Lou Reed - Transformer

Released - November 1972

Genre - Art Rock

Producer - David Bowie & Mick Ronson

Selected Personnel - Lou Reed (Vocals/Guitar); Herbie Flowers (Bass/Tuba); Mick Ronson (Guitar/Piano/Recorder/String Arrangements); John Halsey (Drums); Ronnie Ross (Saxophone); David Bowie (Backing Vocals)

Standout Track - Perfect Day

For the man who had once been at the vanguard of rock and roll music's seedy underground movement, things had been rather quiet for Lou Reed since 1969's The Velvet Underground. In 1970, Reed became frustrated with the lack of progress the band were making and abandoned them shortly before completion of their next album, Loaded, leaving a gap that was filled by bassist Doug Yule until the band's dissolution a few years later. There seems to me to be a weird dichotomy in Reed's approach to his work and music - on the one hand there's his militant dedication to lo-fi amateurism as opposed to polished perfectionism, and his preferred thematic precoccupations of drug use, sexual deviancy and American counter-culture. It's an image difficult to square with the embittered young man who walked away from his band in the middle of a project because he didn't feel they or their manager were doing enough to bring the Velvet Underground to a wider audience. And then, when he finally did successfully create a hit album in 1972's Transformer, it came to be a burden he would later bemoan in making it difficult to continue making artistic progress that wasn't compared to his earlier success. In essence, it seems Lou Reed is simply a difficult personality. Transformer, despite Reed's grumbles and protestations, contains pretty much every reason why Lou Reed is familiar to the general audience, and it's one of the pinnacles of achievement of the whole New York art rock scene, even if it involved relocating to the UK to really achieve that success. A good three or four songs will already be familiar to even the most casual listener, and the rest contains some of the most glorious moments in Lou Reed's career.

Transformer is a fascinating document in that it sees one of Reed's greatest advocates suddenly in a position to offer him a favour. David Bowie, having been hugely influenced by the work of the Velvet Underground after discovering them in the early 70s and even basing huge elements of his phenomenally successful Ziggy Stardust persona on Lou Reed himself, had catapulted to success and achieved stardom the Velvet Underground themselves could only ever have dreamed of, bringing songs like "I'm Waiting For The Man" and "White Light/White Heat" to wider audiences via their live covers. Now, Reed was attempting to launch a solo career without his bandmates and had released a first self-titled album to very little acclaim or critical notice (it featured, curiously enough, Yes members Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman as session musicians). Leaping at the opportunity to do something to help one of his idols reach a wider audience, Bowie used his newfound fame and credibility to step in and serve as co-producer of Reed's new album along with his chief musical cohort at the time, Mick Ronson. While Bowie was the big name contributing his talents to the album, it was Ronson who proved to be the crucial figure in the album's production, contributing the majority of the instrumental parts himself as well as writing most of the arrangements, most notably the heart-stirring strings of "Perfect Day," on which he also contributes the slow, plangent piano lines.

Still, this is ultimately Reed's show and the presence of the star names of Bowie and Ronson never threaten to full focus away from him. The two of them are able to provide a slightly greater pop sensibility and commercial sheen to things than Reed ever imposed on his work with the Velvet Underground, but they never go so far as to stop this sounding like the grainy, slightly shaky and amateuristic product of Reed's own mind that it had to be. Reed contributes only his own trademark deadpan, throwaway vocals and his workmanlike acoustic guitar, with the majority of the horns, woodwinds, guitars, pianos and so on played with tasteful restraint by Ronson. There's the odd saxophone or horn, but things always come back to Reed himself, a pillar of detachment and stillness in the midst of all this curious musical beauty. The songs themselves, by and large, are among the best he ever wrote, and many of them date back to old songs written and recorded during his time with the Velvet Underground but never released. "Vicious" was a characteristically literal-minded response to a characteristically disingenuous and throwaway request by former manager and svengali Andy Warhol that Reed write a song about somebody "vicious - like I hit you with a flower." It's one of the more up-tempo rockers on offer, with Ronson providing some sinewy, torturous guitar solos but it's still rooted in Reed's stripped down and simple riff and blanked out vocal delivery. Elsewhere, Reed's songwriting continues to show the same preoccupations as his older songs did, with the all-time classic "Walk On The Wild Side" being perhaps the finest example. An extensive and brilliantly laconic tribute to the "superstars" of Andy Warhol's Factory, it pays tribute to the likes of Candy Darling and Jackie Curtis and sneakily manages to invoke all the sordid details of their lifestyles without ever being blatant enough to be noticed by censors. The now iconic doubled bassline was a stroke of genius by Herbie Flowers (who had worked previously with both Bowie and Elton John) as an attempt to double his fee by playing two instrumental parts on one track, and gives the song its celebrated laziness and mellow sense of freewheeling, while Ronnie Ross's saxophone solo adds even more to the jazzy feel of the thing. More upbeat and less hazy in tone is "Satellite Of Love," a reflection on jealousy that spends most of its running time as a fairly forgettable number before crescendoing, courtesy of Ronson's slowly building piano riff, into a deliriously triumphant and exciting conclusion where Bowie really makes his presence known via his instantly recognisable warbling backing vocals. It's one of the most dynamic and dramatic moments in Reed's discography, matched only by the wonder that is "Perfect Day."

At the time eclipsed by the popularity of "Walk On The Wild Side," "Perfect Day" is today probably Reed's best-known song via a resurgence in its popularity after its use in Trainspotting. It's the best example of the perfection of Reed's monotone vocals when used in the right context. The lushness of Ronson's string arrangement and the slow, romantic glide of his piano lines creates a mood of classical romance as Reed details a dream courtship, but the nightmarish blankness of his voice, coupled with the undertones of threat and menace in the lyrics ("You're gonna reap just what you sow") create a mood of utter desperation and sadness in the face of such romance. Quite what Reed intended the listener to take from the song - be it genuine, ironic, or whatever - is unclear. Some take it as his attempt to wrestle with his own sexuality and drug dependency in the face of an imagined idealised lifestyle. Whatever Reed meant in the composition of it, it's one of the most hauntingly and terrifyingly beautiful songs ever recorded, and when the stirring staccato strings kick in towards the end before the maudlin fade-out it's a moment of heart-stopping drama that's moved me to tears on several listens. In such company, some of the other material on the album can't help but fail to live up to the magnificence of "Vicious," "Walk On The Wild Side," "Satellite Of Love" and "Perfect Day." "Wagon Wheel" and "I'm So Free" are further fun, upbeat rockers in typically underplayed, amateurish Reed style, and "Goodnight Ladies" is a delightful, vaudeville-style jazz piece with tuba and clarinet that recalls the childlike innocence of the Velvet Underground's "After Hours" and sees Reed paying homage to T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. But many of the other songs fail to make much of an impression - "Make Up" and "New York Telephone Conversation," in particular, are too musically slight to be truly interesting.

But the buying public weren't put off by the presence of some rather disappointing filler - no doubt spurred on hugely by the presence of Messrs Bowie and Ronson, they helped Transformer to become the biggest hit of Lou Reed's career. Here was all the attitude and lo-fi authenticity of the cult art rock scene but presented in a more musically inventive and recognisable context that would appeal to the hardcore glam rock audience of the early 70s. Reed had no intention of becoming a glam rock pop superstar in the mould of Bowie and Bolan, but for a brief time he had the global success he'd yearned for, even if he would ultimately come to feel that the record failed to really represent the kind of musician he wanted to be. In places, the disparity between Reed's art rock ambitions and Bowie and Ronson's more glam-oriented production skills feels a little awkward, but there's no denying that when the three of them really gel together they manage to create some of the most inspiring, moving and catchy music Reed ever produced. His next move would, in hindsight, look almost like a calculated attempt to shed the superstar image Transformer had created for him as he started work on a sonically weird and savage concept album exploring the degradation of a relationship that took in child neglect, domestic abuse and suicide as just some of its themes. 1973's Berlin would see Reed critically savaged and commercially ignored once again, but it would restore 100% of his own artistic vision to his work. But with or without his heart being really in the product, Transformer is the highpoint of his career, and its four major standout songs will always rank highly in the pantheon of all-time classic rock songs.

Track Listing:

All songs written by Lou Reed except where noted.

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 (David Bowie)

9. New York Telephone Conversation

10. I'm So Free

11. Goodnight Ladies