Lou Reed's Berlin was released in 1973, just after Transformer and just before Sally Can't Dance, two records that to this day remain Reed's most commercially successful. Berlin's legend of failure was born almost immediately (Rolling Stone: "There are certain records that are so patently offensive that one wishes to take some kind of physical vengeance on the artists that perpetrate them"; Robert Christgau: "Will Lou lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it?").