lou reed’s
queer walk
by Douglas Messerli
Rock musician Lou Reed released
the song “Walk on the Wild Side” on his second album Transformer in 1972. David
Bowie and Mike Ronson produced the record and with the song “Perfect Day,”
released it a double-sided record that received enormous coverage on radio
becoming his biggest hit and identifying song. The single made it on the 100
chart to number 16 in 1973.
The song, whose title was inspired by Nelson Algren’s novel of 1956, A Walk on the Wild Side, features five figures, most of them perceived as Andy Warhol’s “superstars,” featured in his and Morrisey’s films and photos: transgender actors Holly Woodlawn and Candy Darling, actor and drag queen Jackie Curtis, male hustler Joe Dellasandro, and the gay “sugar plum fairy” (drug dealer) who acted in Warhol’s My Hustler, Joe Campbell, who previously had been Harvey Milk’s partner.
The film’s major focus is on how they
transformed themselves by “walking on the wild side” as transgender figures and
male hustlers into drugs, prostitution, and oral sex, all subjects that were
considered very risqué at the time of the recording’s release. And today, given
the rise of negative reaction to transgender individuals, US citizens of today
might find this work even more disturbing if not shocking.
RCA provided radio stations with a
slightly censored version of tape in 1972, deleting the reference to oral sex
and omitting the line “colored girls,” changing it to “and the girls.” Yet most
radio stations of the day determined to play the uncensored version.
The song was inducted to the Grammy Hall
of Fame in 2015.
In 1975 teacher Sheila Graber at King
George School with her Cine Animation Club made an animated version of the song
on video. The crude work that she and her students created is still a delight
today.
In 2005, French photographer and video
artist Stéphane Sedanoui made a video of the song featuring glamorous and
rather sophisticated 10-minute movie featuring four of the five figures.
Sedanoui had previously directed videos for Massive Attack, Bjork, Red Hot
Chili Peppers, Madonna, Tina Turner and several others.
Los Angeles, May 30, 2026
Reprinted
from My
Queer Cinema blog
(May 2026).
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