Ah… The Velvet Underground. Has there ever been a band so fervently appreciated, worshipped and discussed in front of camera that has so little actual footage to be discussed? Andy Warhol shot endless hours of abstract, surrealist art projects varying from the brilliant to the banal, yet he seemed unable to focus his camera on The Velvets for more than a few shaky minutes. Of course, this all adds to the mystique of The Velvets, a band who can easily lay claim to being a group that would top any cool list just as easily as they would a Greatest Bands of All Time list. However, the severe lack of footage available on them is hardly the greatest start for an Under Review documentary.
The doc starts on pretty shaky ground with the by now painfully routine intro to the band, offering very little in the way of fresh insight and within minutes we’ve already seen about all of the video footage that exists of the band (pre-reunion that is). However, what looks like an immediate switch-off doc, soon starts to garner a little momentum and intrigue. The only VU members who contribute to the film are Mo Tucker and Doug Yule and, while the absence of Reed, Cale and Morrison certainly leaves a gap, they do a pretty honourable job of filling it. Critics and authors throw in their two cents, along with Reed fan and friend Dean Wareham of Galaxie 500 (or Galaxy 500 according to the film’s typo), the odd person present in studio recordings, and the Warhol affiliate and VU cover artist Billy Name. Collectively they relay a story all too familiar to anyone even half in the know about the VU, but they also manage to throw in a few surprises along the way too.
Visually, the film is a tad drab; its intention I guess is to simply extract information from its subjects rather than offering it alongside any stylistic or cinematic aspirations. Thankfully, the story and the music of the VU is engaging enough to hold off any serious gripes and they have a fully licensed soundtrack, making the film relatively crammed with snippets of the band’s genius.
The film finishes on a point that was no doubt the entire concept for the film, reinforcing Lester Bang’s quote on the band “modern music begins with The Velvet Underground”. The true originality of their work - something that is already hammered home throughout the film – is emphasised by contributions from interviewees and constant exposure to the music, some of which still sounds terrifyingly ahead of it’s time now. A complete and definitive film on The Velvet Underground this is not, but it also begs the question “what would be?” Their importance, relevance and influence continues to flow through music today. The beauty of all those records they made together (in whatever line-up or form) is that they have continued to change people’s lives in every decade since they were created. They changed my life and I have no doubt they will change somebody else’s life in just the same way twenty or thirty years from now. All that will change are people’s opinions and stories on their impact. So even with a Velvets doc with every single possible relevant person on board, it would still have to fully convey their effect and importance as a group, and attempting to capture that in any format - documentary or otherwise - is a futile task. The seeds that the Velvet Underground once sowed have spread so far and wide and in such beautiful, monstrous and surprising places that attempting to formulate and condense them into one digestible place would be like trying to cut a radio edit for Sister Ray. The lack of Cale and Reed combined with the vastness of the band’s influence stops this from being an excellent documentary, but it is a good one. For die-hards, it’s always nice to revisit and obtain the smallest nuggets of new information, and for people a little in the dark about the group it will act as interesting glance into their world.