Notes:
From 1965-70 Lou Reed was the guitarist and main songwriter with The Velvet Underground, the most influential cult band in the history of rock. After John Cale left the group, Reed steered it away from its art-rock origins and towards a rootsier, bluesier style that highlighted his unique, invigorating guitar playing. In the early '70s Reed fell in with the glam rock hordes, and Transformer, co-produced with glam-rock ringleaders David Bowie and Mick Ronson, saw Reed reinvent his sound, Bowie-like. Surprisingly, considering the warped characters and demented arrangements, the album was one of the greatest successes of a solo career that allegedly continued into the '90s.
Links: The Wild Side of Lou Reed
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Inkling.
Transformer is one of the most ridiculous albums ever released by a rock 'n' roll icon of Lou Reed's stature. For wanton absurdity, perhaps only the Beach Boys' Smiley Smile and some of Lennon's Plastic Ono Band stuff can compare. Unlike those albums, however, Transformer works.
Reed's flat, almost spoken delivery makes an appearance, as does his always wonderful lead guitar. And on the opening rocker "Vicious," both sound as potent as ever. Elsewhere, though, Reed's trademarks rub raw against the brassiest, most outlandish arrangements that he, Bowie and Ronson could pry from from their drug-stained cerebella. Broadway-hokey gospel choirs, lounge jazz, Ronson's blaring, overdriven glam guitars, Bacharach orchestral motifs...there's even some oompah in there somewhere. Songs like "Perfect Day" and "Walk on the Wild Side" have become so ingrained in the rock consciousness, it's easy to forget how strangely anti-rock they sound.
The Velvets' music obviously lived on the same dark side of town as Reed's seedy lyrical fascinations. But here his tales of killer queens and beauty parlor junkies inhabit an almost jolly musical landscape, and the contradictions make it all even scarier. Transformer is high camp by way of the Bowery, and on "Make Up," and "Goodnight Ladies," Reed sounds like the devil in drag. Outrageous, disturbing and weirdly compelling, this album is an oddity worth owning.
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