Bowie, he's the most influential. If you've seen the film "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" there's a great moment with a photo of those 3 guys used as a music lesson.
I'll tend to go with the singers , Bowie could sing: there's not a great deal from the opposition in that department. Also despite Reed and Iggy giving us great albums Bowie's output is more varied. It's entered popular consciousness for reasons.
Mick Ronson is a star among stars here. That terrific sound on Hangin Around and Free. A clutch of Reed classics: sounding very Ziggy on Satellite or is it the other way around. I won't always love Transformer the way I do the beautiful bright poignant Mystery Tour (I can't believe you wanted Transformer to win the poll!) but I'll always love this video. It could never be said of you Abby 'you're not the kind of person we want to stay'.
Historically, the reason Walk on The Wild Side was a hit was bc of the structure of radio. It was not a hit on "AM" radio, which was top 40, but it was a hit on "FM" radio, which was the real center of popular radio by then.
I remember as a kid hearing Walk On The Wild Side on AM radio. I think a lot of the the 'squares' in the radio biz didn't decode all the lyrics and were just digging the catchy bass line
@stereo999 FM was so great back then. It seems like they didn't give a shit about selling commercial time. I remember things like "Tonight at midnight Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon in full without commercial interruption". By far the best time to be alive.
Saw Lou in concert many times. He was always late, made you “wait for the man,” and about the time people were so restless they were ready to leave, he would suddenly appear while the first chords of “Sweet Jane” played like a drug rush. The stage persona seemed to crystallize during the “Take No Prisoners” era, with the ultimate gesture of flicking lit cigarettes into the audience while singing through puffs of smoke. Never saw any other performer do that with such deliberate aim, and with a battery of television displays of black and white video graphics behind him it was like a fireworks enhancement. Sometimes I think I listened to Lou Reed’s records too much, sometimes I just play them again, and someday I still hope to meet Lorraine (Wild Child) Thanks Abby!
all the defiance i imagined he'd have. he was the king of cool on stage, especially when he leaned into the public lou persona like he did at your show
New York is the most coherent Lou Reed album! Bowie also gave Mott the Hoople a massive leg up with All the Young Dudes! We got 50 years of brilliant and ongoing music from Ian Hunter as a result!
You voice a most clear eyed perspective and exploration of the latter 20th century's popular culture, the classic rock era, and you so it with great, highly engaging delivery. Consistently. You're no newbie to sentience in a universe turned on itself. This is art.
I love when I am the first person who utters a sentence. I also have never met anyone who even thinks of that being a thing. Glad I found this page. Love it.
There’s a quote from Lou somewhere where he says that his younger fans would tell him they thought Goodnight Ladies was about leaving a gay club for the night and Lou thinking “The kids are alright!” One of my favorite Lou quotes. To add onto your point about the choreography Goodnight Ladies absolutely calls out for, there’s a video of Lou performing it at the Ancienne Belgique where he’s actually wearing a top hat! Can you tell I adore this song? Absolutely love this album and completely relate to your reverence for Candy Darling, too. As a gender nonconforming person myself, the atmosphere of this album is always a comforting one to step into. Wonderful video as always!
NO WAY i called it! i have to see this top hat performance! great art comforts society's outsiders and makes the "in crowd" feel uncomfortable. that's transformer in a nutshell. dare i say ms. darling is a patron saint of vinyl monday
Hi Abigail, It was Summer in the late 70's early 80's,my boyfriend and I were at a pizzeria in The Village in N.Y.C.....who walks in but Lou Reed ! He sits behind us..the waiter does a cartwheel for Lou ! It was amazing ! Lou just smiled and ordered a drink.We were in the presence of one of my favorite Rock Stars, I'll never forget that night,such a great memory. Oh,...I owned a very similar coat like the one your wearing, I got it in a Thrift store many years ago,the inside label said Harrods's London,England. Sadly I purged it in one of my cleaning binges,hopefully someone else is getting all Funky with it ! Happiness, Cindy
Thanks for another great episode. You update your review so well by exploring all the trans themes and the St. Vincent connection. Mick Ronson's arrangements are what gives this record to much more dimension for me.
Fun fact - Candy Darling is the only 'cover star' to appear on more than one single by 'The Smiths'. Old Mozzer was a huge Velvet Underground fan & the New York scene from the 70's in general.
This album had a huge influence on me at the time. I was in full on Glam mode. Bowie and Ronson working with Lou…a match made in heaven. I’d go as far as to say this could be Mick Ronson’s finest hour. His arrangements are quite beautiful, and the guitar playing stunning. I’d love to hear your take on Lou’s ‘Berlin’ album, that’s a very different animal to Transformer. Another excellent deep dive into one of my all time favourite albums.
"Rock N Roll Animal" -- One of THE greatest live albums. Steve Wagner and Steve Hunter went way over the top. Pakash John's bass is legendary. "White Light White Heat" is a locomotive at full throttle, burned out brakes and heading for a wall. "Transformer" was the watershed LP from Lou's days with The Velvet Underground leading into his later work.
I still wonder about that album R&RA with the Steves, Prakash John and drum Pentti Glan, esp what with the soon after Music Man and the Amine Ring. Since "because he's Loy Reed" doesn't count. We went through his pre-74 solo deals, saw his blonde shit etc. I didn't know the part Abby says about hiring a shitty "bar" band but would hafta be part of it since Steves Prakash and Pentti are clearly on the slick
Now that I got past the David Bowie Extended Cinematic (?) Universe shock I watched your video. The Banana album was the 3rd album I ever bought, right after The Monkees and More Of The Monkees. Got it in a 99¢ record bin at Kmart in late 1967 because an older cousin convinced me it was yet another Monkees album. The Banana.... I thought it was unlistenable except for the ballads, which I thought were mesmerizing. Gradually they led me into the rest of the album. And I kept an eye out for new VU albums once I thought I "got" it. I didn't but years later I would. I felt like I'd found the Shroud of Turin in a thrift shop. Or a basketball signed by John Havlicek. This was a world I didn't know at all and when I got hints as to what it was I assumed it was about a world that existed only in Greenwich Village and was illegal everywhere else. Especially in the funky Southern mill Town I grew up in. The Velvets, no, Lou Reed, was the Rosetta Stone, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the answer to how Classical Athens went from a vaguely Oriental dirt village to the inventors of Western Civilization I. 2 generations, from a community that used writing to keep an inventory on their gourds to Literature, Poetics, Rhetoric, Philosophy, Comedy, Literary Criticism, History, and Theater in the time it takes for a couple of asthmatic breaths. Lou was that it and important and smart and intelligent. He was the revealed word of the highest humanity had to offer, in a four minute song with a monolithic beat. He wasn't Shakespearean he was the New Testament to the bronze age old Testament of all that came before him. To me. And that's why they call them cults. Except that this one seemed to really linger and keep influencing smart people on and on and on. And on. Like everyone I thought TRANSFORMER was Lou at his most listenable. But I never thought it was his best. I liked nearly everything more but I could never say or would never say that TRANSFORMER wasn't his easiest Album to get into. Of.course it was. And is. It's like Let It Bleed or Rubber Soul or Stranded. Or "These Foolish Things". Or Another Green World. But it also guaranteed that Lou would be judged by this album and not Coney Island Baby or Street Hassle or The Bells or The Blue Mask or New York or New Sensations. For some reason Rock n Roll Animal doesn't seem to count, except maybe as a one off. For nearly everyone, I mean. And Iggy went thru the same Bowie produced nonsense with Raw Power. I know it was remixed but I don't know about TRANSFORMER. TRANSFORMER got Lou off Van Gogh Island and so I'm thankful to it for that. After it and Walk On The Wild Side a lot more people knew that there was this guy named Lou Reed who wrote songs. And after Rock n Roll Animal a few people found out that this Lou Reed guy was in a band called The Velvet Underground that wrote strange songs about drugs and who knew what else. And it didn't sound anything like David Bowie or The Beatles or Pink Floyd or ELP or The Byrd's or CCR or.......anybody else. One song had a line that went "She's too busy sucking on my ding-dong." Another song sounded a lot like a Hey Jude Atlantis Kiss Him Goodbye Sympathy For The Devil I Know You Rider quasi-chant long song and seemed to be about Shelley Winters and the New Age. And there was even another of these chant-songs about Sweet Nuthin'. And that was among people who took the time to find out where these odd Rock n Roll Animal songs came from, songs that really rocked your bicuspids loose when played by Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner onstage for this solo guy Lou Reed. And boy were these people in for a shock when they heard the studio versions of Heroin and Sweet Jane and Rock And Roll. The first screeched you silly while the latter two were so light and airy as to.barely qualify as rock. But at least in 1972 some folks beyond the coffeehouse art scene became aware of Lou. Some. Not until U-2 and REM did a much wider group of people know a,lot more about the Velvets. Only then was Lou completely free of Van Gogh Island's jail. But when it came time to celebrate any kind of coronation Yo! MTV Raps! came and shamed people who considered themselves movers and shakers and arbiters of cool into suddenly worshipping groups and solo acts they despised before. Now it became necessary to annoint Public Enemy and NWA and PSK and retroactively Grandmaster Flash as important as the Beatles and the Stones. Which left little room for Lou and the Velvets. Some but not much. Now the Velvets were "very influential" and then only arguably. Every rock band and artist not the Beatles or Stones or Elvis saw their stock drop. A lot. Rock critics fell all over themselves in elevating Rap bands and artists in order to prove their bona fides and street cred. Even tho a year or so earlier rap was pure other to them. Rock critics' new appreciation of Country was dropped like a used condom. And so on. And what a toll it must have taken on Lou in the 1960s to KNOW you're better smarter and more experimental than anyone ANYONE in music but you and your band can't get arrested in ... anywhere on earth. And not only are you more intelligent and more accomplished than anyone but you're more decent and humane and civilized than anyone except Johnny Cash. But if people DO know you they say you're decadent because of your subject matter, called decadent by people who've never thought about John Denver and HIS career. Or Chicago's. Or all those 3-record studio albums from Yes. Imagine being Jesus and never knowing whether or not a Paul would come along. It would feel like being one of the men killed at Pearl Harbor, dying before you know what the final score would look like or be. Lou died in the 21st century hearing "all those people who started rock bands after buying the Velvet Underground and Nico were okay for the 20th century but they were all racists. Because the 20th century was racist. Rock and roll is racist by definition because it was black music stolen by white people. Racist white people who got rich on the work of black people just like what America has always done and Rock music is worse because racist rock groups from England like those Beatles and Rolling Stones came over here and stole from black people side by side with American white racist rock groups. Except the Beatles and Rolling Stones were more egregious than most because they made more money than anyone without giving most of it back to the black community where it came from." Rock music was a 20th century genre that has no,place in the 21st century. And you know in your heart that this is the direction popular music is headed for. All white bands are starting out as racist by nature. And by definition. Lou and the Velvets got their due but they stole the horse they rode in on. And soon the Beatles and Stones will get theirs. English bands should've known better
In 1974 I had 93 of the greatest albums ever. There was a song played on commercial radio around the clock. Radio DJs, the smart ones, listened to all of the rock stations. In 1974 the radio was exploding with FM giants like KMET that played entire albums, even in the daytime. Can you imagine Lamb Lies Down on the radio? Both records? I'm not making this up. Anywho I had a superb record collection and a Gerrard turntable. Some of these albums were intuitive choices. I bought the Lou Reed with the little bird and tidal wave album for one song, Rock'n'Roll. It's always at the top of my repertoire. My name rhymes with Jenny so I put it in the song and I recite my own 1956 history - "welll little Denny said when he's just three years old there ain't nuthin' goin' down at all...". When I was three I heard Heartbreak Hotel ON THE RADIO. I cannot put this in words. Lou effin' Reed. Love to his wife, from the Home of the Brave. I eventually owned 99 of the greatest albums ever made and I was sent to the jungle in 1976 and I got fifty dollars from de sto' for my 99 albums.
I find Candy Darling to be one of the most fascinating people ever. Candy Says is probably my favorite Velvets song. She came from my town, though a generation older. I came to most of this material first via Velvet Underground records, mid 80s as they were getting rereleased and a very old “& Nico” though I did have Berlin pretty early. I once got chastised for trying to play Berlin at a New Year’s eve party, I think 2000. It’s easy to empty a room with “The Kids.” I saw him play once at a college gym around the time of New Sensations. I came for VU, and he played none of it. It took me a while to forgive him. Then I found Yo La Tengo and The Feelies. It took a while to like this album. I thought the VU versions were much better.
Back in the late 1990s the BBC commissioned a version of Perfect Day as a promo film in celebration of their varied musical coverage. It featured many pop/rock artists from that time, including Lou Reed himself,doing little vignettes as they each covered a line or two from the song. It was hugely popular as a promo inspiring a campaign to get the BBC to release it as a single, which they did, and it became the charity release for that years Children In Need (BBC) campaign. Check it out on RUclips if you haven’t already seen it.
I love how your reviews of these classic albums encourage those of us 'of a certain age' to dust down our copies and give 'em a spin. Great review Abby! PS - I hope you have space in the future to cover Lou and John Cale's tribute album to Andy Warhol, 'Songs for Drella'; one that deserves far more praise than it gets.
such a lost opportunity there. i'd have loved to see a working relationship between those two. bowie and lorde could've made a really cool album together too
@@rupertpupkin5265 also, she’s clearly good enough for ppl like Stevie Nicks and Lou Reed wanting to collaborate with her, also I highly doubt you’ve listened to any of her music
At some point in the early to mid Seventies, when I was in my early to mid 20's and my mother was in her mid 50's, she heard "Walk On The Wild Side" on the radio and asked me to explain what it was about. Needless to say, I had to choose my words carefully.
I love Lou, such a complex character. I have all his albums and not every track is golden but every album has something of interest. My favorite song is probably 'Like a Possum' which drones on for 18 glorious minutes. Play it loud!
Thanks a lot Abby, Lou Reed’s solo career is quite a journey and this is one of its peaks. He could mix the crass, in your face New Yorker with the compassionate observer of life, sometimes in the same song. My other favorites are New York, Songs for Drella, Rock & Roll Animal, and forgive me, Metal Machine Music.
At high school, Transformer was drip fed into the stream of cassette culture. My friend Wayne had a record collector sister with a coolness that wiped the floor of everyone else. Of course the copy on my tape was hers. I heard it first within weeks of hearing Ziggy, both oldies at that time (probably '77) but boy were they energising. It wasn't hard to tell Bowie's presence on the record through the vocals alone and Mick Ronson's peanut brittle overdrive was too signature not to know. But all that was setting, Lou's songs and world-racked presence ruled over it all. And, mid teens and getting ready for punk to break on my ground, it built city blocks of street smarts (well, what we told ourselves were street smarts). In the middle of that was Perfect Day (yes, that line still haunts me and everyone who hears it). I heard this before anything by the VU and by the time I heard White Light/White Heat I was still unprepared for it, but the ancestral line was strong and I got into them, too. Thanks for another fantastic celebration!
Hey Abby. Transformer is one of my favorite albums in my collection. My personal favorite from Lou is Coney Island Baby. Set The Twilight Reeling is also great. Herbie Flowers did an epic job with that iconic bass line on Walk On The Wild Side. He's playing an upright bass & an electric bass at the same time. Well, it was dubbed that way. Once you hear it, you can't unhear it. Excellent video. 🔥🔥
In 9th grade science class (1977) our teacher let us play the radio and Walk On the Wild Side came on. Knowing what was coming up I was watching him to see his reaction. He cracked up. These days I am amazed that it made it to the radio without the offending word deleted or beeped out. Maybe the could have used a beat from Our Prayer.
It's my understanding from a family member who was very much around the music scene in London at the time that the "Transformer" title was generally attributed to a Ringo-style malapropism by Mick Ronson (a relatively unsophisticated lad from Hull) to Bowie, saying in conversation about a mutual acquaintance "Isn't he one of those transformers?" when he actually meant "transvestite". This would have been at a time when the concept of 'transitioning' (ie. actually "transforming") would have been entirely unknown - at least, here in the UK - to everyone except for a very tiny minority of those with a particular personal or medical professional involvement. So it seems much less likely that the title of the album actually derived from it in any way. Best Wishes
I think Mick Ronson deserves a lot more love here (and in general). He's the one responsible for the string arrangements on 'Perfect Day' and most of the arrangements on the album. He arguably had a much large influence on Transformer than Bowie did, but it was the norm for him to disappear into Bowie's shadow. His considerable influence on the Ziggy era is mostly overlooked as well.
I remember Lou saying that he never sang, he just rapped, that he should be featured in hip hop magazines instead of rock ones. This is one of my all time favourite records
Great episode! I have been guilty of ignoring much of Reed’s post-VU career but this video compelled me to revisit his first (self-titled) album to get reacquainted with the huge artistic leap he took with Transformer
Thanks Abby.Another fantastic album review.I always wondered how the 'Walk on the Wild side' single got played on UK radio.I guess the music programmers did not listen too closely to the lyrics!
Lou Reed is best heard live in the late 70s and 1980. Live Take No Prisoners is one of my favorite albums ever. He totally deconstructs everything, inserts a bunch of comedy and its still touching at times. Also look up his performance of "The Kids" in 1980 on Don Kirshners Rock Show.
Great vid Abby . Love this album and every track on it . Always wish that great sax solo was longer on Walk on the Wild Side ..so smooth . Goodnight Ladies always sounds like it should be on the Cabaret soundtrack ..it’s very Weimar Germany sounding .
Thanks Abbeey. I know several of the songs but I don't have the album. My wife now says why don't we have it let's get it. You tend to do that to me. I have Berlin, Blue Mask and the 3cd comp Between Thought And Expression. Love it all. It's like a siamese dream!
This here is my favorite Lou Reed album from start to finish. I totally love it! Can't go wrong with David Bowie, Ronson, and the incredible supporting cast of LEGENDS 💎💎💎 Hi Abby 😁💖🎶 I love vinyl Mondaysl. HAPPY HOLIDAYS 🌲🦌🎄⛄🎅🏽
My family's go-to album for long road trips. I even played a (somewhat edited) rendition of "Walk on the Wild Side" for a church talent show. Great episode, as always!!
I got to know Joe Dellasandro (Little Joe never once gave it away...) a bit in the eighties - super nice guy, soft spoken, trusted no one. I stood behind David Bowie in 1990 at a Sunday morning A.A. meeting - I was The Childcare Guy in A.A. - in the coffee line, we are exactly same size, same build. It took me a minute to think "yes, it's effin' Ziggy, Dennis, be cool". I smiled and nodded. Jeez.
Really enjoying your channel, I've just come across it, you certainly know your stuff, it's very informative. Herbie Flowers wrote and played the bass line on Walk on the Wildside. He was booked to do the session, and as a session musician he was paid £12, but because he played the Double Bass and overdubbed it with the electric bass, he got paid double. So for writing one of the most icon bass lines ever. he got paid £24, (about $30).
I was 14 in 1972 and I remember hearing Walk On The Wild Side while riding on the bus to school. I thought it was cool though I probably had no idea what it was all about. It was years before I heard the album or heard of Velvet Underground but I did have Ziggy Stardust and Space Odyssey at the time that Transformer came out. Satellite of Love is my favorite on this album. There's another guy you might consider doing a video on sometime. Brian Eno. He was in Roxy Music and later worked with Bowie. His albums Here Come The Warm Jets and Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy came out are quite good (I like almost all his albums including his more ambient/experimental work) and were examples of glam rock too. He was a major factor on Bowie's Low and Heroes albums later in the seventies.
I'd also pick Lou Reed's album 'New York' from 1989. It's incredible. Also look up Antony And The Johnsons album 'I Am A Bird Now'. A beautiful and sad album and the photo of "Candy Darling On Her Deathbed" on it's cover really hits you. The "Original Masters" CD version of Transformer has acoustic demos of 'Hanging' 'Round' and a great demo of 'Perfect Day'.
@@michaelnoonang9207 Yes! And a duet with Boy George on You Are My Sister and Devendra Banhart is on the opening of Spiralling. And the first track Hope There's Someone is an emotional masterpiece.
" The back cover banana boner." album ROFL!! Good one Abby. That line had me laughing out loud for a few minutes. 😂😂😂😂😂 This album harkens back Velvet Underground & Nico more than any other album I can think of because of its focus on the outsiders of society. The greatness of Walk on the Wild Side---unflinching honesty that says so much in so few words, like I'm Waiting for the Man, Run, Run, Run, or All Tomorrows Parties---Lou can open your mind with a slice of that world in as little as a few minutes Punk and glam related? Definitely! Iggy on the cover of Raw Power comes to mind.
Thanks for sharing, Abby. I've only heard maybe three tracks from "Transformer." Of them, "Perfect Day" is my favorite. I connected with it through the movie "Trainspotting." Gorgeous track. Shawn R., Mo-Mutt Music/Sacred & Secular
VU has been one of my favourite bands since I was a teenager (1980s) and Lou Reed is one of my favourite artists, and yes... I bought LuLu and like that strange collaboration album/project that got _____ on unfortunately.
Interesting to note that though this was released in late 1972 it didn't chart in Britain until the spring of '73, right in the middle of Bowie mania and glam, T.Rex, Slade, Sweet, Suzi Quatro, Gary Glitter etc... Further interesting to note that Raw Power and the New York Dolls album did not even chart at all in the UK.
This may not be what you have in mind but "You're still doing things I gave up years ago" seems to at least echo "Doing things I used to do, they think are new" from As Tears Go By."
Lovely Lady, Speaking of Glam and Bowie as a helpmate, as you're familiar with Mott the Hoople (also used Thunderthighs as backers), and Knowing some of your reading habits, I would recommend Ian Hunter's (Mott lead singer) book Diary of a Rock'n'Roll Star. I think you'll like it. Also try some of their music. Incidentally, WOTWS popularity in UK was due to word of mouth regarding lyric content, in spite of little radio play.
Herbie Flowers died this week. His bass line makes the song Walk on the Wild Side. He got paid about $700 in today's money for the session. Lou Reed was a Pickwick Records commercial songwriter. Stripped of the musical artifice provided by Bowie, Flowers, and Ronson, his songs sounded like jingles. The saxophonist Ronnie Ross played on the Beatles' White Album and went to the same school as David Gilmour.
From The Velvet Underground (1969) up to probably Sally Can't Dance are golden... Loaded and Berlin are standouts for me personally. I don't think there is another lyricist in modern music that impresses me more than what Lou did on that body of work. I'm just discovering the channel and find what you have to say very insightful and at times has made me re-evaluate that way I perceive things a bit... Subscribed.
All of the big record labels introduced cheaper, no frills series for their back catalog recordings in the 1980s. RCA’s was called “Best Buy.” They usually were in single sleeves with no inserts or printed lyrics.
What is bizarre is that a financially broke Lou was writing some of this material in his mom's basement on Long Island ...The Velvets were not a big money maker apparently.
I really gotta unearth my record collection … if people are buying Best Buy editions of _Transformer,_ then surely my first pressing of it must be worth something - I wouldn’t part with it, I just oughta take better care of my treasures. It may be hard for you to imagine how relatively placidly culture used to shift, at least compared to today, but _Transformer_ was released in 1972, and in 1976 when we came up here for a visit “Walk on the Wild Side” was still in heavy rotation on U.S. radio, and down in Caracas where we lived it still played frequently in 1977 and in 1978!! Lovely video!! I don’t think you’re using wigs, so I don’t know how you’re “transforming” (ha!) your bangs from a Swinging mid-‘60s London ‘do one week into a kind of early-‘70s subtle Farrah-feathering precursor the next … but it works, each week’s look complements your theme quite well without distracting from your script. And good for you, dropping a truth-bomb on your audience in re the fact that transition hormones are safe and reversible: it’s likely your audience skews older, and the more that can be done to reprogram the Rupert Murdoch fans among them, the better!!
Transvestite was a pretty common term in the early 70s. The Les Girls drag show was very popular in Sydney Australia in the 70s too...many a grandmother had a great night in the show's venue in King's Cross.
My sister had the Wild Side single (that I "adopted" after I started reading Circus magazine); it was actually a minor hit in eastern NC because NO-ONE knew what the lyrics were about!!!!
![[#2024MAMA] G-DRAGON - 무제(Untitled, 2014)+POWER+HOME SWEET HOME+뱅뱅뱅+FANTASTIC BABY | Mnet 241123 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ox29z5Nf1Uk/mqdefault.jpg)
who’s your favorite in the David Bowie Extended Cinematic Universe? lou, bowie, or iggy? comment below!
All of them.
But seriously, it has to be David.
....Laurie Anderson...
Bowie, he's the most influential. If you've seen the film "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" there's a great moment with a photo of those 3 guys used as a music lesson.
Michael Armstrong
I'll tend to go with the singers , Bowie could sing: there's not a great deal from the opposition in that department. Also despite Reed and Iggy giving us great albums Bowie's output is more varied. It's entered popular consciousness for reasons.
Such a perfect day. I'm glad you allowed us to spend it with you.
After hearing White Light/White Heat by VU, Lou sounds like an angel on this album…
haha so true! talk about an abrasive record
@@abigaildevoeDavid Bowie made it possible for Lou Reed's solo career to keep existing with the production of this album
@@abigaildevoesqueeze is actually a great album and kept them from getting their asses sued off
@@abigaildevoeand Doug is a much better bass player than John Cale could ever be in his wettest dream
@@abigaildevoeNico sucks
Mick Ronson is a star among stars here. That terrific sound on Hangin Around and Free. A clutch of Reed classics: sounding very Ziggy on Satellite or is it the other way around.
I won't always love Transformer the way I do the beautiful bright poignant Mystery Tour (I can't believe you wanted Transformer to win the poll!) but I'll always love this video. It could never be said of you Abby 'you're not the kind of person we want to stay'.
Historically, the reason Walk on The Wild Side was a hit was bc of the structure of radio. It was not a hit on "AM" radio, which was top 40, but it was a hit on "FM" radio, which was the real center of popular radio by then.
I remember as a kid hearing Walk On The Wild Side on AM radio. I think a lot of the the 'squares' in the radio biz didn't decode all the lyrics and were just digging the catchy bass line
@stereo999 FM was so great back then. It seems like they didn't give a shit about selling commercial time. I remember things like "Tonight at midnight Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon in full without commercial interruption". By far the best time to be alive.
Saw Lou in concert many times. He was always late, made you “wait for the man,” and about the time people were so restless they were ready to leave, he would suddenly appear while the first chords of “Sweet Jane” played like a drug rush. The stage persona seemed to crystallize during the “Take No Prisoners” era, with the ultimate gesture of flicking lit cigarettes into the audience while singing through puffs of smoke. Never saw any other performer do that with such deliberate aim, and with a battery of television displays of black and white video graphics behind him it was like a fireworks enhancement. Sometimes I think I listened to Lou Reed’s records too much, sometimes I just play them again, and someday I still hope to meet Lorraine (Wild Child) Thanks Abby!
all the defiance i imagined he'd have. he was the king of cool on stage, especially when he leaned into the public lou persona like he did at your show
Take No Prisoners, his late 70s band with the guitar synth is SPECTACULAR and hilarious
I had the honor to see Lou live & I got his autograph in a Broadway Arcade...Those were the days.
If you only own one Lou Reed album, make sure it’s this one. Outstanding.
Berlin is my fave Lou.
@@alv4794 That's my favorite too.
New York is the most coherent Lou Reed album! Bowie also gave Mott the Hoople a massive leg up with All the Young Dudes! We got 50 years of brilliant and ongoing music from Ian Hunter as a result!
Fun fact: Candy Darling and her friend Taffy are referenced in the Stones song "Citadel".
Hey, yeah.
What? Seriously? I love that there's this crossover in rock music, people keep popping up everywhere
You voice a most clear eyed perspective and exploration of the latter 20th century's popular culture, the classic rock era, and you so it with great, highly engaging delivery. Consistently. You're no newbie to sentience in a universe turned on itself. This is art.
I love when I am the first person who utters a sentence. I also have never met anyone who even thinks of that being a thing. Glad I found this page. Love it.
There’s a quote from Lou somewhere where he says that his younger fans would tell him they thought Goodnight Ladies was about leaving a gay club for the night and Lou thinking “The kids are alright!” One of my favorite Lou quotes. To add onto your point about the choreography Goodnight Ladies absolutely calls out for, there’s a video of Lou performing it at the Ancienne Belgique where he’s actually wearing a top hat! Can you tell I adore this song?
Absolutely love this album and completely relate to your reverence for Candy Darling, too. As a gender nonconforming person myself, the atmosphere of this album is always a comforting one to step into. Wonderful video as always!
NO WAY i called it! i have to see this top hat performance!
great art comforts society's outsiders and makes the "in crowd" feel uncomfortable. that's transformer in a nutshell. dare i say ms. darling is a patron saint of vinyl monday
Hi Abigail, It was Summer in the late 70's early 80's,my boyfriend and I were at a pizzeria in The Village in N.Y.C.....who walks in but Lou Reed ! He sits behind us..the waiter does a cartwheel for Lou ! It was amazing ! Lou just smiled and ordered a drink.We were in the presence of one of my favorite Rock Stars, I'll never forget that night,such a great memory. Oh,...I owned a very similar coat like the one your wearing, I got it in a Thrift store many years ago,the inside label said Harrods's London,England. Sadly I purged it in one of my cleaning binges,hopefully someone else is getting all Funky with it ! Happiness, Cindy
Thanks for another great episode. You update your review so well by exploring all the trans themes and the St. Vincent connection. Mick Ronson's arrangements are what gives this record to much more dimension for me.
Fun fact - Candy Darling is the only 'cover star' to appear on more than one single by 'The Smiths'. Old Mozzer was a huge Velvet Underground fan & the New York scene from the 70's in general.
This album had a huge influence on me at the time. I was in full on Glam mode. Bowie and Ronson working with Lou…a match made in heaven. I’d go as far as to say this could be Mick Ronson’s finest hour. His arrangements are quite beautiful, and the guitar playing stunning. I’d love to hear your take on Lou’s ‘Berlin’ album, that’s a very different animal to Transformer.
Another excellent deep dive into one of my all time favourite albums.
"Rock N Roll Animal" -- One of THE greatest live albums. Steve Wagner and Steve Hunter went way over the top. Pakash John's bass is legendary. "White Light White Heat" is a locomotive at full throttle, burned out brakes and heading for a wall. "Transformer" was the watershed LP from Lou's days with The Velvet Underground leading into his later work.
Hell yeah, great guitar playing on that
A great band. Most of which backed Alice Cooper during 1975/76.
@@malcshone4409 yes indeed, Bob Ezrin put those guys together. Awesome musicianship
@malcshone4409 heh! There we go makes more sense
I still wonder about that album R&RA with the Steves, Prakash John and drum Pentti Glan, esp what with the soon after Music Man and the Amine Ring. Since "because he's Loy Reed" doesn't count. We went through his pre-74 solo deals, saw his blonde shit etc. I didn't know the part Abby says about hiring a shitty "bar" band but would hafta be part of it since Steves Prakash and Pentti are clearly on the slick
Now that I got past the David Bowie Extended Cinematic (?) Universe shock I watched your video. The Banana album was the 3rd album I ever bought, right after The Monkees and More Of The Monkees. Got it in a 99¢ record bin at Kmart in late 1967 because an older cousin convinced me it was yet another Monkees album. The Banana....
I thought it was unlistenable except for the ballads, which I thought were mesmerizing. Gradually they led me into the rest of the album. And I kept an eye out for new VU albums once I thought I "got" it. I didn't but years later I would.
I felt like I'd found the Shroud of Turin in a thrift shop. Or a basketball signed by John Havlicek. This was a world I didn't know at all and when I got hints as to what it was I assumed it was about a world that existed only in Greenwich Village and was illegal everywhere else. Especially in the funky Southern mill Town I grew up in.
The Velvets, no, Lou Reed, was the Rosetta Stone, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the answer to how Classical Athens went from a vaguely Oriental dirt village to the inventors of Western Civilization I. 2 generations, from a community that used writing to keep an inventory on their gourds to Literature, Poetics, Rhetoric, Philosophy, Comedy, Literary Criticism, History, and Theater in the time it takes for a couple of asthmatic breaths.
Lou was that it and important and smart and intelligent. He was the revealed word of the highest humanity had to offer, in a four minute song with a monolithic beat. He wasn't Shakespearean he was the New Testament to the bronze age old Testament of all that came before him.
To me. And that's why they call them cults. Except that this one seemed to really linger and keep influencing smart people on and on and on. And on.
Like everyone I thought TRANSFORMER was Lou at his most listenable. But I never thought it was his best. I liked nearly everything more but I could never say or would never say that TRANSFORMER wasn't his easiest Album to get into. Of.course it was. And is. It's like Let It Bleed or Rubber Soul or Stranded. Or "These Foolish Things". Or Another Green World.
But it also guaranteed that Lou would be judged by this album and not Coney Island Baby or Street Hassle or The Bells or The Blue Mask or New York or New Sensations. For some reason Rock n Roll Animal doesn't seem to count, except maybe as a one off. For nearly everyone, I mean. And Iggy went thru the same Bowie produced nonsense with Raw Power. I know it was remixed but I don't know about TRANSFORMER.
TRANSFORMER got Lou off Van Gogh Island and so I'm thankful to it for that. After it and Walk On The Wild Side a lot more people knew that there was this guy named Lou Reed who wrote songs. And after Rock n Roll Animal a few people found out that this Lou Reed guy was in a band called The Velvet Underground that wrote strange songs about drugs and who knew what else. And it didn't sound anything like David Bowie or The Beatles or Pink Floyd or ELP or The Byrd's or CCR or.......anybody else. One song had a line that went "She's too busy sucking on my ding-dong." Another song sounded a lot like a Hey Jude Atlantis Kiss Him Goodbye Sympathy For The Devil I Know You Rider quasi-chant long song and seemed to be about Shelley Winters and the New Age. And there was even another of these chant-songs about Sweet Nuthin'.
And that was among people who took the time to find out where these odd Rock n Roll Animal songs came from, songs that really rocked your bicuspids loose when played by Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner onstage for this solo guy Lou Reed.
And boy were these people in for a shock when they heard the studio versions of Heroin and Sweet Jane and Rock And Roll. The first screeched you silly while the latter two were so light and airy as to.barely qualify as rock.
But at least in 1972 some folks beyond the coffeehouse art scene became aware of Lou.
Some.
Not until U-2 and REM did a much wider group of people know a,lot more about the Velvets. Only then was Lou completely free of Van Gogh Island's jail. But when it came time to celebrate any kind of coronation Yo! MTV Raps! came and shamed people who considered themselves movers and shakers and arbiters of cool into suddenly worshipping groups and solo acts they despised before. Now it became necessary to annoint Public Enemy and NWA and PSK and retroactively Grandmaster Flash as important as the Beatles and the Stones. Which left little room for Lou and the Velvets. Some but not much. Now the Velvets were "very influential" and then only arguably. Every rock band and artist not the Beatles or Stones or Elvis saw their stock drop. A lot. Rock critics fell all over themselves in elevating Rap bands and artists in order to prove their bona fides and street cred. Even tho a year or so earlier rap was pure other to them. Rock critics' new appreciation of Country was dropped like a used condom.
And so on.
And what a toll it must have taken on Lou in the 1960s to KNOW you're better smarter and more experimental than anyone ANYONE in music but you and your band can't get arrested in ... anywhere on earth. And not only are you more intelligent and more accomplished than anyone but you're more decent and humane and civilized than anyone except Johnny Cash. But if people DO know you they say you're decadent because of your subject matter, called decadent by people who've never thought about John Denver and HIS career. Or Chicago's. Or all those 3-record studio albums from Yes.
Imagine being Jesus and never knowing whether or not a Paul would come along. It would feel like being one of the men killed at Pearl Harbor, dying before you know what the final score would look like or be.
Lou died in the 21st century hearing "all those people who started rock bands after buying the Velvet Underground and Nico were okay for the 20th century but they were all racists. Because the 20th century was racist. Rock and roll is racist by definition because it was black music stolen by white people. Racist white people who got rich on the work of black people just like what America has always done and Rock music is worse because racist rock groups from England like those Beatles and Rolling Stones came over here and stole from black people side by side with American white racist rock groups. Except the Beatles and Rolling Stones were more egregious than most because they made more money than anyone without giving most of it back to the black community where it came from."
Rock music was a 20th century genre that has no,place in the 21st century.
And you know in your heart that this is the direction popular music is headed for. All white bands are starting out as racist by nature. And by definition. Lou and the Velvets got their due but they stole the horse they rode in on. And soon the Beatles and Stones will get theirs. English bands should've known better
Yes, next time you do a mod month, St V should definitely be included 😀
Yay, loved the episode Abby! Metal Machine Music next? :P
i would unironically cover lulu
@@abigaildevoe ok this would be epic
In 1974 I had 93 of the greatest albums ever. There was a song played on commercial radio around the clock. Radio DJs, the smart ones, listened to all of the rock stations. In 1974 the radio was exploding with FM giants like KMET that played entire albums, even in the daytime. Can you imagine Lamb Lies Down on the radio? Both records? I'm not making this up. Anywho I had a superb record collection and a Gerrard turntable. Some of these albums were intuitive choices. I bought the Lou Reed with the little bird and tidal wave album for one song, Rock'n'Roll. It's always at the top of my repertoire. My name rhymes with Jenny so I put it in the song and I recite my own 1956 history - "welll little Denny said when he's just three years old there ain't nuthin' goin' down at all...". When I was three I heard Heartbreak Hotel ON THE RADIO. I cannot put this in words. Lou effin' Reed. Love to his wife, from the Home of the Brave. I eventually owned 99 of the greatest albums ever made and I was sent to the jungle in 1976 and I got fifty dollars from de sto' for my 99 albums.
Transformer is one of the more essential records of the 70's.
Mmm no, this is soooo overrated, Berlin is Better, Coney Island Baby is better
Still really enjoy Transformer
I find Candy Darling to be one of the most fascinating people ever. Candy Says is probably my favorite Velvets song. She came from my town, though a generation older.
I came to most of this material first via Velvet Underground records, mid 80s as they were getting rereleased and a very old “& Nico” though I did have Berlin pretty early. I once got chastised for trying to play Berlin at a New Year’s eve party, I think 2000. It’s easy to empty a room with “The Kids.”
I saw him play once at a college gym around the time of New Sensations. I came for VU, and he played none of it. It took me a while to forgive him. Then I found Yo La Tengo and The Feelies.
It took a while to like this album. I thought the VU versions were much better.
Love this album! You always brighten up Monday, AbI! 🧡
“Perfect Day” is such a beautiful song. Love the lyrics! Great video :~)
Yes!! Probably one of my favorite albums from that time period!
Gee, Abby...every Monday is better here! Love Transformer. Lou Reed has always been one of my favorites.
Back in the late 1990s the BBC commissioned a version of Perfect Day as a promo film in celebration of their varied musical coverage. It featured many pop/rock artists from that time, including Lou Reed himself,doing little vignettes as they each covered a line or two from the song. It was hugely popular as a promo inspiring a campaign to get the BBC to release it as a single, which they did, and it became the charity release for that years Children In Need (BBC) campaign. Check it out on RUclips if you haven’t already seen it.
that's really cool! i like getting into the post-release legacies of these records but don't always get to, thanks for sharing this
I love how your reviews of these classic albums encourage those of us 'of a certain age' to dust down our copies and give 'em a spin. Great review Abby!
PS - I hope you have space in the future to cover Lou and John Cale's tribute album to Andy Warhol, 'Songs for Drella'; one that deserves far more praise than it gets.
Thank you so much! Just started listening to reed and I love this album so much
Finding out that Lou Reed was supposed to do vocals on the Brooklyn Baby track on Lana’s album was devastating, ugh what could’ve been
such a lost opportunity there. i'd have loved to see a working relationship between those two. bowie and lorde could've made a really cool album together too
@@rupertpupkin5265 oh, so you’re allergic to magic and fun?
@@rupertpupkin5265 also, she’s clearly good enough for ppl like Stevie Nicks and Lou Reed wanting to collaborate with her, also I highly doubt you’ve listened to any of her music
@@rupertpupkin5265 you definitely haven’t listened to any of her music, i think her music are masterpieces actually
@@rupertpupkin5265
Yeah...!
She's actually probably more boring than Coldplay.
And she was a feckin' idiot at Glastonbury !
.
At some point in the early to mid Seventies, when I was in my early to mid 20's and my mother was in her mid 50's, she heard "Walk On The Wild Side" on the radio and asked me to explain what it was about. Needless to say, I had to choose my words carefully.
one word. MASTERPIECE. dont forget the year it came out and sounds as fresh today if u listen
I commend you Abigail on how thorough you are with your album reviews. Nice job! And you're so damn adorable too!
You look absolutely gorgeous, and your taste in music and fashion is truly amazing. I'm absolutely in love with your videos! ♥️♥️♥️
stunning outfit for this one Abby. I mean sure that's a given but this one is REALLY cool. it's giving Toni Collette in Velvet Goldmine.
One of my favorite all time records. Always has been in my collection.
Great video Abby you always show some of my favorite albums. And transformer is no exception
I love Lou, such a complex character. I have all his albums and not every track is golden but every album has something of interest. My favorite song is probably 'Like a Possum' which drones on for 18 glorious minutes. Play it loud!
The recent Speakers Corner reissue of this sounds amazing btw
Thanks a lot Abby, Lou Reed’s solo career is quite a journey and this is one of its peaks. He could mix the crass, in your face New Yorker with the compassionate observer of life, sometimes in the same song. My other favorites are New York, Songs for Drella, Rock & Roll Animal, and forgive me, Metal Machine Music.
It took an acid trip for me to relate to Metal Machine Music...but by golly it worked!
MMM is actually pretty sooothing. It sounds like a waterfall. A bit dull after a while though
At high school, Transformer was drip fed into the stream of cassette culture. My friend Wayne had a record collector sister with a coolness that wiped the floor of everyone else. Of course the copy on my tape was hers. I heard it first within weeks of hearing Ziggy, both oldies at that time (probably '77) but boy were they energising. It wasn't hard to tell Bowie's presence on the record through the vocals alone and Mick Ronson's peanut brittle overdrive was too signature not to know. But all that was setting, Lou's songs and world-racked presence ruled over it all. And, mid teens and getting ready for punk to break on my ground, it built city blocks of street smarts (well, what we told ourselves were street smarts). In the middle of that was Perfect Day (yes, that line still haunts me and everyone who hears it). I heard this before anything by the VU and by the time I heard White Light/White Heat I was still unprepared for it, but the ancestral line was strong and I got into them, too. Thanks for another fantastic celebration!
I would love to hear you talk about St Vincent
22 line poem. I never noticed. Perfect Day is a Lauranelle! wow
Nice one Abby, this is a great vid about one of my faves B) Lou rocks thanks! B)
Wow. Amazing!
Love, Love, Love!
And Yes! You are doing my favorite band next week!!!
can't give much more spoilers but that was my very first favorite record :)
Next week, SD!! Great music + insane band politics = must watch. D'Arcy ❤
Hey Abby. Transformer is one of my favorite albums in my collection. My personal favorite from Lou is Coney Island Baby. Set The Twilight Reeling is also great. Herbie Flowers did an epic job with that iconic bass line on Walk On The Wild Side. He's playing an upright bass & an electric bass at the same time. Well, it was dubbed that way. Once you hear it, you can't unhear it. Excellent video. 🔥🔥
It’s a transmission, great vlog and you look great. Bowie always had it for me.
Nice thumbnail work! I want to give a shoutout to Lou's New York album (1989). Easily my favorite. Enjoyed this vid - thanks Abby.
In 9th grade science class (1977) our teacher let us play the radio and Walk On the Wild Side came on. Knowing what was coming up I was watching him to see his reaction. He cracked up. These days I am amazed that it made it to the radio without the offending word deleted or beeped out. Maybe the could have used a beat from Our Prayer.
It's my understanding from a family member who was very much around the music scene in London at the time that the "Transformer" title was generally attributed to a Ringo-style malapropism by Mick Ronson (a relatively unsophisticated lad from Hull) to Bowie, saying in conversation about a mutual acquaintance "Isn't he one of those transformers?" when he actually meant "transvestite".
This would have been at a time when the concept of 'transitioning' (ie. actually "transforming") would have been entirely unknown - at least, here in the UK - to everyone except for a very tiny minority of those with a particular personal or medical professional involvement. So it seems much less likely that the title of the album actually derived from it in any way.
Best Wishes
I think Mick Ronson deserves a lot more love here (and in general). He's the one responsible for the string arrangements on 'Perfect Day' and most of the arrangements on the album. He arguably had a much large influence on Transformer than Bowie did, but it was the norm for him to disappear into Bowie's shadow. His considerable influence on the Ziggy era is mostly overlooked as well.
Totally agree with everything you say here. Ronno was deserving of far more credit for Bowie’s success during this period.
don't worry, a revised ziggy video will 100% be a love letter to mick ronson
@@abigaildevoe I’ve recently been to see the remastered Ziggy farewell concert, and Mick was the star of the show for me.
@@malcolmsmith5271David knew it too
I remember Lou saying that he never sang, he just rapped, that he should be featured in hip hop magazines instead of rock ones. This is one of my all time favourite records
Great episode! I have been guilty of ignoring much of Reed’s post-VU career but this video compelled me to revisit his first (self-titled) album to get reacquainted with the huge artistic leap he took with Transformer
Thanks Abby.Another fantastic album review.I always wondered how the 'Walk on the Wild side' single got played on UK radio.I guess the music programmers did not listen too closely to the lyrics!
Lou Reed is best heard live in the late 70s and 1980. Live Take No Prisoners is one of my favorite albums ever. He totally deconstructs everything, inserts a bunch of comedy and its still touching at times. Also look up his performance of "The Kids" in 1980 on Don Kirshners Rock Show.
So glad you held up the cover to For Your Pleasure. Hoping that album gets an episode. As always, thanks for the deep dive and info.
Great vid Abby . Love this album and every track on it . Always wish that great sax solo was longer on Walk on the Wild Side ..so smooth . Goodnight Ladies always sounds like it should be on the Cabaret soundtrack ..it’s very Weimar Germany sounding .
Thanks Abbeey. I know several of the songs but I don't have the album. My wife now says why don't we have it let's get it. You tend to do that to me. I have Berlin, Blue Mask and the 3cd comp Between Thought And Expression. Love it all. It's like a siamese dream!
If you get it you should get the speakers corner pressing. It's by far the best it's ever sounded. The bass is insane. It can be found for $40 new.
This here is my favorite Lou Reed album from start to finish. I totally love it! Can't go wrong with David Bowie, Ronson, and the incredible supporting cast of LEGENDS 💎💎💎 Hi Abby 😁💖🎶 I love vinyl Mondaysl. HAPPY HOLIDAYS 🌲🦌🎄⛄🎅🏽
My family's go-to album for long road trips. I even played a (somewhat edited) rendition of "Walk on the Wild Side" for a church talent show. Great episode, as always!!
for church?? how edited did that have to be?
@@abigaildevoe Just had to omit the second verse!
That was entertaining, one of your best reviews :)
Lou Reed taught me to not buy an album based on one song. David Bowie craved passionate acceptance and Lou just did not care.
I got to know Joe Dellasandro (Little Joe never once gave it away...) a bit in the eighties - super nice guy, soft spoken, trusted no one. I stood behind David Bowie in 1990 at a Sunday morning A.A. meeting - I was The Childcare Guy in A.A. - in the coffee line, we are exactly same size, same build. It took me a minute to think "yes, it's effin' Ziggy, Dennis, be cool". I smiled and nodded. Jeez.
Really enjoying your channel, I've just come across it, you certainly know your stuff, it's very informative. Herbie Flowers wrote and played the bass line on Walk on the Wildside. He was booked to do the session, and as a session musician he was paid £12, but because he played the Double Bass and overdubbed it with the electric bass, he got paid double. So for writing one of the most icon bass lines ever. he got paid £24, (about $30).
I was 14 in 1972 and I remember hearing Walk On The Wild Side while riding on the bus to school. I thought it was cool though I probably had no idea what it was all about. It was years before I heard the album or heard of Velvet Underground but I did have Ziggy Stardust and Space Odyssey at the time that Transformer came out. Satellite of Love is my favorite on this album. There's another guy you might consider doing a video on sometime. Brian Eno. He was in Roxy Music and later worked with Bowie. His albums Here Come The Warm Jets and Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy came out are quite good (I like almost all his albums including his more ambient/experimental work) and were examples of glam rock too. He was a major factor on Bowie's Low and Heroes albums later in the seventies.
Marc Bolen had that quaver in his voice.
I'd also pick Lou Reed's album 'New York' from 1989. It's incredible. Also look up Antony And The Johnsons album 'I Am A Bird Now'. A beautiful and sad album and the photo of "Candy Darling On Her Deathbed" on it's cover really hits you. The "Original Masters" CD version of Transformer has acoustic demos of 'Hanging' 'Round' and a great demo of 'Perfect Day'.
And Lou Reed also does the narration before Fistful of Love on I Am A Bird Now
@@michaelnoonang9207 Yes! And a duet with Boy George on You Are My Sister and Devendra Banhart is on the opening of Spiralling. And the first track Hope There's Someone is an emotional masterpiece.
Transformer could have never been without Ronno's contributions, which are everywhere.
" The back cover banana boner." album ROFL!! Good one Abby. That line had me laughing out loud for a few minutes. 😂😂😂😂😂
This album harkens back Velvet Underground & Nico more than any other album I can think of because of its focus on the outsiders of society. The greatness of Walk on the Wild Side---unflinching honesty that says so much in so few words, like I'm Waiting for the Man, Run, Run, Run, or All Tomorrows Parties---Lou can open your mind with a slice of that world in as little as a few minutes
Punk and glam related? Definitely! Iggy on the cover of Raw Power comes to mind.
Thanks for sharing, Abby. I've only heard maybe three tracks from "Transformer." Of them, "Perfect Day" is my favorite. I connected with it through the movie "Trainspotting." Gorgeous track. Shawn R., Mo-Mutt Music/Sacred & Secular
VU has been one of my favourite bands since I was a teenager (1980s) and Lou Reed is one of my favourite artists, and yes... I bought LuLu and like that strange collaboration album/project that got _____ on unfortunately.
18:45 a very well used our swear
Enjoyed your video as usual. Take a Walk on the Wild side is just great.
Interesting to note that though this was released in late 1972 it didn't chart in Britain until the spring of '73, right in the middle of Bowie mania and glam, T.Rex, Slade, Sweet, Suzi Quatro, Gary Glitter etc... Further interesting to note that Raw Power and the New York Dolls album did not even chart at all in the UK.
raw power not charting in the UK doesn't surprise me, i feel the stooges were seen as more US-specific in their time than their counterparts
I think you should do White Light/White Heat sometime later on; very good proto-punk record
This may not be what you have in mind but "You're still doing things I gave up years ago" seems to at least echo "Doing things I used to do, they think are new" from As Tears Go By."
The Tots were an amazing, accomplished group of musicians.
Lovely Lady, Speaking of Glam and Bowie as a helpmate, as you're familiar with Mott the Hoople (also used Thunderthighs as backers), and Knowing some of your reading habits, I would recommend Ian Hunter's (Mott lead singer) book Diary of a Rock'n'Roll Star. I think you'll like it. Also try some of their music. Incidentally, WOTWS popularity in UK was due to word of mouth regarding lyric content, in spite of little radio play.
New subscriber here, just watched your Zappa Apostrophe video and I am watching your older videos.
Enjoy your content!
The bassist Herbie Flowers was amused by the fact that many people didn't get the reference to oral sex in 'Take a walk'.
If I have to choose between Lou,David and Iggy it is the order I play them 😊
Transformer,Ziggy and The Stooges (album) are in my top xzy of all time 😎
Herbie Flowers died this week. His bass line makes the song Walk on the Wild Side. He got paid about $700 in today's money for the session. Lou Reed was a Pickwick Records commercial songwriter. Stripped of the musical artifice provided by Bowie, Flowers, and Ronson, his songs sounded like jingles. The saxophonist Ronnie Ross played on the Beatles' White Album and went to the same school as David Gilmour.
Random thoughts:
Very impressed by that copy of Loaded. 👍
Also a huge fan of St. Vincent, a major talent. 👍
So glad you got to this one. Really hoping you'll cover my other two favorites: Iggy and Roxy Music.
the stooges are more an inevitability really, they're too relevant not to cover. waiting for the right record to cover
From The Velvet Underground (1969) up to probably Sally Can't Dance are golden... Loaded and Berlin are standouts for me personally. I don't think there is another lyricist in modern music that impresses me more than what Lou did on that body of work. I'm just discovering the channel and find what you have to say very insightful and at times has made me re-evaluate that way I perceive things a bit... Subscribed.
I have the single from this album - Walk On The Wild Side/Perfect Day. One of the best I've ever purchased.
All of the big record labels introduced cheaper, no frills series for their back catalog recordings in the 1980s. RCA’s was called “Best Buy.” They usually were in single sleeves with no inserts or printed lyrics.
that tracks - mine has no insert or lyrics
My favorite :)
I live in Buffalo ny.. I've visited candy darlings grave in Cherry Valley ny. Very peaceful and beautiful area.
What is bizarre is that a financially broke Lou was writing some of this material in his mom's basement on Long Island ...The Velvets were not a big money maker apparently.
That is amazing. 🙁
I really gotta unearth my record collection … if people are buying Best Buy editions of _Transformer,_ then surely my first pressing of it must be worth something - I wouldn’t part with it, I just oughta take better care of my treasures.
It may be hard for you to imagine how relatively placidly culture used to shift, at least compared to today, but _Transformer_ was released in 1972, and in 1976 when we came up here for a visit “Walk on the Wild Side” was still in heavy rotation on U.S. radio, and down in Caracas where we lived it still played frequently in 1977 and in 1978!!
Lovely video!! I don’t think you’re using wigs, so I don’t know how you’re “transforming” (ha!) your bangs from a Swinging mid-‘60s London ‘do one week into a kind of early-‘70s subtle Farrah-feathering precursor the next … but it works, each week’s look complements your theme quite well without distracting from your script.
And good for you, dropping a truth-bomb on your audience in re the fact that transition hormones are safe and reversible: it’s likely your audience skews older, and the more that can be done to reprogram the Rupert Murdoch fans among them, the better!!
Transvestite was a pretty common term in the early 70s. The Les Girls drag show was very popular in Sydney Australia in the 70s too...many a grandmother had a great night in the show's venue in King's Cross.
Great episode, great album...bum bum bum
Lou's best. Vicious rawks!!
Should check out the Documentary --
The Sacred Triangle: Bowie, Iggy & Lou, 1971 - 1973
.
Great video!
I would love to hear you review Bowie's side project, Tin Machine (from 1989 to 1992). Anyway, cheers to your super cool channel 🍻🍻
My sister had the Wild Side single (that I "adopted" after I started reading Circus magazine); it was actually a minor hit in eastern NC because
NO-ONE knew what the lyrics were about!!!!
Really good breakfown of Transformer. 👍