Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” is a tribute to Andy Warhol’s “factory” of friends and superstars from the New York underground. Here’s Holly, Jackie and Joe in 1971:

The song weaves a soft, soothing melody with lyrics about about drugs, transsexuality, cross-dressing, prostitution, and oral sex.

The title is a reference to Nelson Algren’s 1956 novel “A Walk on the Wild Side”. Reed was hired to create a musical based on the novel, which had previously been turned into a film with a screenplay written by noted author John Fante. The project never came to fruition, and Reed used the title of the novel for the now famous glamour track.