A-Side: Walk On The Wild Side
B-Side: Vicious
Record label: RCA GB-10162
Producer: David Bowie & Mick Ronson
Recorded: August 1972
Released: March 1975 (re-issue)
Purchased: 11/08/81
Definitely inspired – inspired sound, inspired approach. A very good record. In a higher class and more sophisticated than today’s punk bands. Lou Reed was a punk in New York 10 years ago. (Record Mirror, 23/04/77)
The song’s lyrics describe various individuals and their journeys to New York City. Specifically, the song refers to several of the regular “superstars” at Andy Warhol’s New York studio, the Factory: Holly Woodlawn, Candy Darling, Joe Dallesandro, Jackie Curtis and Joe Campbell (referred to in the song by the nickname “Sugar Plum Fairy”).
The New York Times has described “Walk on the Wild Side” as a “ballad of misfits and oddballs” and as “a siren song luring generations of people . . . to a New York so long forgotten as to seem imaginary”. Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 223 in its 2010 list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. “Walk on the Wild Side” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015.
Leave a Reply