The lyrics for this are nowhere to be found online, and some are incomprehensible, but here’s my best guess:

They went and took my Uncle Joe
We ain’t see (?) no more
The man said everything is fine
Don’t you worry bout the old coal mine
Guess it looks like I’m gonna have to work for a while
I guess I’m gonna have to go and join the stockpile (x5)
Looks like I’m gonna have to work for a while
I guess I’m gonna have to go and join the stockpile

I asked my mother if she’d give me a dime
And she wouldn’t even go and tell me the time
I tell her I didn’t (?) though
The concrete and the icy snow
Guess I’m gonna have to work for a while
I guess I’m gonna have to go and join the stockpile

They took just about everything I had
They made me feel like I was getting real bad
I didn’t know if I was all around
They said that I was playing games around town, well
Looks like I’m gonna have to work for a while
I guess I’m gonna have to go and join the stockpile (x5)
Well it looks like I’m gonna have to work for a while
I guess I’m gonna have to go and join the stockpile

If we take this at face value — always a risk, but let’s go ahead anyway — it seems to indicate that Lou thought his time at Pickwick was just about up. Educational as it was, it was a dead-end job and didn’t pay enough for him to move out of his parents’ house; eventually he’d have to do something else with his life.

Ideally he’d be able to make money from his own music rather than churning out work-for-hire. But at this point that probably felt like a pipe dream — he was recording the demo to shop around, but any result could be a long time coming. So he faced the most horrifying prospect that can confront any aspiring artist: he might have to go and get a real job.

But in “Stockpile” he sounds pretty sanguine about the idea, almost gleeful. Maybe he thought it would be a relief to go and be a regular person for a while, and not have to think so much about everything all the time. This would indeed come to pass, but not for five years. After quitting the Velvet Underground in 1970, Lou would briefly join the family accounting business. But there is a lot to cover between now and then. A lot. So in the interest of conserving everyone’s energy, maybe we’ll just leave it there for the moment.