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Fragments of a Rainy Season

John Cale - Fragments of a Rainy Season Audio CD

A fair review of the John Cale "Fragments of a Rainy Season" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all John Cale reviews here, or go back to the John Cale tabs.

Band: John Cale
Title: Fragments of a Rainy Season
Rating:

Release Date: 1992-09-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Child's Christmas in Wales 2: Dying on the Vine 3: Cordoba 4: Darling I Need You 5: Paris 1919 6: Guts 7: Fear (Is a Man's Best Friend) 8: Ship of Fools 9: Leaving It up to You 10: Cable Hogue 11: Thoughtless Kind 12: On a Wedding Anniversary 13: Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed 14: Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night 15: Buffalo Ballet 16: Chinese Envoy 17: Style It Takes 18: Heartbreak Hotel 19: (I Keep A) Close Watch 20: Hallelujah

John Cale's Brilliance - LIVE -
Spanning a large piece of his career and some new stuff, John's voice accompanied by solo guitar or piano is simply fabulous. If you're looking for a piece of brilliance and maybe something a little more accessible than some of John's other works you won't be disappointed with this work. I recommend this release to anyone with an interest in listening to genius with out high production.

Exceptional.
in that fanciful scenario where you imagine yourself stranded upon a tropical island with say 5 or 10 albums to accompany you. . this one makes a strong bid for inclusion. the live aspect of john cale's art is immensely appealing, though many of his studio are masterpieces as well. his voice shouldn't be beautiful, but somehow is. listen. the songs are many of the best of his career, and the solo piano and guitar performances of them often preferable to the originals. also, the cohen cover is superb and is the model for the subsequent buckley and wainwright versions which are so frequently downloaded. for dylan thomas fans the setting of music to 'do not go gentle. . . ' is surely of interest. .

Intimate, earnest, beautiful
Cale never quite made it in the mainstream like his former partner Lou Reed did; though his music was always more melodic than Reed's, it was more experimental and much less accessible. The weaker, or at least less famous, half of the Velvet Underground - bassist, pianist, singer, songwriter, composer, producer, sonic terrorist John Cale - made for perhaps his best single release with this intimate live concert from 1992. Cale was also always intent on making his own music himself, without help like the one Reed got from people like David Bowie (on 'Transformer') or Bob Ezrin (on 'Berlin'). And so, his albums always sounded somewhat too underproduced and eccentric for the general public, and never reached commercial success. Not that he ever wanted them to, for that matter.

Fresh from his reunion album with Lou Reed - 'Songs For Drella', dedicated to their common friend and idol Andy Warhol - Cale returned from several years' rest with this one-time concert, which proves to be the most accessible recording of his that can be found. Cale appears with nothing but a piano (and occasional acoustic guitar) in this concert, and with all the production, noise and sonic experimentation removed, Cale is revealed as a remarkably talented performer, fantastic musician and especially brilliant songwriter, as his marvelous lyrics and melodies sound better here than anywhere else. Songs like 'Ship of Fools' and 'Thoughtless Kind'- barely audible in the original studio releases - sound incredibly new here.

The 70 minutes of this edited version (the concert, as seen on the DVD, is about fifteen minutes and three songs longer) span nearly the whole of Cale's solo career. Deliberately including no songs from the Velvet Underground, the concert kicks off with a song from Cale's fantastic second album, Paris 1919 - the gorgeous 'A Child's Christmas in Wales', and the excellent title song, one of Cale's best, appears later on. There are numerous songs from his celebrated Island Trilogy ('Fear (is a Man's Best Friend)', 'Buffalo Ballet', 'Ship of Fools', 'Guts', as well as his mind-boggling and gut wrenching version of 'Heartbreak Hotel'); 'Chinese Envoy', one of his biggest hits, from Music For a New Society; three selections from his album of Dylan Thomas poems, Songs From the Dying, which sound a whole lot better here than they did on the album; 'Cordoba', from Wrong Way Up, Cale's collaborative album with genius producer Brian Eno; up to 'Style It Takes', from Songs From Drella; all of it wrapped up with Leonard Cohen's classic Hallelujah, which was a hit for Cale long before it was adopted brilliantly by Jeff Buckley.

Fragments of a Rainy Season is probably the easiest John Cale album to get into; it's an essential for Velvet Underground fans, and is an altogether beautiful and enjoyable album, as well as covering the cream of Cale's work as a solo artist better than any compilation could. Highly recommended, as well as the DVD recording.

John Cale, raw and unplugged.
He sings his "hits" with only an accoustic guitar and piano. Fragements of a Rainy Season was John Cale's unplugged
album. From his first album after being sacked from the Velvet Underground to his album with Lou Reed (Songs for Drella) Cale covers his most known work. Despite using only a piano and guitar, Cale rips through Safe and Guts with reckless (but refined) abandon. Classical trained musician, Cale adds a touch of class to the avant-garde music scene. If you enjoy the music of the Velvet Underground then you'll defenitely want a copy of this disc.

Highly recommended.

"Rainy Seasons" Showcases Cale, the Minimalist
This is the after-hours incarnation of John Cale, not the menacing sabatouer personna that Cale created for himself in the Seventies. Fragments of A Rainy Season" has graced my CD player more than any other album in the twelve years since it's release. This live album focuses on all of Cale's strengths, his lyrical song craft, his tender and anguished voice, his instumental wizardry and his larger-than-life stage presence.

"Rainy Seasons" is ample evidence that Cale's post-Velvet career has outlasted those of his bandmates, even Lou Reed. Cale has always maintained his avant gardist sensibility while Lou Reed, for better or worse, has stuck with his original black leather, NYC street hustler image that marked his Velvet Underground years. Cale's back catalog is a wealth of undiscovered treasures. What is most striking about this live performance is the passion and immediacy Cale brings to all of his classics. It's a revelation that Cale's music is better suited to this accoustic format, because his strikingly original classically influenced piano is not drowned out in a wall of guitar noise. In performances with a band, Cale generally sticks with a guitar, which he doesn't play with nearly as much conviction as piano. Cale's expressive voice simply works better with a piano.

I own most of Cale's albums and the three career retrospectives of his work. I like "Rainy Seasons" better than all of them because this live recording proves that Cale's music stands on the strength of his songwritting and doesn't need a lot of orchestration or post-production "enchancement" to work. The additional tracks that have been piggy-backed onto the original 1992 release make this CD a real dollar value.

You can see a complete list of all John Cale discography, or go back to the John Cale tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.