The John Cale album-by-album thread

I'm starting to collect his records again already have a USA' Paris 1919 orig.
All his albums up to 1976.

 

Thanks for the story.

 

Dyan Diamond ' Kim Fowley protege.

 

That woman would be eccentric fashion designer Betsey Johnson.

 

Yeah! John/ Betsey got married in 1968 I believe.

 

Just chiming in here very quickly with apologies for being absent for so long (lots of photography work has kept me very busy).

When I was in New York in September, I met with the head of photography at the Parsons New School of Design, George Pitts, to talk shop (he's a friend of a friend) and the conversation ended up all over the place -- movies, music, personal philosophy. At one point we ended up talking about Songs for Drella, of which he's a fan. He was very pleased that I knew the record so well and said, "Keep turning people onto that album." So I'm bumping my little review of it in hopes of piquing the curiosity of someone on the forum who may not be familiar.

 

Cale put this out a few weeks ago but its not a new single

 

Yeah, a tribute to Lou. Reworking of the Music For A New New Society track. Kind of emotional. It seems they were on good terms during Lou's last years at least.

 

I do not think they were on good terms, VU business kept them in touch and Cale had respect for Lou's writing talent but not Lou as a person

 

Don't think it's anything we should speculate on as we obviously do not know. That was a complex relationship, so much can be deduced.

Here's Cale's eulogy.

mar 2nd 1942 somewhere in NY a life is born. on the other side of the world a few days later on mar 9th of the same year - another new life brought into the big wide world. who knew what lay ahead for either ?

during these past few weeks i've struggled to put this into some sort of perspective. tried to find words of comfort to share with those of us who knew him and those who wanted to know him. my heart swinging like a pendulum - sorrow, anger, frustration, disbelief, curiosity, emptiness - empty, empty, hollow. staring at walls. crying. yelling, sobbing my fool head off. wringing my hands with frustration of not being able to yell at Lou for not taking care!

We both have that same damn bad liver -- of all the things not to do - watch our liver Lou!

so much was shared with the boy i met some 48 years ago. no other person seemed to get me the same way.

we got each other. he was wordy from the start, me, with my strange foreign accent that no one could understand - lou didn't need me to slow down or re-explain my odd syntax or unrecognizable formation of words - he got me -

and i got him.

much will always be made of the band we formed together in my dingy little living room apartment - i'll leave those remarks for others - i prefer to consider how much i gained from my friendship with Lou - the part the rest of the world is not privy to. the dreams, ideas and plans we shared and to a degree, achieved. Lyrics that went straight to the unconscious and trawled the corners - the darker the better - but always to make things better - and better - and better - it was a relationship of many colors - from red hot to ice blue -- never dull and always true.

much has been made of our differences - but throughout it all - we managed to remain attached. regardless of our differences - we never really drifted too far from what initially brought us together.

I guess that's what real friendship is - and i really miss my friend.

 

We don't need to speculate, Cale has continually and for over two decades been consistent in his comments on Lou. I think a lot has been made of this video posting.

 

I hadn't seen that, thanks a lot for posting it.

 

It takes one to know one was always my conclution. Both control freaks and occasionally scary persons.

 

Bowie said Cale was far more scary than Lou could ever be.
What I mean by saying a lot has been made of Cale's video posting and what I think is a misinterpretation, that Cale is missing Lou are that the song lyrics were not written by Cale and the re-recording of the 1982 song in the video was made whilst Lou was alive.

 

What's his best 80s album?

 

Tricky decade for Cale. Music For A New Society seems to be a critical favorite, but that album isn't for everyone.

 

Not keen on his ballads.

 

I would suggest Honi Soit but you could struggle to find a cd and I do not think it's available as a download. Most of Cale's 80's albums are out of print

 

there's an understatement! ... ordinarily, I would suggest skipping ahead to Fragments of a Rainy Season, but alex, if you don't like his ballads, you might like the rock band live album, John Cale Comes Alive.

 

Not too keen on his rock stuff either, though the Island 'Chris Spedding peroid was good in its day.

 

go for Words for the Dying then, Welsh poetry with an orchestra

 

Don't understand Gaelic.

 

I'll try and find "Fragments...
(" Wrong Way Up 's with Eno is not bad) on Vinyl.

 

It's not in Gaelic! The words are excerpted from Under Milk Wood which is written by a Welshman, and not just any old Welshman - Dylan Thomas!
Personally I love Cale's orchestral settings for these words. I wish he'd done more of this sort of thing actually.

 

Impressed with his soundtracks'
Caged Heat & American Psycho.