In the pantheon of rock and roll, few bands have cast a shadow as long and influential as The Velvet Underground. Their story, one of artistic innovation, cultural collision, and raw, unvarnished sound, is not just a chapter in music history; it's the blueprint for alternative music that followed. Capturing this complex legacy is no small feat, but the biography All Tomorrow's Parties: The Velvet Underground Story stands as a monumental effort to do just that. This isn't merely a recounting of dates and album releases; it's a deep dive into the alchemy of personalities—Lou Reed's poetic grit, John Cale's avant-garde sensibilities, Sterling Morrison's steady presence, and Maureen Tucker's primal drumming—that created a sound forever linked to the counterculture of the 1960s.
The title itself, All Tomorrow's Parties, is a masterstroke. It directly references one of the band's most haunting and beautiful songs, a track that encapsulates their world-weariness and bohemian elegance. More broadly, it speaks to the enduring nature of their influence. The parties, the scenes, the revolutions in sound they sparked—their echoes are heard in rock history across all the tomorrows that followed their brief, incendiary time together. This book positions itself as the essential guide to understanding how a band that sold few records in its day became one of the most cited inspirations for generations of musicians, from punk and glam to indie and alternative rock.
The Warhol Factor: Factory-Made Chaos and Art
Any telling of The Velvet Underground's story is inextricably tied to the figure of Andy Warhol. All Tomorrow's Parties dedicates significant space to exploring this pivotal relationship. Warhol didn't just manage the band; he packaged them as a living, breathing component of his Exploding Plastic Inevitable—a multi-sensory assault of music, film, and dance. The book delves into how Warhol's patronage provided a shield and a platform, allowing the band's challenging music to reach an audience within the New York art scene. It examines the famous banana cover of The Velvet Underground & Nico, designed by Warhol, as not just an iconic image but a statement of intent, merging pop art with underground music. This section provides crucial context, showing how the band's identity was forged in the collaborative, chaotic crucible of The Factory.
Deconstructing the Sound: From Feedback to Folk
Beyond the biography of the people, All Tomorrow's Parties serves as a brilliant work of music biography by painstakingly deconstructing the band's sound. The book guides readers through the abrasive, feedback-drenched landscapes of "European Son" and "Sister Ray," explaining the artistic intentions behind the noise. It contrasts this with the tender, folk-inflected melancholy of songs like "Sunday Morning" and "Pale Blue Eyes," highlighting the dynamic range that made the Velvets so unique. Chapters are devoted to the distinct eras of the band: the noisy experimentation with John Cale, the more streamlined, song-focused period following his departure, and the final iterations. This analytical approach helps readers appreciate not just the myth of the Velvet Underground, but the musical architecture that makes their catalog so perpetually fascinating.
Lou Reed: The Enigmatic Center
At the heart of this story is, of course, Lou Reed. All Tomorrow's Parties presents a nuanced portrait of Reed, avoiding simple hero worship or villainization. It traces his journey from a songwriter-for-hire at Pickwick Records to the fiercely independent artist leading the Velvets. The book explores the literary influences on his lyrics, his complex relationship with his own sexuality and identity, and the often-difficult personality that both drove the band's creativity and contributed to its tensions. By examining Reed's life before, during, and after the Velvet Underground, the biography shows how the band was the perfect, if volatile, vessel for his singular vision—a vision of a gritty, poetic New York that dealt with topics like drug addiction, sexual deviance, and existential despair long before they were common in popular music.
The Enduring Legacy: Why the Velvet Underground Still Matters
The final sections of the book are perhaps its most compelling, as it traces the long arc of the band's influence. All Tomorrow's Parties makes a powerful case for the Velvet Underground as the ultimate cult band. It details how their records became sacred texts, passed from musician to musician, inspiring the raw energy of the Stooges and the New York Dolls, the intellectual punk of Television and Patti Smith, the jangle of R.E.M., and the feedback squalls of Sonic Youth and countless alternative bands of the 80s and 90s. The famous Brian Eno quote—that while only a few thousand people bought the first Velvet Underground album, every one of them started a band—is explored not as a mere anecdote but as a demonstrable cultural phenomenon. The book argues that to understand the evolution of rock from the 1970s onward, one must understand the All Tomorrows that the Velvet Underground made possible.
A Must-Read for Music Lovers and Historians
In conclusion, All Tomorrow's Parties: The Velvet Underground Story is more than a book about a band; it's a vital cultural history. It captures a specific moment in 1960s-music when art, music, and lifestyle collided with unprecedented force. For the casual fan, it provides the gripping, human story behind the iconic songs. For the dedicated music scholar, it offers deep analysis and context. By weaving together interviews, historical research, and critical insight, the biography achieves a rare balance: it is both authoritative and utterly engrossing. It confirms the Velvet Underground not as a relic of the past, but as a living, breathing force whose velvet-underground-book of influence continues to be written. To explore their story is to understand a fundamental strand in the DNA of modern music, and this book is the definitive key to that understanding.
