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The Life (and Afterlife) of The Velvet Underground

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About this listen

Rebellion always starts somewhere, and in the music world of the transgressive teen whether it be the 1960s of the 2020s, The Velvet Underground represent ground zero. Crystallizing the idea of the bohemian, urban, narcissistic art school gang, around a psychedelic rock and roll band - a stylistic idea that evolved in the rarefied environs of Andy Warhol's Factory - The Velvets were the first major American rock group with a mixed gender line-up; they never smiled in photographs, wore sunglasses indoors, and in the process invented the archetype. They were avant-garde nihilists, writing about drug abuse, prostitution, paranoia, and sado-masochistic sex at a time when the rest of the world was singing about peace and love.

Dylan Jones' definitive oral history of The Velvet Underground draws on contributions from remaining members, contemporaneous musicians, critics, film-makers, and the generation of artists who emerged in their wake, to celebrate not only their impact but their legacy, which burns brighter than ever into the 21st century.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Dylan Jones (P)2023 Orion Publishing Group Limited Art Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity
All stars
Most relevant
I loved listening to this, well anchored by Dylan Jones’ writing with great anecdotes from contributors who were there at the time(s). The only trouble is, the secondary narrator who, tries to- and it must be said - fails, to create the voices of the contributors is embarrassing and takes some getting used to. When you do get used to it though, the book is fabulous.

Loved, but the performance was iffy

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The actor putting on stupid voices ie Bobby Gillespie in cod Scottish accent offputting and ridiculous

The terrible narration

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Extensive research and compelling narrative thrust. Uneven sound quality but good choice to have a voice actor on quotes.

Fabulous

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I found out information I’d not heard before and some of the elements were very interesting.

However, it seems the author just used quotes throughout the whole book rather than telling a story.

And as for the male trying to do accents of the various people giving quotes, it was embarrassing.

Infinite Quotes & Bad Accents

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The general story is as interesting as ever, with a strong Warhol presence, but it's worth a listen for the narration. Jones plays it cool, like he's doing a voiceover for BBC2, but the other fella plays everyone else, the whole lot, putting in some highly cheeky performances, but his Irish John Cale is a definite highlight.

Funny Voices

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