Listen to Lou Reed's surprisingly folky, almost Dylan-esque performance of 'Heroin.'
The recording shows how advanced he was as a songwriter as a young age, as well as how progressive his themes were at the time. In 1965, the Beatles were singing “Help” and “Yesterday,” Dylan was doing “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” and Reed was singing about heroin.
A few years back, Reed’s Velvet Underground bandmate, John Cale, recounted how the first song Reed played him was “Heroin” and how that led to the formation of the band. “When Lou played me the songs at Pickwick [Studio] and said, ‘They won’t let me record these songs,’ it kind of pissed me off,” Cale said. “I said, ‘Let’s go and do it ourselves.’ … So my initial reaction was just anger at the arrogance of a record company, which was boilerplate.