John Cale S/D

i retain a deep love for the soft boys' cover of cale's cover of heartbreak hotel

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.

I've played, "Child's Christmas", "Buffalo Ballet", "Gun" and "Heartbreak Hotel" live, fwiw.

Yes, his songs are gratifying simple and easy to learn. For the most part.

more people in the 70s should've been covering Cale ... like why didn't Sandy Denny sing "Buffalo Ballet" or something?

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?

good question, I don't think so!

strange but yeah, i don't know if there has been a cale tribute album. seems like something that would've happened circa 1998.

ha, totally

Sally Timms did a good "Half Past France," as best I recall (mid-90s). Yall post your covers!

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

I'm just gonna rep once more for the outstanding collection of unreleased Cale songs that Tyler has hosted on his blog - tracklisting upthread.

Awright Tyler Songster!

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.

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.

Don, when is your book coming out?

wait what book?

No pressure;)

Ha, thanks again James!

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 CD

Yes- what book?

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).

(But I couldn't afford a record player better than my CD boombox.)

The Island Years is on Spotify. It has everything from Fear, H.O.T, and Slow Dazzle plus rare & unreleased stuff.

^^ if you're only gonna own one Cale set, that's the one

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]

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

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.

it's not til november -- anything can happen i guess! i'm definitely not NOT going!

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.

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/

omg, thanks! Will have to find a recording of that.

i watched some of his paris show with cate lebon — he looked/sounded great!

what a dream duo for me

yes that collab makes excellent sense

I saw him last night!!!

Who wants to hear about it?!!?

me!! I heard he played "Helen Of Troy"!

Did he remember you from the last time when you made him blush, LL?

I'll go ahead and share regardless. The set was really cohesive in sound -- the band was three dudes I didn't recognize and he went back and forth from guitar to an electric piano. Yhe arrangements (even of songs that have widely varying original versions) all shared a certain feel that was totally John Cale TM. I enjoyed that. He indeed started off w Helen of Troy and that was pretty much the vibe maintained throughout the...90+ min set. He seemed in good spirits. One short encore for "Emily" <3

He did not see me in order to recognize me in spite of my colorful outfit, lol

The only VU song he played was Waiting for the Man -- and this other thing I didn't recognize where he said the words "Velvet Underground" but it was more of a spoken word thing? Not sure what that was. The visuals were fine -- nothing too extraordinary. I had to avert my eyes from a super-emaciated woman toward the end but other than that it was very John Cale.

It was decidedly NOT a hits set -- it was a carefully organized and coherent set. I appreciated that. He played a few new songs too! One called "Wasteland" iirc? They were good. He did play "Fear is a Man's Best Friend" and that made me happy :) I think that was the only song my partner recognized because he has had to hear me sing it all the time lol

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/john-cale/2020/rubloff-auditorium-at-the-art-institute-of-chicago-chicago-il-1b9899f0.html

Spoken word thing = Style It Takes (from Songs for Drella)? What a great set.

nice, sounds like a great show. seems like he's definitely due for a new album.

"where he said the words "Velvet Underground" but it was more of a spoken word thing?"

could this be "style it takes"? but Cale's rendition on record is not spoken word…tho reed's songs on drella could be described accurately as such…

Hedda Gabler! Would love to see him again, it's been too long. Sounds like a great show, LL!

omg did not realize he played that, my fave

He was wearing a black suit that was half checkered/half plain black and his hair was fortunately all white. Dignified, but with a sense of humor. Easily the coolest dude of his generation!!!

It was a great show. I appreciate that he still cares to put together a set that varied/not just lean back and play some hits. He has plenty of hits but he worked w this band to play this set and it showed. Well done!!

"hits" = "crowd faves" in this context, not chart toppers :)

also the tickets were extremely reasonably priced!! $25 for museum members/$35 for non-members

for 90+ min of JOHN CALE!!

damn that sounds awesome, i'm more than a little jealous tbqf

Set list looks interesting. Second tune and others are some of my personal hits.