Customer Reviews

White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day by Day

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While there are many good books out on the Velvet Underground, and it might seem that there's really nothing more to write on this deeply influential band, this book adds a great deal of material to the well known saga on the band's long and often tortured history, with a literal day by day chronicle of their gigs, recordings, film work (with Andy Warhol), and internal struggles. As someone who saw the band during their gigs at The Dom way back in 1966, and also at their last stand at Max's Kansas City in the summer of 1970, I have to say that the superb detail and remarkable research of this volume lifts it above conventional rock and roll biography, into the level of serious musical scholarship. Well written, densely detailed, and carefully considered, and happily missing the tone of the frenzied fan, this is the definitive book on the Velvets, and should remain so for some time to come. It doesn't list the new Gymnasium tapes that recently surfaced, with a previously unknown song included in the set -- "I'm Not A Young Man Anymore", a great song -- but that's probably because it happened so recently. Other than that, which is a minor quibble, this is an incredible piece of work, and an absolute must for anyone interested in the Velvets, rock and roll, or popular music in the 20th century.

This is for people who are interested in VU and want to know all the details. It doesn't go into the band members opinions much but mainly puts the facts down and gives a little (insightful) commentary. It seems like it would be dry but I read it all in 3 days. Loved it.

Simply put, this is the Velvet Underground Bible. Alongside the hundreds of photos, flyers, newspaper clippings, promotional ads and record covers, is a day-by-day account of one of the most influential bands of all time, The Velvet Underground. From the pre-VU days, all the way to their reunion in 1993, author Richie Unterberger has meticulously compiled all of the happenings related to the members of the VU.

All gigs, recording sessions, rehearsals and reviews are assembled in chronological order - from Lou Reed's days as a house songwriter at Pickwick Records, to John Cale's avante-garde performances with John Cage, to Nico's entrance/exit and the days under the wings of Andy Warhol.

This book is mammoth and not for the casual Velvets fan. I found myself skipping over the monotonous sections pertaining to early drummer Angus MacLise and John Cale collaborator LaMonte Young - it was a bit extraneous and skipping did not take away from the overall effect of the book.

Lots and lots of VU trivia to be gained from these pages. Drummer Maureen Tucker first rehearsed with the band on the very same day as her first gig with them. She was asked to join the band because the first drummer quit and Maureen had a car and an extra guitar amp. The original drummer, MacLise, quit because he found out the band was getting a paid gig and didn't want to get paid or commit to showing up at a set time for the gig.

From the same publisher that brought us Bowie in Berlin: A New Career in a New Town (Book), Jawbone Press has once again done a fantastic job. This edition is similar in size to a school textbook - 8 x 10 inches, with full page, high quality photos.

Just received this book last week and delved right in to a very eagerly-awaited tome
on the Velvets. I'll try to boil down my issues with it as succinctly as possible: Unterberger's a very good writer, his research and attention to detail are excellent, and Jawbone's designers/artists did a bang-up job designing and packaging the volume, but why, oh why, is the proofreading and editing of this book so ABSOLUTELY HIDEOUS? It's generally really, really bad, tons and tons of glaring mistakes, misspellings of names (John Cassavettes for John Cassavetes!) that are easily fact-checked online or elsewhere, and repeated text, omitted conjunctive words and phrases, and irritating substitutions like Marsh 5 (!) for an entry on Nico meeting the Roling Stones in London in 1965 that should have been March 5 (obviously). There's no excuse for a commercial publisher to let titles go to press in this sorry a form; the field is getting more and more like this, and it tends to mar an otherwise wonderful project, such as this one. Next time, guys, you have to go against the current trend towards stinginess and austerity and crack open that piggy bank and actually PAY a proofreader/copy editor to go over the manuscript as thoroughly as possible, so this type of thing doesn't keep happening. A few errors wouldn't be so bad, but when it keeps happening, seemingly in every other paragraph, it gets really irritating really fast, and interrupts one's reading experience. It also calls into question the integrity of the writing, editing and research of the author and/or publisher, even though we know in this instance that it's obviously the fault of the publishers/editors and not the author, since Unterberger has clearly delivered a solid book here, it's just that the ball was dropped, editorially-speaking, big time. I'm going to try, as a major Velvet Underground fan and scholar for many years, to keep enjoying this otherwise well-done book, although it's tough at times, given the above glaring issues, to do so. I loved Jawbone's earlier tome by Thomas Jerome Seabrook on David Bowie's Berlin period, Bowie in Berlin, which was likewise excellent but not given, as I recall, to such egregious errors and typos, and shoddy editing. Better luck next time, guys: I'd be praising this book to the skies if not for the total lack of editorial control exhibited herein. As it is, we have a "classic" book with tons of worthy material, let down by the seeming incompetence of its own publishers/editors. Not a great situation.

to a fault this book leaves no stone unturned - more info than you would ever think you were going to know about the Velvet Underground

This is an incredible book! If only the print size was bigger, it's like trying to read the bottom of a loan agreement. I can't see anybody else covering this story this well. Good Job Richie!!!