Friends and colleagues of the late Lou Reed have reacted with a mixture of disbelief and anger at the news that a group of Canadian students consider one of his best-known songs to be 'transphobic'.
News broke in recent days that students from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada had issued an apology for including the song on a playlist at a recent event on the campus.
"We now know the lyrics to this song are hurtful to our friends in the trans community and we’d like to unreservedly apologize for this error in judgement," they said, promising to be “more mindful in our music selection during any events we hold”. It's believed that they were referring to the opening line about Reed's transgender friend Holly Woodlawn: "Holly came from Miami, FLA / Hitchhiked her way across the USA/ Plucked her eyebrows on the way/ Shaved her legs and then he was a she/ She says, ‘Hey, babe, take a walk on the wild side.’”
However, some of Reed's friends have disputed the claim - in particular, his longtime producer Hal Willner.
Willner told The Guardian: "I don’t know if Lou would be cracking up about this or crying because it’s just too stupid. The song was a love song to all the people he knew and to New York City by a man who supported the community and the city his whole life.”
Another friend, Jenni Muldaur, said: “Lou was open about his complete acceptance of all creatures of the night. That’s what that song’s about. Everyone doing their thing, taking a walk on the wild side. I can’t imagine how anyone could conceive of that. The album was called Transformer. What do they think it’s about?”
