Transformer

Lou Reed | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 11, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bmg Special Product
• ASIN: B000001U3K
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #132,084 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

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

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Transformer, Lou Reed's second post-Velvet Underground album, was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson (Bowie's guitarist) in 1972. It features such classics as "Vicious" and "Walk on the Wild Side," as well as a boppin', subdued version of "Andy's Chest," which the Velvet Underground had already recorded. The CD's consistently goofy and great back-up vocals are courtesy of Bowie and Ronson. Brace yourself for Lou's usual cast of characters: transvestites, junkies, weirdoes, Holly, Candy, Little Joe, Sugar, Jacki--even Harry, Mark, and John, who stop by to say hi in the middle of "Satellite of Love." "Goodnight Ladies" features a rockin' tuba downbeat, and a baritone sax that'll wail you away to la-la land. Other than that, it's Reed's raw guitar and rah-rah lyrics, like, "The tinsel light of starbreak/Is all that's left to applaud my heartbreak/And at 11 o'clock I watch the network news." --Dan Leone

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent With Few Shortcomings, October 6, 2004

By 

Weston J. Kathman (Lakeside Park, KY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Transformer (Audio CD)

A wonderfully bizarre and entertaining album, TRANSFORMER features many of the qualities that make Lou Reed such a unique figure in rock. Like his work with the underrated Velvet Underground, this album is quirky, unpredictable, and awfully clever. "Vicious" offers a perfect intro to a fun and wacky endeavor. Regardless of how one feels about Reed's music (or his notorious extracurricular activities), he is never dull or derivative. Of course, the fifth track, "Walk on the Wild Side," became the biggest song of his career, including his work with the VU. Though "Wild Side" is a classic about the seamier side of New York City, it is probably not even the best song on the album. That honor may likely go to the third track, "Perfect Day," a haunting, dream-like tune that foreshadows the sorrow that would characterize Reed's subsequent BERLIN, one of the most thoroughly miserable albums of all time (though not bad, actually). Though the music is pretty strong throughout, the second half of TRANSFORMER pales in comparison to the first. "Satellite of Love," perhaps the second most famous song from this record, is a little overrated, but memorable nonetheless. "Goodnight Ladies" provides a nearly flawless ending to an extremely impressive effort. The key ingredient in the mix may be Reed's tremendous sense of humor which shows up in various ways in most of the numbers. Unfortunately, it is this essential Reed characteristic that is sadly missing on BERLIN, which pales in comparison to this triumphant accomplishment.

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece !, April 21, 2005

By 

Hallstatt Prince (MA. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Transformer (Audio CD)

Lou Reed staring from the cover of this album like Frankenstein in mascara gives us a feeling we are going to be in for a rough ride of the heavy metal kind. Nothing could be further from the truth. The album is probably most famous for the seventies hit "Walk on the Wild Side". However most of the album is unlike that classic rock song. The songs seem like somewhat sweet ballads that lull us almost into complacency until they slap us in the face. One of the great things about this album is how the music is so sweet and somewhat like show tunes and the lyrics are so subtly deviant and oh so clever.
Take for example the song vicious. These days a song called "vicious" would have speed metal guitars. But that would be much too heavy handed for Lou Reed.
Here are a few selected lines from that song.

"You hit me with a flower
You do it every hour
Ohh, baby you're so vicious"

But Lou Reed does not stop there as he brings up the lyric a notch or two a few lines later.

"Hey, why don't you swallow razor blades
You must think I'm some kinda gay blade
But baby, you're so vicious"

In the next song "Andy's Chest" (most likely referring to the scars Warhol received after the attempt on his life) Reed again accompanies his slightly twisted lyrics with sweetly sounding music.
The song begins just like a love song with the line

"If I could be anything in the world that flew"

But is followed by a line that leads us into a type of horror movie

"I would be a bat and come swooping after you"

One of my favorite songs is Perfect Day. And it is a love song (if a some what twisted one) with a swelling chorus

"Oh it's such a perfect day,
I'm glad I spent it with you.
Oh such a perfect day,
You just keep me hanging on,
You just keep me hanging on."

On the surface it seems so wholesome but the perfect day includes drinking sangria in the park as well as the wonderfully twisted line

"You made me forget myself.
I thought I was someone else,
Someone good."


It is an incredible album well worth owning and savoring.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lou's glam-rock classic, September 22, 2002

By 

Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Transformer (Audio CD)

Over these eleven perfectly crafted tracks, Lou showed us various little panoramas of Andy Warhol and The Factory, transvestitism, New York's [homosexual] scene, urban decadence, [narcotics] use and more in a wonderful blend of humour and irony and in a brilliantly diverse musical setting. The guitar-driven hard rock of Hangin' Round and Vicious is balanced by the subdued power of the poetic Perfect Day and the imaginative arrangements of Walk On The Wild side and Goodnight Ladies. Transformer is a literate, intelligent and enduring statement of an era and is one of the few albums of the glam-rock movement that has survived with its artistic integrity intact and that still has something to say today. David Bowie and Mick Ronson produced it with all the expertise they lent to the Ziggy Stardust album. But its varied styles, broader subject matter and feel of personal experience make it a better album than Ziggy Stardust. Unlike on most of Reed's other albums, there is great melodic variety too, and classic pop like the poignant Satellite of Love which by the way, is beautifully covered by Eurythmics on their Sweet Dreams video. It ought to have been as great a hit as Walk On The Wide Side! This most accessible album of Reed's was a deserved commercial success and spawned a million dreams.