Coney Island Steeplechase

 

Coney Island Steeplechase is part of the 1969 sessions for what would have been the band’s fourth studio album (following 1969’s The Velvet Underground). The band recorded about 14 songs between May and October 1969, but MGM shelved them following a change in management. These recordings are known as the “Great Lost Fourth Album” or “lost fourth album.”

In 1988, I took a sabbatical from Tatler and started managing the Bad Seeds. I was in a lift in a hotel in New York with the band sound engineer, who was a big Lou Reed fan. The elevator was going down to the lobby and stopped at a floor beneath us. Lo and behold, Lou Reed gets into the lift. He looked incredibly grumpy, but the sound engineer said, “Oh my God, Lou Reed, you’re my hero.” And Lou Reed said, “Fuck off,” before getting out of the lift. And I said to my friend, “Are you really disappointed?” And he said, “No, that’s what I was hoping he’d say.”

Jessamy Calkin (journalist)