Books - The Velvet Underground
There are tons of books about The Velvet Undergound. Most of them are a waste of paper. The ones listed on this page are good to excellent.
UP-TIGHT: The Velvet Underground Story
Victor Bockris & Gerard Malanga
Omnibus Press, 1983
ISBN: 0 7119 0168 6
Lavishly illustrated. Essential reading for anyone who is into the Velvet Underground. Updated in 1995, including a new section about the 1993 Velvets reunion.
On the recording of the White Light/White Heat album:
"Most of the recording was done straight through; Sister Ray was one piece. I Heard Her Call My Name and Here She Comes Now evolved in the studio. We never performed them live. The Gift was a story Lou had written a long time ago when he was at Syracuse University. It was my idea to do it as a spoken-word thing. We had this piece called 'Booker T' that was just an instrumental, so instead of wasting it, we decided to combine them."
Beyond The Velvet Underground
Dave Thompson
Omnibus Press, 1989
ISBN: 0711916918
96 p. paperback
Consists of quotes and interview excerpts. Includes VU/solo discographies, including session appearances.
The Velvet Underground Handbook: A Comprehensive Mediography
M.C. Kostek
Black Spring, 1992
ISBN-10: 0948238127
ISBN 13: 9780948238123
226p. paperback
Compiled by Mike Kostek, President of the Velvet Underground Appreciation Society, so it is highly accurate.
Mike Kostek, President of the V.U. Appreciation Society, provides a dazzling wealth of information about all the band's work in all media (taking in for example Lou Reed's poetry publications and Nico's appearances in films such as Fellini's 'La Dolce Vita'), including subsequent solo records. Find out here about such Velvet Underground curios as the record they released on cardboard instead of vinyl; about Lou Reed's song 'Sweet and Twenty', with words by William Shakespeare; and about all the artists who have performed cover versions of Velvet Underground songs, from Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias to the Yardbirds (via Simple Minds, Debbie Harry, New Order and Pere Ubu, to name just a few).
Includes rare photos, chronological history, discography, filmography and bibliography, plus a listing of cover versions of the songs.
The Complete Guide to the Music of The Velvet Underground
Peter Hogan
Omnibus Press, 1997
ISBN: 0-7119-5596-4
128 p. paperback
Entry-level pocket-sized book for a quick reference on the go. Succinct song-by-song album reviews. Includes photos of the 1993 reunion tour.
33 1/3 - The Velvet Underground and Nico
Joe Harvard
Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004
ISBN-10: 0826415504
ISBN-13: 978-0826415509
152 p. paperback, USA/UK
Each track of the album is discussed extensively. Interesting information from engineer Norman Dolph about the recording sessions.
The Velvet Underground
Richard Witts
Equinox Publishing, 2006
ISBN-10: 190476827X
ISBN-13: 9781904768272
162 p. paperback
In-depth musical study by a teacher at Goldsmiths College, where Cale was a student from 1961 to 1963. Transcriptions of major songs galore. Includes surprisingly good information about Cale's stint with The Dream Syndicate. Nicholas Lezard in a review for The Guardian:
A note before the title page says it is "designed for undergraduates and the general reader". Never mind the general reader, it was the fact that the Velvet Underground are now being studied by undergraduates that had me pacing around the room, pinching the bridge of my nose and saying the title of the fifth track on their third album ("Jesus") out loud a few times. Am I getting that old? When I was an undergraduate, they had hardly been split up for a decade. Students shouldn't be studying the Velvet Underground, they should sit around taking narcotics and listening to them. You'll be telling me next that students aren't allowed to take narcotics any more.
The Rough Guide The Velvet Underground
Peter Hogan
Rough Guides, 2007
ISBN-10: 1843535882
ISBN-13: 978-1843535881
312 p. paperback
Sporting shades and a feedback-heavy sounds, the Velvets straddled art and rock, changing popular music forever, and sowing the seeds for punk, grunge and thousands of countercultural four-chord wonders. The Rough Guide to The Velvet Underground explores: The Velvet Story: How Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, John Cale and the others emerged from the New York scene, their successes and excesses and what happened to each in their solo years. Velvet Music: From their 1967 debut with Nico to their 1993 reunion with all the tales behind the tunes. Velvet Universe: Everybody who was anybody in the Velvet’s world, taking in Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, David Bowie, and Brian Eno. Velvet Goldmine: The “Underground” on screen, the Velvets’ New York, clubs, influences, covers, websites and more.
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The Velvet Underground: legend, truth
Ignacio Juliá
Munster, Spain, 2008
ISBN: 978-84-612-6825-2
270 pages hardback
Contains classic interviews with all The Velvets, including the best one with Sterling Morrison. Lavishly illustrated.
The first edition (in Spanish) was published in 1986. Updated and reprinted in 2022 as Linger On: The Velvet Underground.
White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day
Richie Unterberger
Jawbone Press (London), 2009
367 pages
ISBN: 978-1-906002-22-0
The 368-page, 8 1/2" X 11"-sized book covers the group's recording sessions, record releases, concerts, press reviews, and other major events shaping their career with both thorough detail and critical insight. Drawing on about 100 interviews and exhaustive research through documents and recordings rarely or never accessed, it unearths stories that have seldom been told, and eyewitness accounts that have seldom seen print, from figures ranging from band members to managers, producers, record executives, journalists, concert promoters, and fans.
The Velvet Underground - New York Extravaganza
Catalog for the exposition at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2016.
Sous la direction de Christian Fevret et Carole Mirabello
Prix : 39 €
ISBN : 978-2373680157
Coédition La Découverte / Cité de la musique - Philharmonie
de Paris
Rodolphe Burger © D.R.
Contains an interview originally published in Les Inrock in 1990. Ma découverte de l'underground:
"'Heroin' était déjà écrite, mais ce n'est que lorsque Sterling s'est mis à jouer cette partie de basse, et moi du violon sur 'Venus', que j'ai senti que nous avions découvert un style. Quand nous avons trouvé cet arrangement pour 'Venus', je savais qu'il y avait là un style vraiment original, sale et malsain, indécent."
('Heroin' was already written, but it is only when Sterling began to play the bass part, and I joined in on viola on Venus', that I felt we had discovered a style. When we found this arrangement for 'Venus', I knew that this was a truly original style, dirty and unhealthy, indecent.)
Loaded: The Life (and Afterlife) of The Velvet Underground
Dylan Jones
White Rabbit, 2023
400 pages
ISBN-10: 1399607251
ISBN-13: 978-1399607254
Dylan Jones' definitive oral history of The Velvet Underground draws on contributions from remaining members, contemporaneous musicians, critics, film-makers, and the generation of artists who emerged in their wake, to celebrate not only their impact but their legacy, which burns brighter than ever into the 21st century.