The Shades: Is this mystery acetate Lou Reed’s lost first recordings? — dangerousminds.net

Now, if the question in the title seems like one of those click-baity lead-ons, where the article holds some “jaw-dropping” reveal, let me get this out of the way right now: it’s a question I’m actually asking and don’t have the answer to. Several years ago, I was digging for records at some thrift shops in a small South Carolina town when I happened upon a filthy milk-crate, stuffed with what most record collectors would call “acetates,” but what even more persnickety record collectors would correct you into properly identifying as “lacquers.” These lacquer discs are generally one-off cut discs. When you find them out in the wild, in most cases, they are booth-recordings made of families singing Christmas carols or sending messages to loved-ones overseas. Every now and then you get lucky and find a “dub-plate” or a demo disc. On this particular day, I scored. I found a small crate full of unissued demo discs from the doo-wop era.

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