Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story [Paperback]

Victor Bockris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 6, 2003

The Velvet Underground is arguably one of the most influential American rock bands ever. Based on interviews with former members Lou Reed, John Cale, and Sterling Morrison, as well as others from Andy Warhol's circle of artistic collaborators, Up-Tight is the definitive oral and visual history of the band and its revolutionary, often avantgarde music. Bockris and Malanga's intelligent and entertaining approach-which does not shy away from the drugs, sleaze, and controversy that enveloped the band seemingly from its inception-provides compulsive reading.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Up Tight is perhaps the definitive Velvet Underground biography... and never shies away from the sleazy truth. (Allan Martin Kemler Rockpile )

Up Tight is perhaps the definitive Velvet Underground biography... and never shies away from the sleazy truth. (Allan Martin Kemler Rockpile )

Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story by Victor Brockris and Gerard Malanga is a pretty candid peek into this legendary group. (John Koenig Discoveries For Record and Cd Collectors )

Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story by Victor Brockris and Gerard Malanga is a pretty candid peek into this legendary group. (John Koenig Discoveries For Record and Cd Collectors )

Told through delightfully bitchy quotes and contemporary diary entries... (Victor Bockris and Gerard Malanga Blender )

About the Author

Victor Bockris, "the poet laureate of the Manhattan underground scene," is the author of Muhammad Ali, Keith Richards, and Beat Punks. Photographer and poet Gerard Malanga worked closely with andy Warhol at The Factory in the 1960s. He is the author of Andy Warhol: Little Chair Paintings. Both live in New York City.

Victor Bockris, "the poet laureate of the Manhattan underground scene," is the author of Muhammad Ali, Keith Richards, and Beat Punks. Photographer and poet Gerard Malanga worked closely with andy Warhol at The Factory in the 1960s. He is the author of Andy Warhol: Little Chair Paintings. Both live in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Cooper Square Press (October 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815412851
• ISBN-13: 978-0815412854
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,716,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As perfect of a document as we are likely to have, September 21, 2006

By 

David Alston (Chapel Hill, NC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story (Paperback)

Some 20 years after it's first publication, UP-TIGHT remains the definitive history of The Velvet Underground, and is also one of the essential glimpses into the social and creative world of Warhol's Factory.

Very well illustrated, with many black and white photos documenting the era, Bockris compiles and edits an oral history of the time, with valuable input from all of the key players.

Highly recommended for those with any interest in the Velvets, or Warhol, and an essential snapshot of America's 60s cultural landscape.

-David Alston

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars She couldn't believe what she heard at all ...., December 14, 2010

By 

M. Bromberg "BellemeadeBooks" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Uptight (Classic rock reads) (Paperback)

A concise biography that details the trajectory of the Velvet Underground month-by-month, year-by-year, as the group evolves from Lou Reed's pop-rock roots to Andy Warhol patronage and art-rock noise, through a subdued, confessional third album and finally, "despite all the amputations," to rock'n'roll. Victor Bockris has written a witty, detailed story with first-person accounts, full of the band's personal turmoil, drug use, and ego-fueled confrontations. The interviews illuminate the art of the music and the band's struggle for commercial success in equal measure, two opposing goals that lead to the inevitable end of the band with centrifugal force. Great black-and-white photographs capture a band as interested in its own look as in its music. This is much more than a fan's book, and the Velvets' highwire act performed without a net ought to dispel any notion of the monolithic "peace and love" image of Sixties' music.

14 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent & entertaining approach, June 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Uptight: The Story of the Velvet Underground (Classic Rock Read) (Paperback)

An intelligent and entertaining approach to one of the most influential (read: they didn't sell a lot of records in their heyday)rock bands ever. Great pix too. The Velvets epitomized a time when artists didn't feel narrowly compelled to practise any ONE discipline, but rather people were less afraid to combine ideas, cross genres and disciplines. The spirit of the time, to me, suggests Possibility. Yes, Warhol et al. could drift into pretention, but that's the price (and it's really not such a costly one) you pay for being daring. You may go too far sometimes, and by today's (stupid?) standards, perhaps some of the VU "happenings" might appear contrived. But I don't think so! Altogether, VU rules. Way ahead of their time, and before it too. And beside it.

Buy this book, but more importantly, buy into the Underground.