Lou Reed's previously unreleased tracks to be issued

Seven previously unreleased tracks by the late Freeport-raised rock legend Lou Reed anchor the first releases in an archive series co-produced by his widow, avant-garde performance artist Laurie Anderson.

Light in the Attic Records announced Monday that standard and deluxe editions of "Words & Music, May 1965" would be released Aug. 26 with remastered versions of the earliest known recordings of songs including "I'm Waiting For the Man," "Pale Blue Eyes" and “Heroin."

"In May of 1965, Lou Reed, with the help of future [Velvet Underground] bandmate John Cale, recorded the very first known versions of these iconic songs along with a handful of others and mailed the tape to himself as a 'poor man's copyright,' " the label wrote on social media. "The tape remained sealed in its original envelope and unopened for nearly 50 years — entirely unheard and forgotten, until now." 

The standard version is available as a CD, cassette, vinyl LP, color vinyl LP or set of 8-track tapes, costing from $13 to $35 depending on format. The $80 deluxe version comes as two 45 rpm LPs "pressed on audiophile-quality 180-gram vinyl," as well as a CD of the music, and is limited to 7,500 copies. Each edition comes in a die-cut gatefold jacket designed by artist Masaki Koike, with liner notes from journalist and author Greil Marcus and by two of Anderson's fellow producers, Don Fleming and Jason Stern.

Anderson, who turned 75 on Sunday, has not commented publicly.

The source cassette for the upcoming releases is different from another lost tape found by Cornell University music professor Judith Peraino in 2019, labeled "The Philosophy Songs," and sent by Reed as a gift to artist Andy Warhol.

Born in Brooklyn but raised in Freeport from age 11, punk-rock progenitor Reed was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with his band The Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo performer in 2015, and into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2010.

Reed, whose influential songs include "Walk on the Wild Side," "Sweet Jane" and "Perfect Day," died of liver disease at his home in Amagansett on Oct. 27, 2013, at age 71.