Beyond the Velvet Underground - Dave Thompson

 

This is basically a compendium of quotes from interviews and articles, mostly from the members of the VU, but also friends, colleagues, and critics - funnily, Thompson even quotes himself a number of times! The book is split into subject chapters with quotes varying in time from the 60's through the 80's (when the book was published and when I got it), which does give a good overview of the subject, whether the quip was concurrent with the subject or looking back on it. Of course, everyone has their own perspectives, as well, and there is often no love lost between some of the characters - Cale in particular has some harsh words for Reed, for some reason, even though they obviously worked together later. 

In any case, this was a good reference at a time when there was almost nothing in print on the band, as they were still quite underground and hadn't been name-checked by millions of bands as the huge influence that they were. Other, newer books would be more essential and give more details, but this is interesting in its own right.