The Velvet Underground And Nico - 45th Anniversary deluxe box set

All the Velvets' albums are truly superb, but there is something special about their debut. It contains some of their best songs - Sunday Morning, Heroin, All Tomorrow's Parties, Femme Fatale et al (always wanted to say that!) Factor in the iconic Warhol banana cover, the literary, classical and experimental influences and you have an album that's simply years ahead of its time. The band were such an unlikely grouping, a truly disparate set of characters coming to make so much more than the sum of their parts.

It's becoming de rigueur for classic albums to be reissued in these deluxe box sets and this LP is an album that warrants such attention. To celebrate 45 years since its release Universal Music/Polydor are putting out a bumper 6 disc collection featuring the original studio album in stereo and mono, rehearsal tapes, acetates and live material, as well as Nico's Chelsea Girl LP. It also contains an 88-page booklet with photos and an essay by none other than Richie Unterberger. (Click here for an interview I did with Richie earlier this year)

NB. Any of my friends or family reading this may want to snap one of these up as my Christmas pressie. Just a thought.

Interview with author Richie Unterberger

The next best thing to rock 'n' roll is reading about rock 'n' roll. There's a whole feast of music books out there with more and more big names lining up to release autobiographies. One of the finest music books I've read recently is Richie Unterberger's Wont Get Fooled Again. An insightful, thoroughly researched account of a fascinating period of The Who's history. There are not many writers who could have done such a sterling job. Based in San Francisco, Unterberger has been at the coalface of music journalism for over 25 years, having contributed to publications such as Ugly Things, Mojo, Record Collector and Pulse among others as well as penning books on The Velvet Underground, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds along with two books celebrating lesser known artists (Unknown Legends of Rock'n'Roll, and its sequel, Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers: Overlooked Innovators & Eccentric Visionaries of '60s Rock). On top of this he's also written many liner notes and is a much  respected travel writer.

I recently contacted Richie to see if he'd be willing to answer some questions for my humble blog. Good guy that he is, he said yes.

Click over the jump to read for the interview.