Happy Birthday John Cale!

Raising a glass to John Cale with a recent rip through "Waiting For The Man" and a few other performances you might've missed. 

Studio engineer John Wood chats about Nick Drake, John Cale and more

Now 85, UK studio engineer John Wood has nothing to plug but he has a few memories to share on Word In Your Ear.

Expanded reissues of John Cale's Paris 1919 & The Academy In Peril due Nov 15

The new 16-track double vinyl edition of Paris 1919 includes the new John Cale recording "Fever Dream 2024: You're A Ghost." 

Here's the scoop...

Following the release of POPtical Illusion earlier this year, John Cale announces the Paris 1919 Deluxe Edition and The Academy in Peril reissue, out November 15th via Domino. Both remastered by Heba Kadry, this is the first artist sanctioned reissue of these beloved records. Paris 1919 includes previously unreleased outtakes and liner notes by Grayson Haver Currin, and features a brand new recording, “Fever Dream 2024: You’re a Ghost,” and The Academy of Peril includes bonus track, “Temper.” Both will be available on CD, vinyl and digitally. You can pre-order directly from Domino right here. Watch John Cale's 2011 performance of Paris 1919 with Malmö Operaorkester in Sweden following the tracklisting of Paris 1919 Deluxe Edition below.

 “Revisiting work from the past is a double-edged sword for me. Of course, it’s bound to happen when you've been making music for 60 years or so. . . What's unique about this process with Domino, is their desire to get it right.  Not merely re-issue something for the sake of an anniversary or racking up a catalogue favorite - but finding new treasures and highlighting what made it special in the first place.  After hearing the test pressings, it occurred to me that the new mastering was a major part of how these works will be presented, rather than simply being preserved. There are moments of clarity and even a laugh or two had by revisiting not only the music, but recalling the sessions (and antics) that made up what became these two recordings. It is my pleasure to share these with you . . . again.” – John Cale, September 2024

John Cale – Paris 1919 Deluxe Edition

1 Child's Christmas in Wales (Remastered)

2 Hanky Panky Nohow (Remastered)

3 The Endless Plain of Fortune (Remastered)

4 Andalucia (Remastered)

5 Macbeth (Remastered)

6 Paris 1919 (Remastered)

7 Graham Greene (Remastered)

8 Half Past France (Remastered)

9 Antarctica Starts Here (Remastered)

10 I Must Not Sniff Cocaine (Remastered)

11 Hanky Panky Nohow (Drone Mix) (Remastered)

12 Child's Christmas in Wales (Rehearsal 1) (Remastered)

13 Half Past France (Intro Chat) (Remastered)

14 Macbeth (Take 11) (Remastered)

15 Hanky Panky Nohow (Guitar Mix) (Remastered)

16 Fever Dream 2024: You're a Ghost

  

Remembering Nico on her birthday with her post-Velvets work

Here's Nico's "Evening Of Light" video feat. Iggy & The Stooges along with some intriguing 70s & 80s performance footage.  

One For The Weekend: John Cale

John Cale's new album POPtical Illusion is out June 14th. Check out Abigail Portner's nutty video for "Shark-Shark" below.

Here's the scoop...

John Cale just released a new single/video for “Shark-Shark” off his new album, POPtical Illusion, out June 14th via Domino. Following lead single “How We See The Light,” “Shark-Shark” is a slightly menacing, yet wholly delightful, heavy dance jam. Various versions of Cale’s voice cut under and across a throbbing industrial beat made rich with punchy drum machines, before ending with a scabrous guitar solo as mean as something Cale might have made in the inchoate days of punk. The video sees Cale collaborating once again with director Abigail Portner.

“Sometimes you write a song purely for a mood,” Cale explains. “‘Shark-Shark’ has two versions - both a nod to finding humour in music. When you’re feeling too much of the real world, the best diversion is something that puts a grin on your face. I don’t know how Abby & team kept this shoot together - being ‘unserious’ was a lot of fun!”

On the video, Portner states “When I first heard this song the first thing that struck me was this vibe of gentle chaos, a chaos that's not dangerous but a playfulness that happens at a sleepover party or in an 80s comedy. I was in Oslo last summer with John and I had taken a bunch of pictures of the band in the National Museum standing in the hall of busts, looking very stark and cold. This idea popped into my head of what if the chaos in this song was sculptures coming to life and breaking all the rules! The concept of taking something like the National Museum or Swan Lake and having the art itself turn it upside down seemed fitting for this song.” Watch The Video For John Cale’s “Shark-Shark” below. 

 

 Despite the playful title, POPtical Illusion, Cale’s second album in just over a year still contains the same feelings of fierce and inquisitive rage that were present in last year’s much-lauded MERCY. He remains angry, still incensed by the willful destruction that unchecked capitalists and unrepentant con-men have hoisted upon the wonders of this world and the goodness of its people. In a period of a little over a year, Cale wrote more than 80 songs collectively surveying the range of human experience, and in the process—humor bled into frustration, regret gave way to forgiveness, sadness tangled with surrealism. POPtical Illusion synthesizes those emotions and enthusiasms into a dozen electronic playgrounds, Cale’s magisterial voice webbing across it all with puns and insights, grievances and quips, and some version of truth.

As throughout his career of more than six decades, Cale has never been much for repetition. His vanguard-shaping enthusiasms have shifted among ecstatic classicism and unbound rock, classic songcraft and electronic reimagination with proud restlessness. And so, on POPtical Illusion, he foregoes the illustrious cast to burrow mostly alone into mazes of synthesizers and samples, organs and pianos, with words that, as far as Cale goes, constitute a sort of swirling hope, a sage insistence that change is yet possible. Produced by Cale and longtime artistic partner Nita Scott in his Los Angeles studio, POPtical Illusion is the work of someone trying to turn toward the future – exactly as Cale always has.

POPtical Illusion will be available on 2xLP, CD, and digitally. The Domino Mart pink & mint vinyl 2xLP edition pressing of 1000 includes a 7" featuring 2 exclusive tracks, and a POPitem – a limited edition illusionary twirling paper Objet. You can pre-order the double LP right here. Check out the "Shark-Shark" video below. 

Brian Eno biopic "Eno" screens at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, Monday

"Eno," Gary Hustwit's new look at musician/producer Brian Eno is presented by the director tonight at 6:30 pm. Watch a chat below.

Here's the scoop...

Famed producer, musician, and artist Brian Eno (Talking Heads, David Bowie) is no ordinary creator. To tell the story of his 50-year career, acclaimed director Gary Hustwit had to do something different. Using generative technology, Hustwit constructs the film on stage, live in real-time. This groundbreaking new technology constructs an evergreen performance and a different cinematic experience at each screening, Eno reveals new, previously unreleased music and artworks from over 500 hours of archive to track a creative evolution from art student to ambient music pioneer. Eno is principled, engaged and playful as he guides us through a life that uses art as its guiding principle.Join this original documentary filmmaking process underlining the relationship between technology and creativity. 

Accompanying the new film is a soundtrack that serves as a companion audio journey touching on Eno’s output throughout his rich career. The 17 tracks included on the album feature work from Eno's early solo outings such as 1974’s ‘Taking Tiger Mountain’ and 75’s ‘Another Green World’, acclaimed collaborations with the likes of David Byrne, John Cale, Cluster and more recently, Fred again… all the way through to music from his latest album, ‘FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE’, and a live recording of "By This River" from his 2021 appearance at the Acropolis in Athens with brother, Roger (watch a clip below). Eno: The Official Motion Picture Soundtrack is available right here. Check out the new Brian Eno recording "All I Remember" which closes the film following a chat with director Gary Hustwit below.  

Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

Monday, April 29, 6:30 PM

Guest: Director Gary Hustwit

For more info, visit the Hot Docs site right here.

Watch John Cale on the New Music in 1979

For some reason, John Cale decided hospital orderly duds were perfectly suitable stagewear for his Toronto appearance in 1979.  

Before They Were Famous: La Monte Young

Here's a rare early image of minimalist icon La Monte Young from 1958. Check out "Sunday Morning Blues" with John Cale.   

Of course Todd Haynes' Velvet Underground doc comes with a soundtrack album

The 2CD soundtrack for the new Velvet Underground doc – out October 15 – includes a few unexpected tracks. 

Here's the scoop...

Even before the complete track listing had been announced for the soundtrack of Todd Haynes' much-anticipated new Velvet Underground documentary, the debate amongst longtime fans of the group regarding what should and shouldn't be included had already begun. Whether the focus should be on the music recorded by the group's classic line-up with Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Moe Tucker and Nico or if there should be any post-Cale material at all. And what about Lou Reed's pre-Velvets studio forays on behalf of Pickwick? 

Well, the serious discussions are about to begin as the official track listing has been released by Republic Records/Universal Music for the selections made by director Todd Haynes with his music supervisor Randall Poster for the 2CD package entitled The Velvet Underground: A Documentary Film By Todd Haynes – Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack set for release on October 15th, the same day the film premieres globally on Apple TV+.  

Along with the expected studio cuts of such Velvets classics as "I'm Waiting For The Man," "All Tomorrow's Parties," "Pale Blue Eyes," "Sweet Jane," "Venus In Furs," "Foggy Notion," "Ocean" and "Heroin" (mono), there are also live versions of "Sister Ray" and "After Hours." There's one Nico showcase "Chelsea Girls" and one pre-Velvets track "The Ostrich" cut by Reed using the studio alias of The Primitives circa 1964. 

The soundtrack also features a few tunes by artists which inspired the group. There's a live version of "Road Runner" by Bo Diddley, a Fortune label doo-wop gem "The Wind" by Nolan Strong & The Diabolos (credited to simply The Diablos") and perhaps most intriguing, a previously unreleased recording of a LaMonte Young composition "17 XII 63 NYC The Fire Is A Mirror (excerpt)" attributed to The Theatre of Eternal Music.  Check the full track listing following a few song clips from The Primitives, Nolan Strong & The Diablos and The Velvet Underground below. 

The Velvet Underground: A Documentary Film By Todd Haynes – Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack

Disc 1

Venus In Furs - The Velvet Underground  5:12

The Wind - The Diablos  3:05

17 XII 63  NYC  The Fire Is A Mirror (excerpt) - The Theatre of Eternal Music  6:21

Heroin [mono] - The Velvet Underground  7:14

Road Runner (Live) - Bo Diddley  4:14

The Ostrich - The Primitives  2:25

I'm Waiting For The Man - The Velvet Underground  4:40

Chelsea Girls - Nico  7:27

Sunday Morning - The Velvet Underground  2:56                

Disc 2             

Sister Ray (Live) - The Velvet Underground  19:03

Pale Blue Eyes - The Velvet Underground  5:40

Foggy Notion - The Velvet Underground  6:59

After Hours (Live) Version 1 - The Velvet Underground  2:56

Sweet Jane - The Velvet Underground  4:09

Ocean - The Velvet Underground  5:14

All Tomorrow's Parties - The Velvet Underground  5:53

That Time John Cale joined Nico for a version of "No One Is There"

John Cale's viola work enhances the creepy cool vibe of Nico's "No One Is There" in 1970. Also, watch her solo appearance on Old Grey Whistle Test in 1975.  

The John Cale mix of The Stooges debut finally pressed on vinyl

Vinyl Me, Please is pressing up the rawer sounding original John Cale mix of The Stooges debut album, mastered at the correct speed. 

Barbara Rubin & The Exploding NY Underground screens @ The Royal Cinema, Sunday (8 pm)

Filmmaker & scenester Barbara Rubin introduced Andy Warhol to the Velvet Underground in 1965.

Before They Were Famous: John Cale

In 1963, two years prior to founding the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed, John Cale appeared on "I've Got A Secret" 

Listen to Marissa Nadler's "Poison" duet with John Cale

Happy Birthday Mark Lanegan!

Watch Mark reprise a couple of Velvet Underground classics with John Cale.

John Cale's Fragments Of A Rainy Season gets deluxe reissue treatment

John Cale's classic live album, Fragments Of A Rainy Season, featuring many solo versions from his enduring catalogue, plus his brilliant interpretation of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" along with previously unreleased outtakes, is being reissued by Double Six/Domino on December 9.  The 3 LP triple gatefold version with 8 previously unreleased tracks will be limited to one pressing on heavy weight vinyl with digital download card. Check the complete track listing right here.

Watch Abby Portner's creepy cool new video for Cale's version of Hallelujah following Malcolm Gladwell's discussion of the song from his Revisionist History podcast and the Domino press release below.

Fragments of a Rainy Season is the the first live John Cale album to feature him performing solo and "unplugged" – before that term became a mid-'90s buzzword. In contrast to the jaundiced punk truculence of Sabotage/Live (1979) or Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1986), Fragments gives us Cale at his most melodic and moving, a mellowed and certainly a soberer man in a Yamamoto jacket and a lopsided haircut running through a selection of his prettiest songs.

It's a Cale many of us love deeply, a man alone at a concert-hall Steinway revisiting the pop-rock of 'Paris 1919' and 'A Child's Christmas in Wales', as wistful and whimsical as any '70s singer-songwriter holding court at L.A.'s Troubadour club. It's the Cale who disavowed the spiky nihilism of the Velvets, inspired instead by melodicism of Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson.

Cale being Cale, Fragments isn't all rueful tenderness. The deceptively jaunty 'Darling I Need You' is flippantly introduced as a song about "religious awakening in the southern part of the United States", while Elvis' 'Heartbreak Hotel' is no less gothic in the solo version here than it is in the Grand Guignol horror show of the original on Slow Dazzle. 'Guts' is as close as Cale ever came to Lou Reed at his most withering.  It's easy to forget that – years before Jeff Buckley and The X-Factor – he was the first artist to recognize the hymnal majesty of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah', or that it was his original 1991 reading of the song that popped up on the soundtrack of Shrek.

Revisionist History: Hallelujah by Malcolm Gladwell

One night, Cohen is playing this version at the Beacon Ballroom in New York and the musician John Cale happens to be in the audience. Cale is a legend, used to be in The Velvet Underground, a really pivotal figure in the rock 'n roll avant-garde. He hears this song come out of Cohen's mouth and he's blown away. So he asks Cohen to send him the lyrics. He wants to do a version of it. So Cohen faxes him fifteen pages - who knows what the lyrics actually are at this point! Cale says, that for his version, he took the "cheeky" parts. He ends up using the first two verses of the original combined with three verses from the live performance. And Cale changes some words - most importantly, he changes the theme and brings back the biblical references that Cohen had in the album version.

Cale is really the one who cracks the code of Hallelujah according to Alan Light. This cover version appears on a Leonard Cohen tribute album put together by a French music magazine - it was called "I'm Your Fan"- came out in 1991. Almost nobody bought "I'm Your Fan", except, weirdly, me. I think I found it in a remainder bin in a little record store on Colombia Road in Washington, DC. Another person who bought "I'm Your Fan" was a woman named Janine, who lived in Park Slope in Brooklyn. She was good friends with a young aspiring singer named Jeff Buckley. He used to house sit at her apartment. And one time, when Buckley's there, he happens to see the CD of "I'm Your Fan" - he plays it - he hears John Cale's version of Hallelujah and decides to do his own version of that version. He performs it at a tiny little bar in the East Village called Sin-e where he happens to be heard by an executive at Columbia Records. So Columbia Records ends up signing Buckley and he records his version of Hallelujah for the album 'Grace' which ends up being Buckley's first, and only, studio album. It came out in 1994.

Now I'm guessing that Buckley's version is the one you're most familiar with - it's the famous one, the definitive one. It's not really a cover of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah', it's a cover of John Cale's cover of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' only with Cale's piano swapped out for a guitar and of course, Buckley swaps out Cale's voice for his own extraordinary voice.

Here's Abby Portner's new video for John Cale's version of Hallelujah...

Happy Birthday John Cale!

Happy Birthday Andy Warhol

Happy 70th Birthday John Cale!

Buffalo Ballet by John Cale (1975)



Fear Is A Man's Best Friend (1975)