Lou Reed: Transformer

I've never been much of a Lou Reed fan. I bought this in the period at the start of the decade when I was on a foolhardy mission to buy every album in the back catalogue which had a decent reputation (and which was on sale for a fiver in Fopp). Apart from the reputation, I bought it for the three hits on the album. You know the ones: Perfect Day, Walk on the Wild Side and Satellite of Love. And they are great. The production and arrangements manage to be imaginative and bold while still leaving lots of space in the sound — in a way that reminds me of Hunky Dory.

When I did singing lessons four years ago (yes, I know, contain yourself), our group did an ensemble version of Perfect Day, modelled on the BBC Children in Need version.

I can't remember what line I did, or whether I was just part of the chorus, when we did our end-of-term 'public' performance at the Old Queens Head. But after that I did my solo a capella version of Papa Was A Rodeo, joined by Emma Hynes for the duet at the end. Believe it or not, reports were good.

MusicBrainz entry for this album