2. Lou Reed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH2EgYq_NCY The Velvet Underground of 1970 was a very different beast to the primal disturbers of all morality and sense that arrived, leather-wrapped, in 1967. John Cale (along with his racket-generating viola) had departed after the visceral White Light/White Heat, prompting Lou Reed to move the band towards a more traditional, poppier sound on The Velvet Underground and Loaded. Then, after The Velvets committed music's cardinal sin and faded away rather than burning out, Reed slipped into a varied and engaging solo career. Despite the inconsequential release of an eponymous debut, the two albums that followed in its flaccid wake saw Reed regain his title as the crown poet of all things perverse. Transformer, produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, who were in the midst of their own creative high with a philosophy pillaged from the Velvets initial narcotic haze, re-introduced Reed to critical recognition. An album of camp abandon and soaring strings, it was mammoth single Walk On The Wild Side, an affectionate/obscene ode to Andy Warhols wealth of subversive hangers-on, that captured the seedy imaginations of the listening public. A huge commercial success that made Reed a star in spite of (or perhaps because of) its taboo content, the ex-Velvet swiftly put out the fire that ignited his celebrity with follow-up record, Berlin, a concept album that explored isolation, domestic abuse and suicide. This conscious tonal shift retrospectively provides us with a succinct description of Reeds entire solo output and his determination to stick to his own stubborn principles, releasing albums that called out for mainstream adulation (Sally Cant Dance) and following them up with avant-garde sound collages (Metal Machine Music) that were largely unlistenable. Forever uncompromising.
Worth the (solo) effort? A testament to the Velvets own transformation from rebels to radio-friendly, Reeds solo career demonstrated his dextrous writing abilities, packaging the pariah for audiences of all aural persuasions.