John Cale | ||
| Allmusic Biography : While John Cale is one of the most famous and, in his own way, influential underground rock musicians, he is also one of the hardest to pin down stylistically. Much has been made of his schooling in classical and avant-garde music, yet much of what hes recorded has been decidedly song-oriented, dovetailing close to the mainstream at times. Terming him a forefather of punk and new wave isnt exactly accurate, either. Those investigating his work for the first time under that premise may be surprised at how consciously accessible much of his output is, at times approaching (but not quite attaining) a fairly "normal" rock sound. There is always a tension between the experimental and the accessible in Cales solo recordings, meaning that he usually finds himself (not unwillingly) caught between the cracks: too weird for commercial success, and yet not really weird or daring enough to place him among the top ranks of rocks innovators. Any assessment of Cales solo contributions also tends to be overshadowed by his other considerable achievements. Before launching his solo career, he was, with Lou Reed, a primary creative force behind the Velvet Underground, as bassist, viola player, keyboardist, and occasional co-songwriter (the exact nature of his compositional contributions is still a matter of heated debate among group members). He was without question one of the most influential producers of pre-punk, punk, and new wave, overseeing important recordings by the Stooges, Nico, Patti Smith, the Modern Lovers, and Squeeze. Ultimately, he may be better remembered for his work in the Velvets and as a producer, than for his own large discography. The son of a Welsh coal miner and a schoolteacher, Cale was a child prodigy of sorts, performing an original composition on the BBC before he entered his teens. In the early 60s, he drifted toward the avant-garde, gaining a scholarship (with help from Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein) to study music in the United States. Moving to New York in 1963, he participated in an 18-hour piano recital with John Cage (pictures of Cale performing at the event made The New York Times). More important, he became a member of LaMonte Youngs minimalist ensemble the Dream Syndicate, whose use of repetitious drones would influence the arrangements of his next group, the Velvet Underground. Cale founded the Velvets with Reed and guitarist Sterling Morrison in the mid-60s. Cale met Reed when the latter was a struggling songwriter for the rock & roll exploitation label Pickwick Records. Cale tested the rock waters as part of the Primitives (with Reed and fellow Dream Syndicate member Tony Conrad), who did a few live shows to promote a silly novelty that Reed had written and recorded at Pickwick, "The Ostrich." What Cale and Reed shared was an ambition to bring the sensibilities of the avant-garde to rock music. They succeeded in doing so over the next three years with the Velvet Underground. While Reed was the most important member of the band as the lead singer and primary songwriter, Cale was just as crucial in devising the bands sound. It was Cale who was responsible for the most experimental elements of their first two albums, The Velvet Underground & Nico and White Light/White Heat (1967), especially with his droning viola parts on "Venus in Furs," "Heroin," and "Black Angels Death Song," his pounding piano on "Im Waiting for the Man" and "All Tomorrows Parties," his deadpan narration of "The Gift," and the white-noise organ of "Sister Ray." Yet Cale was ousted from the band in an apparent power play by Lou Reed in the summer of 1968. Accounts still vary as to whether he was fired and/or quit, but its been suggested that Reeds ego found Cales talents threatening his leadership of the band. Morrison has said that Reed told him and Velvets drummer Maureen Tucker that if Cale didnt leave, he would leave instead; the pair reluctantly opted to side with Reed. The Velvets would continue to make great music for a couple of years, but their experimental edge was considerably blunted by Cales absence. In any case, Cale was soon busy producing ex-Velvets singer Nicos Baroque-gothic The Marble Index (1969) and the Stooges self-titled debut album (also 1969). Though about as different as two projects could be, both were extremely influential (though initially extremely low-selling) cult items that helped lay the ground for punk and new wave about five years later. In 1970, Cale began his proper solo career with one of his best albums, Vintage Violence. Those expecting a slab of radicalism were in for a surprise; the material was the work of a low-key, accessible singer/songwriter, working in the mold of the Band rather than the Velvets. Listeners wouldnt have to wait long for something a bit more radical. His next album, Church of Anthrax, was a collaboration with minimalist composer Terry Riley that was almost entirely instrumental. In some respects, these two records defined the poles of Cales solo career. Even at his most accessible, his music had a moody, even morbid edge that precluded much radio airplay. Even at its most experimental, it was never as avant-garde as, say, LaMonte Young. Cale would reserve his most experimental outings for collaborations with Riley, Brian Eno, and, much further down the road, Lou Reed. On his own, he was more concerned with crafting songs delivered in his lilting if thin Welsh burr, and inventively arranged. It was in his arrangements that his musical training and avant-garde background were most evident, in its eclecticism (even drawing from country-rock and guest shots from Lowell George at times) and touches of classical music. Sometimes hed take out his viola, but generally he focused on the more traditional instruments of guitar and keyboards. Cale has covered a wide territory on his solo albums without ever quite making his mark as a major artist. His songs and concepts are interesting, but ultimately he does not have the striking traditional rock talents of someone like, say, his old rival Lou Reed. The hooks arent that sharp and the lyrics -- often dealing with the psychological and social dilemmas of late 20th century life, in somewhat arty terms -- arent as gripping. Toward the end of the late 70s, his approach became harder-rocking and a bit vicious, especially in concert, where he would adopt a number of flamboyant costumes and theatrical poses that verged on the confrontational (such as in a notorious incident in which he appeared to kill a chicken -- though in actuality it was already dead -- by cutting its head off on-stage). Generally he was most successful in a more subdued and brooding mode, as on Vintage Violence or, much later, Music for a New Society (1982). His discography is so large and variable that the two-CD career retrospective Seducing Down the Door might be the best place to start for those with enough interest to buy more than one or two Cale records. Cale never abandoned his production activities, and indeed a few of the albums with his credits are destined to endure as more important statements than anything hes done on his own. His sessions with Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers (from the early 70s, but not released until a few years later) anticipated punk and new wave. Patti Smiths Horses (1975) was one of the best and most influential recordings of the 70s. There were also other albums with Nico, and records with Squeeze, Sham 69, and others; for a couple years in the early 70s, he was even a staff producer at Warner Bros., handling unlikely clients like Jennifer Warnes. After the mid-80s, Cale slowed (but did not curtail) work on his own releases. His most high-profile outings since then have been collaborations. Wrong Way Up (1990) matched him with Brian Eno. Songs for Drella (1990), which got a lot more media ink, reunited him at long last with Reed, with whom he had feuded on and off for a couple of decades; the album was a song-cycle tribute to their recently deceased mentor and ex-Velvet Underground manager Andy Warhol. Well received both on record and in performance, it may have been one of the factors that finally led the pair to burying the hatchet and re-forming the Velvet Underground for a 1993 live European tour (and live album). These events were not as successful with the critics; more disturbingly, Reed and Cale were on the outs yet again by the end of the tour, with feuds over direction, leadership, and songwriting credits apparently resurfacing with a vengeance. Prospects for an American Velvet Underground tour never came to realization, Cale and Reed vowing never to work with each other again. The death of Sterling Morrison in 1995 ended any reunion hopes, although it did apparently serve to reconcile Reed and Cale, who played together when the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Cale, however, didnt need Reed to keep busy (or vice-versa). In the 90s, he continued to record as a soloist and a soundtrack composer. One of his most ambitious collaborations was The Last Day on Earth (1994), a song cycle and theatrical production written and performed with cult singer/songwriter Bobby Neuwirth. Cale released Nico, a tribute to his Velvet Underground bandmate, in 1998. He continued to record regularly into the new millennium, releasing a pair of well-received studio albums, HoboSapiens (2003) and Black Acetate (2005). The Extra Playful EP arrived in 2011, followed in 2012 by a well-deserved career overview, Conflict & Catalysis: Productions & Arrangements 1966-2006, and a new studio album, Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood. In early 2016, Cale released M:FANS, a collection of stark, electronic-based reworkings of the material from his outstanding 1982 album Music for a New Society. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 38 Title: Vintage Violence Released: 1970 Tracks: 11 Duration: 35:57 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Hello, There (02:48) 2 Gideons Bible (03:22) 3 Adelaide (02:18) 4 Big White Cloud (03:32) 5 Cleo (02:36) 6 Please (04:19) 7 Charlemagne (05:03) 8 Bring It on Up (02:24) 9 Amsterdam (03:13) 10 Ghost Story (03:47) 11 Fairweather Friend (02:32) |
| Vintage Violence : Allmusic album Review : John Cale had the strongest avant-garde credentials of anyone in the Velvet Underground, but he was also the Velvet whose solo career was the least strongly defined by his work with the band, and his first solo album, Vintage Violence, certainly bears this out. While the banshee howls of Cales viola and the percussive stab of his keyboard parts were his signature sounds on The Velvet Underground and Nico and White Light/White Heat, Cales first solo album, 1970s Vintage Violence, was a startlingly user-friendly piece of mature, intelligent pop whose great failing may have been being a shade too sophisticated for radio. Cales work with the Velvets was purposefully rough and aurally challenging, but Vintage Violence is buffed to a smooth, satin finish, with Cale and his group sounding witty on tunes like "Adelaide" and "Cleo," pensive on "Amsterdam," and lushly orchestrated on "Big White Cloud." (Cale also gets a lot of production value out of his backing group, credited as "Penguin" but actually members of Garland Jeffreys band, Grinders Switch.) And anyone expecting the fevered psychosis that Cale let loose on later albums like Fear and Sabotage/Live is in for a surprise; Cale has rarely sounded this well-adjusted on record, though his lyrical voice is usually a bit too cryptic to stand up to a literal interpretation of his words. If Cale wanted to clear out a separate and distinct path for his solo career, he certainly did that with Vintage Violence, though it turned out to be only one of many roads he would follow in the future. [The 2001 CD reissue adds two bonus tracks: a previously unreleased alternate version of "Fairweather Friend," and the previously unreleased "Wall."] | ||
 | Album: 2 of 38 Title: The Academy in Peril Released: 1972 Tracks: 8 Duration: 45:27 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 The Philosopher (04:30) 2 Brahms (06:27) 3 Legs Larry at Television Center (03:39) 4 The Academy in Peril (06:56) 5 Days of Steam (03:01) 6 3 Orchestral Pieces (08:45) 7 King Harry (04:11) 8 John Milton (07:55) |
| The Academy in Peril : Allmusic album Review : Taking a sidestep from his earliest solo efforts into an exploration of his classical training and influences -- thus the title -- Cale on Academy creates a set of songs that probably bemused more than one listener at the time of release. The predominantly instrumental release, which finds him working with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on two tracks, steers away from the more grotesque classical/rock fusions at the time to find an unexpectedly happy and often compelling balance between the two sides. Opening track "The Philosopher" signals this well, with a low-key acoustic guitar/drums rhythm accompanied by separate horn, string, and keyboard lines. The sound is at once thick and remarkably spare, a rejection of flash for mood setting without aiming toward the drones so prevalent in much of Cales initial work. Restrained humor crops up throughout, a smart way to undercut any fusty claims of pretension. "Legs Larry at Television Centre" has Cale acting like a very uptight, controlling TV technical director "directing" the string quartet performance at the center of the song. "King Harry," the only song with lyrics, is a memorably whispered zinger at the dying figure of King Henry VIII, with Spanish and calypso touches on top of everything else. Much of the time the mood is, quite simply, serene and beautiful, an exercise of Cales skills that impresses both technically and emotionally. "Brahms" is a fine example, a piano solo piece (thanks are given by Cale in the liner notes to Ron Wood, though what connection the then-Faces guitarist has to is unclear). When things are more quick in mood, as in "Faust," one of "3 Orchestral Pieces," one of the Philharmonic guest numbers, Cale has good fun applying rock arrangement and production tricks: compression, gentle flanging, drum rhythms, and so forth. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 38 Title: Paris 1919 Released: 1973-03 Tracks: 21 Duration: 1:19:14 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Childs Christmas in Wales (03:20) 2 Hanky Panky Nohow (02:46) 3 The Endless Plain of Fortune (04:12) 4 Andalucia (03:55) 5 Macbeth (03:07) 6 Paris 1919 (04:06) 7 Graham Greene (03:01) 8 Half Past France (04:20) 9 Antarctica Starts Here (03:00) 10 Burned Out Affair (03:24) 11 Childs Christmas in Wales (alternate version) (03:30) 12 Hanky Panky Nohow (drone mix) (02:51) 13 The Endless Plain of Fortune (alternate version) (04:08) 14 Andalucia (alternate version) (04:34) 15 Macbeth (rehearsal) (03:34) 16 Paris 1919 (string mix) (04:29) 17 Graham Greene (rehearsal) (01:40) 18 Half Past France (alternate version) (04:50) 19 Antarctica Starts Here (rehearsal) (02:52) 20 Paris 1919 (piano mix) (06:09) 21 Macbeth (instrumental) (05:17) |
| Paris 1919 : Allmusic album Review : One of John Cales very finest solo efforts, Paris 1919 is also among his most accessible records, one which grows in depth and resonance with each successive listen. A consciously literary work -- the songs even bear titles like "Childs Christmas in Wales," "Macbeth," and "Graham Greene" -- Paris 1919 is close in spirit to a collection of short stories; the songs are richly poetic, enigmatic period pieces strongly evocative of their time and place. Chris Thomas production is appropriately lush and sweeping, with many tracks set to orchestral accompaniment; indeed, theres little here to suggest either Cales noisy, abrasive past or the chaos about to resurface in his subsequent work -- for better or worse, his music never achieved a similar beauty again. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 38 Title: Fear Released: 1974 Tracks: 9 Duration: 40:51 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Fear Is a Mans Best Friend (03:53) 2 Buffalo Ballet (03:29) 3 Barracuda (03:48) 4 Emily (04:22) 5 Ship of Fools (04:37) 6 Gun (08:05) 7 The Man Who Couldnt Afford to Orgy (04:35) 8 You Know More Than I Know (03:35) 9 Momamma Scuba (04:24) |
| Fear : Allmusic album Review : Right from the start, Cale makes it clear hes not messing around on Fear. If his solo career before then had been a series of intriguing stylistic experiments, here he meshes it with an ear for his own brand of pop and rock, accessible while still clearly being himself through and through. Getting musical support from various Roxy Music veterans like Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera, and Andy Mackay didnt hurt at all, and all the assorted performers do a great job carrying out Cales vision. He himself sounds confident, sharp, and incisive throughout; his playing on both various keyboards and guitar equally spot-on. The almost title track "Fear Is a Mans Best Friend," starting with focused, steady piano into a full band performance before ending on a ragged, psychotic note, makes for as solid a statement of artistic purpose for Cale and the album as any. Theres everything from slightly (but not completely) lugubrious ballads to bright, sparkling numbers -- "Ship of Fools" alone is a treasure; its steady, sweet pace and beautiful chorus simply to die for. Cales own bent for trying things out isnt forgotten on the album, with his voice recorded in different ways (sometimes with hollow echo, other times much more direct) and musically touching on everything from early reggae to, on "The Man Who Couldnt Afford to Orgy," a delightful Beach Boys pastiche. As for sheer intensity, little can top "Gun," the equal of Enos own burning blast "Third Uncle" when it comes to lengthy, focused obsession translated into music and lyrics. Having earlier experimented with his own version of country & western, "Buffalo Ballet" finds him creating something close to meta-country: stately piano and backing singing mixing with gentle twang. It practically invents Nick Caves late solo career all on its own. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 38 Title: June 1, 1974 Released: 1974-06-06 Tracks: 9 Duration: 45:53 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Driving Me Backwards (06:07) 2 Baby’s on Fire (03:53) 3 Heartbreak Hotel (05:19) 4 The End (09:15) 5 May I? (05:31) 6 Shouting in a Bucket Blues (05:07) 7 Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes (03:28) 8 Everybody’s Sometime and Some People’s All the Time Blues (04:35) 9 Two Goes Into Four (02:38) |
| June 1, 1974 : Allmusic album Review : It isnt just that the four credited lead players are together, its also that Robert Wyatt and (if one is excited by such a thing) Mike Oldfield are helping out as well. The whole result should have been a mind-blowing example of one moment of twisted brilliance after another, captured for the ages. And is it? Well, close enough. The weeks rehearsal mentioned in the liner notes seems to have gotten everyone more or less on the same wavelength for the chosen songs, but Ayers, who was the headliner, just sounded too laid-back in the end to match the chilling brilliance of his guests, even with old Soft Machine mate Wyatt along for the ride. The first half of the album is the real winner as a result, not least for the sharp song choices. Enos two selections are inspired; "Driving Me Backwards" gets even more freaked out than the studio version, turning into a lacerating death crawl thanks to Cales violin, while "Babys on Fire" in contrast almost turns friendlier at the end. Both Cale and Nico make strong marks with two of their most notable and notorious cover versions. The formers "Heartbreak Hotel" keeps much of the spaced-out paranoia familiar from the studio cut, just ominous enough. Meanwhile, Nicos take on "The End" easily equals her own studio take, the song creeping with dread and fear. Ayers selections take up the remainder of the album and theyre, well, nice. But after the earlier shadows and psychosis, theres a little too much guitar mellowness and bongwater lounge grooves in contrast, aside from a wonderful, dramatic take on "Two Goes into Four." His between-song asides are fun, though, while his voice is in fine shape, even if the French part on "May I?" just makes him sound like a dirty old man instead of Serge Gainsbourg. | ||
 | Album: 6 of 38 Title: Helen of Troy Released: 1975 Tracks: 11 Duration: 40:25 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 My Maria (03:52) 2 Helen of Troy (04:21) 3 China Sea (02:33) 4 Engine (02:47) 5 Save Us (02:23) 6 Cable Hogue (03:32) 7 I Keep a Close Watch (03:29) 8 Pablo Picasso (03:23) 9 Leaving It Up to You (04:35) 10 Baby What You Want Me to Do (04:51) 11 Sudden Death (04:39) |
| Helen of Troy : Allmusic album Review : The supporting crew on Cales final Island album makes for a lineup that could never have happened again -- at least, in terms of future results, imagining, among others, Cale, Chris Spedding, Brian Eno, and Phil Collins once more in the same room together seems totally unlikely. Regardless of the oddity, Cale once again led a great ensemble band (Spedding now having fully taken over from Manzanera on guitar) through another set of great, inspiring songs. Whoever is putting in the guitar solos, Spedding or Cale, sometimes misfires, sometimes succeeds brilliantly -- consider opening song "My Maria," where the earlier efforts are intrusive but the concluding parts a perfect addition to the building smack of the song. Cales songs generally tend towards the uneasy throughout, his sometimes strained but never forced singing, high volume at points, making the most of the material. The atmosphere of the album as a whole is perhaps the most band-oriented of the three Island records, with further arrangements sounding like additions more than intrinsic parts of the songs. Its not a criticism, though, more an interesting experiment with often strong results, like the strident horns and heavily treated noise on the title track. "I Keep a Close Watch" is the secret emotional sucker punch on Helen of Troy -- Cale long harbored a sadly unfulfilled dream that Frank Sinatra might cover it, and theres little doubt why. Taking the opening line from Johnny Cashs "I Walk the Line" as inspiration, with a much different thematic intent, its an unabashedly romantic number with a great string and horn arrangement. There are, again, gentler moments that call to mind earlier tributes to the Beach Boys here and there, such as "China Sea," along with a great rendition of Jonathan Richmans "Pablo Picasso." Overall, Helen of Troy finds Cale at his edgiest, with fascinating results. | ||
 | Album: 7 of 38 Title: Slow Dazzle Released: 1975 Tracks: 10 Duration: 34:55 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Mr. Wilson (03:17) 2 Taking It All Away (02:58) 3 Dirty-Ass Rock n Roll (04:43) 4 Darling I Need You (03:37) 5 Rollaroll (03:57) 6 Heartbreak Hotel (03:13) 7 Ski Patrol (02:05) 8 Im Not the Loving Kind (03:07) 9 Guts (03:27) 10 The Jeweller (04:28) |
| Slow Dazzle : Allmusic album Review : Recording again with Phil Manzanera, along with noted journeyman guitarist Chris Spedding, Cale kept up the focus and amazing music on Slow Dazzle, easily the equal of Fear in terms of overall quality. With Brian Eno again helping out on synth work, Slow Dazzle comes across as a little more fried and unsettling than earlier work. Even the warm, epic lift of the chorus of "Mr. Wilson," very much a tribute to the Beach Boys main man and one of the best hes ever received, is surrounded by strings and piano both lovely and paranoid. The more accurate tone of the record can be found in such numbers as "Dirty Ass Rock n Roll," an intelligent, sly demolition of the lifestyle done to a glam-touched chug topped off with brass and backing singers, and even more dramatically with "Heartbreak Hotel." One of the most amazing cover versions ever, and arguably the best Elvis Presley revamp in existence, the slower pace, freaked-out Eno synth arrangement, and above all else Cales chilling delivery make it a masterpiece. Then theres "Guts," which deserves notice for its low-key but still sharp feedback snarl and steady, cool rhythm, but perhaps has its best moment with Cales gasped, killer starting lyric: "The bugger in the short sleeves f*cked my wife." For all of the stronger rock power, Cales obviously not out to be pigeonholed, thus the calmer swing of many other numbers, like the great 50s rock tribute "Darling I Need You," featuring great guest sax from Andy Mackay, and the quick, almost sprightly "Ski Patrol." In terms of his own performance, Cales voice again sounds marvelous, balanced perfectly between roughness and trained control, while his piano skills similarly find the connection between straightforward melodies and technical skill. | ||
 | Album: 8 of 38 Title: Guts Released: 1977 Tracks: 9 Duration: 38:16 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Guts (03:27) 2 Mary Lou (02:47) 3 Helen of Troy (04:17) 4 Pablo Picasso (03:21) 5 Leaving It Up to You (04:30) 6 Fear Is a Mans Best Friend (03:54) 7 Gun (08:05) 8 Dirty Ass Rock N Roll (04:42) 9 Heartbreak Hotel (03:09) |
| Guts : Allmusic album Review : Released in spring 1977, with John Cale back on the road and reveling in the controversy created by the chicken-beheading incident, Guts was a solid reminder of the three albums he cut for Island earlier in the decade -- and which predicted the power and promise of punk with a passion that not one of the movements other putative godfathers had ever truly communicated. Those original albums were already out of print at the time and, for an audience raised to expect outrage and violence, that may not have been a bad thing. Fear, Slow Dazzle, and Helen of Troy, after all, each packed their fair share of ballads and beauty, a happenstance that to punkier ears was akin to expecting the Stooges to play "No Fun" and getting "We Will Fall" instead. Guts cut away all of that, and diced instead into the soul of Cales psychosis, from the grueling "Gun" to the turbulent "Fear" -- still one of rocks most foreboding "ballads" -- and onto what remain three of Cales most legendary performances, a seething Quaalude drive through Elvis Presleys "Heartbreak Hotel," his hypnotic realignment of Jonathan Richmans "Pablo Picasso," and, edgiest of all, "Leaving It All up to You," a storm-tossed journey through the bowels of modern life crowned (as aghast period commentators never let listeners forget) by the anti-reassurance, "We could all feel safe/Like Sharon Tate." Its excellent track selection aside (only "Dirty Ass Rock and Roll" lets the side down), Guts distinguished itself further by extracting the Slow Dazzle outtake "Mary Lou" from the archive. But even without that bonus, the album emerged a best-of that actually lived up to its billing. | ||
 | Album: 9 of 38 Title: Sabotage / Live Released: 1979 Tracks: 9 Duration: 45:34 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Mercenaries (Ready for War) (07:53) 2 Baby You Know (04:01) 3 Evidence (03:32) 4 Dr. Mudd (03:54) 5 Walkin the Dog (04:07) 6 Captain Hook (11:27) 7 Only Time Will Tell (02:26) 8 Sabotage (04:26) 9 Chorale (03:44) |
| Sabotage / Live : Allmusic album Review : Though Lou Reed is often thought of as the abrasive member of the Velvet Underground, during the punk era Reed was writing confessional singer/songwriter albums while his former bandmate John Cale was traveling the world in the company of a band of snot-nosed youngsters raised on hard rock, shrieking himself into a frenzy, wearing a hard hat on-stage, and writing songs like "Chickenshit," a real-life tale of the time he beheaded a chicken (already dead) on-stage and threw the carcass into the crowd and his whole band quit in protest, set to the most merciless music hed been a part of since White Light/White Heat. The similarly slashed Sabotage/Live is the noisiest album of Cales career, but theres more here than volume and feedback. Recorded live at punk mecca CBGBs, the nine songs range from the howling "Mercenaries (Ready for War)" to the more reflective, dirge-like "Captain Hook," a sardonic epic meditation on British colonialism thats every bit as powerful as the louder, faster tracks. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 38 Title: Honi Soit Released: 1981 Tracks: 9 Duration: 37:37 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Dead or Alive (03:51) 2 Strange Times in Casablanca (04:13) 3 Fighter Pilot (03:10) 4 Wilson Joliet (04:23) 5 Streets of Laredo (03:34) 6 Honi Soit (La Première Leçon de Français) (03:20) 7 Riverbank (06:24) 8 Russian Roulette (05:15) 9 Magic & Lies (03:26) |
| Honi Soit : Allmusic album Review : The rise of the punk/new wave scene finally provided John Cale with a context in which he didnt seem that much more eccentric than the other musicians surrounding him, and after reintroducing himself to the new audience with 1979s purposefully aggressive Sabotage/Live, recorded on-stage at CBGB and filled with bleak rants about global militarization, he released Honi Soit, his first studio album in six years. Honi Soit was considerably more polished and stylistically eclectic than Sabotage/Live, but Cale had hardly shaken off the intense paranoia and foreboding echoes that dominated the previous album, and if anything the cleaner surfaces of Mike Thornes production and the efficient, no-nonsense support of Cales road band of the moment brought the albums psychodrama to a finer point; Honi Soit rivals Fear as the most lividly uncomfortable album in Cales catalog, and thats saying something. While there are a few moments of relief -- the languid "Riverbank," and the pop melodies of "Dead or Alive" and "Magic & Lies" -- more typical are the battlefield nightmare "Wilson Joliet," the bemused espionage of "Strange Times in Casablanca," and the paramilitary ranting of "Russian Roulette." Probably most telling is "Magic & Lies," which starts out with an upbeat keyboard pattern Barry Manilow would envy, and ends in a barrage of crashing drums and swooping bass swells that closes the album like a lid slamming shut on a coffin; here even Cales token upbeat numbers wouldnt escape his overpowering sense of dread, and on Honi Soit there is no corner sunny enough to escape the shadow of World War III. | ||
 | Album: 11 of 38 Title: Music for a New Society Released: 1982-08 Tracks: 11 Duration: 44:34 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Taking Your Life in Your Hands (04:45) 2 Thoughtless Kind (02:41) 3 Sanities (05:58) 4 If You Were Still Around (03:27) 5 (I Keep a) Close Watch (03:07) 6 Broken Bird (04:44) 7 Chinese Envoy (03:10) 8 Changes Made (03:14) 9 Damn Life (05:14) 10 Rise, Sam and Rimsky-Korsakov (02:13) 11 In the Library of Force (05:57) |
| Music for a New Society : Allmusic album Review : The aural chaos and intense paranoia of John Cales "comeback" albums Sabotage/Live and Honi Soit seemingly left him with very few places left to go, short of setting back-issues of Soldier of Fortune to music. 1982s Music for a New Society was, from a musical standpoint, a remarkable about-face, sounding calm, spare, and spectral where his last few albums had been all rant and rage; the arrangements were dominated by Cales open, languid keyboard patterns, and there was far more aural "white space" in their framings than he had permitted himself since The Academy in Peril. But beyond the cool, reserved exteriors of Music for a New Society, one finds a handful of stories of terribly damaged lives; on close inspection, the ethereal opening cut "Taking Your Life in Your Hands" turns out to be the story of a mother gone on a killing spree, while "Sanities," "Thoughtless Kind," and "Damn Life" are full of dashed hopes and painful emotional betrayals. If the approach to the material is a good bit different than what most fans had been used to from Cale, the results were, if anything, among the most compelling music of his career; the open spaces of the arrangements are at once ambient and melodically compelling, and the songs have an emotional resonance that communicates on a deeper and more emotional level than the political hectoring of Sabotage or Honi Soit, intelligent as they may have been. Spare, understated, and perhaps a masterpiece. | ||
 | Album: 12 of 38 Title: Caribbean Sunset Released: 1984 Tracks: 9 Duration: 36:53 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Hungry for Love (03:46) 2 Experiment Number 1 (05:42) 3 Model Beirut Recital (04:15) 4 Caribbean Sunset (04:20) 5 Praetorian Underground (03:26) 6 Magazines (03:08) 7 Where Theres a Will (02:45) 8 The Hunt (03:56) 9 Villa Albani (05:35) |
| Caribbean Sunset : Allmusic album Review : Arguably the weakest album of John Cales career (some fans would elect the follow-up, 1985s similarly lightweight Artificial Intelligence, for the honor), 1984s Caribbean Sunset is something of a mess. The songs are among the poppiest of Cales career, and one gets the sense that its meant to be Cales attempt at a straight-up pop album, especially given the Jimmy Buffett-like title and cover photo. Yet everything about the albums arrangements and production undercut the promise of slickness and commercialism; Cales production is uncharacteristically cruddy, with the rhythm section in particular sounding as if they were recorded from two rooms over and his vocals, often unnecessarily harsh, sounding completely disconnected from the music. The arrangements, too, are unnecessarily hurried-sounding; this is apparently an album of first takes, as "Experiment Number 1" features Cale calling out the chord changes to the band (which features three young unknowns and Brian Eno, enigmatically credited solely with "AMS pitch changer") as the song progresses. The songs are a mixed bag, with the pointed "Model Beirut Recital" and "Praetorian Underground" sounding like leftovers from 1982s Music for a New Society; unfortunately, theyre also the best of the lot, along with the agreeably slight title track. Not quite as bad as its reputation in some circles suggests, Caribbean Sunset cant really be called good, either. | ||
 | Album: 13 of 38 Title: Comes Alive Released: 1984 Tracks: 10 Duration: 40:13 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Ooh La La (03:22) 2 Evidence (03:27) 3 Dead Or Alive (04:08) 4 Chinese Envoy (03:25) 5 Leaving It Up to You (05:36) 6 Dr. Mudd (03:43) 7 Waiting For The Man (04:31) 8 Heartbreak Hotel (04:26) 9 Fear (03:34) 10 Never Give Up On You (03:56) |
| Comes Alive : Allmusic album Review : Five years after delivering one of the crucial live albums of the 1970s, 1979s Sabotage/Live, John Cale turned around and unveiled one of the least necessary of the 1980s, a Comes Alive set that, frankly, should have been left for dead. The problem is not the performance -- circulating underground tapes of the show in London earlier that year catch Cale and his current band at the peak of their powers, punching through a set built upon, but by no means dependent on, the Caribbean Sunset album and delivering chilling interpretations of his most sainted oldies. "Waiting for the Man" was nightmarish, and "Pablo Picasso" positively surreal. But there was no room for the painter on Comes Alive, as a 90-minute show was slashed in half and the surviving tapes were so remixed that the very audience sounds like a sample. The result is an album so polished and lifeless that even the ghost of the live show went home before the end. Alarming, too, was the top-and-tailing of the disc with two new studio recordings, the Cale-by-numbers ballad "Never Give up on You" and the oddly amusing skip-rope parody "Ooh la La." The latter worked as a one-off single, in which form it first appeared the previous month; the former would have worked as a bit of album-filler. But they have nothing to do with the rest of the record -- and it has nothing in common with the rest of Cales catalog. Stick to Sabotage/Live -- at least that sounds like it means what it says. | ||
 | Album: 14 of 38 Title: Artificial Intelligence Released: 1985 Tracks: 9 Duration: 42:13 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Everytime the Dogs Bark (04:17) 2 Dying on the Vine (05:18) 3 The Sleeper (05:54) 4 Vigilante Lover (04:27) 5 Chinese Takeaway (Hong Kong 1997) (03:44) 6 Song of the Valley (05:06) 7 Fadeaway Tomorrow (03:25) 8 Black Rose (04:59) 9 Satellite Walk (04:58) |
| Artificial Intelligence : Allmusic album Review : Though this is still nowhere near prime John Cale, 1985s Artificial Intelligence is a big step up from its predecessor, 1984s weak and sloppy Caribbean Sunset. For the first time in his career, Cale works with a collaborator on each song: Rock journalist Larry Sloman (later to gain a certain measure of fame as the model for the pesky Ratso character in Kinky Friedmans comic mystery novels) wrote the lyrics for all nine songs, with guitarist and co-producer David Young chipping in on two of them. Slomans lyrics are uneven, ranging from the nonsensical "Satellite Walk" to the affecting "Dying on the Vine," one of the loveliest and most haunting songs of John Cales entire career. Musically, the album sounds a bit dated in its reliance on standard mid-80s synths and drum machines, but the production is worlds better than it had been on the muddy Caribbean Sunset, with the atmospheric "Every Time the Dogs Bark" and "Chinese Takeaway (Hong Kong 1997)" benefiting the most. Artificial Intelligence is no Paris 1919, but its an encouraging partial return to form. | ||
 | Album: 15 of 38 Title: Words for the Dying Released: 1989 Tracks: 9 Duration: 38:49 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Introduction (01:44) 2 There Was a Saviour / Interlude I (09:35) 3 On a Wedding Anniversary (05:00) 4 Interlude II (04:45) 5 Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed (04:18) 6 Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night (05:33) 7 Songs Without Words I (02:40) 8 Songs Without Words II (01:50) 9 The Soul of Carmen Miranda (03:23) |
 | Album: 16 of 38 Title: Songs for Drella Released: 1990-04-11 Tracks: 15 Duration: 54:53 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Smalltown (02:03) 2 Open House (04:17) 3 Style It Takes (02:54) 4 Work (02:37) 5 Trouble With Classicists (03:41) 6 Starlight (03:28) 7 Faces and Names (04:12) 8 Images (03:30) 9 Slip Away (A Warning) (03:05) 10 It Wasn’t Me (03:30) 11 I Believe (03:17) 12 Nobody but You (03:45) 13 A Dream (06:33) 14 Forever Changed (04:51) 15 Hello It’s Me (03:04) |
| Songs for Drella : Allmusic album Review : John Cale, the co-founder of The Velvet Underground, left the group in 1968 after tensions between himself and Lou Reed became intolerable; neither had much charitable to say about one other after that, and they seemed to share only one significant area of agreement -- they both maintained a great respect and admiration for Andy Warhol, the artist whose patronage of the group helped them reach their first significant audience. So it was fitting that after Warhols death in 1987, Reed and Cale began working together for the first time since White Light/White Heat on a cycle of songs about the artists life and times. Starkly constructed around Cales keyboards, Reeds guitar, and their voices, Songs for Drella is a performance piece about Andy Warhol, his rise to fame, and his troubled years in the limelight. Reed and Cale take turns on vocals, sometimes singing as the character of Andy and elsewhere offering their observations on the man they knew. On a roll after New York, Reeds songs are strong and pithy, and display a great feel for the character of Andy, and while Cale brought fewer tunes to the table, theyre all superb, especially "Style It Takes" and "A Dream," a spoken word piece inspired by Warhols posthumously published diaries. If Songs for Drella seems modest from a musical standpoint, its likely neither Reed nor Cale wanted the music to distract from their story, and here they paint a portrait of Warhol that has far more depth and poignancy than his public image would have led one to expect. Its a moving and deeply felt tribute to a misunderstood man, and its a pleasure to hear these two comrades-in-arms working together again, even if their renewed collaboration was destined to be short-lived. | ||
 | Album: 17 of 38 Title: Wrong Way Up Released: 1990-10 Tracks: 12 Duration: 48:38 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Lay My Love (04:44) 2 One Word (04:34) 3 In the Backroom (04:02) 4 Empty Frame (04:26) 5 Cordoba (04:22) 6 Spinning Away (05:27) 7 Footsteps (03:13) 8 Been There Done That (02:52) 9 Crime in the Desert (03:42) 10 The River (04:23) 11 Grandfathers House (03:07) 12 You Dont Miss Your Water (03:46) |
| Wrong Way Up : Allmusic album Review : Both Brian Eno and John Cale have always flirted with conventional pop music throughout their careers, while reserving the right to go off on less accessible experiments, which means theyve always held out the promise that they would make something as attractive as this synthesizer-dominated collection, on which Eno comes as close to the mainstream as he has since Another Green World and Cale is as catchy as hes been since Honi Soit. The result is one of the best albums either one has ever made. | ||
 | Album: 18 of 38 Title: Paris séveille Released: 1991 Tracks: 7 Duration: 59:22 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Paris séveille (17:04) 2 Sanctus (18:47) 3 Animals at Night (04:44) 4 The Cowboy Laughs at the Round-Up (05:01) 5 Primary Motive (07:18) 6 Booker T. (03:04) 7 Antarctica Starts Here (03:21) |
 | Album: 19 of 38 Title: Fragments of a Rainy Season Released: 1992 Tracks: 28 Duration: 1:42:17 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 On a Wedding Anniversary (03:31) 2 Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed (04:21) 3 Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night (03:44) 4 Cordoba (03:27) 5 Buffalo Ballet (02:47) 6 A Child’s Christmas in Wales (03:24) 7 Darling I Need You (03:18) 8 Guts (03:05) 9 Ship of Fools (03:43) 10 Leaving It Up to You (03:32) 11 The Ballad of Cable Hogue (02:57) 12 Chinese Envoy (03:15) 13 Dying on the Vine (03:51) 14 Fear (Is a Man’s Best Friend) (03:51) 15 Heartbreak Hotel (05:18) 16 Style It Takes (02:58) 17 Paris 1919 (03:30) 18 (I Keep A) Close Watch (02:30) 19 Thoughtless Kind (02:40) 20 Hallelujah (05:17) 1 Fear (Is a Man’s Best Friend) (04:29) 2 Amsterdam (03:01) 3 Broken Hearts (03:04) 4 I’m Waiting for the Man (04:33) 5 Heartbreak Hotel (06:00) 6 Fear (Is a Man’s Best Friend) (03:40) 7 Paris 1919 (03:52) 8 Antarctica Starts Here (02:29) |
| Fragments of a Rainy Season : Allmusic album Review : Its hard to imagine John Cale on MTV, but if he appeared on Unplugged, the result probably would sound like this. Alone, Cale accompanies himself on acoustic piano and guitar, playing a retrospective set of some of his best and most accessible music. The emphasis is on his more contemplative material, such as the early Paris 1919 album, his later Words for the Dying, which features the poetry of Dylan Thomas set to music, and other notable Cale ballads. He does throw in some rock & roll fervor and some of his noisy avant-garde effects on numbers like "Guts," but for the most part this is a John Cale who, while intense, is quiet and dignified. | ||
 | Album: 20 of 38 Title: Seducing Down the Door: A Collection 1970 - 1990 Released: 1994 Tracks: 38 Duration: 2:34:29 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 The Protege (02:56) 2 Big White Cloud (03:30) 3 Amsterdam (03:14) 4 Days of Steam (02:01) 5 Temper (05:00) 6 Dixieland and Dixie (03:20) 7 Childs Christmas in Wales (03:23) 8 Paris 1919 (04:05) 9 Andalucia (03:53) 10 Fear Is a Mans Best Friend (03:55) 11 Gun (08:06) 12 I Keep a Close Watch (03:29) 13 Heartbreak Hotel (03:15) 14 Dirtyass Rock n Roll (04:46) 15 Guts (03:32) 16 The Jeweller (04:17) 17 Pablo Picasso (03:23) 18 Leaving It Up to You (04:33) 19 Coral Moon (02:15) 20 Memphis (03:25) 1 Jack the Ripper (03:09) 2 Hedda Gabler (08:12) 3 Walkin the Dog (04:15) 4 Dead or Alive (03:53) 5 Strange Times in Casablanca (04:17) 6 Taking Your Life in Your Hands (04:48) 7 Thoughtless Kind (02:44) 8 Chinese Envoy (03:12) 9 Caribbean Sunset (04:20) 10 Waiting for the Man (04:43) 11 Ooh La La (04:22) 12 Everytime the Dogs Bark (04:17) 13 Dying on the Vine (05:18) 14 The Soul of Carmen Miranda (03:26) 15 One Word (04:38) 16 Cordoba (04:25) 17 Trouble With Classicists (03:44) 18 Faces and Names (04:12) |
| Seducing Down the Door: A Collection 1970 - 1990 : Allmusic album Review : The range of John Cales work can be shocking: its hard to believe that the piano duets with minimalist composer Terry Riley on Church of Anthrax, the lush orchestral pop of Paris 1919, and the raucous, dissonant guitar rock of "Gun" and the rest of Fear are all the work of the same man, much less that they were all released within a four-year span. The well-chosen 38-track, two-and-a-half-hour double-CD/cassette anthology Seducing Down the Door does nothing to reconcile the apparent musical contradictions in Cales classical-to-punk sensibility, but it does bring coherence and consolidation to a recording career that, spread across a multitude of labels and plagued by popular indifference, has been difficult to grasp as a whole. | ||
 | Album: 21 of 38 Title: Last Day on Earth Released: 1994-04-12 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:08:35 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Overture: A Tourist / A Contact / A Prisoner (08:06) 2 Café Shabu (05:37) 3 Pastoral Angst (02:29) 4 Whos In Charge? (02:53) 5 Short of Time (03:08) 6 Angel of Death (04:19) 7 Paradise Nevada (05:33) 8 Old China (03:13) 9 Ocean Life (04:48) 10 Instrumental (01:57) 11 Modern World (05:53) 12 Streets Come Alive (03:22) 13 Secrets (04:19) 14 Maps of the World (04:52) 15 Broken Hearts (03:03) 16 The High and Mighty Road (05:03) |
| Last Day on Earth : Allmusic album Review : Cale and Neuwirth were commissioned by the Art at St. Anns project in New York to produce this song cycle, which keys on vignettes about travel. Its spoken-word-plus-music format makes it a cross between an impressionistic play and a new age music album, but thats a far more listenable approach than some of Cales experiments. | ||
 | Album: 22 of 38 Title: Antártida Released: 1995 Tracks: 20 Duration: 47:03 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Flashback 1#1 (01:27) 2 Antartida (03:05) 3 Velascos Theme (01:14) 4 Marias Appartement (01:06) 5 Flashback 1#2 (01:27) 6 On the Waterfront (03:15) 7 Pasodoble Mortal (03:43) 8 Marias Dream (01:08) 9 Bath (05:02) 10 Flashback 1#3 (01:28) 11 Antartica Starts Here (02:30) 12 Flashback 3 (01:55) 13 Sunset (01:07) 14 Getaway (04:37) 15 Flashback 1#4 (01:27) 16 Antartida Starts Here (02:26) 17 Frame Up (01:22) 18 Barn (04:26) 19 People Who Died (02:42) 20 Flashback 1#5 (01:30) |
 | Album: 23 of 38 Title: The Island Years Released: 1996 Tracks: 36 Duration: 2:14:30 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Fear Is a Mans Best Friend (03:53) 2 Buffalo Ballet (03:29) 3 Barracuda (03:48) 4 Emily (04:22) 5 Ship of Fools (04:37) 6 Gun (08:05) 7 The Man Who Couldnt Afford to Orgy (04:34) 8 You Know More Than I Know (03:35) 9 Momamma Scuba (04:24) 10 Sylvia Said (04:09) 11 All I Want Is You (02:57) 12 Bamboo Floor (03:25) 13 Mr. Wilson (03:17) 14 Taking It All Away (02:58) 15 Dirty-Ass Rock n Roll (04:43) 16 Darling I Need You (03:37) 17 Rollaroll (03:57) 1 Heartbreak Hotel (03:13) 2 Ski Patrol (02:08) 3 Im Not the Loving Kind (03:08) 4 Guts (03:27) 5 The Jeweller (04:14) 6 My Maria (03:51) 7 Helen of Troy (04:20) 8 China Sea (02:32) 9 Engine (02:47) 10 Save Us (02:22) 11 Cable Hogue (03:32) 12 I Keep a Close Watch (03:29) 13 Pablo Picasso (03:23) 14 Leaving It Up to You (04:35) 15 Baby What You Want Me to Do (04:51) 16 Sudden Death (04:39) 17 You & Me (02:51) 18 Coral Moon (02:17) 19 Mary Lou (02:46) |
| The Island Years : Allmusic album Review : This double CD combines all three of John Cales mid-70s Island albums (Fear, Slow Dazzle, and Helen of Troy) into one package, with the addition of some interesting bonus tracks: outtakes from Slow Dazzle and Helen of Troy, the B-side "Sylvia Said," "Leaving It up to You" (which only appeared on early copies of Helen of Troy before "Coral Moon" took its place), and "Mary Lou" (from the 1977 Guts compilation). This was undeniably one of Cales most fertile periods. There is also no other body of work from the mid-70s with such a confluence of listenable FM radio-ready tunes and sneaky, at times subversive experimentation, its eclecticism encompassing art rock, macabre recitations, and Beach Boy pastiches. | ||
 | Album: 24 of 38 Title: The Unknown Released: 1999 Tracks: 8 Duration: 57:30 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Part 1 (13:05) 2 Part 2 (04:59) 3 Part 3 (01:33) 4 Part 4 (16:03) 5 Part 5 (07:29) 6 Part 6 (04:27) 7 Part 7 (04:12) 8 Part 8 (05:37) |
 | Album: 25 of 38 Title: Close Watch: An Introduction to John Cale Released: 1999-02-22 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:08:04 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Paris 1919 (04:06) 2 Mr. Wilson (03:17) 3 Leaving It Up to You (04:33) 4 Dying on the Vine (03:58) 5 Guts (03:29) 6 Set Me Free (04:11) 7 Heartbreak Hotel (03:12) 8 Ship of Fools (04:38) 9 Cable Hogue (03:28) 10 Gun (08:07) 11 Riverbank (06:25) 12 Childs Christmas in Wales (03:20) 13 Fear Is a Mans Best Friend (03:52) 14 If You Were Still Around (03:28) 15 Wilson Joliet (04:25) 16 I Keep a Close Watch (03:26) |
| Close Watch: An Introduction to John Cale : Allmusic album Review : Tidily packaged and generously annotated, this 16-track compilation offers a glimpse inside the aural laboratory wherein John Cale has relentlessly labored to reconcile the low (rock) and high (avant-garde/classical) musical aesthetics over the course of his lengthy post-Velvets solo career. Although the integrity of the quest (not to mention Cales impeccable pedigree) has to be admired, the end result has been an artistic chimera of innocuous curios (his cabaret noir retake on Elvis Presleys "Heartbreak Hotel"), inspired hybrids (the viola-driven, Beatlesque musings of "Paris 1919," "A Childs Christmas in Wales"), and torpid failures ("Close Watch," "Cable Hogue"). Within the Cale methodology, there is no pop convention that cant be gleefully sabotaged with some well-placed harmonic and/or lyrical dissonance, an approach that too often mistakes non-conformity for originality, ultimately producing music that lumbers under the weight of its own schizophrenic conceits. Listeners already enamored of Cales baleful voice and peculiar brand of recombinant songcraft will probably want to opt for the more comprehensive Island Years or Seducing Down the Door anthologies, but for the more casual listener this is probably all youll ever need. | ||
 | Album: 26 of 38 Title: Inside the Dream Syndicate, Volume I: Day of Niagara Released: 2000-05 Tracks: 1 Duration: 30:54 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Inside the Dream Syndicate, Volume I: Day of Niagara (30:54) |
 | Album: 27 of 38 Title: Stainless Gamelan: Inside the Dream Syndicate, Volume III: Table of the Elements Released: 2001 Tracks: 5 Duration: 55:19 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Stainless Steel Gamelan (10:24) 2 At About This Time Mozart Was Dead and Joseph Conrad Was Sailing the Seven Seas Learning English (26:29) 3 Terrys Cha-Cha (08:21) 4 After the Locust (04:19) 5 Big Apple Express (05:44) |
 | Album: 28 of 38 Title: Dream Interpretation: Inside the Dream Syndicate Volume II Released: 2001 Tracks: 6 Duration: 53:25 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Dream Interpretation (20:35) 2 Ex-Cathedra (05:04) 3 [Untitled] For Piano (12:30) 4 Carousel (02:34) 5 A Midnight Rain of Green Wrens at the Worlds Tallest Building (03:20) 6 Hot Scoria (09:20) |
 | Album: 29 of 38 Title: HoboSapiens Released: 2003-10-06 Tracks: 12 Duration: 1:00:13 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Zen (06:03) 2 Reading My Mind (04:11) 3 Things (03:36) 4 Look Horizon (05:40) 5 Magritte (04:58) 6 Archimedes (04:40) 7 Caravan (06:43) 8 Bicycle (05:05) 9 Twilight Zone (03:48) 10 Letter From Abroad (05:09) 11 Things X (04:49) 12 Over Her Head (05:24) |
| HoboSapiens : Allmusic album Review : John Cales reentry into the world of pop music is a contentious and accessible one. This is the Welsh iconoclast at his most elegant, energetic, and innovative. HoboSapiens finds Cale using samples as the base of all his tracks and using musicians to fill in his ideas -- ideas that were firmly established melodically, lyrically, and texturally. There are a couple of dozen players here, including guitarists Joe Gore (Tom Waits, PJ Harvey) and Joel Mark, Eno (and his two daughters Darla and Irial), bassist Jeff Eyrich, a small choir of Italian voices, a choral quartet called A Tonal Choir, drummer Marco Giovino, and samples by a host of electro-wizards. But its not the collaborations that make the recording remarkable, its the songs. Cales sense of whimsy is back with a vengeance here. Check the gloriously loopy hook in "Reading My Mind" (one can hear just how deep Cales influence on David Byrne went), the acoustic rock and irony in "Things," the skittering kit drum and string loops in "Look Horizon," the ethereal keyboard and sample darkness of "Magritte," the dreamy pop expressionism of "Archimedes," and the silly, angular Euro-funk in "Bicycle," with Enos daughters giggling away. Throughout the 12 tracks on HoboSapiens, Cales outlook is fantastical, nearly bright, and full of mystery and history, with philosophy, religion, quirkily cultural artifacts, and wry humor all woven together with thoroughly modern post-rock and pop music that is seamless yet full of angles and multidimensional yet full of attitude and grace, with a slippery Euro sheen roughed up by rugged U.K. shagginess. This is easily the best and most provocative recording Cale has made since Honi Soit. Its ironic that the two bravest, most original pop records of 2003 were made by old men: this one and Robert Wyatts Cuckooland. | ||
 | Album: 30 of 38 Title: Le Bataclan 72 Released: 2003-11-17 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:05:07 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Waiting for the Man (05:42) 2 Berlin (05:10) 3 Black Angels Death Song (04:25) 4 Wild Child (05:43) 5 Heroin (06:44) 6 Ghost Story (03:22) 7 The Biggest, Loudest, Hairiest Group of All (03:42) 8 Empty Bottles (03:01) 9 Femme Fatale (03:21) 10 No One Is There (04:54) 11 Frozen Warnings (04:40) 12 Janitor of Lunacy (05:10) 13 Ill Be Your Mirror (02:20) 14 All Tomorrows Parties (encore) (03:01) 15 Pale Blue Eyes (rehearsal) (02:06) 16 Candy Says (rehearsal) (01:44) |
| Le Bataclan '72 : Allmusic album Review : After decades of being circulated on inferior-sounding bootlegs, the January 1972 reconvergence of Velvet Underground (VU) co-founders Lou Reed (vocals/acoustic guitar), John Cale (guitar/viola/piano/vocals), and Nico (vocals/harmonium) in Paris at Le Bataclan has been committed to commercial release. A suitably noir mood hangs over them as they stonily amble through VU staples and key entries from their concurrent solo endeavors. They commence with a slow and almost methodical "Waiting for the Man" as Cale offers up a simple piano accompaniment to Reeds casual guitar and lead vocal. Reed aptly describes the bleak torch reading of "Berlin" as his "Barbra Streisand song" before unveiling a profoundly minimalist interpretation. It captures the unnerving mood inescapably defining the city in the wake of WWII. They return to the early VU for an inspired "Black Angel Death Song." Reeds rhythmic chiming guitar incongruously fits beside Cale as he whittles away an austere viola counterpoint. Back briefly to Reeds eponymously titled debut for a very Dylanesque delivery of "Wild Child." The reconnection between the duo begins to jel significantly, if not audibly throughout an intense "Heroin," immediately recalling what makes the Cale/Reed combo so appealing. Cale seizes the reigns for the melodically and lyrically involved "Ghost Story" from Vintage Violence (1970). One rarity is Cales "Empty Bottles," which he contributed to Jennifer Warnes Jennifer (1972) album. Nico finally takes the spotlight for a healthy sampling of her work, couching a trio of post-VU efforts around three of her most memorable sides during her brief time in the band. They saunter into an intimate and warmly received mini-set featuring "Femme Fatale," "No One Is There," and "Frozen Warnings" of off Marble Index (1969), as well as "Janitor of Lunacy" from Desertshore (1970). The show concludes with another trip into the VU songbook on a comparatively optimistic "Ill Be Your Mirror" duly juxtaposed against an edgy and sinister "All Tomorrows Parties." While fans and pundits hopefully proclaimed the performance as the return of the Velvets, alas it would not be so. Le Bataclan 72 (2004) is a no-brainer for all dimension of VU, John Cale, Lou Reed, and/or Nico enthusiasts. | ||
 | Album: 31 of 38 Title: blackAcetate Released: 2005-10-03 Tracks: 13 Duration: 53:31 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Outta the Bag (03:54) 2 For a Ride (03:56) 3 Brotherman (03:32) 4 Satisfied (03:54) 5 In a Flood (04:54) 6 Hush (03:26) 7 Gravel Drive (04:24) 8 Perfect (03:21) 9 Sold-Motel (04:53) 10 Woman (05:07) 11 Wasteland (04:11) 12 Turn the Lights On (03:47) 13 Mailman (The Lying Song) (04:07) |
 | Album: 32 of 38 Title: New York in the 1960s Released: 2006-05-09 Tracks: 16 Duration: 3:04:18 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Sun Blindness Music (42:44) 2 Summer Heat (11:07) 3 The Second Fortress (10:37) 1 Dream Interpretation (20:35) 2 Ex-Cathedra (05:04) 3 [Untitled] For Piano (12:30) 4 Carousel (02:34) 5 A Midnight Rain of Green Wrens at the Worlds Tallest Building (03:20) 6 Hot Scoria (09:20) 1 Stainless Steel Gamelan (10:24) 2 At About This Time Mozart Was Dead and Joseph Conrad Was Sailing the Seven Seas Learning English (26:29) 3 Terrys Cha-Cha (08:21) 4 After the Locust (04:19) 5 Big Apple Express (05:44) 6 Cold Starry Nights (02:19) 7 Silent Shadows on Cinemaroc Island (08:45) |
 | Album: 33 of 38 Title: Circus Live Released: 2007-02-19 Tracks: 23 Duration: 2:15:49 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Venus in Furs (06:22) 2 Save Us (03:20) 3 Helen of Troy (05:42) 4 Woman (05:27) 5 Buffalo Ballet (04:07) 6 Femme Fatale / Rosegarden Funeral of Sores (06:33) 7 Hush (03:42) 8 OuttaTheBag (04:44) 9 Set Me Free (04:43) 10 The Ballad of Cable Hogue (05:06) 11 Look Horizon (05:15) 12 Magritte (04:12) 13 Dirty Ass Rock and Roll (06:30) 1 Walking the Dog (06:11) 2 Gun (12:59) 3 Hanky Panky Nohow (04:59) 4 Pablo Picasso / Mary Lou (12:25) 5 Drone - Into Amsterdam Suite (04:07) 6 Zen (05:43) 7 Style It Takes (05:14) 8 Heartbreak Hotel (06:52) 9 Mercenaries (Ready for War) (08:42) 10 Outro Drone (02:43) |
 | Album: 34 of 38 Title: Live at Rockpalast Released: 2010-03-15 Tracks: 39 Duration: 2:26:19 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Autobiography (04:39) 2 Oh La La (02:38) 3 Evidence (03:23) 4 Magazines (03:36) 5 Model Beirut Recital (03:29) 6 Streets of Laredo (02:33) 7 Dr. Mudo (03:42) 8 Leaving It Up to You (05:43) 9 Caribbean Sunset (04:39) 10 The Hunt (03:45) 11 Fear Is a Mans Best Friend (03:40) 12 Heartbreak Hotel (02:32) 13 Paris 1919 (03:49) 14 Waiting for the Man (06:05) 15 Mercenaries (Ready for War) (09:02) 16 Pablo Picasso / Love Me Two Times (09:03) 17 Close Watch (02:37) 1 Ghost Story (02:47) 2 Ship of Fools (02:55) 3 Leaving It Up to You (03:58) 4 Amsterdam (02:49) 5 A Childs Christmas in Wales (04:03) 6 Buffalo Ballet (02:57) 7 Antarctica Starts Here (02:36) 8 Taking It All Away (02:41) 9 Riverbank (03:36) 10 Paris 1919 (03:54) 11 Guts (02:36) 12 Chinese Envoy (03:38) 13 Thoughtless Kind (02:14) 14 Only the Time Will Tell (02:22) 15 Cable Hogue (03:37) 16 Dead or Alive (03:17) 17 Waiting for the Man (04:46) 18 Heartbreak Hotel (04:41) 19 Chorale (02:49) 20 Fear Is a Mans Best Friend (03:53) 21 Close Watch (02:50) 22 Streets of Laredo (02:25) |
| Live at Rockpalast : Allmusic album Review : On this audio complement to a home video, John Cale is heard in two concert appearances, one on each CD, filmed and recorded for the German Rockpalast television series. On the first disc, from October 13, 1984, he plays with a band consisting of guitarist Dave Young, bassist Andy Heermans, and drummer Dave Lichtenstein; on the second, from March 16, 1983, he is solo, accompanying himself on either acoustic guitar or piano. Thus, the album encapsulates the two sides of Cale, the aggressive rocker and the classically trained recitalist and singer/songwriter. Interestingly, the two sides are explored sometimes with the same songs, albeit played differently. Cale with band is loud and gruff, the rough rock sometimes deliberately distorted, but Cale solo is often no less intense, even if the sound is softer most of the time. Actually, on his own Cale makes better contrast between his calm and agitated selves, sometimes building to the same sort of howling he does with the rock band, notably on "Waiting for the Man," which is featured in both shows. By including the two concerts -- at a running time of nearly two and a half hours -- the compilers present a wide range of Cales music dating back to the start of his solo career with 1970s Vintage Violence, all the way up to ‘80s albums like Music for a New Society and Caribbean Sunset, and they demonstrate that when it comes to this provocative artist, you have to take the rough with the smooth, sometimes in the same songs. | ||
 | Album: 35 of 38 Title: Conflict & Catalysis: Productions & Arrangements 1966-2006 Released: 2012-03-06 Tracks: 20 Duration: 00:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Venus in Furs (?) 2 I Wanna Be Your Dog (?) 3 In Excelsis Deo / Gloria (?) 4 Afraid (?) 5 Pablo Picasso (?) 6 Who Is That Saving Me (?) 7 Re-Bop (?) 8 Disco Clone (?) 9 Italian Sea (?) 10 No King (?) 11 Sex Master (?) 12 Take Your Place (?) 13 Kuff Dam (?) 14 Runaway Child (Minors Beware) (?) 15 Omnes Gentes Plaudite (The Drinking Song) (?) 16 Needles for Teeth (?) 17 Scorch (?) 18 Dallas (?) 19 Tearing Apart (?) 20 Spinning Away (?) |
 | Album: 36 of 38 Title: Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood Released: 2012-10-01 Tracks: 12 Duration: 54:06 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 I Wanna Talk 2 U (03:33) 2 Scotland Yard (05:00) 3 Hemingway (03:59) 4 Face to the Sky (04:59) 5 Nookie Wood (04:06) 6 December Rains (04:42) 7 Mary (05:40) 8 Vampire Cafe (05:48) 9 Mothra (03:31) 10 Living With You (04:04) 11 Midnight Feast (05:01) 12 Sandman (Flying Dutchman) (03:43) |
| Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood : Allmusic album Review : Released in 2011, the Extra Playful EP, John Cales first set of new material in six years, found the roguish ex-Velvet Underground legend revisiting some of the more idiosyncratic aspects of his early solo career, which should come as no surprise since he had spent the year prior performing his 1973 chamber pop masterpiece, Paris 1919, in its entirety. Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood, his first full-length outing since Black Acetate, continues in that same vein, mining the oddball, genre-be-damned approach that dominated his immediate post-Velvets output, while maintaining the austere, experimental art rock demeanor that informed much of his later work. Silly, savage, and willfully schizophrenic, Nookie Wood is at its best when its creator is channeling his more pastoral works, as is the case with the gorgeous "Living with You," his best love song since "I Keep a Close Watch," and the transcendental closer "Sandman (Flying Dutchman)." Much like David Bowie adopting jungle and techno on 1997s Earthling, Cale spends a great deal of the album attempting to integrate elements of electro-pop into his wheelhouse, even tapping the talents of Danger Mouse for the funky and paranoid opener "I Wanna Talk 2 U." In some cases, as in the propulsive "Scotland Yard," which blends the unhinged gait of 1974s "Gun" with the icy atmospherics of Tubeway Armys "Are Friends Electric?," the effect feels brisk and authentic, lending a chrome, retro-70s, Berlin-era swagger to the proceedings that pairs nicely with Cales enigmatic lyrics and smoky baritone, but misadventures into the world of T-Pain-inspired Auto-Tune ("Mothra" and the otherwise Giorgio Moroder-esque "December Rains") tread a very thin line between satire and irrelevance. | ||
 | Album: 37 of 38 Title: Church of Anthrax Released: 2014 Tracks: 5 Duration: 33:48 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Church of Anthrax (09:05) 2 The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace at Versailles (07:59) 3 The Soul of Patrick Lee (02:49) 4 Ides of March (11:03) 5 The Protege (02:51) |
| Church of Anthrax : Allmusic album Review : A one-time-only collaboration between former Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale and minimalist composer Terry Riley, 1971s Church of Anthrax doesnt sound too much like the solo work of either. Around this time, Rileys works were along the lines of "A Rainbow in Curved Air" or "Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band": pattern music with an obsessive attention to repetition and tricks with an analogue delay machine that gave his music a refractory, almost hallucinogenic quality. Though Cale was trained in a similar aesthetic (he played with La Monte Young, surely the most minimal of all minimalist composers), he had largely left it behind by 1971, and so Church of Anthrax mixes Rileys drones and patterns with a more muscular and melodic bent versed in both free jazz and experimental rock. Not quite modern classical music, but not at all rock & roll either, Church of Anthrax sounds in retrospect like it was a huge influence on later post-minimalist composers like Andrew Poppy, Wim Mertens, and Michael Nyman, who mix similar doses of minimalism, rock, and jazz. On its own merits, the album is always interesting, and the centerpiece "The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace at Versailles" is probably the point where Riley and Cale approach each other on the most equal footing. The low point is Cales solo writing credit, "The Soul of Patrick Lee," a slight vocal interlude by Adam Miller that feels out of place in these surroundings. | ||
 | Album: 38 of 38 Title: M:FANS Released: 2016-01-22 Tracks: 12 Duration: 53:48 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Prelude (02:17) 2 If You Were Still Around (05:18) 3 Taking Your Life in Your Hands (05:43) 4 Thoughtless Kind (05:27) 5 Sanctus (Sanities mix) (05:19) 6 Broken Bird (05:10) 1 Chinese Envoy (03:51) 2 Changes Made (03:54) 3 Library of Force (featuring Man in the Book excerpt) (03:09) 4 Close Watch (05:15) 5 If You Were Still Around (Choir reprise) (04:44) 6 Back to the End (03:34) |
| M:FANS : Allmusic album Review : John Cale had been careening through nearly a decade of chaotic and paranoid rock music when he took an abrupt stylistic shift with 1982s Music for a New Society, a set of stark and minimal melodies performed with a quiet touch that made the occasional bursts of volume all the more violent, accompanying lyrics that dealt with a variety of damaged lives. It was one of Cales best and most powerful works, and more than 30 years later, Cale has revisited the songs with fresh creative eyes on the album M:FANS. Cales new interpretations are significantly more aggressive than the originals, and are based largely in electronic textures (the new arrangements of "[I Keep A] Close Watch" and "Thoughtless Kind" could pass for a gloomy variant on contemporary R&B, and "Chinese Envoy" now has a cool, pop-wise sheen), though they trade nearly as strongly in dynamics as the original performances. If the original album played as a set of stories about desperate characters looking for something like salvation, M:FANS sounds more like a series of scenes set in some future world shorn of hope, and the flashes of humanity and compassion that lurked in songs like "Thoughtless Kind" and "If You Were Still Around" are few and far between here. But where most artists who re-record material from their back catalogs often produce something thats a pale shadow of the original, with M:FANS Cale has come up with an album with a personality and intent far removed enough from the 1982 album that it has a genuine life of its own. If M:FANS represents a world that is colder and less forgiving than the time and place that spawned Music for a New Society, it also confirms that Cale is still a strong and vital artist, and one capable of offering two very different sets of perspectives on these songs that are both bold and compelling listening. | ||