Lou Reed - Transformer

RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK:

Lou Reed - Transformer

This week’s Recommendation of the Week is an all-time favorite of mine! Transformer by Lou Reed was his 2nd solo album and probably his most well-known, including songs like “Perfect Day” and “Walk On The Wild Side”.

Lou Reed was the definitive New York character. He was as "New York" as you can be. With his accent, his style, demeanor and attitude, he’s probably as symbolic as the Empire State Building. On Transformer, he pulls back the curtain and gives you admission into his “carnival”, the New York Underground.

From the dirty streets of the Lower East Side, into the hot, steamy, and dangerous subway tunnels, you can feel, taste and smell the lyrics of this album. Lou paints a picture of a seedy, destitute, yet exciting and exhilarating concrete wasteland. This place is filled with all walks of life, and the characters become the stuff of legend! It’s a safe space for those who didn’t meet society’s norms, in appearance, gender, or sexuality. This is Andy Warhol’s Factory, the Max’s Kansas City backrooms, the buzzing of neon lights and the dark, dank alleys that led you to either Heaven or Hell. The fragility of his characters leave room for all of us to relate to. In this reveal, we realize that these “freaks of society”, as they were known, are just passionate young people, finding themselves and trying to make their stand in the cold, harsh world that rejects them.

Lou finds moments within the grit for hope and beauty to blossom. This is our glimpse into what makes Lou Reed who he is. It’s not for the faint of heart, but if you can find your way through the gruffness, you get to something beautiful, raw, and very human. That is the essence of his music. It’s never pretty, and usually intense, gritty, and unabashedly brazen and yet, so fragile, beautiful, passionate, and with a peaceful, loving heart. I take great comfort in these stories and struggles of his characters, as they resonate greatly with me.

I have always found Lou Reed’s New York City to be pure romanticism that I just can’t get enough of. As a teenager, I moved there in search of the heart of his world. Well, maybe I wanted just a taste of it. It wasn’t the same, as times and places change, but the feel and heart of New York, with its grit, ghosts and spirits ever-present, gave me just enough of a taste to hold on to forever. I still, all these years later and having lived there only a year, hold on to the deep romanticism I felt seeped in those dirty, city streets.

Transformer is more than just an album. It’s a place, a raw experience that lives and breathes like a human. Beaten, battered, abused and bruised, yet hopeful, passionate, beautiful, and resoundingly resilient. In the end, within all the harshness, desperation and trouble, there is a calm, a respect, and a graceful gratitude for each moment lived.

Quintessential New York.

Essential Track: “Perfect Day”