Primitives Lou Reed The Ostrich Pickwick Autographed Hear
$
510
Favourite Auctions
To save auctions to your favourites, please login
If you don't have an account, please register
Description
Primitives The Ostrich b/w Sneaky Pete Pickwick City Promo VG looks a bit rough (no deep scratches) but plays great far better than it's visual appearance and grade. Autographed by Walter DeMaria and Tony Conrad. Walter and Tony were members of the touring band (which only performed a few gigs) along with Lou Reed and John Cale. Listen here to the actual disc... primitives.mp3
From AllMusic...
Artist Biography by Richie Unterberger
In the mid-'60s, Lou Reed took a job as a staff songwriter and studio musician at Pickwick, the budget/exploitation label in New York. His most fully realized effort from this period, though hardly a notable artistic accomplishment, was the 1964 single "The Ostrich"/"Sneaky Pete." Pretty outrageous by standards of the time, "The Ostrich" was ostensibly a dance, but delivered with out-of-tune guitar plucks and Reed's typically forceful sing-speak vocals. There was also a crunching rhythm section, ludicrously high-pitched backup vocals, and lyrics about laying your head on the floor to have it stepped on -- that was how you did "The Ostrich" dance. The flip was a more basic garage tune that nonetheless, like the A-side, bore the unmistakable stamp of Reed's cool vocals and facility for simple, grungy, yet arresting guitar chords.
Reed had a hand in writing both sides, which bore the songwriting credit Vance-Sims-Reed-Phillips. Although the original 45 is very rare, it was reissued as part of the Velvet Underground bootleg The Velvet Underground Etc. in 1979. For what it's worth, Reed is credited with playing "ostrich"-styled guitar on The Velvet Underground & Nico (aka The Banana Album), presumably referring to his parts on tracks like "European Son," on which he sounds like he's trying to strangle his own guitar strings.
Although the Primitives were a studio-only group to begin with, that changed when the single, improbably, generated interest from a TV dance show that wanted the group to appear on the program. Even more improbably, a backup band was assembled featuring Reed's new acquaintances from the Manhattan avant-garde underground: John Cale, sculptor Walter DeMaria (who would play drums), and filmmaker Tony Conrad (who like Cale was a member of the avant-garde ensemble La Monte Young's Theater of Eternal Music). For laughs, they played a few promotional shows around the East Coast, without getting themselves or their record much action.
John Cale, however, was struck when Reed told them that learning "The Ostrich" would be easy, as all the strings were tuned to a single note. This was similar to what Cale and Conrad were doing with experimental composer La Monte Young; Reed was applying a similar concept to rock & roll. the Primitives experience likely was one more factor that helped bind Reed and Cale together, starting a musical partnership that would flower into the Velvet Underground and prove hugely influential on the course of rock music.
Here's a photo of Walter and Tony with Reed and Cale (photo not included with record)....
IMPORTANT: Overseas orders will ship via express mail as extra precaution. I will pay part of the fee but please take into account that shipping will be $38 for this item to ship overseas!
All discs are original pressings. I do not sell bootlegs or reproductions.
My Grading System: Mint (M) I do not use this grade ever. Mint- (M-) Near perfect record. Very Good +++ (VG+++) Close to M-. May have a minor mark or two. Very Good ++ (VG++) Clean copy. A few scuffs and surface marks may be apparent. Very Good + (VG+) Decent copy. Will have a few scratches and scuffs, some light noise. Very Good (VG) Your average used record. Many marks and scratches but disc can still be enjoyed with some background noise apparent. Very Good- (VG-) Heavily used record. A lot of scratches. Will play with a good degree of background noise. Good + (G+) Rough copy. Will play through without skips. Good (G) Trashed. Good for skeet shooting! Keep in mind some discs were pressed on cheap vinyl, especially certain 1950's R&B indies and even near mint copies can play with surface noise. I always try to post a sound clip so that you can hear how the actual disc plays. On Oct-04-14 at 05:20:24 PDT, seller added the following information:
There's been a couple questions about the signatures on this disc so I am adding the following info. There is no certification on the signatures. Disc was found in a doo wop collectors basement in Pennsylvania who sold me the record. The disc was in a box with no sleeve. He would buy records at flea markets and garage sales. I assume that the signatures were done at one of the couple of gigs that the band did to promote the record but can not guarantee that or anything else about the signatures. I get these things the way I find them. I believe the real value of the record is for the record and the signatures are just an interesting side story to the disc. If John Cale and Lou Reed had signed the disc it would have been a different story but they didn't.