Line #69 Music/Transformer


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lou_reed_transformer_9740.jpeg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"Oh, it's such a perfect day / I'm glad I spent it with you..."'']]
3
4	->''"The Original..."''
5	-->--'''{{Tagline}}''' from the album's advertising campaign.
6
7	''Transformer'' is the second studio album by Music/LouReed, released in 1972 through Creator/RCARecords. Music/DavidBowie assisted him as producer and providing vocal and instrumental aid to certain songs.
8
9	''Transformer'' also contains Reed's best known hit songs, including "Walk on the Wild Side", "Satellite of Love", and "Perfect Day".
10
11	A documentary about the creative process behind the making of this album can be seen in the ''Series/ClassicAlbums'' TV documentary series. It was followed by the much darker ''Music/{{Berlin}}''.
12
13	[[JustforFun/{{I Thought it Meant}} Has nothing to do with]] [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} alien robots that turn into cars]].
14	----
15	!! Tracklist:
16
17	[[AC: Side One]]
18
19	# "Vicious" (2:55)
20	# "Andy's Chest" (3:17)
21	# "Perfect Day" (3:43)
22	# "Hangin' 'Round" (3:39)
23	# "Walk on the Wild Side" (4:12)
24
25	[[AC: Side Two]]
26
27	# "Make Up" (2:58)
28	# "Satellite of Love" (3:40)
29	# "Wagon Wheel" (3:19)
30	# "New York Telephone Conversation" (1:31)
31	# "I'm So Free" (3:07)
32	# "Goodnight Ladies" (4:19)
33
34	----
35	!! Bonus Tracks (30th Anniversary Edition):
36
37	# "Hangin' 'Round (Acoustic Demo)" (3:58)
38	# "Perfect Day (Acoustic Demo)" (4:50)
39
40	----
41	!! Take A Walk On The Tropin' Side:
42	* AlbumClosure: The record ends with "Goodnight Ladies," about leaving a bar late at night.
43	-->Goodnight ladies, ladies goodnight\
44	It's time to say goodbye
45	* AbnormalAmmo: "Vicious" has the protagonist hitting someone else with a flower.
46	* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable: One character in "Walk On The Wild Side" "went to the A-POL-lo".
47	* TheBear: Referenced in ''Andy's Chest'';
48	-->''You've got a hairy minded pink bear there!''
49	* BeautifulDreamer: "Make Up":
50	-->''Your face when sleeping is sublime''
51	* BigApplesauce: "New York Telephone Conversation"
52	* BrokenRecord: "Perfect Day"
53	--> ''You're going to reap just what you sow''
54	* CallBack: The banana in Ernie Thormahlen's jeans on the back cover nods to ''Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico'', which featured a similarly erotic banana cover designed by Creator/AndyWarhol (who "Andy's Chest" references).
55	* CompensatingForSomething: On the back cover Ernie Thormahlen has a banana stuffed into the front of his blue jeans.
56	* CoverVersion: "Satellite Of Love" was originally a Music/VelvetUnderground song. A recorded version from 1970 exists, but was forgotten until the release of the compilation ''Peel Slowly And See'' from 1995.
57	* DaysOfTheWeekSong: "Satellite Of Love"
58	--> ''Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to Thursday''
59	--> ''With Harry, Mark and John''
60	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The album cover.
61	* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover was designed by Mick Rock and Klaus Voormann.
62	* DrugsAreBad: "Perfect Day" has been interpreted as being about heroin use. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr9zT5nfKnc Reed himself has said that he didn't write it that way]] [[SincerityMode and that it is just a love song,]] [[DeathOfTheAuthor but doesn't refute other people's interpretation.]]
63	-->It's such a perfect day;
64	-->You made me forget myself;
65	-->I thought I was someone else, someone good....
66	* FaceOnTheCover: Lou's face, shown full frontal and in close-up.
67	%% * GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
68	* GlamRock: Was released during this era, was produced by two major figures from this movement (Music/DavidBowie & Mick Ronson), and is generally associated with it, though to what degree it actually ''is'' glam rock is up for debate.
69	* {{Guyliner}}: Lou Reed on the cover.
70	* {{Homage}}: homages to this album include:
71	** "Can I Kick It?" by Music/ATribeCalledQuest ,which samples the bass-line from "Walk On The Wild Side."
72	** The original name of Music/PaulKelly's backing band was The Coloured Girls, in direct reference to "Walk On The Wild Side" (the band was composed entirely of white men). It was later changed to The Messengers to avoid racist overtones.
73	* InHarmonyWithNature: "Perfect Day"
74	-->''"Just a perfect day/ feed animals in the zoo"''
75	* LetsJustBeFriends: ''Goodnight Ladies''
76	-->''You said we could be friends, but that's not what I want (It's a lonely Saturday night)''
77	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Reed noted that he named "Walk on the Wild Side" after the 1956 Nelson Algren novel ''A Walk on the Wild Side'' (which in turn was [[TitledAfterTheSong titled]] for the 1952 Hank Thompson song, "The Wild Side of Life").
78	* LyricalDissonance:
79	** "Walk on the Wild Side" is a smooth, hooky pop single... about the grittiness of LGBT+ culture in the late '60s in an era when these people were forced to operate mostly underground. Could be considered a subversion, depending on your interpretation; it's a series of vignettes about real people, and Reed doesn't judge them for their life choices, being a bisexual man himself -- he just talks about them as they are.
80	** The sweet song "Perfect Day" where someone says he had a perfect day behind him and is glad to have "spent it with you" ends with the disturbing line "You're going to reap just what you sow".
81	* MinisculeRocking: "New York Telephone Conversation" is just 1 1/2 minutes long.
82	* NonAppearingTitle: The album title doesn't appear in any of the lyrics.
83	* ObsessionSong: "Satellite of Love", where Lou observes the object of his affection in everything they do.
84	--> ''I've been told that you've been bold''
85	--> ''With Harry, Mark and John''
86	--> ''Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to Thursday''
87	--> ''With Harry, Mark and John''
88	* OneSteveLimit: "Walk on the Wild Side" refers to Joe Campbell by his nickname, Sugar Plum Fairy, to better distinguish him from Joe Dallesandro from the previous verse.
89	* OneWordTitle: "Transformer" and "Vicious".
90	* PretenderDiss: "Hangin' 'Round"
91	--> ''You're still doing things that I gave up ''years'' ago!''
92	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: "Andy's Chest" was written off the heels of Creator/AndyWarhol's near-fatal assassination attempt by Valerie Solanas in 1968, being Reed's way of trying to cheer Warhol up after his brush with death.
93	* RearrangeTheSong: "Andy's Chest" originated from Music/TheVelvetUnderground's planned follow-up to [[Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAlbum their eponymous third album]] that got thrown out after MGM Records dropped the band; their actual follow-up ended up being ''Music/{{Loaded}}'' (which also included re-recorded material from that scrapped album). Reed ultimately re-recorded the song for ''Transformer'', while the Velvet Underground version wound up on Verve's 1985 outtakes compilation ''VU''.
94	* RecordProducer: Music/DavidBowie and his sideman Mick Ronson. Both were longtime fans of the Music/VelvetUnderground, with Bowie having discovered their work from a pre-release acetate of [[Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico their debut album]].
95	* RuleOfThree: Harry, Mark and John in "Satellite Of Love" are three people the subject of "Satellite Of Love" has been bold with.
96	* ShoutOut:
97	** "Walk on the Wild Side" refers to Nelson Algren's novel "A Walk on the Wild Side".
98	** Each named character from "Walk on the Wild Side" is a real performer connected with Creator/AndyWarhol's Factory and the LGBT+ community. Holly Woodlawn and Candy Darling were trans women, Joe Dallesandro and Joe "Sugar Plum Fairy" Campbell were gay men, and Jackie Curtis was a genderqueer drag queen; all of them had been acting in Warhol's films since Reed's days with the Music/VelvetUnderground.
99	** "Andy's Chest" refers to Creator/AndyWarhol. The line "Vicious/ You hit me with a flower" in "Vicious" was thought up by Warhol.
100	** "Goodnight Ladies" took its title from a line in Creator/TSEliot's poem "Literature/TheWasteLand".
101	** The "I've been told that you've been bold" line from "Satellite of Love" is from Music/LittleRichard's "Slippin' and Slidin'."
102	* SpoiledBrat: Jeanie in "Hangin' 'Round" is described as such.
103	* WhamLine: From "Hangin' 'Round"
104	--> ''Harry was a rich young man''
105	--> ''Who would become a priest''
106	--> ''He dug up his dear father''
107	--> ''Who was recently deceased''
108	* WholesomeCrossdresser: [[AmbiguousGender Arguably]] the subject of "Make Up".

Context Music / Transformer