When Lou Reed's Transformer was first released back in the early seventies, a lot of mainstream audiences must have wondered where this guy had sprung up from. After all, the Velvet Underground weren't a household name, and the one solo album he had released prior to Transformer had pretty much vanished without a trace.
It was shortly after his first solo effort had tanked that Lou was contacted by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, who had been playing guitar with Bowie, about being interested in producing his next solo project. Bowie at the time was enjoying extensive popularity in England as the leader of the glam rock movement, and for him to want to produce a seemingly unknown Yank must have seemed strange.
In Eagle Rock Entertainment's re-issue of Transformer, Bowie laughs as he remembers being very nervous about approaching this "unknown" American. Bowie had been a big fan of the Velvet Underground and thought the stuff that Lou Reed and the rest of them had been doing was brilliant.
Lou on the other hand remembers being equally nervous, because of Bowie's extreme popularity. He made a really funny comment about the differences in the public's perception of the two men. Bowie would perform with Lou to help him promote Transformer and Lou said, "People would throw, you know, like room keys and stuff to Bowie, me they they'd throw joints and needles to."
As with other DVDs in the Classic Album series, this one focuses on the creation of the record under discussion. Lou Reed's Transformer happens to contain some of his most well known songs, including "Satellite Of Love", "Perfect Day", "New York Telephone Conversation", and of course "Walk On The Wild Side."
While none of the songs are really that technically complex with any fancy studio tricks for people to be amazed by, there were still some interesting moments that were brought to light by listening to the masters in the studio. Of those, the one that will probably interest people the most is the description of how the bass line in "Walk On The Wild Side" was put together.
What has to be one of the more famous bass lines in pop music is actually a cheat; if you've ever heard a live version of "Wild Side" and something has sounded a little off, it's because you can't reproduce the bass live. It's two separate basses being played with one being overdubbed on top of the other while being recorded at a different speed. The opening line was done on the stand-up acoustic bass, while the second line was an electric.
Article comments
1 - Holly Hughes
My two favorite things on this album: The schmaltzy strings on "Perfect Day" (one of those 'who'd'a thunk?' moments when the cheesiness is just right) and the 'coloured girls' chiming in on the "Do-do-do's" on "Walk On The Wild Side." Does the DVD indicate that these were Ronson's inspirations, rather than Lou Reed's? Usually I find "the making of" shows irritating, but it sounds like this just might be an exception.
2 - Richard Marcus
Holly:
Lou himself gives credit to Ronson for the strings on perfect day. He's sitting at a big console breaking the song apart and just plays the strings and says "these were brilliant - I would have never thought of them"
I know what you mean I'm not that thrilled by making of albums either, but I've seen five in this series now ,The Classic Album Series, and they've all been good. So far the best one was the one about the making of "The Band" but they are all much better then what you'd expect.
cheers
Richard Marucs
3 - zingzing
i've always thought of transformer as almost a bowie album... lou, of course, wrote the songs, but you can see bowie's (and ronson's) influence here as much as you can see eno's on heroes. "satellite of love" is certainly bowie all over. (although i have heard a v.u. version of the song which is very similar until the end.)
lou's guitar is very restrained (if it even is lou)... but it really works here. i'd say that this is his third best solo album (of those that i have) after blue mask and berlin.
i'm going to search out that the band the band doc.