Why Don’t You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-65 (Light In The Attic)

Some fans of Lou Reed will be vaguely aware of his pre-Velvets stint as a writer-for-hire at Pickwick Records, and some may have even heard The Ostrich, sung by Lou with his “band” The Primitives. Now, here is the rest of that story.

Growing up on Long Island, Lou Reed’s first musical love was doo-wop, to the point where the teenage Lou formed a doo-wop group that released a single in 1958…So Blue, by The Jades.

After graduating from Syracuse University, Lou snagged a job working for a label called Pickwick Record, a very successful budget label that released “lesser quality” sound-alike recordings and bargain bin reissues.

Lou found himself working for a man named Terry Phillips who was determined to help the label “go legit” by putting together a team of writers and performers who would eventually break away from the bargain bin.

Instead Lou Reed, Terry Phillips, Jerry Vance and Jimmie Sims formed something like a “poor man’s Brill Building” team. Carole King and Jerry Goffin were nowhere to be found, but Phillips and his crew did their best to emulate the work of Phil Spector, The Beach Boys, Leiber and Stoller and whoever else might be denting the charts.

According to Lenny Kaye, in his forward, “they are playful pastiches of breakthroughs, pioneered by others”. In other words, they were having a good time making music that was utterly unoriginal…until it was.

By 1965, somehow John Cale and Tony Conrad were in The Primitives, playing doing The Ostrich in front of bewildered high schoolers. By May of 1965 they were recording demos of Heroin, and the rest, they say, is history.

This release opens the lid of the musical shenanigans Lou got up to at Pickwick. Reed’s voice is very clear as lead singer on a handful of these 25 tracks…otherwise he can be heard singing BVs and playing guitar. Almost all the songs are credited to the four…Reed, Phillips, Vance and Sims.

Be warned, not everything here is going to tickle your fancy. For every nugget like The Ostrich or Cycle Annie or You’re Driving Me Insane (by “The Roughnecks”) there are vapid pop knockoffs such as Flowers For The Lady and This Rose…both sung by Phillips and lonely surfer songs such as Teardrop In The Sand and I’ve Got A Tiger In My Tank…a not too-veiled rip-off of The Beach Boys’ Surf City.

Much of the fun of running through these 25 tracks is trying to guess who they were emulating…The Beach Boys? Jay & The Americans? The Shangri-las?

There are a few hidden gems in here. I was impressed with Soul City as recorded by The Hi-Lifes, featuring a lead vocal not-unlike a soulful Jackie Wilson. Someone at Pickwick must have liked it to as the song was re-recorded by “The Foxes” and given the girl group treatment.

Hard core Lou Reed/Velvet Underground fans will want this because…well, we want everything.

More casual fans will be mildly amused. If you’re reading this far along, I’m guessing you’re the former, rather than the latter, so order one up…it comes as in coloured vinyl!

Marty Duda

Why Don’t You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-65 is released Friday, September 27th on Light In The Attic.