Cale Thinking Of The Year 1919

A long time ago I started my quest on the Velvet Underground. I already explained this on a previous blog post, but what I did not tell you was the fact that I thought at the time that screechy violin bass playing was legend. His musical background was the stuff that Avant-Garde Classical and 20th Century composers like LaMonte Young and Stockhausen. He also played in an 18 hour piano recital with John Cage. He co-founded The Velvet Underground and after he left beside a great solo musical career he was a great producer who produced the Stooges, Patti Smith, Modern Lovers, Squeeze and Nico.

You can hear his ear for music on the Stooges first album. His direction gave the Stooges their signature sound. Before he was a teenage he already was considered a musical genius. His musical achievements started with the BBC and caught the attention of Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. His smarts lead to him and Lou Reed starting The Velvet Underground. They both had the love of Avant-Garde. This lead to this forming. Sadly, two years later Cale quit or was fired from the band (no one really knows) and his great musical journey began.

Those investigating his work for the first time under that premise may be surprised at how consciously accessible much of his output is, at times approaching (but not quite attaining) a fairly "normal" rock sound. There is always a tension between the experimental and the accessible in Cale's solo recordings, meaning that he usually finds himself (not unwillingly) caught between the cracks: too weird for commercial success, and yet not really weird or daring enough to place him among the top rank of rock's innovators. (AM)

I think my journey of John Cale was the fact that I liked his odd quirky type music. I liked his stuff because of the way he was much more then a musician. He, like Lou Reed, were friends with Andy Warhol. And to me that was great because I too liked his artwork. The other thing was that his music was always different. His solo stuff was very good and he collaborated with Lou Reed on Songs for Drella that told me that he really was not interested in any mainstream ideas and wanted to pay tribute to a friend.

John Cale's solo albums have been the most fun to listen to. There is so many great ones. Vintage Violence from 1970. To the Classical collaboration with Terry Riley called Church of Anthrax, to Fear, Slow Dazzle, and Helen of Troy. The one that I like is one called Paris 1919. All these albums could be talked about in a few blogs, but Paris 1919 is just sold all the way around. It's the most accessible album in his collection and features Little Feat guitar and founder Lowell George. The songs are richly poetic, enigmatic period pieces strongly evocative of their time and place. There really is not much of an Avant-Garde slant on previous or future albums either. Songs like "Hanky Panky Nohow" and "Child's Christmas in Wales" are wonderful songs. "MacBeth" is the true rocker of the whole album and sets itself apart. All in all, a great album and not one to pass up. Enjoy!