In an oft-repeated declaration, Roxy Music co-founder Brian Eno once said that the Velvet Underground only sold a few records, but everyone who bought their albums started their own band. While Eno's claim most certainly is hyperbole, the avant-garde guitar stylings the Velvet Underground developed during their period of activity in the second half of the 1960s was extremely influential. Their music shaped the sound and attitude of the New York Dolls, the Modern Lovers, REM, Suicide, Television, David Bowie, Patti Smith, Sonic Youth, Galaxie 500, Yo La Tengo, and countless other post-punk and indie-rock bands. Each of Velvet Underground's periods—their innovative noise, beautifully sparse neo-folk, and straightforward rock phases—laid the blueprint for a number of entire sub-genres of rock 'n' roll. And while the Velvet Underground did not sell many records by most commercial standards (for instance, their third album had only...