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(2022) Lou Reed - Words & Music, May 1965
Review:
During the spring of 1965, the future members of the Velvet Underground Lou Reed and John Cale held an informal recording session. Ten out of eleven songs were played and sung by Reed with a vocal accompaninment by Cale. Although taped as demos, the pieces were put into context, with each composition introduced by Reed as part of the Words & Music set. After the recording was completed, the songwriter mailed the tape in a sealed and notarised envelope to his home address with the intention to copyright the material. Words & Music, May 1965 is another finding that reveals the impressive scope of the occupation layer, left by the Velvet Underground songwriter. The reissue unveils the content of a five-inch tape that was shelved and kept for 52 years at the office of Lou Reed’s Sister Ray Enterprises Inc. In 2017, the tape was acquired by the New York Public Library, opened and tranfered shortly after at MARS studio in Brooklyn. Delivered through the patina of mild white noise, these songs form a cycle of everlasting urban tales. To emphasise the connection to the city environment, the liner notes authors and archivists Don Fleming and Jason Stern describe the soundscape, surrounding Lou Reed’s Sister Ray office, located in the Westbeth Artists Housing complex in the West Village, New York. “The frosted and heavily barred windows in the office overlooked the busy West Side Highway with the muted sound and murky forms of cars whizzing by all day”. Overwhelming urban forces remained a leitmotif throughout most records of Lou Reed. His 1989’s album New York conjures up the grinding pace of life and magic coincidences of the megapolis as well as the guilty pleasures of those inhabiting it. Fittingly, in his introduction to the reissue, Greil Marcus cites Reed writing to his mentor Delmore Schwartz: “I’ve had some strange experiences since returning to NY, sick but strange and fascinating and ultimately revealing, healing and helpful.” The theme of loneliness as a remedy seemingly reflects acceptance of one’s own fragility. A songwriter as a man, who confronts the forces of the urban environment, meeting them face-to-face. In contrast to the gentle folk versions on Words & Music, the four elements of the Velvet Underground later developed the sound that comprised a single sonic force associated with New York. With its DIY sound and carefree approach, the record is a snapshot of Lou Reed’s and John Cale’s unrestrained creative lifestyles prior to the beginning of the Velvet Underground. At the time the tape was produced, Reed was working as a staff songwriter at Pickwick Records while Cale was part of Theatre of Eternal Music, an avant-garde collective of La Monte Young. The two met to record Do the Ostrich for the Pickwick-curated project The Primitives. The other half of the collective were Tony Conrad and Walter De Maria. This and other events were a signpost toward the formation of the Velvet Underground. Remarkably, the postmark on the package concealing the tape shows the date, 11th of May, 1965, which coincides with the Pickwick Records session where Cale and Reed recorded what was considered the earliest version of Heroin. On Words & Music, Heroin, I’m Waiting for the Man, Pale Blue Eyes and Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams are the only four songs that seeped through, having appeared on the Banana, The Velvet Underground albums and Peel Slowly and See reissue respectively. The rest had never been released earlier. Apart from eleven tracks documented by Reed and Cale in 1965, the Words & Music album contains earlier home and rehearsal recordings. They are instrumental and vocal versions of traditional songs Baby, Let Me Follow You Down; Michael, Row the Boat Ashore, and a cover of Bob Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright. Featuring harmonica and impressionistic guitar playing, these compositions reveal Reed’s folk-inclined mindset. Even with the versions of songs by other artists, there is an obvious intention to leave the mark of authorship. The earliest record on the compilation, Gee Whiz is a spontaneous take on a lulling doo-wop number by Bob & Earl, with the lyrics adapted by Reed. Notably, it was recorded in 1958 during a rehearsal session with Phil Harris, a lead singer of Reed’s first band The Jades. Preceded by a brief brainstorming on how to modify the song, Gee Whiz sounds improvisatory. The Everly Brothers-esque singing stops for a second to try another key. If Lou Reed’s passion for doo-wop has been manifested many times on previous reissues, the honky-tonk treatment of some of his best-known songs comes as a revelation. Emerging with unevenly sounding acoustic guitar accompaniment, the troubled lyrical hero of Heroin could time-travel and find a soulmate in the narrative of Hank Williams’s songs. The first phrase “I know just where I’m going” would be replaced on the album version with “I don’t know just where I’m going”. The clarity of the hero’s intention seems to resonate with a few lines in the end, adding a touch of social commentary of a protest folk song: “People selling people pound by pound / And the politicians and the clowns / And the do-gooders with their frowns”. Exploring the early version of Pale Blue Eyes feels even more revelatory. Here, Lou Reed and John Cale harmonise together along the fingerpicking playing and slightly wacky sounds of the harmonica. With conventional knowledge about the song that was released after Cale’s departure from the Velvet Underground, this version reframes the narrative. With the prevailing presence of Reed, there is one track that hints at the avant-garde nature of the Velvet Underground, prompted by John Cale. Clocking in at nearly eight minutes, a trance-like Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams features Reed on guitar and Cale on vocals. His tapping on what sounds like a body of semi-acoustic guitar induces hypnosis. Reed’s two-chord accompaniment reveals the philosophy that would soon be fully implemented in the VU experiments: “One chord is fine. Two chords is pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz”. Words & Music, May 1965 reveals a different facet of Lou Reed’s artistic heritage which might be not obvious behind the media image of the VU and his later solo project. It tells a story from a different perspective. The format of the May 1965 compilation predates DIY records by punk bands in the 70s. It makes one wonder whether Lou Reed was hoping that this sealed tape would be discovered in the future. If it is meant to be a time capsule, the goal is achieved. — Louder Than War
Track List:
01. I'm Waiting for the Man (May 1965 Demo)
02. Men of Good Fortune (May 1965 Demo)
03. Heroin (May 1965 Demo)
04. Too Late (May 1965 Demo)
05. Buttercup Song (May 1965 Demo)
06. Walk Alone (May 1965 Demo)
07. Buzz Buzz Buzz (May 1965 Demo)
08. Pale Blue Eyes (May 1965 Demo)
09. Stockpile (May 1965 Demo)
10. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (May 1965 Demo)
11. I'm Waiting for the Man (May 1965 Alternate Version)
Media Report:
Genre: folk
Country: USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
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