Metal Machine Music is shrouded in mystery in part because Lou Reed made it alone. Which explains why his next choice was so baffling. Given his dicey commercial prospects at the beginning of the decade, Reed could, by midвЂ“1975, be called a successful rock star.

Sally CanвЂ™t Dance wasnвЂ™t one of ReedвЂ™s better albums, but the title song got some FM radio play, and the LP hit the Top 10.

The Velvet Underground vault recording 1969 Velvet Underground Live with Lou Reed appeared in 1974, and the successful live solo album from earlier the same year, Rock вЂnвЂ™ Roll Animal, was heavy on glammed-up versions of VU songs. His 1972 debut solo album made almost no impact, but the David Bowie-produced Transformer fared much better with the rise of glam rock and the commercial success of the single вЂњWalk on the Wild Side.вЂќ Though Reed followed that album with a poorly received commercial bomb (1973вЂ™s Berlin, now considered a theatrical rock classic), his profile in the rock world continued to climb through вЂ™74 and вЂ™75, and his past suddenly had currency. Reed put out MMM at a precarious moment in his career, with VU firmly in the rearview but his own commercial prospects unclear. And some of these rumors about Metal Machine MusicвЂ™s troubled release were started, or at least encouraged, by Reed himself. Or it was mis-packaged, maybe, and was originally supposed to come out on a classical label, where there was some precedence for this kind of experiment. Some said it was Lou ReedвЂ™s attempt to get out of a record contract, or a fuck-you to fans who only wanted to hear his most popular songs. Explanations for its existence proliferated. For a good 15 years after its 1975 release, Metal Machine Music, a double album of avant-garde noise put out by a rock legend who was only starting to get his commercial due, was discussed as a gesture more than as music.

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