Latest Release
- JUN 14, 2024
- 13 Songs
- Wrong Way Up · 1990
- Wrong Way Up · 1990
- Fragments of a Rainy Season · 2016
- Vintage Violence · 1970
- Paris 1919 · 1973
- Paris 1919 · 1973
- Hallelujah (Fragments Version) - Single · 2016
- Fear · 1974
- Fear · 1974
- Paris 1919 · 1973
Essential Albums
- Though John Cale is best known as the classically trained avant-garde musician who held down the bottom end for The Velvet Underground, he's had an inspired solo career that has forever sought new ground. 1973's Paris 1919 is one of his finest solo albums and easily his most accessible. With esteemed producer Chris Thomas at the controls, members of Little Feat providing the warm, sympathetic backing, and Cale's inventive orchestration complementing many of the tracks, Paris 1919 works as an impeccable song cycle, rich with poetic images and an inscrutable logic. It helped that Cale came to the sessions with several of his finest songs, including "A Child's Christmas in Wales" (a tip of the hat to poet Dylan Thomas, a fellow Welshman), "Hanky Panky Nohow," "Andalucia," "Half Past France," and the title track. "Macbeth" is the album's one rocker, with the remaining tales using a restrained approach that ends with the whispers of the gorgeous "Antarctica Starts Here." Flawless.
- Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale made his bow as a solo artist with 1970’s Vintage Violence, an eclectic and unexpectedly subdued art-rock offering. Those hoping for feedback-drenched freakouts and wailing celebrations of decadence were instead treated to a brace of thoughtfully poetic, even genteel tunes. After years of working in the shadow of Velvets leader Lou Reed, Cale loosened up and explored the full range of his songwriting talents in these tracks. The prevailing mood here is dreamy and slightly unsettled, filtered through oblique lyrics and folk and pop-flavored melodies. Some tracks — especially “Amsterdam” — have a delicately yearning quality. Others, like “Adelaide” and “Cleo” are sweet-centered lollipops of sound. Cale’s darker side is exposed in the sinister “Gideon’s Bible” and the expansive “Big White Cloud,” and you can hear the influence of the Band in certain spots, particularly on the piano-driven “Bring it on Up.” For the most part, though, the music is unmistakably Cale’s own, augmented by the sharp-elbowed playing of his backup band Grinderswitch. Vintage Violence lacks the maniacal intensity of Cale’s later output, but on its own merits, it’s a beguiling work that insinuates rather than screams.
- 2003
Music Videos
- 2024
- 2024
- 2024
- 2024
- 2023
Artist Playlists
- The Welsh art-rocker helped to foment a cultural revolution as musician and producer.
- He brings a sense of adventure to everyone's records.
Singles & EPs
Live Albums
- 2006
Compilations
More To Hear
- Jehnny chats with legendary artist and collaborator John Cale.
About John Cale
John Cale has enjoyed one of the most diverse and adventurous careers in rock music, building a bridge between the avant-garde, contemporary classical music, and pop and rock. Cale's work as a founding member of the Velvet Underground would be enough to earn him an esteemed place in music history, but he's also celebrated as a solo artist, a songwriter and composer, a skilled instrumentalist, and a producer who helmed seminal albums by Patti Smith, the Stooges, and the Modern Lovers. In his own recordings, intelligence and creative restlessness are the hallmarks of Cale's catalog, and he sounds as comfortable with sophisticated pop (1970's Vintage Violence) and artful minimalism (1982's Music for a New Society) as with confrontational rock (1974's Fear) and electronic soundscapes (2023's Poptical Illusion). There is no consistent "John Cale Sound," but the bold eagerness to experiment is the through-line in his repertoire.
- HOMETOWN
- Garnant, Wales
- BORN
- March 9, 1942
- GENRE
- Rock