Lou Reed: Transformer & Live at Montreux 2000

08/02/2014

Transformer was universally praised for its well-constructed anatomy of a touchstone album. Now expanded to interweave the original broadcast version with the bonus features on the original disc, the story appropriately begins with Reed remembering his days with the Velvet Underground and the importance of Andy Warhol in making them a New York-based phenomenon. These discussions provide more than the historical context for Transformer. Live at Montreux 2000 is a concert, released in 2005 by Eagle Vision. Reed performed eight songs from the Album Ecstasy plus a few older ones. From his days in the sixties as the main singer and songwriter of the Velvet Underground and through his mercurial solo career he has kept his audience and the critics on their toes with dramatic changes of musical direction from album to album. Underpinning everything however has been his unquestionable ability as a songwriter and performer of the highest class.