Ezra Furman Wrote a Book About Lou Reed’s Transformer

Singer-songwriter Ezra Furman, who recently released a great album called Transangelic Exodus, has announced his latest, non-musical project: an installment of the 33 1/3 book series on Lou Reed’s landmark LP Transformer.

The book’s synopsis reads:

Transformer, Lou Reed’s most enduringly popular album, is described with varying labels: it’s often called a glam rock album, a proto-punk album, a commercial breakthrough for Lou Reed, and an album about being gay. And yet, it doesn’t neatly fit into any of these descriptors. Buried underneath the radio-friendly exterior lie coded confessions of the subversive, wounded intelligence that gives this album its staying power as a work of art. Here Lou Reed managed to make a fun, accessible rock’n’roll record that is also a troubled meditation on the ambiguities-sexual, musical and otherwise-that defined his public persona and helped make him one of the most fascinating and influential figures in rock history. Through close listening and personal reflections, songwriter Ezra Furman explores Reed’s and Transformer’s unstable identities, and the secrets the songs challenge us to uncover.

Furman, who has released solo albums as well as albums with his bands Ezra Furman and the Harpoons and Ezra Furman and the Boy-Friends, identifies as gender fluid. A musician himself, he seems the ideal writer for an exploration into the many iterations of Lou Reed’s persona.

Pre-order the book, out April 19, right here, and watch Ezra Furman’s “Driving Down to L.A.” video below.