haha what's with the hashtags?
sounds like a nice evening all in all
― niels, Monday, 20 November 2017 07:09 (six years ago) link
Oops, mistakenly cut and pasted something from my Instagram. I was happy seeing Cale sing and play despite the flaws. A friend, on the other hand, grumbled that the flaws ruined it for him-- He wanted a better band and guests, plus Cale to talk in detail between songs about their history and to acknowledge the audience and the guests with more than just hand gestures. Last year I saw part of an outdoors at Lincoln Center tribute to Lou Reed that Yo La Tengo, Don Fleming , Lenny Kaye and others who seemed much better choices to play VU music. Other than Vile and Polachek, most of the guests with Cale did not seem like the right choices (nervously reading music and altering VU instrumentation and melodies in ways that did not work).
― curmudgeon, Monday, 20 November 2017 16:03 (six years ago) link
with Yo La Tengo not "that"
― curmudgeon, Monday, 20 November 2017 16:06 (six years ago) link
His show of solo material on Saturday was largely wonderful. I kind of knew the VU stuff would be problematic, and decided to skip it. I've heard their songs enough in my life. The new Cale songs, full of samples and noise, largely eclipsed the scattered straight classics that he played. I enjoyed Fear is a Man's Best Briend, but it still sounded like an exercise in nostalgia, where the new tracks were often pretty amazing. Cale walks with some difficulty, but sings and plays strongly. There was something going on with color stains on the musicians' clothing that was hard to follow. But yes, without having seen the first two shows, I'm very happy that I picked the third. Very little talk. He ended with 3 new songs, all of which were extremely good, and the concert ended on a high note. Version of Hedda Gabler was something I won't forget, nor new song Hatred.
― nellg, Monday, 20 November 2017 18:31 (six years ago) link
Hope the solo material shows up on youtube. I saw most of the Lincoln Center VU/Lou tribute streaming live and free somewhere---we discussed it on some other thread---and yeah it was great, cool, powerful, expert, even witty (one of my faves was the Three Mile Island version of "Disco Mystic," with Day-Glo Afro wig girls singing the title and waving protest signs emblazoned with it). Laurie pitched in a couple times too, on her violin, and I suspect she curated (not usually big on that word, but deserved here).
― dow, Monday, 20 November 2017 19:16 (six years ago) link
Has she ever worked with Cale?
― dow, Monday, 20 November 2017 19:18 (six years ago) link
good q, don't think so.
― sleeve, Monday, 20 November 2017 19:22 (six years ago) link
Laurie Anderson and Hal Willner curated the Lincoln Center Tribute to Lou thing together, and production of the outdoor event was handled by Don Fleming (per Will Hermes review of that Aug. 2016 event in Rolling Stone).
Not sure how Cale ended up with the folks he performed with at Brooklyn Academy of Music over the weekend
― curmudgeon, Monday, 20 November 2017 19:56 (six years ago) link
Avey Tare of Animal Collective's sister does his live visuals. May be a connection there.
― dan selzer, Monday, 20 November 2017 20:48 (six years ago) link
heard something about cale playing on an upcoming Animal Collective release too.
― tylerw, Monday, 20 November 2017 21:20 (six years ago) link
I recently found myself having a conversation with a young person who was a real music enthusiast and the conversation came around to VU and I said that I am a John Cale partisan and he was like really? More than Lou? And then I asked if he had ever heard JC's solo stuff and he hadn't. How envious I was of him at that moment! He gets to discover so many great songs and albums and JC's sense of humor and romantic side and angry side and everything that is great about John Cale.
Since then, I have gone on a major JC bender and it feels so good. Oh, and the conversation happened to be on John Cale's birthday, this past Saturday!! He is the best. I want to play a set of JC solo covers like reeeeeal bad :)
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 14:33 (five years ago) link
nice! John Cale is definitely the best. He's on instagram now, too! https://www.instagram.com/therealjohncale/
― tylerw, Wednesday, 13 March 2019 14:35 (five years ago) link
ooh! followed immediatelyi really would like to play a set of covers -- i've never seen anyone else do that and i would enjoy both hearing it and playing it. i'm already prepared! come at me, interested parties.
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 14:38 (five years ago) link
you + me + cordoba?
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 14:46 (five years ago) link
i'd be interested if i was anywhere nearby. john cale songs are fun to learn — mostly pretty simple, but with a bunch of cool twists. child's christmas in wales is a blast to figure out on piano.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 13 March 2019 14:49 (five years ago) link
speaking of cale covers, i had forgotten about this one til last week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfFkg-rDlFY
― tylerw, Wednesday, 13 March 2019 14:50 (five years ago) link
I don't know of a cover set having been done, but related to that, this site seems to do a reasonably good job at keeping track of cover versions of Cale songs.
― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 14:50 (five years ago) link
i retain a deep love for the soft boys' cover of cale's cover of heartbreak hotel
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 14:51 (five years ago) link
Wait, David Sylvian covered "Hanky Panky Nohow"? I'll believe it when I hear it.
Has there really been no notable covers of "Dying on the Vine"? Shame, that.
― doug watson, Wednesday, 13 March 2019 15:10 (five years ago) link
I've played, "Child's Christmas", "Buffalo Ballet", "Gun" and "Heartbreak Hotel" live, fwiw.
― The Vangelis of Dating (Tom D.), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 15:52 (five years ago) link
Yes, his songs are gratifying simple and easy to learn. For the most part.
― The Vangelis of Dating (Tom D.), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 15:53 (five years ago) link
more people in the 70s should've been covering Cale ... like why didn't Sandy Denny sing "Buffalo Ballet" or something?
― tylerw, Wednesday, 13 March 2019 15:56 (five years ago) link
his lyrics are so good too -- i don't feel apprehensive about singing most of them, at least the songs i like the best. aside from neil young, i can't think of a single other old man whose songs feel as comfortable for me to sing, not only because the lyrics are frequently abstract, unexpected, lighthearted AND heavy, and not dripping with misogyny but also probably from many years of practice lol
i doubt i have what it takes to get the job done, but i would love to organize a john cale tribute album!! has there been one of those?
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 16:21 (five years ago) link
good question, I don't think so!
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 16:27 (five years ago) link
strange but yeah, i don't know if there has been a cale tribute album. seems like something that would've happened circa 1998.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 13 March 2019 16:35 (five years ago) link
ha, totally
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 16:37 (five years ago) link
Sally Timms did a good "Half Past France," as best I recall (mid-90s). Yall post your covers!
― dow, Wednesday, 13 March 2019 16:53 (five years ago) link
may have posted this before, but here's one my buddy and i did a little while back -- it came out OK!
https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/19004648939/childs-christmas-in-wales-john-cale-john
― tylerw, Wednesday, 13 March 2019 16:55 (five years ago) link
I'm just gonna rep once more for the outstanding collection of unreleased Cale songs that Tyler has hosted on his blog - tracklisting upthread.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 13 March 2019 20:38 (five years ago) link
Awright Tyler Songster!
― dow, Thursday, 14 March 2019 00:43 (five years ago) link
Oh yeah---recently on Little Feat - S&D, C/D
How did you wind up getting Lowell George, Bill Payne and Richie Hayward of Little Feat to play on Paris 1919 ?I loved that album Dixie Chicken. That tone on [George’s] guitar was very sweet. It was the grooves that he had. And after playing me an early cut of that record, Ted Templeman at Warner Bros. said to me: “Why don’t you use Little Feat as a backup band for Paris ?” He organized it.one of lots of good tidbits here: https://relix.com/articles/detail/the-shifty-adventures-of-john-cale/Somewhere else JC mentioned that Wilton Felder, who played bass w the Feats on this occasion (in a studio line-up billed as Penguin), read or at least had the Bible on his music stand during the sessions.Interesting take on post-VU Sterling too.
― dow, Sunday, 31 March 2019 20:25 (five years ago) link
I felt like such a nerd or geek for finally clawing at the Reprise/Rhino UK reissue of Paris 1919, with all those alt versions---well the prev. unreleased "Burnt-Out Affair" may have tipped the scales---tried to cancel the order, but sure glad I failed. "Affair" is a somewhat countryoid gothic waltz, closer to Vintage Violence musically, as Matthew Spektor's occasionally too-hip booklet notes point out, though he's also right that the lyrics (and vocal) fit right into this album proper; he even hears it as a kind secret key track, at least the way it shifted, maybe sharpened the focus of the whole project.Dunno if he's right about that one song, but for me, all of these basic combo and solo versions bring the songs closer, with JC's voice first among equals: "Child's Christmas" with insistent acoustic strumming and I never knew he could play organ like this; here's a family of two (well more counting the voice and the people, places, things he's singing about). Drone Mix of "Hanky Panky No How" has folk-based viola, maybe with a little violin added to the chorus. "Endless Plain of Fortune" the combo coming off well in very non-Little Feat x Jazz Crusaders mode, "Andalucia" a finger-picking picnic, with just the right slide and bass notes, more closet-folkie Velvets than ever. "Macbeth" still rawks hawtly, with and without vocals (inst. is one of the hidden tracks). Sinister grooving strings on one alt mix of title track prove to be children of his piano on another, also lovely voice & keys alone on "Half Past France" and "Antarctica Starts Here."The orchestrations sometimes seem like they're going to overload my decidedly sub-audiophile headphones and boombox---they don't, but it's good to have the other versions too.
― dow, Wednesday, 17 April 2019 22:49 (five years ago) link
Don, when is your book coming out?
― Theory of Every Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 23:10 (five years ago) link
wait what book?
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 23:16 (five years ago) link
No pressure;)
― Theory of Every Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 17 April 2019 23:21 (five years ago) link
Ha, thanks again James!
― dow, Thursday, 18 April 2019 01:15 (five years ago) link
Not to be that guy but I really didn’t like the sound on the expanded Paris 1919 & ended up going back to the 90s CDYes- what book?
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 18 April 2019 01:23 (five years ago) link
Good question! I'll check the 90s CD too, wouldn't hurt to hear another shot at those orchestrations. Amazon has a series of remasters incl. Fear, Academy in Peril, Helen of Troy, and Slow Dazzle---the last two aren't on Spotify, sooo (or I could just buy a new record player and listen to my old records).
― dow, Thursday, 18 April 2019 01:44 (five years ago) link
(But I couldn't afford a record player better than my CD boombox.)
― dow, Thursday, 18 April 2019 01:46 (five years ago) link
The Island Years is on Spotify. It has everything from Fear, H.O.T, and Slow Dazzle plus rare & unreleased stuff.
― a large tuna called “Justice” (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 18 April 2019 03:53 (five years ago) link
^^ if you're only gonna own one Cale set, that's the one
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Thursday, 18 April 2019 14:03 (five years ago) link
Thanks yall! Speaking of covers, Wiki sez:Songs from Paris 1919 have been covered by such notable musicians as Yo La Tengo, Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield, Owen Pallett, the Dave Soldier String Quartet, Love and Rockets' David J, Okkervil River, Jay Bennett and Edward Burch, and Sally Timms.[21]
― dow, Monday, 22 April 2019 02:23 (five years ago) link
John Cale will be performing at Levitation fest in Austin on Nov 9!
not in love with the idea of seeing him at a festival but the lineup does look pretty great even if i have seen a number of the bands before
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 24 April 2019 19:39 (five years ago) link
Intriguing! Think you might go? Please report back if you do. Okay, (Jon Not Jon) and that guy on Amazon, I agree that the 90s Warner Archives Paris 1919 does seem to sound better than Rhino UK---which is still worth having for "Burnt-Out Affair" and the forceful clarity of unorchestrated alt takes.
― dow, Tuesday, 30 April 2019 22:10 (four years ago) link
it's not til november -- anything can happen i guess! i'm definitely not NOT going!
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Tuesday, 30 April 2019 22:21 (four years ago) link
Anyone catch his set at Levitation? Curious about what it was like.
He is coming to my city in January so I got tickets for that :) A little something to look forward to.
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Tuesday, 12 November 2019 14:22 (four years ago) link
I was in Austin that night, but I saw Sleater-Kinney. Here's a review of that Cale show:
https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2019-11-10/levitation-john-cale-black-angels/
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 12 November 2019 14:58 (four years ago) link
omg, thanks! Will have to find a recording of that.
― dow, Tuesday, 12 November 2019 17:21 (four years ago) link
i watched some of his paris show with cate lebon — he looked/sounded great!
― tylerw, Tuesday, 12 November 2019 17:30 (four years ago) link
what a dream duo for me
― dan selzer, Tuesday, 12 November 2019 19:22 (four years ago) link