Summary

Originally released in 2001, director Bob Smeaton’s 80 minute Classic Albums: Transformer was universally praised for its well-constructed anatomy of a touchstone album. Now expanded to interweave the original broadcast version with the bonus features on the original disc, the story appropriately begins with Reed remembering his days with the Velvet Underground and the importance of Andy Warhol in making them a New York-based phenomenon. These discussions provide more than the historical context for Transformer. For one matter, that album had many nods to and inspirations from Warhol beyond the cast of characters in “Walk on the Wild Side.”