[john cale] white light, white heat

This blog has covered JJ Cale a number of times but the Cale tonight is just John Cale, a musician heavily influential on other musicians but virtually unknown to the general public. An unattributable yet excellent profile of him says:

Trying to categorise Cale's music has always been tricky, encompassing as it does so many diverse musical styles. Not really a rocker nor a full on avante gardiste, much of what he produces falls between the two headings.

He draws heavily on his early classical training; he was touring the country with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales from his early teens, while still listening to the burgeoning cult of rock and roll in his bedroom at night.

His break came while studying experimental music at London University in the early '60s, he met American classical composer Aaron Copeland, who got Cale a scholarship to study with the Boston University Orchestra.

In the fall of 1963 Cale relocated to New York and began performing in various avante garde music projects before hooking up with vocalist/guitarist Lou Reed, with whom he founded the legendary rock band the Velvet Underground in early 1965.

He was heavily involved with Andy Warhol.

Playing bass, viola, and keyboards, Cale was largely responsible for the band's droning sound, while Reed wrote the lyrics. This was the most accessible he'd be to the public and to get an idea of his style, listen to Velvet Underground Live 1969 [as distinct form the studio album produced after he'd been forced out].

Cale today

White Light White Heat, Heroin, Ocean - these were typical of his sound and Reed's lyrics and singing.

On his own he went mellow and classical until he switched in 74 and released two amazing albums - Fear and Slow Dazzle, with other Island artists like Phil Manzanera and Brian Eno of Roxy Music, and Chris Spedding. I haven't heard the third so can't comment.

Tracks on Fear like Fear is a Man's Best Friend, Barracuda and Gun were quite frankly unique with their gritty, dark, driving, relentless feel, especially given the era in which they were produced. He'd contrast it with catchy, melodic tracks at odds with explicit lyrics like The Man Who Couldn't Afford to Orgy.

His voice is difficult to describe. Imagine Leonard Cohen and Tom Jones, deep, rich, masculine but aggressive and that was part of his appeal - he was a very dangerous man or so it seemed and could shock you to the core. His motif was dark.

This was so in the finale to Slow Dazzle which I can't describe on a family blog like this. One of his greatest songs, his reworking of Heartbreak Hotel as you've never heard it before, was on this album and a return to hard, driving rhythms with Guts, which was about just that.

With Nico

At this point I was drawn into the gay, warholesque inner city party scene [which will come as a shock, given my ultra-orthodox sentiments on this blog] but as the scene fragmented and many went over to punk, I went over to pseudo-punk like the Ramones, the Stranglers, Wreckless Eric and never got back to this scene again.