Lou Reed - Ultrasonic Recording Studio, New York 1972 (Live) (2024)

The day after Christmas, December of 1972: Lou Reed and band (The Tots) in Hempstead, NY, recording live for radio at Untrasonic Recording Studio. Recorded just a month after the release of Transformer, the set finds Reed pulling from the new record, riffing on five Velvets tracks and the penultimate “Berlin” – the track that would title his next release six months later.

Lou Reed, Ultrasonic Recording Studio, Hempstead, NY 26th December 1972.One of Lou Reed's most iconic solo live performances took place at the Ultrasonic Recording Studio in Hempstead, NY, on December 26, 1972 for broadcast on WLIR-FM radio. After Reed left the Velvet Underground in mid-1970, he didn't do any recording or touring for over a year. He eventually released an album in early 1972, simply called Lou Reed, and another later that same year, Transformer . This legendary concert showcases Reed at the height of his creative powers, delivering a setlist that blended tracks from his recently released Transformer with much loved VU classics. It was whilst recording Transformer he kept a notebook, jotting down funny things people had said, but more importantly he observed how a wide array of characters from varied backgrounds were able to reinvent themselves into their own version of beauty. Lou's urban poetry conjured a range of emotions from jealousy, to humour, to love.

As he later admitted, "Every song I have written in my life, I have tried to write emotionally. All the songs are geared to try and cause an emotion and they are always about conflict."