45 years ago today - Transformer

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Transformer.jpg

I remember listening to this album for the first time and being taken to world that was so different and dangerous for a teen from suburbia. 

Wow! 

 

Yeah, me too.

The Grateful Dead's "Europe '72" was released 3 days earlier on 11/5/72 & was a more significant album in every respect.

No disrespect.

Europe '72 set a precedent technically and was and still is the Dead's Crown Achievement. A 3 album record.

The band's sound was more organic and every show since has ben trying to recreate that silent heartfelt Jerry Garcia moment during the London Lyceum Morning Dew.

Lou Reed was from Freeport , NY

RIP - Lou

>> The Grateful Dead's "Europe '72" 

is not relevant to this conversation in any way shape or form?

It's 45 years old also 3 days ago genius; like in the thread tittle.

>> 45 years old
>> 3 days ago
>>  thread tittle.

Does not compute. Please see:

>> relevant to this conversation

Back on topic: 

Check out the production credits on this landmark title. Very sparse stuff, yet the sessions produced an album chock full of absolute classics.

I think Phil's band even covers one or two of these? The guy with no shoes seems to like Lou Reed songs.

I think the Steve Hunter / Dick Wagner double guitar attacks on these tunes from the Rock 'n' Roll Animal era that would come a couple years later is real savagely beautiful (beautifully savage?) stuff, too.

How is this relevant to the 45 year anniversary of this record?

Yeah Bluelight, I gotta' go with Ateix on this one.

I agree with you about the importance of Europe '72, but it has nothing to do with this thread. You should have started a thread for that.

But in support of Bluelight, that darn Nixon won re-election 45 years ago yesterday.

I'm sure Thom was happy that day.

You're like a former audio engineer, right, Bluelight? You know sometimes how songs would get recorded to a physical medium, like a master tape, and then put out on a consumer-grade medium, like a vinyl record? Well the songs from Rock 'n' Roll Animal (RCA, 1974), some of those songs, they came from this album Transformer (RCA, 1972), and that album just celebrated a 45 year anniversary.

Oh hey, that's what this thread's about! 

I like "Europe '72"  better -  it was released 3 days earlier. no disrespect, just a very significant release for that genre by a band that's bit popular.

I always loved Mick Ronson's round warm tone on this live album. Minus his work with David Bowie & Lou Reed there isn't a better recorded live show with him in it.

I think it is wonderful that Transformer still creates tension in the masses, 45 years and 1 day later. It is oh so, New York City. 

I guess that week was a good week for releases over the years since what is referred to at Led Zeppelin IV was released 46 years ago yesterday. 

Transformer spent 32 weeks on the billboard charts. (Top out at 29)

Europe 72 did not chart.

 

Think I'll listen to transformer during the morning commute

 

I'm not a Lou fan but even I will admit that Transformer was a much more important and influential record that Europe '72.  It's not even close.

>>> It is oh so, New York City

 

pass

lol at fans of baseball teams who couldn't make it in NYC.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/55491/why-did-dodgers-and-giants-leave-ne...

"But what about the Dodgers? They were also losing money, but unlike their longtime rivals, the “Brooklyn Bums” still remained among baseball’s richest teams. In fact, they were later cited as the only National League club to have made a profit from 1952 to 1956.

That didn’t satisfy owner Walter O’Malley. To him, the real problem was Ebbets Field, the stadium the Dodgers had called home since 1913. In addition to yearning for a larger seating capacity, O’Malley believed that the surrounding area’s rising black population (which rallied behind Jackie Robinson) was driving white fans away from the ballpark."

 

hows that for on topic?

>>

Transformer spent 32 weeks on the billboard charts. (Top out at 29)

Europe 72 did not chart.
--

Yes it did.

You are wrong - In 1973 Europe 72 topped the billboard charts at 24. It was on the Billboards charts topping for almost 3 years

The album is Double Platinum there is no live record that really compares to Europe 72

I regret trying to compare the two, because Transformer is not in the same league as Europe 72 at all. Not even close

If it was 12/72 and you went to the record store and purchased Transformer it was because you didn't have enough money for Europe 72 or Bangladesh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe_%2772#Charts

Live records were never multi tracked before. 16 track 2 inch tape. Changed the whole ball game.

Transformer was recorded in a 2 track tape and it sounds it

Vin Scully on anthem protests: 'I will never watch another NFL game'

http://abc7.com/sports/vin-scully-i-will-never-watch-another-nfl-game/26...

speakin of live albums....Chicago's 4 lp live set Live at Carnagie Hall was released on Oct 25, 1971.

You are correct, blue, it did chart. My mistake.

Can't agree with the rest of your 10:58 post, except for the multitrack thing.

 It was the first album by the band to contain versions of songs such as "Jack Straw" and "Brown Eyed Women" and the segue pairing of "China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider". One of the band's most popular releases, it was one of the first triple-record rock albums to be certified gold by RIAA; the album has since been certified double platinum

Ok, the double platinum part too

 

I was disagreeing with the "not in the same league" and " if it was 12/72 and you went to the record store and purchased Transformer it was because you didn't have enough money for Europe 72 or Bangladesh" part. 

The two records are so different that they aren't really comparable at all, one being a studio effort and the other live. On the other hand, there were a bunch of previously unreleased tunes on '72, so in some ways it functions like a studio album. Transformer was probably more influential, at the time, but also, and more importantly, from a musical history perspective, later on.

Europe 72 is a lot more fun to listen to.

I agree that the two albums are so different from each other that comparing them is almost an exercise in audio masturbation. As for one being "better" than the other, there are probably as many opinions both ways as there are people who have listened to both. Each one speaks to some in a very personal level. While there is no argument from me that Europe '72 is a great album, Transformer hits me on a more emotional level. 

I also agree that the statement above, " if it was 12/72 and you went to the record store and purchased Transformer it was because you didn't have enough money for Europe 72 or Bangladesh" to be a statement without much validity. Some people bought all three, some slagged Europe '72 and bought Bangladesh and Transformer. Some only bought 1 of those trio. Although some had to make a choice based on their monetary concerns, I would bet more just bought the ones they liked and didn't buy the ones they didn't. 

p.s. The type of recording equipment used for each album matches the "gut" of each album. Neither would be as good if they were recorded with other equipment. 

I had two copies of Transformer well before I could afford Europe '72 in 1980.

>>I agree that the two albums are so different from each other that comparing them

Yup, my worst comparative of all time.

But to think both albums were fighting for market & mind share.

There are two things being discussed here. One is an album that came out in 1972 featuring one of the great songwriters of our time. The other is a trainwreck of cringe-anarchic proportions.

I bought Europe 72 the day it came out. I was a Deadhead - what can I say?

I bought Bangladesh a few weeks or months later, when it was on sale.

Transformer didn't register for me at all, at the time - didn't appreciate it until several more years had passed. Never bought it.

The songwriter must be Robert Hunter, so that makes Transformer the trainwreck I guess. smiley

"The art I like is vastly superior to the art you like. It's no contest."

Do people really think this way? For real?

Take a walk on the frickin' wild side and get over it.

 

In a related note - related to this very thread - Terry Gross interviewed Anthony DeCurtis about his new Lou Reed biography yesterday. If you like Lou it is worth going to the Fresh Air website and checking out the stream: https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2017/11/08/562682655/fresh-air-fo...

 

 

 

"The album is Double Platinum there is no live record that really compares to Europe 72"

In terms of sales it doesn't come close to Frampton Comes Alive.

Good stuff Mr. Surfdead.

>>> If it was 12/72 and you went to the record store and purchased Transformer it was because you ...

 

...were sick to death of hippie bullshit.

^

Some may have been, but the "sick to death of the hippie bullshit" era really took hold in 1977...5 years later. :-)

I like the not slow songs a little.

you hit me with a flower