Thursday, August 12, 2010

Not So Great Barely Released Singles of the '60s

And now, as part of our apparently on-going attempt to post every crappy noise Lou Reed made in his pre-Velvet Underground career, here's the old reprobate in 1965 -- doing business under the moniker of The Beachnuts -- and one of the worst cash-ins on the surfing/car songs trend of the Top 40 era, the quite execrable "Cycle Annie."




As you can hear, it's really him. I haven't quite figured whether it's better or worse than the last early Lou I posted or not, but it's unquestionably awful.
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8 comments:

  1. Anonymous8/12/2010 6:41 AM

    The Velvet sound is there, even sounds as if Mo is drumming. A change of lyrics, a tweak here and there and the Velvets are in the house.

    ROTP(lumber)

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  2. Faze8/12/2010 7:06 AM

    Oh yeah, it's only a few steps away from "Walk on the Wild Side", when he starts fast-talking toward the end. Love this Lou Reed archeology.

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  3. Gummo8/12/2010 9:08 AM

    steve, you think this one is bad, check out "The Ostrich."

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r998weOUiM

    Both of these have circulated on various Velvets boots for decades. I wish some enterprising fan would gather all of the pre-Velvets Reed in one glorious collection.

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  4. Michael8/12/2010 9:09 AM

    re: a tweak here and there

    Change "Cycle Annie" to "Pycho Annie" and replace the back up singers with a girl that sings flat and has German accent.

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  5. Edward8/12/2010 9:18 AM

    I think it evolved into Waiting For The Man, with hints of There She Goes Again.

    But wow, how did that guitar solo survive the editing process?

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  6. Wendy8/12/2010 11:06 AM

    Could be on the soundtrack for a John Waters movie ...

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  7. Anonymous8/12/2010 1:22 PM

    strangely, embarrassingly catchy and as many here have noticed, not all that far off from what was about to follow. Someone call Rhino with Gummo's idea for a pre-Velvets Lou collection!

    AP

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  8. Anonymous8/12/2010 1:56 PM

    Gotta love the intertoobz.

    Check out this website for all things Velvet:

    http://thenunsareontheseawall.blogspot.com

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