10 Terrible Songs That Ruined Otherwise Flawless Albums
8. Lou Reed New York Telephone Conversation (Transformer)
https://youtu.be/Q7gBPBBZHw4 Lou Reed lays out a track that acts as some show tune approximation of his better work. The scene contains a detached conversation between the two central characters pertaining to some vague fight which includes someone they may or may not know, but all told in a sing-song manner that skimps on details. There are traces of ennui, loneliness, and even a hint of voyeurism, though all of these themes can be found in better songs on Transformer and the rest of Reed's discography. New York Telephone Conversation might have been considered self-parody had it been released on a more recent album, but being where it is - on arguably his greatest album - it makes for a more head-scratching inquiry as to what he was thinking including this track. Its goofiness stands in heavy contrast to the emotional grandiosity of the rest of the 1972 work, especially in the song "Perfect Day," which could be argued as belonging to the opposite end of an emotional spectrum. "Perfect Day" is a delicate celebration of finding happiness in spite of mental, physical, and/or social hardship; whereas "New York Telephone Conversation" is an inconsequential ditty celebrating a scene of casual gossip.