AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #381: LOU REED

I was thinking the other day that it had been a while since I came up with a contribution to the Imaginary Compilation Albums series, but was also thinking that, despite being retired and supposedly having loads more time on my hands, I just couldn’t take all the hours needed to listen to all sorts of songs, narrow a long list down to ten and then write some notes.

And then it hit me.   I can just rip off something that’s already out there, in this case an album that was released back in 1977.  There were 11 songs on it, but given that I featured New York Telephone Conversation a few weeks back as part of the songs under 2 minutes feature, it could be dropped. 

From wiki:-

Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed is the first greatest hits compilation by Lou Reed, formerly of The Velvet Underground. It was issued by RCA Records after Reed’s first contract with them ended in 1976. Issued on Compact Disc on October 25, 1990, the album cover features photos by Mick Rock of Reed and then-girlfriend Rachel Humphreys.

Side A

1. Satellite of Love (from the album Transformer, 1972)

2. Wild Child (from the album Lou Reed, 1972)

3. I Love You (from the album, Lou Reed, 1972)

4. How Do You Think It Feels  (from the album, Berlin, 1973)

5. Walk On The Wild Side (from the album Transformer, 1972)

Side B

1. Sweet Jane (live) (from the album Rock’n’Roll Animal, 1974)

2. White Light/White Heat (live) (from the album Rock’n’Roll Animal, 1974)

3. Sally Can’t Dance (single version, 1974)

4. Nowhere At All (b-side of Charley’s Girl single, 1976)

5. Coney Island Baby (from the album Coney Island Baby, 1976)

The review over on allmusic, by William Ruhlmann, will make do as the blurb.

Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed was the standard record company “hits” compilation surveying Reed’s five-year, eight-album sojourn at RCA from 1972 to 1976. Its 11 songs included two from Lou Reed, three from Transformer (among them, of course, this album’s title track, Reed’s sole chart hit), one from Berlin, two from Rock N Roll Animal (one of which is “Sweet Jane” minus the introductory fanfare), and the title tracks from Sally Can’t Dance and Coney Island Baby, plus the previously non-LP B-side “Nowhere at All.”

It was a bulletproof selection, as unimaginative as it was dependable, which oddly was why it worked so well. Reed’s solo career had seen some extreme tangents, and this album caught them, from the Dylan-ish “Wild Child” to the glam pop of the Transformer material, and from the heavy metal rearrangements of old Velvet Underground songs on Rock N Roll Animal to the attempts at straightforward adult singer/songwriter rock on songs like “Coney Island Baby.” The regular albums had been uneven, but here Reed comes off as an accomplished dabbler in a variety of styles who really had something to say and said it, sometimes humorously, sometimes frantically, but always with conviction. Reed has been a prolific artist, and this album captures only a fraction of his catalog, but he is actually less eclectic as a rule than this collection makes him seem, so the result is an excellent introduction.

JC (with apologies for my laziness)