There’s something addictive about songs that seem serene on the surface with an unsettling undercurrent, and Lou Reed was the master of creating that specific feeling. Today, we’re celebrating what would be the late songwriter’s birthday (March 2nd) by revisiting “Perfect Day,” a deceptively simple song that has been one of his most enduring ballads.
By the time Reed released “Perfect Day,” he had already reshaped rock once with The Velvet Underground. Though they found little commercial success during their early years, the band produced songs like “Femme Fatale,” “Sunday Morning,” and “Sweet Jane” with a “bleakness and primitivism that would inspire alienated singers and songwriters of future generations,” as uDiscoverMusic explains.
“The member most responsible for these qualities was guitarist, singer, and songwriter Lou Reed, whose sing-speak vocals and gripping narratives have come to define street-savvy rock & roll,” they state.
But “Perfect Day” was part of Reed’s musical rebirth as a solo artist after leaving Velvet Underground in 1970. It was written and recorded for 1972’s “Transformer,” an album that brought him into the glow of early ’70s glam rock and into the limelight. The New Yorker went to London to record it with David Bowie and Mick Ronson acting as producers.
Chris Roberts of Louder Sound explains the duo gave Reed’s “unorthodox songwriting and unique vocal stylings the chance to step out of the gutter and into the spotlight.”
By the time Reed walked into Triden Studios to record, he had the perfect canvas for a song as fragile as “Perfect Day.” It stands out among the album of street-level character sketches and swagger from its very first notes.
The track is built around a slow, stately piano line performed by Ronson, who also wrote the rich string arrangement. Reed’s lyrics are seemingly straightforward, singing about the small pleasures of a day well spent: drinking in the park, going to the zoo, watching a movie. Many fans have looked for an alternate meaning, often associating it with heroin use. (Its use in the movie “Trainspotting” during an overdose scene didn’t help the rumor.)
Reed always denied that, though he admits people can interpret it however they like. “I don’t object to that, particularly whatever you think is perfect. But this guy’s vision of a perfect day was the girl, sangria in the park, and then you go home; a perfect day, real simple. I meant just what I said,” he said in a 2000 interview.
The music itself is a key to the song’s ambiguous feelings. The harmony leans darker than the imagery suggests, as it quickly introduces a minor IV chord against the tonic. And the way the chorus blooms against the verse suggests something deeper than a lighthearted afternoon. Ronson’s string arrangements also add a bittersweet element to the shifting sonic moods.
“Perfect Day” feels like such a powerful Lou Reed song because it holds two moods at once. Reed himself was just as contradictory, often mercurial and combative in interviews, while empathic in his songs. This ballad captures that split personality without ever spelling it out.
Celebrate the dichotomy of Lou Reed with the piano music for “Perfect Day”:
