#194 Transformer - Lou Reed

Drugs and Trannies anyone?  BEST DAY EVER!!

It takes a total badass to sing about trannies and heroin.  It takes an even bigger badass to get David Bowie to produce your solo album about gender-bending and usage after being in one of the greatest bands ever (The Velvet Underground).  Hypothetical Lou Reed smack down: *Oh, and I rubbed shoulders with Andy Warhol and you didn't Frank Sinata.*  Wear it.

But let's get down to business.

The first time I heard a portion of this album I was with my dear friend in Colorado Springs.  "If you like The Velvet Underground," she said, "you're going to love this."  And she turned up the volume in her car and we listened to "Vicious" and "Andy's Chest."  She was totally right.  Lou Reed has made his way into my heart wedged somewhere below Bob Dylan and The Beatles.  So prior to this marathon I only had room for three (noteworthy, 'good') artists and Lou Reed happened to make the cut.

So I cheated, I've heard this album before because I left Colorado and bought it immediately.

Lou Reed is most famous for "Walk on the Wild Side," although the song seems different musically than the rest of the songs on the album.  The beat is so catchy you might find yourself walking around your house with a new found swagger reserved for only the most beautiful drag queens named Jenna Tolls or something much more clever; not being a gay man myself, I lack lexiconal-sexual-cleverness.

"Make Up" is one of my personal favorites because who sings about make up?  Although it has a transgender-twist to it which makes it way cooler than some cover girl commercial- which I originally thought when I first saw the name of the song.

Also, you can't forget the haunting song "Perfect Day," which I vow to learn how to play on the piano.  The song became really popular in the movie, "Transpotting" when sexy Ewan McGregor plays a Scottish junkie trying to kick the habit.  He overdoses and while he's being dropped off at the hospital, "Perfect Day" is creeping you out as the most ideal background music.

I strongly recommend this album for anyone, even those of you who aren't keen on trannies and drugs.

Rolling Stones Peeps:

David Bowie counted the former Velvet Underground leader as a major inspiration — and paid back the debt by producingTransformer. The album had glam flash courtesy of Ziggy Stardust guitarist Mick Ronson as well as Reed's biggest hit, "Walk on the Wild Side" — which brought drag queens and hustlers into the Top Twenty — and the exquisite ballad "Perfect Day." It was Reed's first producer, VU impresario Andy Warhol, who inspired the lead cut when he suggested "Vicious" as a song title. "You know, like, 'Vicious/You hit me with a flower,' " Warhol elaborated. Reed took him at his word, penning the song and cribbing the lines verbatim.