Author(s): Jim DeRogatis

Music

Founded by Lou Reed and John Cale and managed by Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground is often cited as the most influential band of the late 60's, and some regard it as the most influential rock band of all time. This illustrated biography takes the reader on a behind-the-scenes-tour from it's earliest days to it's later incarnations. There is a 7,000 word excerpt from Andy Warhol's memoirs charting the progress of this band, plus interviews with Lou Reed, Nico, John Cale, showing how Velvet Underground 'opened wounds worth opening with brutal imagery, without apology' as Patti Smith said upon the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Certain to appeal to a wide age range, form people who were there, to young teenagers, this is bound to be music best-seller! The Velvet Underground was without doubt one of the most inspired and influential rock 'n' roll bands of all time. Connected with Andy Warhol's pop-art Factory, the band became a spiritual godfather to punk and hardcore rock. An All-Star Tribute, Featuring: Andy Warhol on the Velvets, photographs from Exploding Plastic Inevitable dancer Gerard Malanga, and rare images from Factory photographers Nat Finkelstein, Stephen Shore, and Billy Name Jim DeRogatis with Bill Bentley, Garth Cartwright, Glenn Kenny, Greg Kot, Olivier Landemaine, Rob O'Connor, and Dave Sprague Glorious color concert and behind-the-scenes photography as well as vintage posters, handbills, memorabilia, and more. Welcome to the first complete illustrated history of the Velvets! Publisher Marketing: Hardly anyone bought the Velvet Underground's albums when they were released, but most everyone who did formed a band. This was the kind of influence the Velvets exerted, and it persists to this day in the sounds of groups as diverse as Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Sex Pistols, R.E.M., My Bloody Valentine, and Sonic Youth--all of whom claim the Velvets as their most important influence. And then there are such soundalikes as Yo La Tengo, Luna, and the Strokes, to name a few. Published on the forty-fifth anniversary of the Velvet Underground's founding, this is the first illustrated history of the band that rocked rock--one of the most inspired and influential rock 'n' roll bands of all time. The book follows this icon of Sixties rock from its heady first days with Lou Reed, John Cale, German chanteuse Nico, drummer Moe Tucker, and guitarist Sterling Morrison; through its management by pop artist Andy Warhol, who made the band the siren of his Factory and part of his traveling multimedia show, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable; to its later incarnations in the early Seventies. "They opened wounds worth opening with brutal imagery, without apology," Patti Smith said, upon the band's 1996 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And this book offers a unique behind-the-scenes look at how the Velvet Underground did it.