Before the Velvet Underground, and before he became one of the most important songwriters of his generation, Lou Reed was a songwriter for hire at a company called Pickwick Records. He churned out songs deliberately intended to be top 40 hits and released under a variety of fake group names, the most successful of which was a song that they’d hoped would spawn a dance craze, “The Ostrich.” It didn’t, but the group assembled to tour behind the song included Reed (pictured above, far right) and John Cale —and the roots of the Velvet Underground, which formed shortly after Reed left Pickwick.
Those songs have popped up on compilations and bootlegs over the decades,but the first official anthology, “Why Don’t You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-65,” will be released Sept. 27 on Light in the Attic Records, in partnership with Laurie Anderson and the Lou Reed Archive, with physical copies to follow on Oct. 4. The collection, which also includes previously unreleased material, features an essay by Patti Smith Group co-founder and “Nuggets” compiler Lenny Kaye, along with liner notes from author/journalist Richie Unterberger. (The full tracklist appears below.)
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The release is the third in the label’s ongoing series of Reed releases, following the reissue of his “Hudson River Wind Meditations” and “Words & Music, May 1965,” the latter of which collected his early demos and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Pickwick was a budget label that specialized in sound-alike recordings that emulated the major pop hits of the day of the early ‘60s, spanning everything from garage-rock and girl-group pop to blue-eyed soul and teen-idol balladry. Reed, who ultimately co-wrote dozens of songs that were released on the label, began his tenure at Pickwick soon after meeting Terry Philips, the label’s chief songwriter and producer, who’d envisioned creating an in-house equivalent to the Brill Building’s hitmaking songwriting/production teams. Despite the assembly-line nature of the job, Reed’s tenure at Pickwick dramatically increased his studio experience, discipline and musical versatility, all of which would bear fruit in the Velvet Underground (for example, his song for the group “I Found a Reason” was recorded in both a country-esque version and the final doo-wop inflected release) and later in his career.
Along with “The Ostrich” and “Why Don’t You Smile” (the latter of which was the first released Reed-Cale composition, and was later covered by Spiritualized), the 25-song collection includes soul-pop (on the Hi-Lifes’ “Soul City”), surf-tinged doo-wop (on the Hollywoods’ “Teardrop In The Sand”), and riff-driven garage-rock (on the Roughnecks’ “You’re Driving Me Insane”).
Tracklist
Side A1. The Primitives – “The Ostrich”2. The Beachnuts – “Cycle Annie”3. The Hi-Lifes – “I’m Gonna Fight”4. The Hi-Lifes – “Soul City”5. Ronnie Dickerson – “Oh No Don’t Do It”6. Ronnie Dickerson – “Love Can Make You Cry”7. The Hollywoods – “Teardrop In The Sand”8. The Roughnecks – “You’re Driving Me Insane”
Side B1. The Primitives – “Sneaky Pete”2. Terry Philips – “Wild One”3. Spongy And the Dolls – “Really – Really – Really – Really – Really – Really Love”4. The Foxes – “Soul City”5. The J Brothers – “Ya Running, But I’ll Getcha”6. Beverley Ann – “We Got Trouble”7. The All Night Workers – “Why Don’t You Smile”8. Jeannie Larimore – “Johnny Won’t Surf No More”
Side C1. Robertha Williams – “Tell Mamma Not to Cry”2. Robertha Williams – “Maybe Tomorrow”3. Terry Philips – “Flowers for the Lady”4. Terry Philips – “This Rose”Side D1. The Surfsiders – “Surfin’”2. The Surfsiders – “Little Deuce Coupe”3. The Beachnuts – “Sad, Lonely Orphan Boy”4. The Beachnuts – “I’ve Got a Tiger in My Tank”5. Ronnie Dickerson – “What About Me”
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