But he still doesn't call it his best work from the quote you originally took, since he keeps focusing on and praising Velvet Underground afterwards.
lol. I've already noted I mistook the original quote from U2.com.
Ultimately, however, I actually did correctly interpret it as being one of, if not the, Lou Reed album that was favorite of his. He certainly didn't focus on any specific VU songs or albums after singling out Transformer, other than a brief mention of Pale Blue Eyes (and what seems to be a reference to Heroin however I vaguely recall them also talking about Walk On The Wild Side and RTSS in the same sentence before
) and the fact that they were delighted to have them open for them during Pop. That's not exactly "keeps on focusing on and praising VU afterwards". He's expends two sentences acknowledging VU in terms of being one of the influences that Reed was born out of. Does he even mention any other Lou Reed solo albums or songs outside Transformer?
The songs he/U2 cover of Lou Reed's come solely from Transformer, do they not? Pretty sure they do, but maybe there's a snippet I've forgotten.
Anyways, this is such a ridiculous splitting of hairs because as I mentioned many of the songs from Transformer were first written, recorded, and played live with VU.
Interesting to see him naming Running to Stand Still as being heavily influenced by VU. It seems quite different to Heroin lyrically or "feel-wise" to me, despite the very similar subject matter.
The chords are almost identical..during the slower parts of Heroin.
I remember reading something about that years ago, although I don't remember if it was the band actually saying it or some writer comparing the two. Something about how heroin is the perspective of the junky, running to stand still is the narrator watching others around them become the guy from heroin.
Interesting, I hadn't read that. It does make sense though. Do you remember where you might have read that?