John Cale S/D

"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.

yeah, those 3 records are my favorite of his. look for the expanded CD version of "Sabotage" next!

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.

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?!?!"

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.

"Child's Christmas in Wales" and "The Endless Plain of Fortune" are perfect Xmas music.

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

I'd love to see a career-spanning doc on Cale with live footage.

oh look, one is mentioned upthread! gotta find that...

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.!

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?!?!"

Oh my god, dude, that is just so OTM I don't even know where to begin. Cheers.

i find myself jealous of those discovering john cale. on christmas, no less.

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, Monday, December 24, 2007 5:03 PM

HOW THE FUCK DO YOU PLAY THE VIOLA HANG AROND ILX FOR YEARS AND HAVE NOT HEARD OF JOHN CALE CAN NOT UNDERSTAND HOW GOOD THOSE ISLAND LPS COULD BE???

Well that looks like a typical ILX cheap-shot/smartass post to me, but if you're really looking for a serious answer, I've never been convinced by what I've heard of Cale's music in the past outside of a few songs here and there. A lot of his stuff with Nico scared me off, too even though I'm a pretty big fan of hers.

I'm listening to Music For A New Society now, though and I think I might end up liking it more overall than the Island stuff, actually. I do hope that news doesn't make you have a heart attack or something! ;)

I'm moving on to Sabotage next.

Be cool, just a little joke. Your "HOW THE FUCK..." post did make you sound like a big John Cale fan.

hedda gabler is a monster track

Oh yeah Hedda Gabler is the fucking shit and if anyone can point me to something better than that in his entire career, I'll be quite grateful. But I doubt you could come up with better than that.

nope!

Good to know!

I played Music For A New Society last night in its entirety and was completely and totally blown away. It seemed like every time I thought it couldn't get better, it added some touch here and there (bagpipes at the end of 'I Keep A Close Watch', the quiet, solo piano brought in at the very end of the album) that just sent me over the top. I know I said the Island stuff was good, but there's nowhere near that kind of consistency for me.

Never win and never lose
There's nothing much to choose
Between the right and wrong
Nothing lost and nothing gained
Still things aren't quite the same
Between you and me

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep a close watch on this heart of mine

I still hear your voice at night
When I turn out the light
And try to settle down
But there's nothing much I can do
Because I can't live without you
Any way at all

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep a close watch on this heart of mine

that song hits me hard

bagpipes or none

John Cale's 'The Man Who Couldn't Afford To Orgy' is about the best song title this side of Tom T. Hall.

Yeah I'm sorry I should have clarified...winston, that song hits me real hard, too, with or without bagpipes and truth be told I think the version of it on the Island Years dbl CD (or the Helen of Troy album) with *strings* is actually the superior version (no bagpipes)!

Just picked up Church of Anthrax - newly reissued but no bonus tracks or anything. Fantastic. Other than The Soul of Patrick Lee, you could really think it was some great lost krautrock classic.

is this remastered or anything? sketchy that the promo copy says "never before on cd" when obviously it's been available for a long time.

I don't think it's remastered or anything. I think it's just been out of print on CD and now it's back in print. I got a new copy from some amazon seller for $11 with shipping, which was way lower than the list price.

John Cale has sortof been my rebirth. Caribbean Sunset, etc.

But Chinese Envoy, god, I was in love with someone who knew that song.

Look I'm gonna have to have this Music For a New Society album. This is some wonderfully heavily postpunk stuff.

What happened to that guy I was in love with, though? Is he reading this? Do you remember we played John Cale, honey? I love it, John Cale. Never forget, we played him. Don't forget. Sweetheart, don't forget it. Don't you remember? I can't forget.

I've never heared Music for a New SOciety and this makes me sad :(

But do you know Caribbean Sunset? Cause that album just absolutely kills me

NO
isn't that supposed to be one of his worst albums?
I'm too poor to love music :(

Okay I admit it, I'm too drunk. I'm sorry. I'm going to chill out and be quiet, now.

But Mr. Bimble, I dream of meeting a lady who digs on Mr. Cale
that sounds wonderful

i just bought a (new!) copy of Even Cowgirls Get The Blues on cassette at a record store in Taos, NM. I'll be driving around listening to live Cale in no time.

Caribbean Sunset is worse than a lot of his albums but there's still a lot find in it.

Is there any discussion of the New York in the 1960's stuff that Table Of The Elements put out hiding away on here? I like the two of those albums that I have, particularly Sun Blindness Music, which was the first one I found.

I've been listening to that volume a lot, lately. I love that guitar drone piece, it's very metal.
Preparing to do a big Velvets radio show on Oct 28th. Going to read passages out of the Unterberger book and play a lot of live/rare/solo stuff and just some favorites, too. Should be a lot of fun.

carribean sunset is pretty good as some posters already said before. i listened to it a lot alone in my small room in the winter of 1983/84. it was my first term at university and it was a nice antidote to mark knopfler's dire straits which were ubiquitous at the time. i had nothing against them but john cale rockin' out was about a zillion times cooler. the album sounded doomed and fucked and i loved it for that.

Which of the NY in the 60s one is the organ drone piece? Kinda sounds like the same organ used on "Sister Ray"? I heard that once, but don't own it ... Need to track it down.

That is on Sun Blindness Music. There is a forty minute organ drone on that one. I'm guessing that is the one you are talking about, anyway.

Yeah, I think that's it ... Intense stuff! Sure to clear a room within 3 minutes!

Aye, I owned a second hand copy for ages, hadn't listened to it for a while, but remembered it as being wonderful transcendent drone... then it was repressed or whatever and a new copy turned up in the shop, so I stuck it on... didn't go down too well, unfortunately. Still sounded awesome to me.

Haha, yeah, I think I heard it in Twisted Village in Harvard Square a long time ago, which was typical for those guys. Always playing stuff to make sure tourists didn't venture in there.

Why on earth hasn't someone reissued his 80s albums, especially "Honi Soit" and "Music For A New Society"?

And "John Cale Comes Alive!" Don't know if I've ever seen that on CD.

Nope, never (and neither has "Caribbean Sunset"). Neither are spectacular but you'd think Rhino Handmade or Hip-O would get it done.

Search: this double DVD of two early 80s performances on German TV http://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Cale-Band-Live-Rockpalast/dp/B003BWBA6W

yeah a lot of it is on youtube iirc

Yeah, the material has been bootlegged forever, but now it's officially out on DVD.

yeah, i've watched the youtubes of a lot of that -- amazing, but a weird era.