Customer Reviews
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.
. You can see a complete list of all John Cale discography, or go back to the John Cale tabs
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