Light in the Attic Records has released another tantalizing piece of Lou Reed and Velvet Underground lore in the form of the earliest known recording of the song “Heroin.” The track will appear on the upcoming archival Reed collection Words & Music, May 1965, due out on Aug. 26. Put to tape by Reed in May 1965, nearly two years before its release on The Velvet Underground’s landmark debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico, this version of “Heroin” finds the artist accompanying himself on guitar. Structurally, it is essentially the same as the album version although it is more than three minutes shorter than what was eventually released in 1967. This demo predates by two months a version of “Heroin” recorded by Reed and Velvet Underground bandmates John Cale and Sterling Morrison ...
A Lou Reed archive series is coming, thanks to Light in the Attic records and the late singer-songwriter’s wife Laurie Anderson. The series’ first installment, Watch Words & Music, May 1965, is a collection of previously unreleased tracks taken from Reed’s formative years and features the earliest known recordings of Velvet Underground classics “Heroin,” “I’m Waiting for the Man,” and “Pale Blue Eyes.” According to a press release, these songs were “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.” Anderson, Don Fleming, Jason Stern, Hal Willner and Matt Sullivan produced the project, which also includes liner notes from au...
This article originally appeared in the April 1996 issue of SPIN. “Los Angeles is my favorite city in the world!” declares super foxy Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro, offering as proof of his conviction the city’s name tattooed on the back of his neck. “I would never live anywhere else.” Navarro, drummer Chad Smith, and I are wedged into Newsroom, a trendy Beverly Hills restaurant/coffee house/media mill where omnipresent TV monitors serve up the latest from the E! network with your rice-milk cappuccinos. “But I feel like the bad is taking over,” says Smith, an unadulterated rock dude and Detroit native who, Navarro says, wrote the book on that city’s infamous evening of arson known as Devil’s Night. “I wouldn’t want my kids growing up here,” admits Smith, who at age 33 s...
To close out Hanukkah, Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters producer Greg Kurstin closed out their ongoing Hanukkah Sessions with a cover of Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll.” The band’s late singer, Lou Reed, was Jewish. Grohl issued a lengthy statement on the meaning of the Hanukkah Sessions. As 2020 comes to a close and another Hanukkah ends (my first!) I am reminded of the two things that have gotten me through this year: music and hope. This project, which initially began as a silly idea, grew to represent something much more important to me. It showed me that the simple gesture of spreading joy and happiness goes a long way, and as we look forward, we should all make an effort to do so, no matter how many candles are left to light on the menorah. Toda Raba to ...
The whole reissue concept didn’t come across my obsession desk until my first tour of duty at SPIN as an editorial intern in the fall of 1997. One of my tasks during my two days in the office — back when it was on 18th St. near Academy Records — was opening the editors’ mail. I’ll never forget ripping open Sealed Air envelopes for Charles Aaron and just being so amazed at all this cool stuff he’d get sent to him. Now, this was during the time when both Rhino Records and the Sony Music catalog division, Legacy Recordings, were really busting out the big guns: We’re talking the soundtrack to Zabriskie Point with a bonus disc of rarities from the Pink Floyd sessions, that gang of Miles Davis reissues that included Dark Magus and Live-Evil. Island Records released the legendary Lee ...