John Cale: An appreciation

His production work on Nico's The Marble Index really made him a full partner in creating this work, which would be one of my 25 desert island discs. Desertshore is a close 2nd and The End is a close third. Can't say he blows me away on his own though. Saw him live completely solo once.

 

cale didnt produce marble index, he arranged and played most of the music

 

Thanks. One to watch out for!

 

Cale starts his gigs in London with a Drone Orchestra September 12 & 13 @ Barbican

 

I Have Just posted this Interview with John Cale to my radio air checks web site, Have a listen:

JOHN CALE INTERVIEW CBC STEREO 1984

 

Thanks, 30 years later and Cale's still full of changes. He's just announced two London concerts that will feature drones carrying the speakers

 

Here's an article/review/interview about the show:

http://thequietus.com/articles/16290-john-cale-live-review-interview

 

Cale watchers might want to look out for a Jonathan Demme short film from the mid 1980s. (I think he did it for PBS). It's called Who Am I This Time, based on a Kurt Vonnegut short story starring Christopher Walken and Susan Sarandon. Walken really plays against type with this one and he's brilliant. The music is by Cale. It's been quite a while since I've seen it but as I recall the music is mostly Cale at the piano and he plays little links between the scenes. It's one of my favorite films by Demme.

And Cale did the music for Demme's first movie as well: Caged Heat. It's a women in prison exploitation pic. Once again it's been forever since I saw it and I really don't remember the music too well.

 

There's a short film called "Dick", girls talking about all the names they give men's bits. Cale does the soundtrack, similar in style to Church of Anthrax

 

Here's a 10 minute documentary about the drone show...looks pretty cool.
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/the-making-of-60-hz-transmissions-from-the-drone-orchestra

 

I could write a book about John Cale... an extraordinary man.

Albuns... Vintage Violence, Paris 1919, Fear, Slow Dazzle, Helen Of Troy, Honi Soit, Music For A New Society and Words For The Dying.

 

Cale beat you to it with 1999's "What's Welsh For Zen" which was quite personal, didn't expect that from JC. Tim Mitchell added the bits Cale forgot in his 2003 book "Sedition & Alchemy"

 

I've not read the book but Cale's side of the story is intense, raw and honest.

 

Cale's spoke of an updated internet version but it seems to be on hold. Maybe the last 15 years of his lifestyle have not been filled with such readable drama

 

Listening to it now; the title track sounds very modern; could have been recorded this year.

 

I miss any mention of the cd compilation "Seducing Down The Door" here.
Not as complete as "The Island Years " however the dynamics/mastering are superlative!
I managed to pick up a pristine copy here from the classifieds a couple of years ago.

 

Since this thread started oh so many years ago, Cale has released 2 more rock/pop records, Black Acetate (which I just spun recently) and Further Adventures in Nooky Wood.
Both are great, with Black Acetate just a mite better, IMO. The man doesn't slow down and remains an interesting artist.

 

He's released one studio album since 2006...not sure about "not slowing down"

 

It was a bonus track on the EU remaster, with You Don't Miss Your Water. http://www.discogs.com/Eno-Cale-Wrong-Way-Up/release/2085646

The US remaster included You Don't Miss Your Water and Palanquin. http://www.discogs.com/Eno-Cale-Wrong-Way-Up/release/1834669

 

Awesome. I'd be in for any and all DE CDs

 

In 2011, John Cale released the 5-song EP Extra Playful. Other than that, you're right, he hasn't released a full studio album.

But the man has hardly slowed down...performing at multiple festivals, hosting Nico tributes, creating an art installation for the Venice Biennale (Dark Days), and in Melbourne (Signal to Noise), working in a documentary on heroin in Wales, acting in a TV show, providing live soundtrack to screenings of Warhol films in NYC with the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, performing at Warhol retrospectives in Munich and Metz, hosting a radio show on BBC6, etc...all since 2006.

So we may not all be able to enjoy his art, but he's not siting in his rocking chair just yet

 

Bar none, John Cale is the artist who I have seen live most often (6 times) in my 30 years of gig attending. Unfortunately the series only started in the early nineties, so I completely missed out on the 70's and 80's, when he was already doing all kinds of fantastic, or at least fascinating, things on stage, both solo & in a group. The two Rockpalast shows from 1983 (on his own) and 1984 (with band) are essential viewing imho. Mr. Cale may be looking much healthier in the "Fragments of a Rainy Season" DVD, but the playing on the latter is also much more refined, if not to say sanitized. The two shows from the eighties (available on vinyl, CD and DVD - officially in various degrees of completeness, unofficially IN-tact) are much more pure, gritty and compelling. A must!

My very first aural encounter with John Cale's music was in 1985, when I heard Venus In Furs on the radio. Along with first-time hearings of Strawberry Fields Forever, The Rhythm of The Heat, and Disorder, that was a life-changing moment that opened a completely new door in my musical world.

 

Nokie Wood is probably the only Cale album I don't like. Even the mid 80s material is good. Wish he'd stop trying to do r n b. Anything else is fine; rock, classical, avant-garde...

 

Think he peaked solo wise with Helen Of Troy.