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The Island Years

John Cale - The Island Years Audio CD

A fair review of the John Cale "The Island Years" 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: The Island Years
Rating:

Release Date: 1996-07-30
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Fear Is a Man's Best Friend 2: Buffalo Ballet 3: Barracuda 4: Emily 5: Ship of Fools 6: Gun 7: Man Who Couldn't Afford to Orgy 8: You Know More Than I Know 9: Momamma Scuba 10: Sylvia Said [Remix] 11: All I Want Is You [#] 12: Bamboo Floor [#] 13: Mr. Wilson 14: Taking It All Away 15: Dirty Ass Rock 'N' Roll 16: Darling I Need You 17: Rollaroll 18: Heartbreak Hotel 19: Ski Patrol 20: I'm Not the Loving Kind 21: Guts 22: Jeweller 23: My Maria 24: Helen of Troy 25: China Sea 26: Engine 27: Save Us 28: Cable Hogue 29: (I Keep A) Close Watch 30: Pablo Picasso 31: Leaving It Up to You 32: Baby, What Do You Want Me to Do? 33: Sudden Death 34: You & Me [#] 35: Coral Moon 36: Mary Lou

Elegance And Anarchy
He achieves this with aplomb and grace. On these landmark mid-70's albums, John Cale expertly blends his classical training with his anarchic protopunk tendencies.

His history is fairly well known, so I won't go into great detail. The native Welshman won the Leonard Bernstein scholarship to study music, with the help of composer Aaron Copland. In New York he fell in with the LaMonte Young crowd of avant-jazz noise and dissonance-makers, recording with them as the Dream Syndicate. He then co-founded the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed, and stayed for their first 2 albums before leaving to pursue a solo career.

That career began with 1970's "Vintage Violence", and culminated with the brilliant "Paris 1919", on which he wrote and sang stately, elegant pop with members of Little Feat and others. "Paris 1919" is widely acclaimed to this day, and Cale continues to perform songs from it in concert. It was his first "masterpiece", if you'll allow me to use that over-used word from time to time.

He then signed with the Island record label, and released these 3 albums that are collected in their entirety with bonus tracks on this 2-CD set. I believe they are the pinnacle of his career. Guest musicians include Phil Manzanera and Eno of Roxy Music, guitar "gun for hire" session ace Chris Spedding, and Phil Collins. Manzanera is on fire throughout, and no one's ever gotten better work out of Spedding. These are rock records through and through. Of these, "Fear" and "Slow Dazzle" are perfect, "Helen Of Troy" a little less so (there's a few duff tracks not quite up to his standards).

I reiterate - there's 2 John Cale's - the one that plays almost classical piano and beguiles us with his perfect elocution on stately ballads, and the one that bangs out dischord and screams. In concert, you never knew which Cale you were going to get. Both Cale's show up on these records, and I'll say this for him - he's the best screamer in rock. And his ballads are gorgeous.

His output after these is of varying quality. I highly recommend "Walking On Locusts" and "HoboSapiens", which are every bit as good as his Island releases. If you can find his CD "Fragments Of A Rainy Season", it provides a good overview of his career from a solo "man and his piano" perspective without other accompaniment. The 2-disc compilation "Seducing Down The Door" spans many years and is worthwhile.

I can't conclude without mentioning his fruitive career as a producer. Cale produced the debut albums of the Stooges, Patti Smith, Squeeze, and the Modern Lovers - and arranged and produced all of Nico's best albums. I also want to mention that this collection goes well with Kevin Ayers' "The Island Albums", which collects together the 3 great albums Ayers recorded for Island.

The Raw Material Of Everything Unique Post Velvet Underground..
The mythic proportions the Velvet Underground achieved resonates for all time. this co-founder John Cale deserves a lot of credit since he too stands as a giant on his own right as these 3 solo albums comprised on 2 discs made clear.
A musicians musician, a self-styled iconoclast, avant-garde imagery throughout,,Cale is not typical nor are his diverse styles of musicianship anything but classifiable. . .
The wonderful use of the electric viola in a rock and roll setting remains a unique staple of his soundscape, his guitar and keyboard playing,steeped in Classicisim and gorgeous touches of bittersweet harmonies remain despite the use of his voice as an instrument of utter emotion with all the screams and snarls. . total sensitivity with a passion for Elvis the Beach Boys and everyone else from this Welshman trained classical prodigy.
These 3 Lps/2 Cd's are Cale's entire Island records studio output from 1974 and 1975, a time I used to see him at CBGB's New Year's eve in utter disbelief. . after the Velvets and his Paris 1919 album.
The albums contained within. . Fear,Slow Dazzle and Helen Of Troy are all extraordinary with Roxy Music luminaries and Eno throughout, added are the additional bonus tracks,remixes and wonderful black and white booklet offering a fine history.

A Bargain!

His three Island albums are all classics, each containing several Cale Classics. This 2 CD set containing the complete John Cale Island Records releases; together with a handful of great bonus tracks, is really a bargain. To mention just a few tracks from each album, I would bring out "Buffalo Ballet" and "Ship of Fools" (Fear), "Mr Wilson" and "Guts" (Slow Dazzle) and "Cable Hougue" and "I Keep a Close Watch" ( Helen of Troy)

Among the bonus tracks "All I Want is You" and "Bamboo Floor" from the "Slow Dazzle" sessions are gems that had deserved inclusion in the first place.

The 24 pages booklet with a fine essay by Ben Edmonds contains interesting recollections from the various sessions and informative notes on many tracks.

Simply a great buy!.

compelling

There are many memorable tracks on here. I feel compelled to write a short review for this now, and I will update it as time goes by. If you like Cale at all, PICK THIS ONE UP RIGHT AWAY. It has brought me great joy.

Unfortuntaley, I just lost (they were stolen) both of these CDs, and I will have to wait a little while to replace them. I'm hurtin for it right now.

Very inconsistent
I'm very familiar with Cale's VU catalog, and some of this later work, but this mid-70s period was largely a mystery to me. I'm a huge fan of about three of the songs on this collection, but was very disappointed with much of the rest. There's no debating Cale's talent or passion for his music, but there are about a dozen tracks on this compilation that sound like b-sides that were just added to their respective albums as an afterthought. "Ski Patrol" for instance is just an awful song. That said, "Pablo Picasso", "Heartbreak Hotel" and a few others are just brilliant performances.

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.