The excerpts below are but a small sample of the breadth of coverage in White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day. Click beneath to read about some of their most significant and intriguing events in the Velvet Underground's crazy and colorful career:
April 18-23, 1966: The recording sessions that produce the bulk of the Velvet Underground's classic debut LP, The Velvet Underground & Nico (aka "the banana album"), with eyewitness accounts from co-producer Norman Dolph and co-manager Paul Morrissey.
May 11, 1965: Lou Reed records the first known versions of "Heroin" as demos for Pickwick Records.
Late
December 1965: Andy Warhol
is introduced to the Velvet Underground
at the Café Bizarre in Greenwich Village.
January 2-14, 1967: The
Velvet Underground play the Scene Club in New York, with eyewitness
accounts from the other band on the bill, the Free Spirits (with Larry
Coryell on guitar).
Early November 1967:
Nico tries to join the United States of America (the band).
July 4-6, 1968: The
Velvet Underground unveil a legendary and still-unreleased song at the
Hippodrome in San Diego.
Early October 1968:
Doug Yule joins the Velvet Underground, replacing outgoing John
Cale.
October 23-25, 1969:
The Velvet Underground play the Vulcan Gas Company in Austin,
Texas.
October 27-29, 1969:
John Cale records the bulk of his debut solo album Vintage Violence, with eyewitness
accounts from co-producer Lou Merenstein.
Mid-to-late November,
1969: The Velvet Underground play the Matrix in San
Francisco,
taping
performances later to comprise the backbone of 1969 Velvet Underground Live.
Late November 1969: Lou
Reed gives a rare lengthy radio interview as leader of the Velvet
Underground, discussing their first three albums as a linear body of
work; the true meaning of the "white light" he writes about in "White
Light White Heat"; the group's mix of the hard, controversial rock and
romantic ballads; and having his aura read in Los Angeles (!).
June 24, 1970: The
Velvet Underground play the first of their two months of summer shows
at Max's Kansas City -- their first shows in their Manhattan hometown
for three years, and their last with Lou Reed as leader of the band, a
brief 1993 reunion excepted.
April 1974: The release
of the classic album 1969 Velvet
Underground Live, with stories from liner note writer Elliott
Murphy, who also helped assemble the record.
October 16, 2001: The
release of The Velvet Underground
Bootleg Series Volume 1: The Quine Tapes, with behind-the-scenes
stories from those who make the record possible.
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