Album Review: Words & Music, May 1965 by Lou Reed

Similar to Blind Willie McTell's Last Session, the fact that Lou Reed's Words & Music, May 1965 exists is as stunning as anything the recording contains. McTell's recordings were the last of his life, coaxed out by an Atlanta record store owner long after the bluesman's prime and the tape was nearly discarded. Conversely, Reed's recordings here are among the artist's earliest, left to sit on a shelf for some 50 years.

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It's odd to think that Robert Johnson's songs were less than 40 years old when Mystery Train was first published. In writing so eloquently of him, Greil Marcus immortalised those ghostly blues, concretising them in the here and now. To listen to these early Lou Reed songs - almost 60 years after they were recorded - is to sculpt similar perspectives in time.

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Whenever I hear that a musician is releasing lost demos, and live performances, from their personal archive I start to question why. Do these recordings actually warrant a release or are they a crass cash grab? Over the years there have been plenty of cash-ins. These I won't mention, but there have also been excellent releases. Bob Dylan's early 'Bootleg Series' are all mostly essential .

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