FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009 file photo, Lou Reed performs at the Lollapalooza music festival, in Chicago. The rocker's life was decidedly unconventional, but he wanted his estate used for a very traditional purpose: to benefit his wife and other relatives. Reed’s will was filed Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, in a New York City court. (AP Photo/John Smierciak, File)

By PAUL COLLINS

Special to The Sunday Telegraph

When Lou Reed passed away from Liver Cancer in 2013, the world lost a poet and punk rock pioneer. In fact, in the minds of many, he was the architect of the punk genre. As one of rock music’s archetypal New York tough guys, Reed was indeed a different and unique musical artist who, in his low “speak – sing” style took all of us for “A Walk on the Wild Side.”

Across an often controversial career, whether one may have loved or hated the late Lou Reed, he was definitely one of a kind. By anyone’s criteria, he was a decidedly different and unconventional artist who, as journalists might characterize as being guy who always “made good copy.” For in his time, Reed was, without question, one of a kind. One can clearly see the impact and influence of his alternative style on the rock icon, and Reed disciple, David Bowie. Iggy Pop is another musical artist whose unconventional “out there” style always seems to have had the unmistakable impact of Reed stamped on it.

Reed was the founder of the seminal late 60’s Indie band, The Velvet Underground, and throughout his career he always projected an image to the world of the oh-so-cool and ultra-hip New York City punk-rock poet. Before the Velvet Underground burst upon the music scene, song lyrics that made references to sex and drugs were always veiled and indirect. Fronting the Velvet Underground, Reed sang about all of those things that were, for all of the other bands of the times, always forbidden. He wrote some of rock’s most explicit lyrics about drugs in songs like “Heroin,” and “Waiting for the Man,” and prostitution in “There She Goes Again.” In his only top-20 hit, “Walk on the Wild Side,” he shattered just about all of the cultural norms.

Reel to Real tapes that were found years after his death by his widow in a storage unit among his personal items, are what comprises the new album, “Words and Music, May 1965.” These new-old tapes open the creaky door to the past and afford the public the opportunity to get a bird’s eye view of a young Lou Reed in his transformation period. Track for track the album takes the listener on a journey back to the explosive decade of the 1960’s to hear a 23 year old novice music artist assembling some of his best known songs in their earliest and pre-released form. The collection amplifies the sound and stylings of Reed and John Cale experimenting and laying down tracks for various songs that would evolve to become some of the Velvet Undergrounds best known future releases.

Reed, and his musical collaborators, doing a cover of Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” sets the tone and feel of the album. In fact, much of it is steeped in a mid-60’s folk feel; a testament to how enthralled the punk rocker always was with both Dylan in particular, and the folk music scene in general. In the face of that artistic infatuation, Reed put his own distinctive style on each one of the tracks. One hears the previously mentioned “Heroin” and “Waiting for the Man,” in their splendid infancy. In their way, they serve to enhance and bolster the myth of the fabled punker’s myth to his fans.

Looking back across the years at his career, there remains an indelible imagine of him that is still fixed in my mind. For me, the release of “Words and Music, May 1965,” basically a group of Demo tapes, serves to pull back the curtain on an artist who was light years ahead of his time. His unique voice comes walking out of the mists of time like a ghostly apparition. Floating down the hallway of my memory, is the crystal clear image of a very different avant-garde artist who, clad in black leather, sunglasses, and painted nails came drifting out of the dark canyons of New York City a long time ago. Lou Reed was an innovative singer-songwriter who reached out to take all of us on “A Walk on the Wild Side.”

Paul Collins is a freelance writer from Southborough, Massachusetts.

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