Lou Reed – Walk On The Wild Side

Rising out of Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory, Lou Reed was one of its darlings, with “Walk On The Wild Side” being his crowning masterpiece, and had he written not a single other song, this gem would have secured him a place in the annals of musical history.

With this soulful laid back song that rides like a stoner half awake of the A-Line, produced by both David Bowie and Mick Ronson, elevates the glam rock scene to a totally new level, despite anything Bowie was doing. “Walk On The Wild Side” was reality, a true vision of the seamy underbelly, barely looked at, 70’s sex-trade and peepshow Time Square turned on its head and romanticized. Oddly enough, the song got astounding airplay in 1972, perhaps because of, or in spite of its lyrics that visioned a fashion of taboo subjects such as drugs, male prostitution, oral sex and transsexuality, making New York City in the 1970’s seem like the mecca San Francisco had been during the 1960’s … drawing in thousands of displaced and affected youth who thought they’d find their place within a society that would embrace, if not tolerate this subculture.

Reed once said that the song came to him in an attempt to embrace all those castoff characters who inhabited his life and inspired Andy Warhol to be who he was. Reed had also been a jingle and song writer who cranked out music for an agency, which gave him a sensitive perspective for backup singers, the ‘coloured girls’ as he calls them [in this case Karen Friedman, Dari LaLou and Casey Synge, recording as The Thunderthighs], who sing Doo Doo Doo, creating the fabric of the song from the inside out, where these singers blossom songs into existence with a nuance and ability to carry the number both musically and lyrically, thus recognizing these backup singers as being as important, if not more so, to a great pop song than the artist who writes or sings it, because the backup singers hook into the chorus, and often create what listeners walk away humming in their heads … and is certainly just what happens here on “Walk On The Wild Side.”

What made this song so expressive has to be the twin interlocking bass lines that are played by Herbie Flowers on his upright double bass, which was overdubbed by an electric bass using a stacked knob 1960 Fender Jazz Bass. Many assumed that the sax solo was played by David Bowie, it wasn’t, it was laid down by jazz musician Ronnie Ross, who had been a musical instructor to a once twelve year old David Jones [Bowie].

All this be what it may, the song is a unparalleled success and loved by all, a brilliant soulful bluesy hypnotic gesture into a world seldom seen, set to an understated backbeat with story telling connected vocals that spill out nearly matter of factly, peaking at number 16 on the Billboard Top 100, and raked as number 223 for Rolling Stones Top 500 Singles Of All Time.

*** The Fun Facts:

The song’s cast of characters:
- “Holly" is based on Holly Woodlawn, a transgender actress who lived in Miami Beach, Florida as a child. In 1962, after being bullied by transphobes, the fifteen-year-old ran away from home; and, as in the lyrics, learned how to pluck her eyebrows while hitchhiking to New York.
- “Candy” is based on Candy Darling, a transgender actress and the subject of an earlier song by Lou Reed, "Candy Says". She grew up on Long Island ("the island") and was a regular at “the back room” of Max's Kansas City. Candy Darling was also featured in the Velvet Underground song “Candy Says.”
- “Little Joe” was the nickname of Joe Dallesandro, an actor who starred in "Flesh," a 1968 film about a teenage hustler. Dallesandro said in 2014 that he had never met Reed when the song was written, and that the lyrics were based on the film character, not himself personally.
-“Sugar Plum Fairy” was a reference to actor Joe Campbell, who played a character by that name in Warhol's 1965 film, My Hustler. The term was a euphemism for "drug dealer".
- “Jackie” is based on Jackie Curtis, another Warhol actor. "Speeding"and"crashing" are drug references. Curtis at one time hoped to play the role of James Dean in a movie after Dean was killed in a car crash.

Reed had empathy for these characters and shows it, as he struggle with his own sexuality, with parents who tried to cure him of his homosexuality through electric shock therapy.

Twenty years after the song was recorded, Reed said that his obituary would begin with the lines Doot Doot di-doot di-doot.

With the Apollo Theater at 253 W. 125th Street in New York City mentioned in the song, Lou Reed’s memorial happened there on the 16th of December, 2013.

Review by Jenell Kesler