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45 years ago: "Transformer" by Lou Reed.
“Did I want to do it myself? Did I want to have a band? Did I just want to do songwriting, not even get onstage?” Reed remembered asking himself to Rolling Stone in 1989. “I’m the last person in the world I’d have thought should be on a stage. Some people really like having a spotlight on them. I don’t.”
But in 1971, he signed a record contract with RCA and released his self-titled solo debut the following year. Filled with unreleased Velvets material, Lou Reed flopped – although the LP got some positive press (pretty much the story of Reed’s career so far). But Bowie liked it, as did his Spiders From Mars guitarist Mick Ronson, and the pair approached their hero with a plan to collaborate. They were both on the same label anyway, and Bowie was becoming a pop phenomenon with the June 1972 release of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.
“I was petrified that he said yes, he would like to sort of work with me in a producer capacity,” Bowie told American Masters, “because I had so many ideas and I felt so intimidated by my knowledge of the work that he had already done. And, even though there was only that [little] time between us, it seemed like Lou had this great legacy of work, which indeed he did have. … But he just gave the whole project over to me and I really hoped I wouldn’t let him down.”
Bowie and Ronson became the project’s co-producers, overseeing the sessions that took place at London’s Trident Studios, where Bowie had made his last four LPs, in August 1972. The duo orchestrated the sound of what would become Transformer, with Ronson on lead guitar, piano and recorder (in addition the string arrangement for “Perfect Day”) and Bowie on keyboards, backing vocals and acoustic guitar. They brought in expert session man Herbie Flowers (bass, tuba), Beatles associate Klaus Voorman (bass), future Rutle John Halsey (drums) and a few others, including female vocal trio the Thunder Thighs.
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/lou-reed-transformer/
But in 1971, he signed a record contract with RCA and released his self-titled solo debut the following year. Filled with unreleased Velvets material, Lou Reed flopped – although the LP got some positive press (pretty much the story of Reed’s career so far). But Bowie liked it, as did his Spiders From Mars guitarist Mick Ronson, and the pair approached their hero with a plan to collaborate. They were both on the same label anyway, and Bowie was becoming a pop phenomenon with the June 1972 release of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.
“I was petrified that he said yes, he would like to sort of work with me in a producer capacity,” Bowie told American Masters, “because I had so many ideas and I felt so intimidated by my knowledge of the work that he had already done. And, even though there was only that [little] time between us, it seemed like Lou had this great legacy of work, which indeed he did have. … But he just gave the whole project over to me and I really hoped I wouldn’t let him down.”
Bowie and Ronson became the project’s co-producers, overseeing the sessions that took place at London’s Trident Studios, where Bowie had made his last four LPs, in August 1972. The duo orchestrated the sound of what would become Transformer, with Ronson on lead guitar, piano and recorder (in addition the string arrangement for “Perfect Day”) and Bowie on keyboards, backing vocals and acoustic guitar. They brought in expert session man Herbie Flowers (bass, tuba), Beatles associate Klaus Voorman (bass), future Rutle John Halsey (drums) and a few others, including female vocal trio the Thunder Thighs.
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/lou-reed-transformer/
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