Fifty years on from its release, Metal Machine Music remains one of the most divisive and bewildering albums in rock history. On the surface, the 1975 LP appeared to promise another gritty masterpiece from the former Velvet Underground frontman. With its moody cover image of Reed clad in leather and sunglasses, fans might have expected a continuation of the raw rock aesthetic heard on Transformer just three years earlier. Instead, what greeted listeners was over an hour of relentless distortion and feedback — a barrage of dissonant sound with no melody, no rhythm (until minute 62), and no compromise. So unpopular was it upon release that RCA pulled it from circulation within weeks.
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The album was, by Reed’s own admission, a deliberate provocation. As he explained in Victor Bockris’s biography, it was a hostile response to fans and the industry who expected him to repeat the commercial success of Walk on the Wild Side and Perfect Day. “It was a giant f— you,” he said, aiming to repel the mainstream adoration he had briefly courted. Reed’s confrontational nature was legendary — fellow musicians, journalists and even friends were often on the receiving end. Whether heckling audiences or fighting David Bowie across a restaurant table (twice in one evening, reportedly), Reed seemed to embody the very spirit of artistic defiance.
This volatile persona extended into his relationship with the press. Reed often ridiculed music journalists both on stage and in interviews, accusing them of being out-of-touch and reductive. His live album Take No Prisoners includes a brutal tirade against critics, mocking their reviews and questioning their authority to evaluate his work. Yet it also offers rare insight into Reed’s creative psyche. He famously said that Metal Machine Music was born from his ability to drown out hecklers with sheer sonic force — a musical act of war against conformity. For some, like Paul Morley in The Observer, the album later came to be seen as avant-garde, a vital precursor to noise and experimental rock.
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Ultimately, Reed’s refusal to conform became part of his legacy. Despite his disdain for commercial success, his estate was reportedly worth over $30 million at the time of his death in 2013 — much of it from publishing royalties. Whether or not Metal Machine Music contributed significantly to that figure is unclear. But it’s impossible to ignore the impact of an album that continues to provoke strong reactions half a century later. As Reed himself said on Take No Prisoners: “I do Lou Reed better than anybody.” That defiant attitude, love it or loathe it, defined his career and cemented his place in music history.
