Seeing the Light: Inside the Velvet Underground

by Rob Jovanovic

With exclusive new interviews from the band, this is a captivating account of one of the most influential groups in rock history.

Brian Eno famously said “the first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band.” Perhaps no other musicians can claim such limited chart success and so enduring a musical legacy as The Velvet Underground. Artists including David Bowie, The Sex Pistols, Joy Division, Roxy Music, Nirvana, U2, R.E.M., and even dissident Czech playwright and eventual president Václav Havel have cited the Velvets as a major influence.
Seeing the Light presents the untold story of the band. Formed by the mercurial Lou Reed and classically trained Welshman John Cale in the mid-1960s, the band first gained notoriety after being adopted by Andy Warhol. Warhol’s patronage allowed the group to chart unexplored regions of rock ’n’ roll, producing unforgettable and unsettling music that veered from droning, avant-garde experimentalism to folk-infused pop, offering taboo-busting tales of drug addiction, prostitution, and sexual deviance. Creative tensions and frustrated ambition eventually saw both Cale and Reed leave the band, to its ignominious end.
In the decades since, The Velvet Underground’s music has attained classic status, revered alongside The Beatles and The Beach Boys as one of the sources of modern pop. With exclusive new interviews from members Moe Tucker and Doug Yule, as well as the widow of their bandmate Sterling Morrison, journalist Rob Jovanovic peels back the mystique of one of the most important bands in rock history.

Genres: Music, Biography, History, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published March 27, 2012

Reviews

[Craig Rowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeing the Light: Inside the Velvet Underground by Rob Jovanovic was a fascinating read about one of the most influential musical groups ever. I learned about them well over forty years ago when I first got into the art and films of Andy Warhol. The pop artist himself was drawn to the group as he extended his oeuvre from painting and film into the world of music. It is thus fitting that he, as their first “producer”, should find him sharing the front cover with the band.

The band was known as the epitome of cool and wore sunglasses onstage, yet not to create an illusion of mystery about themselves. In the earliest days of their live performances their shows were multimedia events, with Warhol movies projected onto a screen behind them and light shows bouncing off the musicians. They needed to wear sunglasses to protect their eyes from the visual onslaught.

David Bowie, an early fan, claimed:

“This was a degree of cool that I had no idea was humanly sustainable and it was ravishing.”

I could not put this book down as I was so interested in reading about the group’s formation and the recording sessions for their first two albums. Jovanovic relied on interviews with the band members themselves and got the most revealing and honest admissions from drummer Maureen Tucker, who was the sanest member of the band, untouched by the druggy atmosphere that surrounded them.

When John Cale left after the release of the second album, their sound changed as the classical element with Cale’s electric viola disappeared with him. This is the part of the band I loved the most: the duelling experimentation of the viola, guitars and drums.

Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker recall the band’s first gig:

“Of course no one knew what to expect. ‘At Summit we opened with ‘There She Goes Again’, then played ‘Venus In Furs’ and ended with ‘Heroin,” recalled Sterling Morrison. ‘The murmur of surprise that greeted our appearance as the curtain went up increased to a roar of disbelief once we started to play ‘Venus’ and swelled to a mighty howl of outrage and bewilderment by the end of ‘Heroin’.’
“Indeed, as the curtain was raised the kids in the audience, many of whom had parents accompanying them to the show, were shocked. The Velvets all wore black, Cale and Reed were wearing shades, the drummer played standing up–and was it a boy or a girl? Cale’s frenzy at his viola was not what a middle-of-the-road pop crowd was expecting. Before ‘Heroin’ was finished many of the crowd had left. ‘I remember that my drums basically fell apart during our three-song set,’ recalled Tucker. ‘One item broke per song. I don’t remember what broke exactly, probably the snare stand became loose and I couldn’t make it tighten anymore, or the bass drum leg fell out.'”

I was happy to read that Jovanovic gave proper credit to Doug Yule. He was not on the Velvets’ first two albums–admittedly, the ones that made them (in)famous–yet carried on with songwriting and touring long after Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker had left. The late history of the Velvets, when they were down to only Yule and a revolving door of replacement musicians demoted to playing ski resorts in the early seventies, was a captivating read about who really owned the rights to the band name. It was the property of their manager, Steve Sesnick, who kept churning out different iterations of musicians all while being legally able to call the band and promote them as the Velvet Underground.

In 1993 the four original members reunited and toured Europe, and released a live album and video of their performance. I eagerly anticipated the live double CD and VHS concert and bought them when they came out. Jovanovic detailed the origins of the amicable reunion and the predictable deterioration of the band’s goodwill, which sadly threw the plans for the North American tour into the trash.

The book was plagued throughout by an infestation of superfluous commas. Sentences were muddled by extraneous verbs which was evidence of an incomplete digital edit. I didn’t record any of the really bad sentences, yet felt the following deserved ridicule:

“Surprisingly, the main sticking point surprisingly turned out to be the attendance (or not) of Moe Tucker.”

In spite of these editorial gaffes I nonetheless found Seeing the Light an essential read for Velvet Underground fans and one that had my attention on every page. Fans would recognize the significance of the colours of the two inside flaps. Yellow was chosen for the front flap and pink for the end, mimicking the colours of the banana, both unpeeled and peeled, from the group’s first album.

Who would have thought that the Velvets would ever be heard in a TV commercial but as I write this I hear Nico singing “I’ll Be Your Mirror” on a commercial for Expedia. The Velvet Underground sell out? After I post this I have a strong urge to listen to both sides of White Light/White Heat blaring.

[Edmole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up as it was in the library as I thought I'd like to read something about one of my favourite bands. This may be one of my favourite bands, reader. But this was not one of my favourite books.

Sample line to sum up the quality of the writing:

"The summer of 1967 has become known as the Summer Of Love, but there wasn't much love in the Velvet Underground camp." Come on, man.

It is a bit of a hack job, and rather than giving you any insight into what made the Velvets great, it just trots out the Velvets' story with lots of grumpy Lou and John stories repeated verbatim from old Q and Mojo interviews. As Lou is a right old grumpy liar, these should have been taken with a pinch of salt (OR DRUGS), but they are all just given as facts, like a teenager lifting lines from Wikipedia. I feel a bit more sympathy for Doug Yule at the end of it, shut out of all the acclaim and the reformation fun, but, you know what Doug? Life is hard. So what? Who cares?

[Marshall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rob Jovanovic seems to rush out a lot of books about a bevy of pop culture topics. He has another Velvet Underground book that came out two years before this one ("The Velvet Underground, Peeled") and if you find it online you'll see some pretty harsh reviews. Or it may be the same book with a new title and cover photo, because the old ones seem to invite lawsuits.

Anyway, I enjoyed learning some things about one of my favorite bands, but I'm abandoning this one halfway through because it just isn't well written. The "interviews" seem cobbled together from previous sources and nothing is organized all that well.

My first clue that there might be some problems was when he listed the bands that influenced Lou Reed. Among them was "Elisha and the Raceways" and their regional hit "Why Can't I Be Loved." The group was actually Alicia & the Rockaways, and that's just the tip of the iceberg if you start looking for sloppy factual errors here.

Errors like the one I mention aren't that significant, unless you (like me) like to go find these regional groups of yesteryear and listen to their records. In which case one quickly realizes that the author has no idea what he's talking about.

Other errors are more bewildering. Arguably the most monumental and powerful of all VU songs is "Sister Ray," which ends their second album White Light/White Heat. Jovanovic, discussing the song, says Reed's vocals kick in at the six-minute mark. In fact, the vocals start less than one minute into the song, and since I was hungry to learn the secrets behind this performance masterpiece and the author couldn't be accurately report something fundamental, it made me doubt his ability to report the behind-the-scenes details accurately.

Jovanovic talks a lot about the New York Specter sessions, where "Heroin" was recorded and where Moe Tucker famously stops playing in the middle of the song. Jovanovic goes on to say the song was recorded again in California and the California take was the one that was used. It doesn't make any sense. It's unlikely Tucker stopped playing in the middle of the recording (for the same reason) at two different sessions, on two different coasts.

So I'm putting this one down for now. I'll certainly pick it up again if I find myself in a waiting room for hours and my choice of reading material is between this and, say, "Field and Stream."

[Peter Salva · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m conflicted about this book. On the one hand, this is a nice retrospective of the Velvets’ music, both as a band and separately. In this regard, it offers a timeline of their history with a fan’s perspective, focusing particularly on the band’s legacy and contributions to music. This is where it is most successful. On the other hand, the book is far from perfect. Its language is dated and it glosses over the extremes of the band’s behavior, sometimes omitting negative details about Lou Reed and Nico in particular. I was looking for a more balanced, less romanticized look at the influential but, let’s face it, controversial history and lives of the band and its members. Jovanovic didn’t deliver.

[Pat Leonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

SPOILERS! Maybe you want to read this after you've had a go at the book.

I could have done with a bit less hyperbole about what a vital band the VU were. I know. That's why I picked up the book. Steve Sesnick, manager of the band after they parted ways with Warhol, is made out to be the band-guy in this story, and he most likely is. But Jovanovic makes the point a couple of times that this was a band that never talked to each other, and personality conflicts were allowed to fester, creating the perfect atmosphere for someone out to manipulate the band for his own ends. Doug Yule and Maureen Tucker, I believe, are the only new interviews of band members included in this biography, so if you've read other books about the band, you might not find much new here. I get the feeling the author wants us to feel sorry for Yule, who played a key role in the band, continued to perform under the 'Velvet Underground' name after Reed had quit, and was subsequently overlooked during the reunion tour and RNRHOF induction.

One of these days I'll get around to Uptight, co-authored by Gerard Malanga, the 'whip dancer' during the early Factory and Exploding Plastic Inevitable shows. Perhaps that will provide a more complete, if more sensational, picture of this band.

After reading this book, Mo Tucker is by far my favorite Velvet. She seems the most down-to-earth. I'd love to meet her and chat some day.

[Greg Talbot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seminal rock band Velvet Underground are dissected from the musician's individual upbringings to their interesting trajectories.

I came at this book as a huge fan of the VU, so the book helped me fill in the backstory, and some of the unique circumstances with each recording. You begin to see how their personalities converged or collided at different times, for instance Lou Reed's dismissal of Nico when she has a modicum of success. You also see just how unlikely all the recordings were..and sadly how unsuccessful they were to mainstream audiences.

At one point the book talks about an early 21st century reader poll, where readers thought the Velvet Underground were more influential than the Beatles. But this is where I think the book meets it's limitations. Surely it covers the original path, but hardly dives into their influence other than mentioning a few bands that are inspired (Sonic Yout, JAMC, Nirvana, Strokes)

Ultimately, the novel successfully chronicles the rise and fall of the VU. It's a good starting point for anyone who wants to learn about the rock n' rolls pioneers who continue to have a widening influence.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Velvet Underground "...were the perfect blend of art and rock..." "..they were like nothing anyone had even seen before," says Rob Jovanovic in "Seeing the Light inside the Velvet Underground." They were more than music they were an explosion of light on the stage. But what were they really like? John Cale remembers in this book "Paul Morrissey and Danny Williams had different visions of what the light show should be like and one night I looked up to see them fighting, hitting each other in the middle of a song."

So how does a group of very strong willed musicians come together and "be so influential and to see their music endure so long after they originally broke up..." Just who were these "...New York punks of the mid 1970's' who in 2000 on BBC were said to be "more influential on rock music...than the Beatles?"

Here is their story from beginning to end as Jovanovic saw it and as others added their comments also. Including some photos of the group in the 60's. Here is your chance to find out.

[Desiree · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Disclosure: I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.*

This has to be one of the most engrossing non-fiction books I've read in a long time. It was fascinating just how it was written, giving you the pertinent information about each of the band members without delving into their individual lives too much. The real story is the relationship between the various members, and how it changes in relation to their music over the time they were together. How much went into their music, and how little (or no) acclaim was given to them while they were actually a band was something that I had been unaware of. While I had known their bigger songs, I wasn't very familiar with the band or the members, which is part of what made the book so fascinating to me. I also have a deeper appreciation to their songs.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair, chronological, and factual look at the history of the Velvet Underground. I enjoyed the discussion of the Pre-Warhol days (not covered in other accounts like Please Kill Me) and the equal treatment given to the VU albums after Nico and Cale left. That equal treatment also becomes a fault as plenty of time is given to Doug Yule and his version of the band with no original members. I'll give Jovanovic credit for not trying to crack the nut that is Lou Reed, but the book felt a little unfocused by giving everyone their due.

Rather than ending with examples of the group's influence (a list of covers by slightly more contemporary artists doesn't count), Jovanovic plods through solo albums, reissues, an abridged reunion, and a Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame induction. A good overview of an important band, with no detail left out.

[Ida · Rating 2 out of 5]

You need to be a die-hard fan of the Velvet Underground to enjoy Seeing the Light. It is described as "An absorbing account...", but although it was written in depth, it lacked anything that urged me to keep reading. I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway, thinking I would thoroughly enjoy The Velvet Underground's story. Unfortunately I felt it was not well told. It needs major editing.

[Marilyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

In reading this I realized that there was a lot I did not understand about the 60s and 70s. Being a teenager in the 60s, I thought most of it was about peace and love. But I see that there was a whole world I did not see. If you are interested in the time period then you should read this. If you love the band, then definitely read this.

[Erin Tuzuner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the numerous spelling errors/typos in my copy, I enjoyed the story of one of the greatest American bands of all time. Yes, Lou Reed is kind of an asshole. This isnt exactly news. Hearing that John Cale once played a piece of Ravel's almost 200 times was news to me. And furthered my appreciation for such a unique, unparalleled, combination of people.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

An extra proofread or two would have helped this book a lot-- some topic sentences are repeated almost verbatim in certain chapters. Overall, a factual, interesting look at the Velvet Underground's rise from unknown bar band to cultural icon.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poorly edited (spelling, grammar, typos) but nevertheless a wealth of information with quotes and facts not found in other books. Sincerely hoping that someone can do a better job with this material, but in the meantime, this will have to do. And it does.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it

[Doug Kabak · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit on the breezy side for such a dark band, but informative. This, one of the greatest of bands, deserves better. Very little in the way of critical analysis.

[Rebecca Gatchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

next up: John Cale's autobiography

[Donald Scarinci · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book puts the importance of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground in its proper context. The later chapters were a bit tedious, but overall this book is well worth reading.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readable but shoddy. The Velvet Underground deserve better.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting chronological history of the enormously influential band, though occasionally repetitive and sloppy on the copy editing.