



Some seldom heard early recordings of a recently-out-of-college Lou Reed made during his pre-Velvet Underground days as a staff songwriter and performer at Pickwick International Records, a cheapy record company that did “cash-ins” based on current fads and dance crazes.

These four tracks recorded in 1964 showed up on a 1979 Velvets bootleg called “the velvet underground, etc.” This particular bootleg, which came from Australia, was once a record collector’s holy grail, along with its companion volume, “the velvet underground & so on.” Now you can easily find both of them on audio blogs.







“You’re Driving Me Insane” by The Roughnecks:



“The Ostrich” by The Primitives. Note that Reed is credited with playing “Ostrich guitar” on the firsts VU album:



“Sneaky Pete” also credited to The Primitives:



“Cycle Annie” by The Beachnuts: