Turntable Tuesday! Lou Reed’s “Transformer”

It’s Turntable Tuesday because life is too short not to listen to great music! This week on Turntable Tuesday I am going to cue up the a classic vinyl release from Lou Reed that has been claimed as one of the greatest rock and roll albums of all time by writers for Rolling Stone in America and HMV in the United Kingdom as well as a list of other publications across the planet. More on all that in a moment. Turn that TV off! Crank up your local speaker or get out there and support your favorite band! Buy media! What are YOU listening to right now?

The cover of a new pressing of Lou Reed’s classic “Transformer” album. It’s what’s on the piano stool this week.

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The back cover of the album with some of the credits and track listing.

September 2021. I was in New York City and had some time to visit a couple of vinyl shops I like to frequent there. In this case I was digging around in the bins at Rough Trade at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. This is the recently new shop and I actually like it better than the old shop over in Williamsburg. It is fresh, new inside, and right on top of Radio City and the NBC Studios. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/10/arts/music/rough-trade-record-store-rockefeller-center.html

In this case I actually had no list of albums I wanted for the trip and mainly I was just looking to see if there were any new treasures hidden in the bins. I ran into the Lou Reed section and picked up “Transformer” as I wanted to listen to the music on vinyl. I have previously listened to the digital lossless media tracks quite a bit as sometimes I get an artist in my mind and start exploring their catalog. That is how I ended up with this vinyl for my collection. I ended up hauling a couple of things in a bag back over to the subway platform for the ultimate ride on the bottom of my roller bag through LaGuardia.

As I think back to the early 1970’s I can remember the first time I heard Lou Reed on the FM radio. Between “Sweet Jane” and “Walk on the Wild Side” he made quite a splash across the decade. This album released in 1972 was produced by Mick Ronson and David Bowie so there is a stack of talent behind the 11 tracks on this record. There is not a lot I can add about this album that has not already been written but I want to walk through all of the tracks one by one on my podcast to talk about some of the background details. This is a hugely popular album around the world even now so I will dig into the production credits as well as the lyrics and origins of the songs on the companion podcast episode. About a year ago I did a podcast from Lou Reeds “Live at Alice Tully Hall” and wrote quite a bit about the record. That podcast remains one of the most downloaded episodes of the past year.

https://www.andrewtalbert.com/turntable-tuesday/turntable-tuesday-the-record-store-day-release-lou-reed-live-at-tully-hall/

From 1985 at Farm Aid Lou Reed performs “Walk on the Wild Side” which is on the “Transformer” album.
A 1973 version of “Vicious” from “Transformer.” Lou Reed in an interview said that his friend Andy Warhol had inspired the song. “He said, ‘Why don’t you write a song called ‘Vicious’? And I said, ‘What kind of vicious?’ ‘Oh, you know, vicious like I hit you with a flower.’ And I wrote it down literally.”

I will tell you all about this almost 50 year old rock and roll classic that still rocks today on my companion podcast. Tune in and check it out. Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button on my podcast on any platform where you get your music. I’ll talk to you on your mobile device.

Until next time I’ll see you, down the road.