John Cale

Alright, so, this is a music blog now. How are you, Luke?

I'm pretty alright. I'm going to take on the fairly massive subject of John Cale, one of my favorite, overlooked artists. I would write something like "CRIMINALLY OVERLOOKED!", but he's pretty nicely overlooked, cause his stuff is widely available and then you get to feel like you're discovering something. Man has an inherent, insatiable archaeological desire. Undeniable, don't even try, Science.

Anyways, dude's always a good listen, and fits more moods than you have. John Cale's music will create new moods for you to have so you can more fully appreciate that selfsame music. Then you'll have to create even more new moods so you don't constantly feel the need to listen to John Cale.

I think I'm selling this pretty well.



John Cale (J.C., coincidence?), if you're TOTALLY RETARDED, was in the fucking Velvet Underground. He was born in London or somesuch, moved to New York City to pursue his avant-garde interests, played what I'm sure was a riveting 18-hour piano solo with John Cage, met one Lou Reed, and decided to make a weirdo rock band with Sterling Morrison and some bongoist whose allmusic page is trying to convince me I should care about (I do not). Bongoist went to hang out with Pete Best, the Velvet Underground picked up Moe Tucker and created some of the best music ever. Cale contributed the more experimental touches to the V.U.'s sound, stuff like drones and violin noise. Basically, he's the guy who made Venus in Furs so rad.



At this point John Cale is already cooler than everyone you know. THEN he leaves the V.U. after White Light/White Heat (their most badass album) because he felt they weren't EXPERIMENTAL ENOUGH! That's like leaving Gary Busey because he doesn't have enough self-esteem:






Oh, and he also produced the debut Stooges album.

John Cale is cooler than you and everyone you know by 1,000 already.

Now, when you quit the Velvet Underground because you feel that they're not spending enough time on their songs and aren't risky enough, you'd probably go ahead and make the rock album equivalent of a David Lynch film.

You'd be right, but you're not right in the way you thought you were, smarty pants. You just displayed a total lack of understanding of both David Lynch films and John Cale's musical ambitions.

Christ. You're just absolutely worthless, aren't you?

So, instead of recording an album of Harry Partch-corpse tempered piano jams, John Cale made "Vintage Violence," which is a relatively straight-forward pop-rock record. It sometimes sounds like a Jack Nietzsche production or Scott Walker's first record, other times like Sweetheart of the Rodeo-era Byrds, and sometimes like a low-key Television album. It's decent, but his later albums are less an exercise in, "Hey, dudes, I can write rock songs."

After that he made "Church of Anthrax" which is more the album people expected him to make after leaving the V.U. and then launched into a career of making albums that more or less successfully wedded his experimental sensibilities with more traditional rock'n'roll.

The Hits

Paris 1919

This is apparently THE one to get. I disagree, but it's a pretty boss album and has this hit on it:

MacBeth

Yeeeahhh, certified gold. Shakespearecore kids went nuts for that one.

For the most part, on Paris 1919 John Cale manages to out-British the Kinks. John, if you're trying to sing about Paris, drop the melodies. I've heard French pop music. NO MELODIES. Seriously, Serge Gainsbourg has some of the fliest backing tracks, then just smokes a cigarette over it. Here's the title track, this one even more British:

Paris 1919


Fear

This one's my favorite. Starts off with a subtly punk number called "Fear Is a Man's Best Friend" which contains some of my favorite lyrics ever, ever. Also, dig the primal screaming at the end over the weirdo bass (?) line. Awesome.

Fear Is a Man's Best Friend

Here are some more choice tracks off the album, but the entire album is great and should be given a few spins as a whole.

You Know More Than I Know

Gun

Great right?

That should give you a taste for the John Cale. His discography is kind of large, but he's got the sort of talent where even when he's failing, it's pretty interesting to listen to. Check out anything he's on with Brian Eno. Maybe someday I'll do a Brian Eno update, but he's not nearly as badass as John Cale and he gets all kinds of crossword play.

AAAALSO, John Cale handled production duties on the debut album by a band called the Modern Lovers and on a Patti Smith record called Horses and I'd bet some coin on John Cale being a Television influence.

Sold, right? John Cale had his hands in everything cool for a while there. I think I'm going to go give his most recent record (Black Acetate) another listen.

Next update: something less sprawling.