portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

JOHN CALE: 1970 - 1980 - URBANASPIRINES

 JOHN CALE

1970 -1980

(plus bonus disc of Songs For Drella with Lou Reed 1990 - for ANDY WARHOL)



study for John Cale portrait A.Swapp 2012 

Urbanaspirines turns up trumps again and looks at the history of official album releases from John Cale over a decade and with a bonus some ten years later dedicated to Velvet Underground mentor Andy Warhol with Lou Reed in Songs For Drella


John Davies Cale  (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styles across rock, drone, classical, avant-garde and electronic music. Cale has also acquired a reputation as an adventurous record producer, working on the debut albums of several innovative artists, including the Stooges and Patti Smith. Having discovered a talent for viola, Cale joined the National Youth Orchestra of Wales at age 13. Receiving a scholarship, Cale studied music at Goldsmiths College, University of London. 

                     



Upon arriving in New York City, Cale met a number of influential composers. Early that year, he co-founded the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed,recruiting his flatmate Angus MacLise and Reed's college friend Sterling Morrison to complete the initial line-up. Just before the band's first paying gig for $75 ($709 adjusted for 2022) at Summit High School in New Jersey, MacLise abruptly quit the band because he viewed accepting money for art as selling out; he was replaced by Moe Tucker as the band's drummer. Initially hired to play that one show, she soon became a permanent member and her tribal pounding style became an integral part of the band's music, despite the initial objections of Cale to the band having a female drummer. Apart from appearing on the Velvet Underground's first two studio albums, he also played organ on the track "Ocean" during the practice sessions to produce demos for the band's fourth studio album Loaded (1970), nearly two years after he left the band.




read on here . . . . John Cale on URBANASPIRINES

I would urge you to buy the Cale back catalogue from official sources 

John Cale (study with different iPad background)2012


John Cale here . . . .


Most if not all are still readily available via Amazon or your usual outlets, some from the Cale website (above)





2 comments:

Kostas said...

Thank you my friend. John Cale. A great artist!!!

Andy Swapp said...

Most welcome Kostas . . . . sorry about the note and the emphasis of the albums still being available but I don’t normally post officially released items if I can!
Hope that’s OK?

bestests anyway as ever

Andy