As Record Store Days go, this year really wasn’t bad. Pre-pandemic style lines seem to have been the norm across the country; pre-release excitement clung to a wider selection of items than usual; and, if the flippers were out in even greater force than usual ($500+ for a $20 Taylor Swift single?), there were also some comparative bargains to be had if you judge your purchases by musical standards alone.
For Spin Cycle, the king of this year’s retail jungle was Lou Reed’s I’m So Free: The 1971 RCA Demos (Legacy), 13 tracks recorded in one session on October 27, 1971, and if you want to know what it’d have been like to sit in a room with Reed while he strummed acoustically through his songbook, come on in.
Even better, with only one track (take two of “Perfect Day”) having seen a previous release, as a bonus track on CD, this is effectively a whole new album, at the same time as it doubles as a near-greatest hits. Reed had yet to record his first solo album, but here he’s working through songs that would carry him through the next three years, with cuts destined for , and rubbing shoulders with the best of .
