Transformer

Simon Doonan revisits Lou Reed's 1972 album Transformer half a century after its release. The book mixes a personal account of coming of age and coming out with a look at the record's place in cultural history. It places the album in a year when the wider world was shifting, including the same year Sweden became the first country to legalize gender-affirming surgery and San Francisco outlawed employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Doonan traces how Reed came to make the record with help from David Bowie, and he sets its creation within the arc of Reed's own life. Reed reportedly felt that gay listeners should not have to sit through straight people's love songs, and the album was built to answer that. The book covers the tracks "Walk on the Wild Side," "Perfect Day" and "Vicious," including how "Walk on the Wild Side" was barred from radio across the country until young listeners threatened to boycott stations that refused to play it. The cover, photographed by Mick Rock, shows Reed in a bold, mascara-lined glam look that signals the album's purpose.

Doonan describes his own experience as a twenty-year-old from the working-class town of Reading, England, who had just discovered London's glam rock scene and was drawn to the creative freedom of Andy Warhol's Factory. For him the album was a revelation, showing how the world was changing for him and his friends. The book also recalls transgender star Candy Darling, who is named in the lyrics, and her response to hearing Reed's songs, which was that she was glad to finally hear herself and her community represented.

The book includes about sixteen pages of black-and-white and color photographs.