Mid 70s albums terrific, Animal Justice terrific (Hedda Gabler!!!!!), New Society terrific, most other stuff patchy, I am fond of Sabotage but never actually listen to it, Fragments is lovely but I get embarrassed listening to it for personal reasons, I would love to assert that Caribbean Sunset is good but I can't honestly remember anything about it, it's better than Artificial Intelligence though surely.
i.e. what everyone else said.
― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 12 January 2004 16:40 (twenty years ago) link
― nickn (nickn), Monday, 12 January 2004 23:43 (twenty years ago) link
― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 01:32 (twenty years ago) link
I was about to say. They need to fix the star ranking though!
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 02:00 (twenty years ago) link
― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 02:11 (twenty years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 14:39 (twenty years ago) link
Christgau is right; the "Peril" track "Days of Steam" does remind of the Ernie Kovacs theme.
― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 15:52 (twenty years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 16:08 (twenty years ago) link
― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 16:18 (twenty years ago) link
Yeah that 'Island' comp really is terrific - all the hits and none of the shit (well, some) - glad someone mentioned 'Ski Patrol', a real fave of mine
― Andrew L (Andrew L), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 20:40 (twenty years ago) link
Sabotage really is a fantastic noise thing on the rock-meets-avant-jazz tip.
Artificial Intelligence is getting way underrated here as pretty-pop.
But orchestral cale hits his peak, as far as i'm concerned, with "words for the dying" which is one of the few where the studio recorded versions so clearly top the fragments... versions.
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 00:54 (twenty years ago) link
I saw him live in a very small bar like 4-5 years ago, and it was wonderful. A lot like the Fragments of rainy day CD. All he had was a piano and acoustic guitar on some songs and vocals.
― A Nairn (moretap), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 05:08 (twenty years ago) link
― A Nairn (moretap), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 05:21 (twenty years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 06:00 (twenty years ago) link
― j b everlovin' r (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 04:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 04:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― j b everlovin' r (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 04:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― j b everlovin' r (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 04:57 (eighteen years ago) link
Did you see yourself in the audience?
― k/l (Ken L), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 05:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― j b everlovin' r (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 05:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 05:18 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.ovationtv.com/
― j b everlovin' r (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 05:23 (eighteen years ago) link
Hail Bop! –Whereas the ’80s were fraught with gauche displays of wealth and “conspicuous consumption,” the ’90s fashion houses and museums have made a political statement by shifting toward the pared-down simplicity which has defined the decade. Composer John Adams makes political statements through his work as well, from controversial operas, such as Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer (which deals with the hijacking of the Achille Lauro), to electronic compositions and sometimes minimalist modern orchestrations, still largely considered avant garde by classical music purists. Filmmaker Tony Palmer profiles Adams as he premieres two works commissioned in commemoration of his fiftieth birthday: Gnarly Buttons and Slonimsky’s Earbox.
Next Showing:Wednesday, November 23 2:00 AM EST
― j b everlovin' r (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 05:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 15:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 15:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 15:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 16:01 (eighteen years ago) link
I'm surprised how many people have cited Honi Soit. I love that record, even as weak as it is.
I recently watched the Drella video on the big screen again .. still fantastic... and the Cale songs are superior, but maybe that's just me being a little sick of Lour Reed.
― D.I.Y. U.N.K.L.E. (dave225.3), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 17:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― D.I.Y. U.N.K.L.E. (dave225.3), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 17:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 18:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 18:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― Baaderonixx weaves a daisy chain for... SATAN!! (baaderonixx), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 19:08 (eighteen years ago) link
I met a guy the other night who said he played the viola. I asked him if he'd heard of John Cale. He said no.
HOW THE FUCK DO YOU PLAY THE VIOLA AND HAVE NOT HEARD OF JOHN CALE???
― Bimble, Saturday, 14 July 2007 03:17 (sixteen years ago) link
BECAUSE IT'S A BIG FUCKING WORLD BIMBLE COME ON
― Tim Ellison, Saturday, 14 July 2007 03:39 (sixteen years ago) link
All the same, folks in western countries who don't know Velvet Underground need to get with it, pronto. The end of the world is coming soon, there's not much time left. QUICKLY!
― Bimble, Saturday, 14 July 2007 05:41 (sixteen years ago) link
NEXT THING THEY'LL BE TELLING YOU THEY DON'T KNOW WHO PALL MACKNARTANEY IS!?!?!
― gershy, Saturday, 14 July 2007 06:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Why is there not a beautiful 4 or 5 CD box set career overview? The _Seducing Down The Door_ 2 disc set is necessarily very stingy. There's so much to his career and lots of great rarities could be included as well!
― Mr. Odd, Saturday, 14 July 2007 09:51 (sixteen years ago) link
yeaaaah I wanna hear outakes from Church of Anthrax and more live recordings from both the mid-70s and that beserko 78-79 period.
― m coleman, Saturday, 14 July 2007 11:33 (sixteen years ago) link
And if you give me half a chance, I'd do it now, I'd do it NOW, RIGHT NOW, YOU FASCIST!
So great.
― clotpoll, Thursday, 8 November 2007 07:36 (sixteen years ago) link
DAMN RIGHT MAMA!
― winston, Friday, 9 November 2007 02:55 (sixteen years ago) link
I just bought "The Island Years" and I can't believe my ears. I had no idea I'd like this that much. The likes of Coldplay only wish they'd done anything as good as "Ship of Fools".
Just don't understand how this CD could be as good as what I'm hearing.
― Bimble, Tuesday, 25 December 2007 01:03 (sixteen years ago) link
"Fear Is A Man's Best Friend", too...it's weird cause I think I heard that song before years ago. Just fucking fantastic, man.
― Bimble, Tuesday, 25 December 2007 01:05 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, those 3 records are my favorite of his. look for the expanded CD version of "Sabotage" next!
― sleeve, Tuesday, 25 December 2007 01:07 (sixteen years ago) link
i've been playing "paris 1919" and "fear" all week. god, what a great album. "gun" completely kills. album for album, cale's post-VU work is just much more my scene than lou reed's, and i love "transformer" and "berlin" like, a lot. i'm not sure if i like the album version of "fear is a man's best friend" better than the live one from "fragments of a rainy season."
also, he is a very nice, articulate, handsome man.
― Emily Bjurnhjam, Tuesday, 25 December 2007 16:50 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, when I got The Island Years I was like "I wasted all these years trying to like those damn Lou Reed albums when I could have been rocking this?!?!"
― sleeve, Tuesday, 25 December 2007 16:54 (sixteen years ago) link
EB he is great in that BBC Velvet Underground documentary if you ever get a chance to see it. I'd love to see a career-spanning doc on Cale with live footage.
― sleeve, Tuesday, 25 December 2007 16:55 (sixteen years ago) link
"Child's Christmas in Wales" and "The Endless Plain of Fortune" are perfect Xmas music.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 25 December 2007 17:14 (sixteen years ago) link
Artificial Intelligence may not be all that, but "Dying on the Vine" is one of his four or five most beautiful songs & lyrically is some of his tightest, most cutting work I think
― J0hn D., Tuesday, 25 December 2007 18:21 (sixteen years ago) link
I'd love to see a career-spanning doc on Cale with live footage.
oh look, one is mentioned upthread! gotta find that...
― sleeve, Tuesday, 25 December 2007 18:30 (sixteen years ago) link
Some of the greatest music ever made. "Vintage Violence" up thru "Helen of Troy" is a flawless body of work - and it's pretty great after that too.!
― Davey D, Tuesday, 25 December 2007 18:51 (sixteen years ago) link
he just killed a chicken & threw the head into the crowd ._.
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 16 November 2023 20:23 (five months ago) link
it’s a selling point of the book that he talks about stuff in a frank matter of fact way but it was horrifying to read him describing smashing his gf’s teeth with a whiskey glass and then just sort of breezing on to the next anecdote
― Boris Yitsbin (wins), Thursday, 16 November 2023 20:28 (five months ago) link
yeah horrifying
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 16 November 2023 20:30 (five months ago) link
The chicken incident did result in a good, funny (assholish) song
― Boris Yitsbin (wins), Thursday, 16 November 2023 20:38 (five months ago) link
There's a weird disconnect between the blithe way he describes some of his misdeeds, mostly from his alcohol and drug era, and the insightful introspection of other parts of the book.
The chorus on Gideon’s Bible from Vintage Violence is 4 stars
My favourite bit is the fadeout, with the viola coming in, like the end of a credit sequence in some forgotten urban 1970 movie.
Fans of "roots" John Cale should give a listen to his unloved 1996 album Walking on Locusts. It features one of his all-time best songs, "Secret Corrida" (which is more Leonard Cohen than Americana).
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 16 November 2023 20:45 (five months ago) link
Just came across a good interview---didn't realize he wrote so much in the studio, and was so into improvising there---this part is striking as well, on VU gigs with the Mothers:
...the only reason Zappa was on those gigs was that Herb Cohen knew that he'd get all this publicity from Andy and us. The thing is about Frank, that was reinforced years after I saw him, is that he had a very acerbic wit, which was kind of enjoyable, but at the same time, I really can't say there was anything about his music or him that made me love music. There was something about him, I think it was a real deep-seeded anger and fury about being forced to learn music in the first place - there was a revenge factor there - but it made me very uncomfortable watching him. There was so much putting down of himself that wasn't pleasant. I lost the gleam of innocence that you get from somebody really enjoying a melody or a solo or anything like that. And he could rip off [play, not pilfer] all these incredible solos, and you knew the guy had tremendous talent, but there was never anything there that made me love music so I'd want to do it. The reason you're doing this is to show how people how exciting and enjoyable this is. It's a shared experience. People shouldn't be punished for sharing an experience.
― dow, Friday, 17 November 2023 04:35 (five months ago) link
Didn’t Zappa famously mock Nico from the side of the stage, pretending to play organ and making pained singing faces?
― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 17 November 2023 06:00 (five months ago) link
Oh worse than that, he went up on stage and actually played her organ and sang some moronic lyrics not much different from his usual output.
― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 17 November 2023 06:47 (five months ago) link
https://www.openculture.com/2017/06/andy-warhol-hosts-frank-zappa-on-his-cable-tv-show.html
― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 17 November 2023 06:54 (five months ago) link
He did play "All Tomorrow's Parties" when the BBC gave him a radio show to play his favourite music. Along with some other surprising choices (the UK Subs!) Zappa that is, not Cale. He was still an asshole though of course.
― The First Time Ever I Saw Gervais (Tom D.), Friday, 17 November 2023 09:41 (five months ago) link
Right, forgot about that. The ATP part that is, not the other part.
― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 17 November 2023 10:55 (five months ago) link
Also that thing I posted brings up something I never thought about, comparing the different flavors of control that FZ and AW bring to the table and what may lie behind each.
― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 17 November 2023 13:09 (five months ago) link
Wiesbaden? John Cale, the lost years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L24Ix6dDoNw
― The British Boy of Film Classification (Tom D.), Sunday, 25 February 2024 11:22 (one month ago) link
lol the mic came right off the cord, amazing footage
― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Sunday, 25 February 2024 16:39 (one month ago) link
Fun fact, he had a real problem with cocaine. Who would have guessed?
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 25 February 2024 16:45 (one month ago) link
Ha, did you read that James Young book?
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 25 February 2024 16:49 (one month ago) link
Nico book? I haven't. I can only imagine.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 25 February 2024 16:51 (one month ago) link
It’s great. Very funny too.
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 25 February 2024 17:03 (one month ago) link
Interviews where the singer confuses Wiesbaden with Darmstadt.
― The British Boy of Film Classification (Tom D.), Sunday, 25 February 2024 17:13 (one month ago) link
the first Fluxus concert was in Wiesbaden. Maciunas organized and Nam June Paik performed a Young composition, see around 3:50 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YibFHWZ66GQ
― bulb after bulb, Sunday, 25 February 2024 17:48 (one month ago) link
Ah right, I assumed he meant Darmstat, apologies to John CoCale.
― The British Boy of Film Classification (Tom D.), Sunday, 25 February 2024 17:55 (one month ago) link
He don't lie, he don't lie, he don't lie, CoCale.
― nickn, Sunday, 25 February 2024 19:15 (one month ago) link
The Bloat Years
― completely suited to the horny decadence (Capitaine Jay Vee), Sunday, 25 February 2024 22:04 (one month ago) link
#onethread he’s playing Pablo Picasso at the end of Tom’s clip(insane that he goes right back to madly swinging another mic after the first one flew off)
― bulb after bulb, Sunday, 25 February 2024 22:09 (one month ago) link
I was trying to think who he looks like in that video and I've realized it's the landlord of a pub I drink in. Which isn't much use to anyone else.
― The British Boy of Film Classification (Tom D.), Sunday, 25 February 2024 22:48 (one month ago) link
New album in June!
https://www.dominomusic.com/releases/john-cale/poptical-illusion/exclusive-limited-double-lp
― JoeStork, Tuesday, 26 March 2024 15:53 (three weeks ago) link
"Beethoven In The Old West" is the Cale-iest Cale song title ever.
― bendy, Tuesday, 26 March 2024 16:01 (three weeks ago) link
Speedy for him!
― Slorg is not on the Slerf Team, you idiot, you moron (Boring, Maryland), Tuesday, 26 March 2024 17:57 (three weeks ago) link
Man I wish this dude would switch things up in the canned beats department.
― Davey D, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 13:08 (two weeks ago) link
Lol
― Make Me Smile (Come Around and See Me) (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 2 April 2024 15:06 (two weeks ago) link