Lou Reed - Transformer
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Lou ReedBrand: REED,LOU
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2002-10-22
Music Label: RCA
Product features:
- Lou Reed - Transformer (incl. 2 Former Unreleased Bonus
- Vicious
- Andy's Chest
- Perfect Day
- Hangin' 'Round
- Walk On The Wild Side
- Make Up
- Satellite Of Love
- Wagon Wheel
- New York Telephone Conversation
- I'm So Free
- Goodnight Ladies
- Hangin' 'Round (Acoustic Demo)
- Perfect Day (Acoustic Demo)
Free Music Notes for Transformer
Free Music Review: Lower East Side Cabaret
Hit: 5 Stars
Lou Reed's self-titled solo debut, released in early 1972, is often overlooked; in fact, it was an interesting and creative album that had some strong points. On his own, unfortunately, Lou didn't quite manage to recreate the magic of his days with the Velvet Underground, and the album wasn't up to the Velvets' standards; it was a commercial disappointment. He might have released a few more forgettable albums, and been remembered for his days with the Velvets, his solo career being more or less dismissible. However, only a few months later, with help from David Bowie and Mick Ronson, Lou proved that he had what it takes to make it alone.
Transformer became an instant classic, and is considered one of the most important and influential and important albums of the 70's to this day, for many reasons. It was the combination of Reed's and Bowie's talents that made it work - because, although the songs are all Reed's, Bowie's mark is all over them. And yet, although the sound sounds remarkably like Bowie's work at the time, there's none of the otherworldly glamour of Ziggy Stardust - instead, Reed uses Bowie's glam to paint a realistic, sad, ironic and affectionate picture of life in Lower East Side New York and the Warhol crowd in the late 60's and early 70's. The combination of these elements created a very unique style, and earthly, street-wise cabaret, half American and half European, that made Transformer stand out. That style is best portrayed in the album's biggest hit - 'Walk on the Wild Side' - a song that tells the stories of some of the characters who wandered these streets in those years, and Reed tells these stories in an intimate and sympathetic and yet humorous and ironic way, with very clever lyrics like only he could write. Bowie's pop sensitivities helped make the song very radio-friendly, and with a great little riff and brilliant bass work by Klaus Voorman, 'Walk on the Wild Side' became an instant classic that would linger on long after its subjects were forgotten.
It's not the only gem on the album. Transformer is the kind of album that sounds almost like a greatest hit collection. 'Perfect Day' is Reed's most popular ballad, and a very sharp and ironic song, that lost its edge over the years but can still move today. Even if you look past the sarcastic lyrics, it's a truly beautiful song, and a hauntingly dark one. 'Satellite of Love', the third biggest hit off the album, is another pop masterpiece, a gorgeous song that has Bowie's fingerprints all over it. Seamy songs like 'Make Up' and 'New York Telephone Conversation' give us a twisted and ironic look on the Warhol troupe and life in New York in the early 70's, while 'Hangin' Round', 'Wagon Wheel', 'Vicious' and 'I'm So Free' are all-out rock tracks, all precise and catchy as can be. 'Andy's Chest' is a redefinition of a song from the Velvet Underground days, that leaves the original far behind and proves beyond doubt that Reed is back on his feet.
'Goodnight Ladies' is perhaps the most personal song on the album and one of the best, and the one that best contains the special blend of New York and Europe that this album excels in. 'Goodnight Ladies' is classic cabaret, seductive and teasing, and yet it's fixated perfectly in Lower East Side New York, and gives a strong feeling of the loneliness of big-city life. All through the track you can imagine Reed on a dimly lit stage, smoking a cigarette and in his sleepers and undershirt, unshaven and just a bit drunk; the song is a perfect closing number, which compliments the atmosphere of the entire album, and leaves the listener smiling sadly and entirely satisfied.
Musically and lyrically, I actually consider Transformer Lou's second best album - second to Berlin, his strongest and most uncompromising album, released one year later. But where Berlin explores and experiments, Transformer is confident and precise, and in many ways it is a more complete and more perfect album, perfect like only a handful of albums through the ages have managed to be. Both Transformer and Berlin are in my opinion essential listening, but Transformer is probably the best album to start your Lou Reed collection with.
Transformer Poster
Lou Reed Transformer 1. Vicious 2. Andy¦s Chest 3. Perfect Day 4. Hangin Round 5. Walk On The Wild Side 6. Make Up 7. Satellite Of Love 8. Wagon Wheel 9. New York Telephone Conversation 10. I¦m So Free 11. Goodnight Ladies 12. HanThis sophomore release by the Velvet Underground cofounder has long been hailed as one of the key touchstones of the punk and alternative eras that followed it. Reinforcing the literary adage to "write what you know," Reed paints an alternately detached/debauched portrait of the drag-and-drugs-infused underground of Warhol's New York, a place, time, and mindset so compelling it has largely overshadowed the rest of the singer-songwriter's mercurial career. That the album would also give Reed an unlikely Top 20 pop hit via the teasing, twisted sexuality of "Walk on the Wild Side" is but one of its deep, rewarding ironies. Indeed, as produced by David Bowie and guitarist and cohort Mick Ronson at the height of their own Ziggy Stardust fame, Reed's songs are cast in a seductive cabaret setting that's more Jacques Brel than Lower East Side. This 30th-anniversary edition features two unreleased acoustic demos ("Hangin' 'Round," "Perfect Day"), a vintage radio spot by announcer and word-jazz cult fave Ken Nordine, and a new illustrated booklet and perceptive essay by Michael Hill. --Jerry McCulley
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