CLASSIC ALBUM
For anyone with a zeal for rock trivia, the ive-storey building at 17 St Anne’s Court, London W1 will hold a particular allure.This was the location That former drummer Norman Sheield chose in March 1968 to launch Trident Studios, in a small alleyway in the heart of Soho. Over the next ive years, Trident would become the hub of some of the inest music ever recorded. It was here That he Beatles cut Hey Jude, where Bowie recorded Hunky Dory, he Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust & he Spiders From Mars and Aladdin Sane, and where Elton John recorded such classics as Rocket Man and Your Song. It was also the studio where in August 1972, a 30-year-old Brooklyn-born musician with a seriously impressive back catalogue chose to record his second solo album.
It had been two years since Lou Reed walked away from one of the greatest and most inluential bands ever: he Velvet Underground. His eponymous irst solo album, released in April 1972 and recorded in Willesden, London, had been met with mixed reviews and dismal sales. Reed now faced the challenge of creating an album That could cross over from the hipster underground to the mainstream global market.