Unreleased 1968 VU full band demo
Posted: 18 Jan 2023 14:46
I was listening to the Lou Reed archive at the New York Public Library and I found something that I haven’t heard anyone mention before. There is a tape titled:
“560545 1. Reed. 2. No John Blues [Demo Jam Session/Reed in Conversation with Someone About Hypnosis] circa 1968.”
This tape features six takes of a song they’ve titled “No John Blues” and, between the second and third take, there is a track labeled “[Untitled Song]”. This untitled song is what grabbed my attention.
It starts with light percussion and an electric guitar picking quiet, arpeggiated high notes while a second guitar (or possibly bass) strums some muddy chords. Lou begins singing, “Here I stand” and then two voices (John and Sterling to my ear) come in with a falsetto harmony “feeling alone.” They repeat this and then Lou goes on: “no I need your love / And I stand above / I can’t help loving you.” All the while there is a harmonium or some other kind of air organ (probably Cale?) noodling in the background. This organ player is clearly not that familiar with the chord changes because there are a number of off-key notes. After repeating the verse twice the song moves to a short chorus of Lou singing “Here I stand all alone.” All of this is then repeated a second time with some slight variations on the lyrics.
This is a slow, quiet song which runs almost three and a half minutes. The recording quality is on par with tracks like “Sheltered Life” and “It’s All Right (the way that you live).” This demo would be very at home with those early 1967 demos
“560545 1. Reed. 2. No John Blues [Demo Jam Session/Reed in Conversation with Someone About Hypnosis] circa 1968.”
This tape features six takes of a song they’ve titled “No John Blues” and, between the second and third take, there is a track labeled “[Untitled Song]”. This untitled song is what grabbed my attention.
It starts with light percussion and an electric guitar picking quiet, arpeggiated high notes while a second guitar (or possibly bass) strums some muddy chords. Lou begins singing, “Here I stand” and then two voices (John and Sterling to my ear) come in with a falsetto harmony “feeling alone.” They repeat this and then Lou goes on: “no I need your love / And I stand above / I can’t help loving you.” All the while there is a harmonium or some other kind of air organ (probably Cale?) noodling in the background. This organ player is clearly not that familiar with the chord changes because there are a number of off-key notes. After repeating the verse twice the song moves to a short chorus of Lou singing “Here I stand all alone.” All of this is then repeated a second time with some slight variations on the lyrics.
This is a slow, quiet song which runs almost three and a half minutes. The recording quality is on par with tracks like “Sheltered Life” and “It’s All Right (the way that you live).” This demo would be very at home with those early 1967 demos
