I couldn't find much information about this on the net, but I did find Youtube videos with very short clips from most of the songs. It's a little hard to tell from the short, lo-fi clips, but to these ears, this doesn't sound like anything new. These sound like the known studio versions or Max's live versions. Possibly slightly different mixes - hard to tell.The Lou Reed acetate came directly from a London-based collector/dealer, who was assigned the terrifying task of cataloguing, sorting, and ultimately selling a collection of records that came from EMI's in-house publishing company Ardmore & Beechwood. Clearly, Dunbar, Lou's USA publishing house at the time, sent along the album acetate to EMI, hoping to garner a record label or UK publishing deal. This would be late 1970 early 1971, just before Lou signed a publishing deal with RCA. The provenance is impeccable.
Most, if not all the tracks, are live and rough mixes completely different from all studio album releases. I believe all tracks have not been published previously. Even though the label states a 'Lou Reed Sampler' all tracks are clearly played by the disintegrating VU with Doug Yule replacing John Cale. Three of the tracks are from the debut VU & Nico album and one track is from White Light, so it is possible that Cale is on them, but the rest of the tracks are from Loaded and the self-titled album.
An astonishing, undocumented, and unreleased acetate LP, produced in late 1970, early 1971. The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed here performing 12 original Velvet Underground tracks. This release was produced by Lou Reed’s publishing company Dunbar Music, attempting to gain Reed a new record deal, post The Velvet Underground. This Acetate came from Dunbar Music, the publishing company who published all of The Velvet Underground and early solo Lou Reed-written tracks, and was created around the time the Velvet Underground disbanded, and Lou was looking for a new record deal. (Reed was later to sign to RCA records, retaining Dunbar Music to cover publishing rights.) Because Lou had not yet recorded any solo material at this stage, all of the tracks on this double-sided acetate LP are effectively by the disintegrating Velvet Underground. The showcase promo acetate includes many unreleased live tracks, including wonderful live versions of “Femme Fatale” (with introduction by Lou Reed himself) and “I'm Waiting For The Man”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35NWj9aa8z4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQUgMVUWAqA
If this really was something Lou was using to get a solo deal, seems strange that he picked two songs Yule sang.
Anyone know anything more about this?