Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Notes from the Velvet Underground

  • By: Howard Sounes
  • Narrated by: Howard Sounes
  • Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
  • 3.6 out of 5 stars (10 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Notes from the Velvet Underground cover art

Notes from the Velvet Underground

By: Howard Sounes
Narrated by: Howard Sounes
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.00

Buy Now for £16.00

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Dirty Blvd. cover art
Lightfoot cover art
Cerphe's Up cover art
Led Zeppelin cover art
Record Play Pause cover art
The Last Sultan cover art
The Never-Ending Present cover art
Live at the Fillmore East and West cover art
Nilsson cover art
The Jimi Hendrix Experience cover art
Fornication cover art
Billy Joel cover art
Keith Richards cover art
Trouble Boys cover art
Luther cover art
Bon: The Last Highway cover art

Summary

Best known for his sinuous pop hit 'Walk on the Wild Side', Lou Reed was one of the most original and innovative songwriters of the rock era - a sardonic chronicler of underground culture and the dark side of human nature.

In the first major study of the artist since his death in 2013, biographer Howard Sounes shows how Reed's seminal work with the Velvet Underground in the 1960s shaped his career and reveals a talented but tortured man: a bisexual who married three times, an alcoholic and a drug user who struggled with mental health issues, was frequently quarrelsome and could be nasty but was nevertheless capable of writing beautiful songs.

Howard Sounes is known for writing detailed and revelatory biographies of a range of extraordinary personalities, including the murderers Fred and Rosemary West (Fred & Rose), the writer Charles Bukowski (Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life) and the musicians Bob Dylan (Down the Highway) and Paul McCartney (Fab).

For more information, visit www.howardsounes.com.

©2015 Howard Sounes (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

"Through more than 140 interviews, Mr Sounes, who has previously written biographies on Charles Bukowski, Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney, portrays a troubled genius whose antisocial tendencies were evident even from his early years." ( The New York Times)
"Reading this compelling [book] is a reminder of how tolerant we can be of bad behaviour in the brilliant and famous." ( Sunday Telegraph)

More from the same

What listeners say about Notes from the Velvet Underground

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

WARTS and all Bio!

I loved Lou the artist but this book make the man hard to like. Does that matter? Probably not but I seriously think he'd have been an even better, more successful and more fulfilled artist if he'd listened to the advice of those who knew and cared eg Bowie.
That said, this is one author's view and he cuts Lou no slack . Read it and make up your own mind.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

an interesting life rendered unintelligible

some of the facts presented as gossip from lou were disproved by his sister before the book came out. it's a lazy sensationalist take of his life- there are much better books also, I wish they'd hired a real voice actor as opposed to the author who, despite his seeming beliefs, does not have a 'cool rock 'n' roll' voice.. I couldn't finish it, it was that bad

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!