a “poor man’s copyright” on his recordings while avoiding the costs of filing official paperwork. As evidenced on Words & Music, the artist also protected himself by introducing each song with “Words and music [or lyrics and music] by Lou Reed.” But what was most remarkable about this tape was that its contents bridged the gap between Reed’s development as a songwriter and his debut with The Velvet Underground.

When these demos were recorded, Reed was back home, living with his parents, and working as a staff songwriter at Pickwick Records. Despite the fact that the Long Island City, New York label was churning out hundreds of “sound-alike” tracks and selling them at discounted rates, the position gave Reed ample experience to write, record, and perform in a variety of styles. Looking to add an edgier element to the label’s output, staff producer Terry Philips engaged Reed to front a faux group called The Primitives for a one-off dance song called “The Ostrich.” Philips started scouting additional group members who could look the part for live appearances.

At a party in Manhattan, Philips met two avant-garde musicians who fit the roles perfectly: John Cale and Tony Conrad. Their friend, sculptor and drummer Walter De Maria, completed the group. Although “The Ostrich” never took off as a dance craze and the single failed to chart, Reed and Cale discovered a musical kinship—particularly when it came to sonic experimentation. Through the summer and fall of 1965, the two artists, along with guitarist Sterling Morrison and drummer Angus MacLise established themselves as The Velvet Underground. Tony Conrad was responsible for the band’s name, having shared a copy of Michael Leigh’s book The Velvet Underground with the group. In December of 1965 Maureen “Moe” Tucker replaced MacLise on drums and the art-rockers caught the attention of Andy Warhol, who, along with filmmaker Paul Morrissey, promptly took on a managerial role and introduced the quartet to the German-born singer, Nico.

Among the gems on Words & Music are the earliest known recordings of “Heroin” and “I’m Waiting for the Man”—two essential tracks from the band’s highly influential 1967 debut, The Velvet Underground & Nico. As Fleming and Stern note, “In Cale’s autobiography [2000’s What’s Welsh for Zen] he describes an early memory of Reed showing him songs that later became Velvet Underground songs ‘as if they were folk songs.’ And that is precisely the sound of the songs on this tape, Reed on acoustic guitar and harmonica, with Cale singing the harmony parts in a style closer to The Weavers or Peter, Paul & Mary, than the gritty sound that they pioneered a few months later.”