VELVET REVOLUTION
10 deep cuts from the catalogue
“PROMINENT MEN”
PEEL SLOWLY AND SEE (POLYDOR, 1995)
LOU REED would often downplay Dylan’s influence in later years, but this early acoustic Velvets number certainly bears his unmistakable imprint. Recorded in mid-1965 at John Cale’s Ludlow Street Loft, it’s practically a Freewheelin’ outtake, with wheezy harmonica, earnestly anti-establishment lyrics and a Reed vocal that earns the Dylan-esque sobriquet. Imagine a weird alternate universe where Reed never met Cale or Warhol and becamejust another Greenwich Village folkie.
“MISS JOANIE LEE”
VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO, 45TH ANNIVERSARY SUPER DELUXE EDITION (POLYDOR, 2012)
Reed took his minimalist ethos to its logical extreme with “Miss Joanie Lee”, a brutal thud that makes “Run Run Run” soundlike Steely Dan. The 10-minute boogie was captured during a rehearsal in early 1966 and then never heard from again. Butit’s ablast, occupying that no man’s land between Bo Diddley and Sonic Youth, with impossibly raw guitars crashing up against Reed and Cale’s lusty harmonies.