John Cale - Fear Is A Man's Best Poll

I hate that song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCsMn__aOqw

Eno/Manzanera guitar solo on "Gun" is all-time awesome. But I guess I gravitate toward the ballads. "Buffalo Ballet," "Ship of Fools," "You Know More Than I Know," all of which perhaps work better in the context of the comp than the in the album proper, but they're still pretty.

Have played both "Buffalo Ballet" and "Gun" live... and I was (supposedly) doing the lead guitar on "Gun"! I'll have to see if I can find a tape of that... in fact, I think it was a medley with "Heartbreak Hotel"!

for a long time, I only knew "Fear Is A Man's Best Friend" from Billy Bragg's cover.

Earlier this year I got to hear the original.

Blimey, nothing like it!

3 good albums, but they get worse as they go on

OTM. I love "Ship Of Fools" but if you're gonna vote for it you're voting for Paris 1919, not Fear. I'm voting "Gun".

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Order of tracks is spot on, well done ILM! Thought "Gun" might get more votes tho.

Agreed, particularly as Ship of Fools got a lot...

yeahhh, pretty nice results. thought maybe barracuda would get a vote or two. shall we do helen of troy to round out the island years?

life and death and things you just do when you're bored

<3 this guy

No votes for mommama scuba, wow

you add it up it brings you down -- what a great line

hahaha i just realized after watching several youtubes of live versions of "fear is a man's best friend" that it's not "life and death and things" it's "life and death are things..."
oops

either way, you add it up, it brings you dooooooooooown

i have since confirmed that he changed the lyrics for the live versions
in the recorded version it's life and death and things you just do when you're bored unless i am totally word deaf

Before I forget I want to tell this thread that John Cale did radically rearranged versions of three songs from this album when I saw him last Friday -- he did Fear = man's BFF, Ship of Fools and (iirc) Gun all kind of in the same cracked carnival carousel sort of way. Ship of Fools was the most different from the recorded version because the original is so sweet and pretty. The songs didn't sound wound up and tooth-gnashy like the 80s live versions I've seen on youtube, but they were very different and weird. I appreciate his willingness to totally redo his own songs! Maybe it makes them more interesting to play. He also did Waiting for My Man.

Lol @ "Fear = man's BFF"

Saw him last night and the version of "fear" played was among the most hilarious things I've ever seen. In a good way, naturally. Also did a 10+ minute version of "ship of fools" which was sublime.

yeah! he did that at my show too. i didn't want to give you spoilers but it was so great, right? i love him when he is goofy and lighthearted just as much as when he's any of his other ways. did he do the nookie wood song?
thanks for the recap -- i'd have wondered and then forgotten to ask you

here's some of his big ears set -- sounds kind of cool!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFOf39vRSOU

yes, it was amazing, though I will admit that it took me a while to find a way into the groove of whatever it is that they were doing. But once I did I was all theirs.

Ludicrously great band obviously. Funkiest bassist ever.

oof the bridge in "buffalo ballet"... so nice.

the whole record. john cale rules.

http://quietus_production.s3.amazonaws.com/images/articles/7147/John_Cale_1318330132_crop_550x571.jpg

He looks like a Brian Froud drawing.

I just play the whole Island Years comp.

* hi, my name is Zach_TBD (Karl Malone). i was a longstanding underrater of Fear.
** hi Zach_TBD (Karl Malone).
* hi. god, this is awkward. what was i even thinking. where do i even begin

sleeping in the midday sun.
sleeping in the midday sun.

one of those single lines that just makes the entire song. john cale has a lot of those.

note: on Spotify, the most popular song on this album is Barracuda (close to 3M listens, compared to only 500K for the best song, Ship of Fools). on this poll, Barracuda has 0 votes.

"Barracuda" is a catchy sumbitch

sleeping in the midday sun.
sleeping in the midday sun.

one of those single lines that just makes the entire song. john cale has a lot of those.

Holy shit, I was going to post that I was surprised more people don't cover John Cale, but then I saw this:

https://werksman.home.xs4all.nl/cale/covers/index.html

List of bands includes both Sugar Ray and Red Hot Chili Peppers, though both (particularly the latter) or kind of technicalities:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NzuVBA55NI

Paul Kelly does a great version of "Buffalo Ballet":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4cBcd0IaIA

"Emily" would have been my pick. Another one-line chorus: "Maybe we'll love again".

haha, that is weird that "barracuda" is the most-played spotify track — must be the one that the algorithm has singled out for being up-tempo, no screaming, not too long etc. the playlist canon.

KM I am glad that you are properly appreciating this masterpiece

haha, that is weird that "barracuda" is the most-played spotify track — must be the one that the algorithm has singled out for being up-tempo, no screaming, not too long etc. the playlist canon.

― tylerw

I wonder if it's from people searching for the Heart song and playing it.

I wondered that too.

Haha maybe!

Most likely

Now if only Taylor Swift would record a song entitled "The Man Who Couldn't Afford To Orgy"...

“Barracuda” features in the recent Andy Samberg film Palm Springs - might be getting some action from that.

omg the Heart connection, don't know whether to laugh or cry

“Barracuda” features in the recent Andy Samberg film Palm Springs - might be getting some action from that.

god, this just hit me hard for some reason