Vicious - 3
Andy's Chest - 4
Perfect Day - 3
Hangin' Round - 3
Walk On The Wild Side - 3
Make Up - 3
Satellite Of Love - 3
Wagon Wheel - 3
New York Telephone Conversation - 4
I'm So Free - 3
Goodnight Ladies - 4
Hangin' Round (Acoustic Demo) - 3
Perfect Day (Acoustic Demo) - 3
Total - 42 stars / 13 tracks = 3.23 stars
This is another one of my bouts of musical ignorance. I have never listened to The Velvet Underground (although VU & Nico is on my to-do list), so Lou Reed is an entirely new experience to me. To me, "Transformer" sounds like a guy reading out of his journal, not performing, but more musing to himself, sometimes touching on the surreal ("Andy's Chest").
As usual, listening to one of these "important" rock albums, I am generally lost on its impact. As I've learned more about music, I have started to pick up on certain similarities. For instance, I was thinking that the album sounds kind of like The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Startdust And The Spiders From Mars, and then felt kind of giddy when I found out "Transformer" was produced by David Bowie.
On a similar note, the song "Make Up" reminded me of "Wig In A Box" from "Hedwig And The Angry Inch," and then I remembered Hedwig claiming Lou Reed as one of her influences, doubling my pride and music snob-dom.
I'm not quite at the point where I can listen to this album and think of it as one of the greatest of all time, as so many claim. Instead, I enjoyed it, particularly the tracks where Reed's musical monotony contrasts so well with the energetic backing music, but just not as much as I "should."
Transformer is by no means bad, but I think his work with the Velvet Underground on the albums V.U., Loaded, and Velvet Underground is a better example of what Lou Reed was capable of.
ReplyDeleteThen again, after the Velvet Underground broke up, Lou Reed remainded successful and Moe Tucker (the drummer) went back to teaching grade 6 in the US somewhere, so your mileage may vary.
'Transformer' was a pivotal album for me during my university days. It remains important for me now. Lou made it not just okay to be 20 and gay and confused; he told me there were other people like me out there and helped me to begin to accept myself. Dylan Clark should also check out Roxy Music if he has not already done so. He deserves an 'A' for effort.
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