Walk on the Wild Side: The People who Inspired Lou Reed's Classic Song Chords
Tempo:
134.15 bpm
Chords used:
C
D
F
Em
Am
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
I'd like to say thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring this video.
Go to squarespace.com slash polyphonic for 10% off your new website.
Lou Reed is one of the most [Am]
important musical figures of the 20th [G] century.
From helping create punk [Dm] style to being a mover and shaker in glam rock [E] to creating
some of the earliest noise music, Reed was [Am] always pushing boundaries and defying convention.
[E] Probably because of this experimentation, [Dm] Reed never really broke through the mainstream.
Except for one [E] song, Walk on the Wild Side.
Now [F] considered a rock classic, Walk on the Wild Side is [Em] actually an incredibly subversive
song that [Dm] tells the stories of some of the most interesting people of an era.
[E] Let's take a closer look.
[Am]
[C] [Fm] [E]
[Dm] [C] Walk on the Wild Side was originally inspired by Nelson Algren's novel of the same name,
which tells the story of downtrodden people in 1930s New Orleans.
[Em] Originally, Lou Reed had set out to create a musical adaptation of the novel, but that fell apart.
As he worked on the [C] song, Reed started to populate it not with characters from the book,
but with people [D] in his own life.
And so the song structure came [Em] together.
Five different people, each of whom gets six lines in the song.
Before getting into these personalities, we [C] should look at the link they all shared.
Andy Warhol's [D] Factory.
Andy Warhol was a legendary artist who created [Em] a number of Warhol superstars, personalities
who would be muses for his arts and part of his public clique.
Many of these [C] superstars were helping legitimize new definitions of gender [D] and sexuality.
And Warhol also managed and worked [Em] with the Velvet Underground for a period, so Reed bumped
elbows with lots of Warhol superstars.
That's where we get back to Walk on the Wild [F] Side.
[C]
[F]
[C] Hitchhiked her way across the [F] USA.
[C] Plucked her [D] eyebrows on the [F] way.
Shaved her legs [D] and then he was a she.
The [Em] first verse of the song is about Holly Woodlawn, who, as you might expect from the
[C] lyrics, came from Miami, Florida.
Woodlawn [Am] was a [D] transgender woman who fled her home to New York after being [Em] discriminated
upon for her gender identity.
After turning tricks on the street to make ends meet as a teenager, she was found by
[C] Andy Warhol, who started to put her in his films.
[Am] Warhol put her in the [D] Paul Morrissey film Trash, where she thrived, and then she [Em] went
on to appear in Warhol and Morrissey's Woman in Revolt, as well as a few other acting pieces.
Woodlawn is an important [C] figure in LGBT history, and thanks to Lou Reed, [D] in music history too.
In an interview with the New York Times, she [Em] acknowledged her place in Reed's song, saying
that Lou Reed made me immortal.
The second person we meet is another [F#] transgender [F] icon, Candy [G] Darling.
[C]
Candy came from [F] out on the island.
[C] In the back room she was [F] everybody's darling.
[C] But she never [D]
lost her [F] head.
Even when [D] she was giving [C] head, she says, hey babe, take a walk on [Dm] the [Em] wild side.
Darling starred in Warhol's Flesh and appeared alongside Woodlawn in Woman in Revolt, and
she was [C] a muse for Lou Reed, who also wrote about her in Candy Says.
[D] The kinks Lola may also be about Candy Darling, and the [Em] Rolling Stones even talk about her
on their 1967 track, Citadel.
Unfortunately, Darling's career was [C] short-lived, as she died of lymphoma at just 29 years old.
In the [D] years since her death, Candy has become a legendary figure in queer communities, [Em] thanks
in no small part to Lou Reed putting her into songs.
After the first chorus, we're introduced to Little [C] Joe, [Am] better known as [C] Joe D'Alessandro.
Little Joe never once [F] gave it away.
[C] Everybody had to [Fm] pay and pay.
[Gm] [C] A hustle [D] here and a hustle there.
[F] New York City is [D] the place where [C] they said hey [Em] babe.
D [G]'Alessandro was a star in both Flesh [Em] and Trash, and unlike the rest of the people in
the song, [C] he actually went on to break the mainstream.
After his [D] career with Warhol, he would appear in movies like The Cotton Club, Critical [Em] Condition,
and The Lie Me.
Like Darling, D'Alessandro has a few other neat musical connections.
The famous crotch on the [C] cover of the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers?
Yep, that's him, and so is [D] the topless torso on the front of The Smiths' debut record.
[Em] But the Little Joe that Lou Reed sings about in this song isn't actually that much like
D'Alessandro in real life.
Instead, [C] it's based more on the character that he played in Flesh.
[D] The next character we meet is Sugar Plum Fairy, who was [Em] Joe Campbell.
He played a character by that name [Dm] in Warhol's film, My Hustler.
[C] Sugar Plum Fairy came [F] and hit the streets,
[C] looking for soul food and a [F] place to eat.
[C] Went to the [D] Apollo, [F]
shoulda seen [D] him go, go, [C] go.
They said, hey Sugar, take a [Em] walk on the wilds.
Warhol isn't the only famous association of Joe Campbell's.
[C] Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, [Am] Campbell was [D] in a seven-year relationship
with Harvey Milk, the first [Em] openly gay elected official in Californian history and a massive
figure in the history of gay rights.
And that brings us to our last [F] character, Jackie Curtis.
[C] Jackie is just [F] speeding away.
[C] Thought she was James Dean [F] for a day.
[C] Then I guess [D] she had the [F] crash, Valium [D] would have helped that [C] fetch that said, hey babe,
take a walk on the wilds.
Curtis was another Warhol superstar and a drag [D] performer.
She appeared alongside other actresses in the song, having [Em] parts in Flesh and Woman in Revolt.
And her drag style typically featured glitter, bright hair, and torn [C] clothing, which is a
look that some people have credited as inspiring [D] the 1970s glam rock aesthetic.
Curtis [Em] famously had an obsession with James Dean, something reflected in the song, as
well as a proclivity for drugs and partying.
[C] That tendency would end up bringing her to a young death at [Am] 38 [D] years old from a heroin overdose.
After Curtis' story, [Em] the song fades out.
[F] [C]
[Dm] Walk on the Wildside [C] gives us a great little glimpse into a [F] historical scene, and it helps
us [C] understand the people around Lou Reed that influenced the great artist that he was.
I'd [F] [G#] [C]
[Am] like to thank Squarespace for sponsoring this video.
[G] Squarespace is an all-in-one [Dm] platform where you can use designer templates to build your own website.
[E] Whether it's a new business, a creative pursuit, or a [Am] personal portfolio, Squarespace
can help you build your website to [Em] your vision.
They've got award-winning 24-7 [Dm] customer service, online store capabilities, [E] and simple
domain hosting and transferring.
[Am] I'm a big fan of Squarespace, and I've actually used them to build my personal portfolio
[C] site, [F] so I can promise [Dm] you it's a really fun, intuitive platform.
So head on over to squarespace [E].com slash polyphonic to show them that I [Am] sent you.
With that code, you'll save 10% off your first purchase of a [A] website or [F] domain.
[E] Think it, [Dm] dream it, make it with Squarespace.
[E] [Am]
[F] [E]
[Dm]
Go to squarespace.com slash polyphonic for 10% off your new website.
Lou Reed is one of the most [Am]
important musical figures of the 20th [G] century.
From helping create punk [Dm] style to being a mover and shaker in glam rock [E] to creating
some of the earliest noise music, Reed was [Am] always pushing boundaries and defying convention.
[E] Probably because of this experimentation, [Dm] Reed never really broke through the mainstream.
Except for one [E] song, Walk on the Wild Side.
Now [F] considered a rock classic, Walk on the Wild Side is [Em] actually an incredibly subversive
song that [Dm] tells the stories of some of the most interesting people of an era.
[E] Let's take a closer look.
[Am]
[C] [Fm] [E]
[Dm] [C] Walk on the Wild Side was originally inspired by Nelson Algren's novel of the same name,
which tells the story of downtrodden people in 1930s New Orleans.
[Em] Originally, Lou Reed had set out to create a musical adaptation of the novel, but that fell apart.
As he worked on the [C] song, Reed started to populate it not with characters from the book,
but with people [D] in his own life.
And so the song structure came [Em] together.
Five different people, each of whom gets six lines in the song.
Before getting into these personalities, we [C] should look at the link they all shared.
Andy Warhol's [D] Factory.
Andy Warhol was a legendary artist who created [Em] a number of Warhol superstars, personalities
who would be muses for his arts and part of his public clique.
Many of these [C] superstars were helping legitimize new definitions of gender [D] and sexuality.
And Warhol also managed and worked [Em] with the Velvet Underground for a period, so Reed bumped
elbows with lots of Warhol superstars.
That's where we get back to Walk on the Wild [F] Side.
[C]
[F]
[C] Hitchhiked her way across the [F] USA.
[C] Plucked her [D] eyebrows on the [F] way.
Shaved her legs [D] and then he was a she.
The [Em] first verse of the song is about Holly Woodlawn, who, as you might expect from the
[C] lyrics, came from Miami, Florida.
Woodlawn [Am] was a [D] transgender woman who fled her home to New York after being [Em] discriminated
upon for her gender identity.
After turning tricks on the street to make ends meet as a teenager, she was found by
[C] Andy Warhol, who started to put her in his films.
[Am] Warhol put her in the [D] Paul Morrissey film Trash, where she thrived, and then she [Em] went
on to appear in Warhol and Morrissey's Woman in Revolt, as well as a few other acting pieces.
Woodlawn is an important [C] figure in LGBT history, and thanks to Lou Reed, [D] in music history too.
In an interview with the New York Times, she [Em] acknowledged her place in Reed's song, saying
that Lou Reed made me immortal.
The second person we meet is another [F#] transgender [F] icon, Candy [G] Darling.
[C]
Candy came from [F] out on the island.
[C] In the back room she was [F] everybody's darling.
[C] But she never [D]
lost her [F] head.
Even when [D] she was giving [C] head, she says, hey babe, take a walk on [Dm] the [Em] wild side.
Darling starred in Warhol's Flesh and appeared alongside Woodlawn in Woman in Revolt, and
she was [C] a muse for Lou Reed, who also wrote about her in Candy Says.
[D] The kinks Lola may also be about Candy Darling, and the [Em] Rolling Stones even talk about her
on their 1967 track, Citadel.
Unfortunately, Darling's career was [C] short-lived, as she died of lymphoma at just 29 years old.
In the [D] years since her death, Candy has become a legendary figure in queer communities, [Em] thanks
in no small part to Lou Reed putting her into songs.
After the first chorus, we're introduced to Little [C] Joe, [Am] better known as [C] Joe D'Alessandro.
Little Joe never once [F] gave it away.
[C] Everybody had to [Fm] pay and pay.
[Gm] [C] A hustle [D] here and a hustle there.
[F] New York City is [D] the place where [C] they said hey [Em] babe.
D [G]'Alessandro was a star in both Flesh [Em] and Trash, and unlike the rest of the people in
the song, [C] he actually went on to break the mainstream.
After his [D] career with Warhol, he would appear in movies like The Cotton Club, Critical [Em] Condition,
and The Lie Me.
Like Darling, D'Alessandro has a few other neat musical connections.
The famous crotch on the [C] cover of the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers?
Yep, that's him, and so is [D] the topless torso on the front of The Smiths' debut record.
[Em] But the Little Joe that Lou Reed sings about in this song isn't actually that much like
D'Alessandro in real life.
Instead, [C] it's based more on the character that he played in Flesh.
[D] The next character we meet is Sugar Plum Fairy, who was [Em] Joe Campbell.
He played a character by that name [Dm] in Warhol's film, My Hustler.
[C] Sugar Plum Fairy came [F] and hit the streets,
[C] looking for soul food and a [F] place to eat.
[C] Went to the [D] Apollo, [F]
shoulda seen [D] him go, go, [C] go.
They said, hey Sugar, take a [Em] walk on the wilds.
Warhol isn't the only famous association of Joe Campbell's.
[C] Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, [Am] Campbell was [D] in a seven-year relationship
with Harvey Milk, the first [Em] openly gay elected official in Californian history and a massive
figure in the history of gay rights.
And that brings us to our last [F] character, Jackie Curtis.
[C] Jackie is just [F] speeding away.
[C] Thought she was James Dean [F] for a day.
[C] Then I guess [D] she had the [F] crash, Valium [D] would have helped that [C] fetch that said, hey babe,
take a walk on the wilds.
Curtis was another Warhol superstar and a drag [D] performer.
She appeared alongside other actresses in the song, having [Em] parts in Flesh and Woman in Revolt.
And her drag style typically featured glitter, bright hair, and torn [C] clothing, which is a
look that some people have credited as inspiring [D] the 1970s glam rock aesthetic.
Curtis [Em] famously had an obsession with James Dean, something reflected in the song, as
well as a proclivity for drugs and partying.
[C] That tendency would end up bringing her to a young death at [Am] 38 [D] years old from a heroin overdose.
After Curtis' story, [Em] the song fades out.
[F] [C]
[Dm] Walk on the Wildside [C] gives us a great little glimpse into a [F] historical scene, and it helps
us [C] understand the people around Lou Reed that influenced the great artist that he was.
I'd [F] [G#] [C]
[Am] like to thank Squarespace for sponsoring this video.
[G] Squarespace is an all-in-one [Dm] platform where you can use designer templates to build your own website.
[E] Whether it's a new business, a creative pursuit, or a [Am] personal portfolio, Squarespace
can help you build your website to [Em] your vision.
They've got award-winning 24-7 [Dm] customer service, online store capabilities, [E] and simple
domain hosting and transferring.
[Am] I'm a big fan of Squarespace, and I've actually used them to build my personal portfolio
[C] site, [F] so I can promise [Dm] you it's a really fun, intuitive platform.
So head on over to squarespace [E].com slash polyphonic to show them that I [Am] sent you.
With that code, you'll save 10% off your first purchase of a [A] website or [F] domain.
[E] Think it, [Dm] dream it, make it with Squarespace.
[E] [Am]
[F] [E]
[Dm]
Key:
C
D
F
Em
Am
C
D
F
I'd like to say thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring this video.
Go to squarespace.com slash polyphonic for 10% off your new website.
Lou Reed is one of the most [Am]
important musical figures of the 20th [G] century.
From helping create punk [Dm] style to being a mover and shaker in glam rock [E] to creating
some of the earliest noise music, Reed was [Am] always pushing boundaries and defying convention.
[E] Probably because of this experimentation, [Dm] Reed never really broke through the mainstream.
Except for one [E] song, Walk on the Wild Side.
Now [F] considered a rock classic, Walk on the Wild Side is [Em] actually an incredibly subversive
song that [Dm] tells the stories of some of the most interesting people of an era.
[E] Let's take a closer look.
_ [Am] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ [Fm] _ [E] _
[Dm] _ _ _ [C] Walk on the Wild Side was originally inspired by Nelson Algren's novel of the same name,
which tells the story of downtrodden people in 1930s New Orleans.
[Em] Originally, Lou Reed had set out to create a musical adaptation of the novel, but that fell apart.
As he worked on the [C] song, Reed started to populate it not with characters from the book,
but with people [D] in his own life.
And so the song structure came [Em] together.
Five different people, each of whom gets six lines in the song.
Before getting into these personalities, we [C] should look at the link they all shared.
Andy Warhol's [D] Factory.
Andy Warhol was a legendary artist who created [Em] a number of Warhol superstars, personalities
who would be muses for his arts and part of his public clique.
Many of these [C] superstars were helping legitimize new definitions of gender [D] and sexuality.
And Warhol also managed and worked [Em] with the Velvet Underground for a period, so Reed bumped
elbows with lots of Warhol superstars.
That's where we get back to Walk on the Wild [F] Side.
_ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ Hitchhiked her way across the [F] USA.
_ _ [C] _ Plucked her [D] eyebrows on the [F] way.
Shaved her legs [D] and then he was a she.
The [Em] first verse of the song is about Holly Woodlawn, who, as you might expect from the
[C] lyrics, came from Miami, Florida.
_ Woodlawn [Am] was a [D] transgender woman who fled her home to New York after being [Em] discriminated
upon for her gender identity.
After turning tricks on the street to make ends meet as a teenager, she was found by
[C] Andy Warhol, who started to put her in his films.
[Am] Warhol put her in the [D] Paul Morrissey film Trash, where she thrived, and then she [Em] went
on to appear in Warhol and Morrissey's Woman in Revolt, as well as a few other acting pieces.
_ Woodlawn is an important [C] figure in LGBT history, and thanks to Lou Reed, [D] in music history too.
In an interview with the New York Times, she [Em] acknowledged her place in Reed's song, saying
that Lou Reed made me immortal.
The second person we meet is another [F#] transgender [F] icon, Candy [G] Darling.
[C] _
Candy came from [F] out on the island. _
_ _ [C] In the back room she was [F] everybody's darling.
_ _ _ [C] But she never [D]
lost her [F] head.
Even when [D] she was giving [C] head, she says, hey babe, take a walk on [Dm] the [Em] wild side.
Darling starred in Warhol's Flesh and appeared alongside Woodlawn in Woman in Revolt, and
she was [C] a muse for Lou Reed, who also wrote about her in Candy Says.
[D] The kinks Lola may also be about Candy Darling, and the [Em] Rolling Stones even talk about her
on their 1967 track, Citadel.
_ _ Unfortunately, Darling's career was [C] short-lived, as she died of lymphoma at just 29 years old.
In the [D] years since her death, Candy has become a legendary figure in queer communities, [Em] thanks
in no small part to Lou Reed putting her into songs.
After the first chorus, we're introduced to Little [C] Joe, [Am] better known as [C] Joe D'Alessandro.
Little Joe never once [F] gave it away.
_ _ _ _ [C] Everybody had to [Fm] pay and pay.
[Gm] _ _ [C] A hustle [D] here and a hustle there.
[F] New York City is [D] the place where [C] they said hey [Em] babe.
D [G]'Alessandro was a star in both Flesh [Em] and Trash, and unlike the rest of the people in
the song, [C] he actually went on to break the mainstream.
After his [D] career with Warhol, he would appear in movies like The Cotton Club, Critical [Em] Condition,
and The Lie Me.
Like Darling, D'Alessandro has a few other neat musical connections.
The famous crotch on the [C] cover of the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers?
Yep, that's him, and so is [D] the topless torso on the front of The Smiths' debut record.
[Em] But the Little Joe that Lou Reed sings about in this song isn't actually that much like
D'Alessandro in real life.
Instead, [C] it's based more on the character that he played in Flesh.
[D] The next character we meet is Sugar Plum Fairy, who was [Em] Joe Campbell.
He played a character by that name [Dm] in Warhol's film, My Hustler.
[C] Sugar Plum Fairy came [F] and hit the streets, _ _ _
[C] looking for soul food and a [F] place to eat. _
_ _ [C] Went to the [D] Apollo, [F] _
shoulda seen [D] him go, go, [C] go.
They said, hey Sugar, take a [Em] walk on the wilds.
Warhol isn't the only famous association of Joe Campbell's.
[C] Throughout the late 1950s and early _ 1960s, [Am] Campbell was [D] in a seven-year relationship
with Harvey Milk, the first [Em] openly gay elected official in Californian history and a massive
figure in the history of gay rights.
And that brings us to our last [F] character, Jackie Curtis.
_ [C] Jackie is just [F] speeding away.
_ _ _ [C] Thought she was James Dean [F] for a day.
_ _ _ [C] Then I guess [D] she had the [F] crash, Valium [D] would have helped that [C] fetch that said, hey babe,
take a walk on the wilds.
Curtis was another Warhol superstar and a drag [D] performer.
She appeared alongside other actresses in the song, having [Em] parts in Flesh and Woman in Revolt.
And her drag style typically featured glitter, bright hair, and torn [C] clothing, which is a
look that some people have credited as inspiring [D] the 1970s glam rock aesthetic.
Curtis [Em] famously had an obsession with James Dean, something reflected in the song, as
well as a proclivity for drugs and partying.
[C] That tendency would end up bringing her to a young death at [Am] 38 [D] years old from a heroin overdose.
After Curtis' story, [Em] the song fades out. _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ [Dm] _ Walk on the Wildside [C] gives us a great little glimpse into a [F] historical scene, and it helps
us [C] understand the people around Lou Reed that influenced the great artist that he was. _ _
I'd _ [F] _ _ _ [G#] _ [C] _ _
_ [Am] _ like to thank Squarespace for sponsoring this video.
[G] Squarespace is an all-in-one [Dm] platform where you can use designer templates to build your own website.
[E] Whether it's a new business, a creative pursuit, or a [Am] personal portfolio, Squarespace
can help you build your website to [Em] your vision.
They've got award-winning 24-7 [Dm] customer service, online store capabilities, [E] and simple
domain hosting and transferring.
[Am] I'm a big fan of Squarespace, and I've actually used them to build my personal portfolio
[C] site, [F] so I can promise [Dm] you it's a really fun, intuitive platform.
So head on over to squarespace [E].com slash polyphonic to show them that I [Am] sent you.
With that code, you'll save 10% off your first purchase of a [A] website or [F] domain.
[E] Think it, [Dm] dream it, make it with Squarespace.
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ [E] _
[Dm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Go to squarespace.com slash polyphonic for 10% off your new website.
Lou Reed is one of the most [Am]
important musical figures of the 20th [G] century.
From helping create punk [Dm] style to being a mover and shaker in glam rock [E] to creating
some of the earliest noise music, Reed was [Am] always pushing boundaries and defying convention.
[E] Probably because of this experimentation, [Dm] Reed never really broke through the mainstream.
Except for one [E] song, Walk on the Wild Side.
Now [F] considered a rock classic, Walk on the Wild Side is [Em] actually an incredibly subversive
song that [Dm] tells the stories of some of the most interesting people of an era.
[E] Let's take a closer look.
_ [Am] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ [Fm] _ [E] _
[Dm] _ _ _ [C] Walk on the Wild Side was originally inspired by Nelson Algren's novel of the same name,
which tells the story of downtrodden people in 1930s New Orleans.
[Em] Originally, Lou Reed had set out to create a musical adaptation of the novel, but that fell apart.
As he worked on the [C] song, Reed started to populate it not with characters from the book,
but with people [D] in his own life.
And so the song structure came [Em] together.
Five different people, each of whom gets six lines in the song.
Before getting into these personalities, we [C] should look at the link they all shared.
Andy Warhol's [D] Factory.
Andy Warhol was a legendary artist who created [Em] a number of Warhol superstars, personalities
who would be muses for his arts and part of his public clique.
Many of these [C] superstars were helping legitimize new definitions of gender [D] and sexuality.
And Warhol also managed and worked [Em] with the Velvet Underground for a period, so Reed bumped
elbows with lots of Warhol superstars.
That's where we get back to Walk on the Wild [F] Side.
_ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ Hitchhiked her way across the [F] USA.
_ _ [C] _ Plucked her [D] eyebrows on the [F] way.
Shaved her legs [D] and then he was a she.
The [Em] first verse of the song is about Holly Woodlawn, who, as you might expect from the
[C] lyrics, came from Miami, Florida.
_ Woodlawn [Am] was a [D] transgender woman who fled her home to New York after being [Em] discriminated
upon for her gender identity.
After turning tricks on the street to make ends meet as a teenager, she was found by
[C] Andy Warhol, who started to put her in his films.
[Am] Warhol put her in the [D] Paul Morrissey film Trash, where she thrived, and then she [Em] went
on to appear in Warhol and Morrissey's Woman in Revolt, as well as a few other acting pieces.
_ Woodlawn is an important [C] figure in LGBT history, and thanks to Lou Reed, [D] in music history too.
In an interview with the New York Times, she [Em] acknowledged her place in Reed's song, saying
that Lou Reed made me immortal.
The second person we meet is another [F#] transgender [F] icon, Candy [G] Darling.
[C] _
Candy came from [F] out on the island. _
_ _ [C] In the back room she was [F] everybody's darling.
_ _ _ [C] But she never [D]
lost her [F] head.
Even when [D] she was giving [C] head, she says, hey babe, take a walk on [Dm] the [Em] wild side.
Darling starred in Warhol's Flesh and appeared alongside Woodlawn in Woman in Revolt, and
she was [C] a muse for Lou Reed, who also wrote about her in Candy Says.
[D] The kinks Lola may also be about Candy Darling, and the [Em] Rolling Stones even talk about her
on their 1967 track, Citadel.
_ _ Unfortunately, Darling's career was [C] short-lived, as she died of lymphoma at just 29 years old.
In the [D] years since her death, Candy has become a legendary figure in queer communities, [Em] thanks
in no small part to Lou Reed putting her into songs.
After the first chorus, we're introduced to Little [C] Joe, [Am] better known as [C] Joe D'Alessandro.
Little Joe never once [F] gave it away.
_ _ _ _ [C] Everybody had to [Fm] pay and pay.
[Gm] _ _ [C] A hustle [D] here and a hustle there.
[F] New York City is [D] the place where [C] they said hey [Em] babe.
D [G]'Alessandro was a star in both Flesh [Em] and Trash, and unlike the rest of the people in
the song, [C] he actually went on to break the mainstream.
After his [D] career with Warhol, he would appear in movies like The Cotton Club, Critical [Em] Condition,
and The Lie Me.
Like Darling, D'Alessandro has a few other neat musical connections.
The famous crotch on the [C] cover of the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers?
Yep, that's him, and so is [D] the topless torso on the front of The Smiths' debut record.
[Em] But the Little Joe that Lou Reed sings about in this song isn't actually that much like
D'Alessandro in real life.
Instead, [C] it's based more on the character that he played in Flesh.
[D] The next character we meet is Sugar Plum Fairy, who was [Em] Joe Campbell.
He played a character by that name [Dm] in Warhol's film, My Hustler.
[C] Sugar Plum Fairy came [F] and hit the streets, _ _ _
[C] looking for soul food and a [F] place to eat. _
_ _ [C] Went to the [D] Apollo, [F] _
shoulda seen [D] him go, go, [C] go.
They said, hey Sugar, take a [Em] walk on the wilds.
Warhol isn't the only famous association of Joe Campbell's.
[C] Throughout the late 1950s and early _ 1960s, [Am] Campbell was [D] in a seven-year relationship
with Harvey Milk, the first [Em] openly gay elected official in Californian history and a massive
figure in the history of gay rights.
And that brings us to our last [F] character, Jackie Curtis.
_ [C] Jackie is just [F] speeding away.
_ _ _ [C] Thought she was James Dean [F] for a day.
_ _ _ [C] Then I guess [D] she had the [F] crash, Valium [D] would have helped that [C] fetch that said, hey babe,
take a walk on the wilds.
Curtis was another Warhol superstar and a drag [D] performer.
She appeared alongside other actresses in the song, having [Em] parts in Flesh and Woman in Revolt.
And her drag style typically featured glitter, bright hair, and torn [C] clothing, which is a
look that some people have credited as inspiring [D] the 1970s glam rock aesthetic.
Curtis [Em] famously had an obsession with James Dean, something reflected in the song, as
well as a proclivity for drugs and partying.
[C] That tendency would end up bringing her to a young death at [Am] 38 [D] years old from a heroin overdose.
After Curtis' story, [Em] the song fades out. _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ [Dm] _ Walk on the Wildside [C] gives us a great little glimpse into a [F] historical scene, and it helps
us [C] understand the people around Lou Reed that influenced the great artist that he was. _ _
I'd _ [F] _ _ _ [G#] _ [C] _ _
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