The Velvet Underground and Nico

Joe Harvard's entry in the 33 1/3 series of book-length record meditations is part review, part band biography, and part detective story. Harvard unearths interviews with some key players in the recording of the Velvet Underground's first album, including Andy Warhol and band members Sterling Morrison, John Cale, and Lou Reed, as well as tracking down and gleaning valuable information from one of its engineers, Norman Dolph. With painstaking research, Harvard reconstructs the entire making of the album--the songs' conception, their recording, the finished product's release, and the band's disappointment at the lack of subsequent record company support. Over the course of some lengthy discussions on the differing styles of the band's players, their songwriting, and general musical motivation, he excavates and illuminates not only the album but also the period in which it was made. This type of musical archeology might strike some as obsessive, but Harvard's obvious enthusiasm for his task is so infectious that he coerces the reader into becoming a willing accomplice to his geekiness. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.