In 2013, The New York Times described "Walk on the Wild Side" as a "ballad of misfits and oddballs" that "became an unlikely cultural anthem, a siren song luring generations of people... to a New York so long forgotten as to seem imaginary".[7] In 2010, Rolling Stone ranked "Walk on the Wild Side" at number 223 in its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.[11]
In the 2001 documentary Classic Albums: Lou Reed: Transformer, Reed says that it was Nelson Algren's 1956 novel, A Walk on the Wild Side (itself titled after the 1952 song "The Wild Side of Life"),[13] that was the launching point for the song, even though, as it grew, the song became inhabited by characters from his own life. As with several other Reed songs from the 1970s, the title may also be an allusion to an earlier song, in this case Mack David and Elmer Bernstein's "Walk on the Wild Side", the Academy Award-nominated title song performed by Brook Benton for the 1962 film based on Algren's novel.[original research?] During his performance of the song on his 1978 Live: Take No Prisoners album, Reed humorously explains the song's development from a request that he write the music for the never-completed musical version of Algren's novel.[citation needed]
"Holly" is based on Holly Woodlawn, a transgender actress who lived in Miami Beach, Florida as a child. In 1962, after being bullied by homophobes, the fifteen-year-old ran away from home; and, as in the lyrics, learned how to pluck her eyebrows while hitchhiking to New York.[15]
"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 not yet met Reed when the song was written, and that the lyrics were based on the film character, not himself personally.[18] However, when Reed performed "Walk on the Wild Side" in 1978 at The Bottom Line in New York City (when and where Take No Prisoners was recorded), he explained, "Little Joe was an idiot... You talk to him for like two minutes and you realize he has an IQ of like 12."
"Sugar Plum Fairy" has been described as a reference to actor Joe Campbell, who played a character by that name in Warhol's 1965 film, My Hustler.[19] The term was a euphemism for "drug dealer".[20] Prior to joining the Warhol crowd, Campbell was Harvey Milk's boyfriend/partner for approximately six years.[21]
"Jackie" is based on Jackie Curtis, another Warhol actress. "Speeding" and "crashing" are drug references. Curtis at one time hoped to play the role of James Dean in a movie; Dean was killed in a car crash.[22]
Musicians and musical elements
Like many of Reed's songs, "Walk on the Wild Side" is based on a simple chord progression alternating between C major and F major, or I and IV in harmonic analysis. The pre-chorus introduces the II chord (D major).[23]
The baritone saxophone solo played over the fadeout of the song is performed by Ronnie Ross, who had taught David Bowie to play the saxophone during Bowie's childhood.[24] The backing vocals are sung by Thunderthighs, a vocal group that included Dari Lalou, Karen Friedman, and Casey Synge.[25][26] Drums were played by Ritchie Dharma using brushes rather than drumsticks.[27] David Bowie plays acoustic guitar on the track.[28]
The lyrics of "Walk on the Wild Side" were groundbreaking and risqué for their time, telling stories not usually told in rock songs up to then and containing references to prostitution, transgender people, and oral sex.[7] "I always thought it would be kinda fun to introduce people to characters they maybe hadn't met before, or hadn't wanted to meet", Reed said.[31] "Walk on the Wild Side" became a worldwide hit.[32] The single peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts in early 1973.[33]
Record World called it a "real leftfielder from the former Velvet Undergrounder" and said that "programmers will be cautious at first but then will have to go with it".[34]
The term "colored girls" was an issue in the US.[citation needed] RCA in 1972 provided radio stations with a version without the reference to oral sex, and changing the line "colored girls" to "and the girls".[35] However, most radio stations continued to play the original, uncensored version.[36] In the UK, the oral sex reference slipped past the censors, who in 1972–73 were apparently unfamiliar with the term "giving head".[37]
In 2010, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it as the 223rd greatest song of all time.[11] After the announcement of Reed's death in October 2013, both the song and the Transformer album re-charted via iTunes.[38]
↑ Richard Flanagan, "Prophet of the neon wilderness", The Sunday Telegraph, January 29, 2006 (reprinted as "Introduction", dated "October 2005", in the novel's digital edition, Canongate Books, 2009, ISBN978-1-84767-649-8): ‘As Algren admitted, the book “wasn’t written until long after it had been walked… I found my way to the streets on the other side of the Southern Pacific station, where the big jukes were singing something called ‘Walking the Wild Side of Life.’ I’ve stayed pretty much on that side of the curb ever since.”’
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