Lost songs

Never Get Emotionally Involved With Man, Woman, Beast Or Child
Unknown credits - not found in BMI database

This is a title that Sterling Morrison mentioned as part of the demo tape recorded at Ludlow Street loft in 1965. Several copies of the tape were sent in England. That tape was supposedly the one offered on the first CD of Peel Slowly And See box set. But Cale stated in print that he gave the tape to Polygram thinking it was the legendary finished demo tape which he tried to shop in the UK. When he received the DAT'ed version back from Polygram, he was shocked to find that it was actually that rehearsal. He also mentioned that he has boxes of tapes gathering dust in his basement. He, allegedly, hasn't had the stomach to go through them and determine what's on them. I asked Moe about that song and she said: "I can sing this one in my head!!!"

Walk Alone
Jerry Jr Pellegrino, Terry Philips, Lou A. Reed, James N. Smith

Amazing! The Velvet Underground played at least one song written by Lou Reed and the Pickwick team guys! This song appears on the Factory rehearsals tape, recorded on January 3, 1966. This tape remains in Andy Warhol Museum archives but some of the tracks are available on a unique CD part of the 1996 All Tomorrow's Parties: Remembering The Velvet Underground exhibition at Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. THIS CD IS NOT FOR SALE. Read CD page for full information. This recording is now officially available on the 45th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of The Velvet Underground & Nico.

When you walk, you know you're gonna walk alone
When you talk, you're always gonna talk alone
All alone, all alone, you know you're gonna talk alone
All alone, all alone, you know you're gonna talk alone

When you make love, you know you're gonna love it alone
Yeah when you make love, you know you're gonna love it alone
All alone, all alone, you know you're gonna love it alone
All alone, all alone, you know you're gonna love it alone

Honey when you die, you know you're gonna die alone
When you die, you know you're gonna die alone
All alone, all alone, you know you're gonna die alone
All alone, all alone, you know you're gonna die alone

When you dream, you know you're gonna dream alone
When you dream, in your mind all alone
All alone, all alone, you know you're gonna do it alone
All alone, all alone, you know you're gonna do it alone

Men Of Good Fortune
Lou Reed
Oakfield Avenue Music Ltd

Incredible!!! Yes that song that finally surfaced on Lou Reed's Berlin album exists on a tape of a Velvet Underground rehearsal recorded by Andy Warhol on January 3, 1966 - but this one is not available on the All Tomorrow's Parties CD.

Miss Joanie Lee
Credits unknown - not found in BMI database

Another one from the early '66 Factory rehearsal tape - a gem originally available on the All Tomorrow's Parties CD - THIS CD IS NOT FOR SALE. This track is incredible and musically stands up to anything on the banana LP. It really is an unbelievable song/jam similar in sonic spirit to European Son but with lots of Bo Diddley thrown in for fun! This recording is now officially available on the 45th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of The Velvet Underground & Nico.

Get It On Time
John Davies Cale, Lou A. Reed
John Cale Music Inc, Oakfield Avenue Music Ltd

This song was registred on April 22, 1966. That date let think it could be an outtake from the recording sessions of The Velvet Underground And Nico album. The only known version is available on a rehearsal tape recorded at the Factory on March 7, 1966, and was used for the All Tomorrow's Parties CD. This recording remains officially unreleased, but is available on various bootlegs.

Sister Ray Part 3
Unknown credits

John Cale - in What's Welsh For Zen autobiography: "We'd always put the improvisation at the ned, something intentionally chaotic like 'European Son'or 'Sister Ray'. We used to leave the stage and then come back an do a really pretty song as encore just to confuse people. I don't think anyone's got the 'Sister Ray Part 3" that we used to do as our big finale. We'd start way off left of field with something totally chaotic and gradually work our way back to the version on the record. Very long, very intense, with Lou becoming a Southern preacher man, telling stories and just inventing these fantastic characters as we played."

I'm Not A Young Man Anymore
John Davies Cale, Sterling Morrison, Lou Reed, Maureen Ann Tucker
John Cale Music Inc, Oakfield Avenue Music Ltd

"Hey, I'm not a young man anymore
Hey, I'm not a young man anymore
I got five nickles in my pocket
You know that I can get me some more"

Moe says: "I think we played it live - not completely sure. I wouldn't swear that we didn't record it, but I don't think so". February 2008 update: the song is now available on Live At The Gymnasium bootleg LP.

Sweet Rock And Roll
Unknown credits - not listed in BMI database

Lester Bangs reviewing a July 1968 show at The Hippodrome in San Diego CA wrote: (...) That was a quite night, though. In a way it was the ultimate Velvet Underground concert. The audience was terrible; those that weren't downright hostile kept interrupting the announcements between songs to yell out what they wanted to hear, like "How about Heroin!" and even "Play Searchin' For My Mainline!" But right in the middle of all these bad vibes, the Velvets launched into a new song that was one of the most incredible musical experiences of my concert carreer. Lou announced it as Sister Ray, Part Two, but it sounded nothing like the previous song. It was built on the most dolorous riff imaginable, just a few scales rising and falling mournfully, somewhat like Venus In Furs but less creaky, more deliberate and eloquent. The lyrics, many of which Lou made up as he went along, seemed like fantasy from an urban inferno:

Sweet Sister Ray went to a movie
The floor was painted red and the walls were greeb
"Ooohh," she cried
"This is the strangest movie I've ever seen...".

But it was the chorus that was the most moving:

"Ohhhh, sweet rock and roll - it'll cleanse your soul..."

That's classic, and no other group in America could have (or would have) written and sung those words. (...)

Sterling Morrison: "We also did a four track tape when we played with Quicksilver. Wedid the show and then went to a party, and Lou and I and John Cipollina were sitting on this couch. I'm sitting there and I heard Quicksilver - that had played first - and it was fabulous. So then I hear us tuning up and I said to Lou: Well I think I'm getting out of here! I didn't want us sounding terrible compared to Quicksilver, and I figured we had to sound terrible compared to them, because I'd just heard how great they had sounded. Cipollina is a real good guitar player. After tuning, we started with Waiting For The Man and it didn't sound so bad, so I stuck around. Then came Sweet Rock and Roll, which was never recorded and never played again. We wanted that tape, it sounded so great, so there was no point in recording it. I think we did it a time or two after that, but it was nothing compared to this first one. I remember the chords and some words: "Sweet rock 'n' roll is good to your soul...". We used that as a preamble to Sister Ray, it kind of just goes along and then hits the chords, which were very heavy. It was good. It was heavy, serious. Cale played keyboard on "Sweet Rock and Roll," and that was really what carried it. Good keyboards."

Sweet-and-Twenty
William Shakespeare, Lou A. Reed
Lewis Reed

This title was registred on June 10, 1969. William Shakespeare is credited for words while Lou Reed is for music.

Lonely Saturday Night
Lou A. Reed
Oakfield Avenue Music Ltd

Aral Sezen - reviewing the Velvet Underground second set at Avalon Ballroom on November 8, 1969: "...the audience was still cheering and calling for more, so they did a version of Lonely Saturday Night. This song would actually become Goodnight Ladies. I couldn't believe that they would sing goodnight to the people, but then they did a lot of thing that night that I wouldn't have believe, things that turned me from a fan into a true devotee...".

Follow The Leader
Lou A. Reed
Metal Machine Music

Recorded live at The Matrix in San Francisco CA on November 27, 1969 by Robert Quine - now available on The Velvet Underground Bootleg Series Volume 1 - The Quine Tapes. The song has re-surfaced in 1976 on Lou Reed's Rock And Roll Heart.

If I Tell You
Lou A. Reed

This song is mentioned in Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground in Los Angeles' Phonograph Record magazine, December 1973 - Rock retrospective #10 by Richard Cromelin. In this article he writes: "Lou once wrote a song called "If I Tell You".

If I tell you
All the pretty things
And if I give you
What tomorrow brings
Would you stop being mean to you
Stop those things that hurt only you
That is all you have to
To make you fall in love
With you

Lou thought it was the most beautiful song he'd ever written, and he wanted to record it backwards!"

I asked Moe about that song and she says that "those lyrics are not familiar at all" but she adds "For some reason that title sounds familiar"...

What's Wrong With This Picture
John Davies Cale, Holmes Sterling Jr Morrison, Lou Reed, Maureen Ann Tucker
John Cale Music, Screen Gems - EMI Music Inc, Metal Machine Music

Well this is not really a lost song - only a "lost" title which was however registred. It is actually an alternate title for 1993 reunion tour Velvet Nursery Rhyme. Introducing Sterling during the nursery rhyme at Wembley Arena, Lou said: "What's wrong with this picture? Wembley Arena filled up! Thousands tickets, merchandising, record contract. I don't get it." and the rhyme ended with "Sterling wants none of this". On the Spanish press release for the upcoming Live MCMXCIII album the song is listed as What's Wrong With This Picture...

Last Night I Said Goodbye To My Friend
Unknown credits - not listed in BMI database

This song was performed by John Cale, Lou Reed and Moe Tucker in honor of Sterling Morrison for the Velvet Underground Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony on January 18, 1996. The song is now available on the unofficial Caught Between The Twisted Stars 4-CD set. And a studio recording appears on Moe Tucker's I Feel So Far Away anthology.

By Olivier Landemaine
Last modified: May 26, 2013

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