Released: 21/10/22 (delayed from 26/08/22)
Released in tandem with the late artist’s 80th birthday celebrations, Words & Music, 1965 offers an unvarnished and poignant insight into one of America’s true poet-songwriters. Capturing Reed in his formative years, this previously unreleased collection of songs penned as a young man – recorded to tape with the help of future bandmate John Cale, and mailed to himself as a “poor man’s copyright” – remained sealed in its original envelope and unopened for nearly 50 years. Its contents embody some of the most vital, groundbreaking contributions to American popular music committed to tape in the 20th century.
Memorialising the nascent sparks of what would become some of The Velvet Underground’s most important tracks, the pared back folk-style recordings of Words & Music, 1965 endow us with the remarkable sensation that we’re sitting next to a genius in his bedroom as he sketches out the future of modern American music – from punk to art-rock and everything in between.