Personnel: Lou Reed (guitar); Lou Reed (vocals); Herbie Flowers (tuba, bass instrument); Klaus Voormann (bass instrument); John Halzey, John Halsey (drums); Mick Ronson (guitar, recorder, piano, background vocals); Ronnie Ross (baritone saxophone); Ritchie Dharma, Barry DeSouza (drums); David Bowie, Thunderthighs (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Lou Reed; Mick Ronson; David Bowie.

Liner Note Author: Michael Hill.

Photographers: Mick Rock ; Don Siebka; Al Quaglieri.

Arrangers: Lou Reed; Mick Ronson; Herbie Flowers; David Bowie.

After a tepid solo debut, Lou Reed's post-Velvet Underground standing looked dicey. Fortunately, David Bowie and his guitarist Mick Ronson stepped in to help Reed craft one of the best albums of his career. TRANSFORMER built on the stripped-down, quirky pop of LOADED-era VU, infusing it with the androgynous, cheeky glitz of the glam era (the bleached-out black-and-white cover photo of Reed in eye makeup is a giveaway), not to mention a fair bit of Ronson's guitar muscle. Much to everyone's credit, however, the album's stylish flair never eclipses Reed's excellent songcraft or acerbic wit. [paragraph here] TRANSFORMER's sense of chic fun is infectious, and is heightened by Reed's character sketches of Andy Warhol's entourage and the glitterati of New York. "New York Telephone Conversation" demonstrates his biting satire, as do "Hangin' Round," a Ronson-assisted rocker, and "Goodnight Ladies," a music hall send-up. But TRANSFORMER's highlights are some of Reed's best-ever songs: the soaring ditty "Satellite of Love," for instance, the cutting "Vicious," the romantic, yet chillingly melancholic "Perfect Day," and the slice of pop perfection that is "Walk On The Wild Side," complete with shuffling groove, sliding bass, instantly memorable vocal back-ups, and Reed's deadpan talk-singing. Ever the experimentalist, Reed would have difficulty matching the magic formula of this album again. As a result, TRANSFORMER remains one of the infallible standouts in his discography.

David Bowie has never been shy about acknowledging his influences, and since the boho decadence and sexual ambiguity of the Velvet Underground's music had a major impact on Bowie's work, it was only fitting that as Ziggy Stardust mania was reaching its peak, Bowie would offer Lou Reed some much needed help with his career, which was stuck in neutral after his first solo album came and went. Musically, Reed's work didn't have too much in common with the sonic bombast of the glam scene, but at least it was a place where his eccentricities could find a comfortable home, and on Transformer Bowie and his right-hand man, Mick Ronson, crafted a new sound for Reed that was better fitting (and more commercially astute) than the ambivalent tone of his first solo album. Ronson adds some guitar raunch to "Vicious" and "Hangin' Round" that's a lot flashier than what Reed cranked out with the Velvets, but still honors Lou's strengths in guitar-driven hard rock, while the imaginative arrangements Ronson cooked up for "Perfect Day," "Walk on the Wild Side," and "Goodnight Ladies" blend pop polish with musical thinking just as distinctive as Reed's lyrical conceits. And while Reed occasionally overplays his hand in writing stuff he figured the glam kids wanted ("Make Up" and "I'm So Free" being the most obvious examples), "Perfect Day," "Walk on the Wild Side," and "New York Telephone Conversation" proved he could still write about the demimonde with both perception and respect. The sound and style of Transformer would in many ways define Reed's career in the 1970s, and while it led him into a style that proved to be a dead end, you can't deny that Bowie and Ronson gave their hero a new lease on life -- and a solid album in the bargain. [This edition adds the acoustic demo versions of "Hangin' 'Round" and "Perfect Day."] ~ Mark Deming