Lou Reed Archive Series, With Unreleased Songs, Announced at Attic Light

Attic lighting partnered with Laurie Anderson for Lou Reed Archive Series, which began releasing Words and Music, May 1965 on August 26. The album is an unreleased collection of songs recorded by a young Reed with his future Velvet Underground with the band John Cale. Reed sealed the recordings in an envelope and sent them to himself as a “copy of the poor man,” and they included early demos of his most iconic songs. Listen to the remastered recording of “I’m Waiting for Man” below.

The announcement of the record comes as the New York Library prepares to unveil Lou Reed’s archives this week, with a box of Reed’s demos among the exhibits.

The collection also includes the earliest known recordings of “Heroin” and “Pale Blue Eyes,” and several unreleased compositions. There is a Cale-fronted version of Nico’s Female Chelsea song “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams,” an early rendition of Berlin song “Men of Good Fortune,” and a unique one that is often mentioned in Velvet Underground mythology, “Buttercup Song.”

The record is available in a variety of formats, including LP, cassette, CD, 8-track, and digital editions. The deluxe 2xLP edition is limited to 7,500 copies and comes with a die-cut gatefold jacket. It features a bonus Third Man – pressed 7 “with six songs that include early demos and a Bob Dylan cover of” Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right. “

Words and Music, May 1965 produced by Laurie Anderson, Don Fleming, Jason Stern, Hal Willner, and Matt Sullivan. Greil Marcus provided liner notes. On the same day the album is released, a new podcast about the collection, hosted on Tunde Adebimpe’s TV on Radio, will debut.

Prior to settling at the New York Public Library, Anderson planned to host Reed’s archives at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, The New York Times notes. The Seasons says he “changed his mind in 2015 after passing a Texas law that allowed people to carry guns on college campuses.” The archive also includes finds such as a tape marked “Electric Rock Symphony,” which is considered an introduction to Music on the Metal Machine. Just last month, archivists dated the tape to the mid-sixties, showing how long the record style has been running, The Seasons pointed to.