Year:
November 8, 1972 (CD 2002)Label:
RCA/BMG Haritage (Europe), 07863 65132 2Style:
Pop, GarageCountry:
New York, U.S. (March 2, 1942 - October 27, 2013)Time:
46:02Format:
Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHzSize:
255 Mb
Producer: David Bowie, Mick Ronson. Charts: US #29, AUS #12, CAN #12,
NLD #6, UK #13. Australia and France: Gold, Italy and UK: Platinum.
Transformer
is the second solo studio album by American recording artist Lou Reed.
Produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, the album was released in
November 1972 by RCA Records. It is considered an influential landmark
of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk
on the Wild Side", which touched on controversial topics of sexual
orientation, gender identity, prostitution and drug use. Although Reed's
self-titled debut solo album had been unsuccessful, Bowie had been an
early fan of Reed's former band The Velvet Underground and used his fame
to promote Reed, who had not yet achieved mainstream success.
As
with its predecessor Lou Reed, Transformer contains songs Reed composed
while in the Velvet Underground (here, four out of eleven). "Andy's
Chest" was first recorded by the band in 1969 and "Satellite of Love"
demoed in 1970; these versions were released on VU and Peel Slowly and
See, respectively. For Transformer, the original up-tempo pace of these
songs was slowed down.
"New York Telephone Conversation" and
"Goodnight Ladies" were played live during the band's summer 1970
residency at Max's Kansas City; the latter takes its title refrain from
the last line of the second section ("A Game of Chess") of T. S. Eliot's
modernist poem, The Waste Land: "Good night, ladies, good night, sweet
ladies, good night, good night", which is itself a quote from Ophelia in
Hamlet.
As in Reed's Velvet Underground days, the connection to
artist Andy Warhol remained strong. According to Reed, Warhol told him
he should write a song about someone vicious. When Reed asked what he
meant by vicious, Warhol replied, "Oh, you know, like I hit you with a
flower", resulting in the song "Vicious".
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer_(Lou_Reed_album)#Release)
01. Vicious (02:58)
02. Andy's Chest (03:20)
03. Perfect Day (03:46)
04. Hangin' 'Round (03:35)
05. Walk On The Wild Side (04:15)
06. Make Up (03:00)
07. Satellite Of Love (03:42)
08. Wagon Wheel (03:19)
09. New York Telephone Conversation (01:33)
10. I'm So Free (03:09)
11. Goodnight Ladies (04:31)
12. Hangin' 'Round (Acoustic Demo) (03:57)
13. Perfect Day (Acoustic Demo) (04:50)