Various Why Don't You Smile Now - Lou Reed At Pickwick Records 1964 -1965 (2-LP)

(Light in the Attic Records) 25 tracks, gatefold cover - includes extensive booklets with unseen photos, liner notes by Richie Unterberger (renowned music journalist and author of “White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground day-by-day”) and an essay by Lenny Kaye (the legendary guitarist, co-founder of the Patti Smith Group, author, producer and curator of the groundbreaking garage rock anthology “Nuggets”)

“Why Don't You Smile Now: Lou Reed At Pickwick Records 1964-65” contains rarities, cult classics (The Primitives' ‘The Ostrich’) and previously unreleased material (The Beachnuts' ‘Sad, Lonely Orphan Boy’) and is a compilation of pop songs from Reed's pen, which he wrote in the mid-60s as an employed songwriter for the long-defunct Pickwick Records label. The compilation is the latest installment in the Lou Reed Archive series and follows Lou Reed's “Words & Music, May 1965” (2022) and the re-release of “Hudson River Wind Meditations” (2023). One of the most original and innovative personalities in music history, Reed (1942-2013) first gained recognition as co-founder and frontman of the influential band Velvet Underground.

Over the course of his five-decade career, the two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer brought his unique vision to an eclectic range of musical endeavors, including epochal albums like “Transformer” (1972) and wildly experimental works like the avant-garde noise classic “Metal Machine Music” (1975). But before establishing himself as a singer, songwriter, musician and poet, Reed began as an in-house songwriter (and occasional session guitarist/vocalist) at Pickwick Records, a label that specialized in sound-alike recordings that mimicked the big pop hits of the day. From garage rock and girl-group pop to blue-eyed soul and teen idol ballads, Reed's output for Pickwick offers a fascinating early glimpse into his ever-evolving and truly boundary-pushing artistry, restored and remastered by GRAMMY©-nominated mastering engineer John Baldwin.