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well-intentioned efforts saved the release from commercial disaster.
    While MMM was reported to have initially shipped a hundred thousand copies, it was the most returned album in RCA’s history. In its frantic effort at damage control, the record company pulled MMM from store shelves and rerouted it straight into the cutout bins. Before more damage was done, it canceled the disc’s release in England.
    Since that time MMM (subtitled An Electronic Music Composition: The Amine ß Ring ) has become one of the most sought after 8-tracks of all time, right up there with vintage oddities like Yoko Ono’s Fly . It was officially entered into the 8-Track Hall of Fame (yes, there is such a thing) on October 10, 1995.
    It should not be forgotten that the late, legendary chronicler Lester Bangs waxed poetically, prolifically, and prophetically on MMM . In his classic Creem Magazine article, “The Greatest Album Ever Made” (later in the posthumous collection, Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung ), Lester provided seventeen lively reasons why MMM was superior to his number two choice, Kiss Alive!
    Bangs and Reed jousted brutally when discussing MMM , which was documented in another Bangs’s essay, “How to Succeed in Torture Without Really Trying.” While Lester adored MMM , others disagreed.
    Rolling Stone voted it “Worst Album of the Year.” Billboard Magazine said simply, “Recommended Cuts: None.” Most critics pannedit, although Robert “The Dean” Christgau was merciful in his Consumer Guide , giving it a respectable grade of C+. In the Trouser Press Record Guide , Ira Robbins described “…the truly deviant Metal Machine Music” as “four sides of unlistenable noise (a description, not a value judgment) that angered and disappointed all but the most devout Reed fans.”
    All true enough.
    While dismissed as a scam that (simultaneously) took revenge on his manager, fulfilled a commitment to Reed’s record company, and eliminated a growing congregation of unwanted admirers, MMM was undeniably guilty of deceptive packaging.
    The album cover featured a leather-clad Reed, hair peroxide blond, wearing sunglasses and looking every inch the decadent glamhead. Lou used this same punk visage on his sexually ambiguous Transformer album (which included the hit single, “Walk on the Wild Side”) and again on his twin-guitar/arena-rock concert recording, Rock and Roll Animal .
    Imagine teenagers across the country rushing home with their brand-new Lou Reed album, only to conclude that something had gone terribly wrong with their stereo systems, or worse yet, that Reed had ripped them off with a bunch of irreverent white noise.
    John Holmstrom, former editor of Punk (defunct) who interviewed Reed for the visionary fanzine’s first issue in 1976, described the album’s impact this way: “ MMM is one of the greatest records of all time. It kicked off the whole punk movement. I mean—it nearly destroyed Lou’s entire career. How much more punk can you get than that?”
    So, MMM : a grand punk statement, an electronic composition of indecipherable depth, or both? Whatever the case, Metal Machine Music was one of the more controversial pop music products of the twentieth century. But looking at MMM as art, one must contemplate the artist.
    Prior to the release of MMM Reed had gone through a divorce and was in a state of near exhaustion. He was cohabiting with a drag queen named Rachel and had been hit in the face with a brick while performing in Europe.
    On MMM , Lou flagrantly trashed the boundaries of decorum with overt references to amphetamines, syringes, and pharmaceutical handbooks. In his bitter, rambling album notes, Reed made apocryphal drug comments—curtly dismissing “those for whom the needle is no more than a toothbrush.”
    Rumored (and then denied) to have been a candidate for RCA’s classical music