John Cale
photo: Richard Burbridge
72 articles
Free articles
Profile and Interview by Mick Gold, Melody Maker, 27 July 1974
JOHN CALE is sitting in a preview theatre, cowering in the shadow of the London Hilton to see a screening of this movie hes scored ...
Interview by William Higham, What's On, 14 November 1990
Musical bogeyman John Cale has a new album out with Brian Eno. He talks to William Higham about the new LP and when the chickens ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Mick Gold, Rock's Backpages audio, July 1974
Cale talks about his musical life, from King's College Cambridge to Fear, via La Monte Young and the Velvet Underground.
File format: mp3; file size: 48.1mb, interview length: 52' 32" sound quality: ***
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, 31 January 1983
The Welsh wizard talks about his new album, Music for a New Society; songwriting and pessimism; his new label ZE; La Monte Young; writing with Sam Shepard; punk, Patti and producing other people; his favourite track 'Taking Your Life In Your Hands', and going back to Wales.
File format: mp3; total file size: 22.6mb, total interview length: 23' 32" sound quality: *****
List of articles in the library
Shards of Velvet Afloat in London: Nico and John Cale
Report and Interview by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1971
JOHN CALE REACHES too hard for the pay phone in the lobby of his hotel. Bang. It explodes into the soft corner of his forehead, ...
Profile and Interview by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 12 April 1971
Author's note, 2018. The Velvet Underground and Nico and to a lesser extent White Light/White Heat are the albums that above all others up to ...
John Cale: The Academy In Peril (Reprise)
Review by Mark Williams, Melody Maker, 7 October 1972
WITH THIS album, John Cale continues to present a tantalising artistic persona, defying critical attempts to put his work into any concrete perspective. Vintage Violence ...
John Cale: Paris 1919 (Warner Bros. Import)
Review by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 5 May 1973
JOHN CALE, as the extravagant sleeve-note insert in this stylish American album package indicates, has always had one foot in each camp — the classical ...
John Cale: Half Past California
Interview by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 2 June 1973
JOHN CALE is not the easiest of men to talk to. Not that he is obstreperous, bored or plain dumb. Quite the reverse. Ask him ...
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, October 1973
IN THE PAST John Cale has appeared to be engaged in investing themes of madness and chaos with a deranged from of classical dignity. I ...
Eno and John Cale: The Wild Bunch
Interview by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 18 May 1974
Martin Hayman jumps into the Tardis, goes into the future with typewriter over his shoulder and ends up on the beach with Eno, Phil Manzanera and ...
Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Nico, Eno: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 8 June 1974
Ayers puts the A in ACNE ...
Phil Manzanera: Snake-Eyed Latin Lothario Goes Pan-Tonic
Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 24 August 1974
...And that's not all, as NICK KENT discovers after conversations with none other than marimboid Roxyite PHIL MANZANERA. (P.S. John Cale is involved in this ...
The Mysterious Journey of John Cale
Profile and Interview by Mick Gold, Creem, October 1974
Part One: I was a prisoner in a lesbian lobotomy jail. I'VE TWICE missed making contact with John Cale and I'm getting tired of the ...
Kevin Ayers/John Cale/Eno/Nico: June 1, 1974 (Island)
Review by Ira Robbins, Zoo World, 10 October 1974
LIVE ALBUMS have become an abundant nuisance which bands seem to feel an obligation to produce every few years, often with no redeeming content. The ...
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, November 1974
BILL HENDERSON of Sounds has written with seductive simplicity that Paris 1919 (Cale's last release) was an album created in America 'about' Europe, whereas Fear ...
Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Nico & Eno: June 1,1974 (Island)
Review and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Creem, December 1974
Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Nico, Eno & the Soporifics: The Inmates Have Taken Over ...
Island Records: Treasure Island
Profile by Lenny Kaye, Hit Parader, January 1975
GIVEN THE commercial restrictions of the business we call music, it is the rare record company that is willing to lay itself on the line ...
John Cale: Cale and Eno Horror Story…
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 8 February 1975
CO-STARRING ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL CHOIR ...
Eno: The Monkey Wrench Of Rock Creates Happy Accidents On Tiger Mt.
Profile and Interview by Stephen Demorest, Circus, April 1975
One day Eno is going to formulate a theory that will make music melt out of the North Pole (maybe he'll do it with mirrors), ...
John Cale: Fear (Island); Nico: The End (Island)
Review by Mick Brown, Crawdaddy!, May 1975
ALONG WITH Lou Reed, John Cale and Nico were members of the first – and definitive – incarnation of the Velvet Underground. ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 17 May 1975
THE FIRST TRACK on John Cale's Slow Dazzle is so excellent that I played it eight times before I could bring myself to continue. ...
John Cale: Slow Dazzle (Island ILPS 9317)
Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, September 1975
EACH NEW instalment in John Cale's quixotic solo career has invited the sort of critical involvement and public indifference that have earmarked him as a ...
John Cale: Paradiso, Amsterdam
Review by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 15 November 1975
EUROPE'S MOST DECADENT capital: inflatable paramours dangling like trussed chickens in the windows of the sex shops, hookers in their shop windows, the smack centre ...
John Cale: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 29 November 1975
THERE IS MUCH FASHIONABLE TALK of John Cale as a significant artist. So far ahead of the herd is he, it is said, that terms ...
Patti Smith: Critics' Choice? Recycling With Patti
Comment by Joe Sasfy, Unicorn Times, March 1976
PATTI SMITH and band are nothing more than some refried psychedelic/mysteriosio guitar fronted by some Shangri-La/Ronettes vocals emitting Doors/Rimbaud poetry — and they're great! ...
John Wood: Pioneer of the 'English Sound'
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 26 June 1976
THOUGH SOUND recording celebrates its centenary next year, it is only in the past ten to 16 years that studio techniques have reached the present ...
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 12 February 1977
GUTS. GOOD.And there's ol' John, looking aristocratically manic on the sleeve, in a white jumpsuit, leaning perilously back, twanging at a white flying-V guitar. Ensemble ...
John Cale, Generation X, The Boys: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 23 April 1977
WILD WELSH ROCK: Lush valleys and terrifying peaks ...
The Weirdest John Cale Interview You've Ever Read...
Interview by Jane Suck, Sounds, 3 September 1977
I COULD be some other little girl reporter and tell you how I arrived for the interview on the verge of imminent throw-up; how I ...
Interview by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 10 September 1977
AARON COPELAND DIDN'T know what he was letting the world in for when he sent John Cale a letter authorising the young Welshman's scholarship at ...
Have Guitar, Will Travel: Chris Spedding
Interview by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, November 1978
CHRIS SPEDDING — the name that launched a thousand session credits. He's played guitar for everyone from John Cale to the Wombles, including Bryan Ferry, ...
John Cale: Sabotage/Live (Spy Import)
Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 12 January 1980
THE COVER of this, his first album in almost five years, shows John Cale wearing the only sensible accessories for the true cold war ...
John Cale: Conversation With A Saboteur
Interview by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, March 1980
NY Rocker: You've been around the industry for a while, doing A&R, producing, performing and whatnot. I was wondering if you had any theories on ...
John Cale: Still Ready For War
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 10 April 1980
"THERE'S GOING to be trouble." The Welsh rock 'n' roller, a seasoned vet of 15 years on the front line, is quietly emphatic about it ...
John Cale: Rock's Honourable Psychotic
Interview by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 18 April 1981
Welsh-American wizard John Cale and Stratham scribe Paul Rambali look over their shoulders at each other and talk history and paranoia. ...
John Cale: A Study in Contradiction
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 11 May 1981
ONSTAGE AND OFF, contradiction comes naturally to singer and songwriter John Cale. Within his music, forays into dissonance and contemplative mellifluousness have long been integral, ...
Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, June 1981
THE ALBUM TITLE is part of a motto on the British Royal Coat of Arms, "Honi soit qui mal y pense." "Evil to him who ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, August 1981
WHEN JOHN CALE left the Velvet Underground for ever more mysterious sojourns, the theme he took with him was one of violence. ...
John Cale: The Academic In Peril
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, August 1981
ADDRESSES THE INEVITABLE"I don't really aim for being a 'renaissance man' or anything like that – but sometimes you end up that, if you do ...
John Cale: Music for a New Society
Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 23 January 1982
ON THE BASIS of his new LP, it would be too easy to discover that John Cale is a Big Fake, maybe The Big Fake, ...
John Cale: Music For A New Society (Island)
Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 18 September 1982
A STRONGER, loving world... The fulcrum of John Cale's work is its granite paradox, a loathsome ugliness garbed in the colours of rhapsody. Cale's abiding ...
Transcript of audio interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 31 January 1983
This is a transcript of John's audio interview with John Cale. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
A Stronger Music to Die In: John Cale’s New Society
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 19 February 1983
"The great Welsh singer, pianist, guitarist, composer and arranger, who in 1967 was responsible for the most significant structural change in rock since Elvis's Sun ...
Live Review by Mary Harron, The Guardian, 19 March 1983
OVER THE past 20 years John Cale has gone from the Royal College of Music to Lamont Young's avant garde Theatre of Eternal Music to ...
John Cale: Music For A New Society (Ze/Passport)
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, May 1983
MY STEREO has a slight leak. If you turn the power on and leave the radio and record player off you can hear, very faintly, ...
Rebel Without a Sanity Clause: John Cale’s Caribbean Sunset (Ze/Island)
Review by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 28 January 1984
HARDBOILED GOING on soft-headed, John Cale as chronicler of the man of action invariably topples over into drunken, unremitting and participatory relish of the deeds ...
Interview by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 10 March 1984
"WHAT THE HELL else have I got but that spell?" roars John Cale onstage in a performance of ‘Leaving It Up To You’. ...
John Cale: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Martin Aston, Melody Maker, 20 October 1984
JOHN CALE comes alive! Or, more to the point, returns to churn out his trussed-up, broken-down rock, his stutter-and-collapse persona resting on the barricades of ...
Lou Reed and John Cale: Deja VU
Comment by Byron Coley, Spin, April 1989
POPULAR RUMOR has long held that Lou Reed and John Cale are mortal enemies. ...
Velvet Memories of Andy Warhol
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 22 April 1990
Simon Reynolds on Lou Reed's reunion with John Cale. ...
Lou Reed & John Cale: Songs For Drella (Sire WX 345)
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 27 April 1990
Andy Warhol looks a scream ...
Lou Reed/John Cale: Songs For Drella
Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 28 April 1990
DETERMINED TO reclaim the remains of their sometime friend and one-time manager Andy Warhol from the beady gaze of the culture vultures, John Cale and ...
John Cale and Lou Reed: Songs For Drella
Review by Mark Cooper, Q, May 1990
ANDY WARHOL'S NAME was all over the famous banana sleeve of The Velvet Underground's debut album. ...
Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella (Warner Bros.)
Review by Richard C. Walls, Musician, May 1990
Forty-five Minutes of Fame — Reed and Cale Build Warhol a Velvet Coffin ...
John Cale/Lou Reed: 15 Minutes With You
Interview by Mark Kemp, Option, July 1990
THE HECKLER'S voice sounded its fury like a cannon about midway through Lou Reed and John Cale's performance of Songs For Drella, a pop requiem ...
Live Review by Mark Cooper, MOJO, December 1993
THIS SUMMER'S VELVET UNDERGROUND reunion inevitably recast John Cale in the role of Lou Reed's foil. After all, while the Velvets clearly depend on the ...
John Cale: Music for the Last Day
Interview by Ian Penman, The Wire, July 1994
JOHN CALE IS rock's international traveller, his work a trans-continental drift of moons and maps, seas and seachange, envoys and ennui. From his early (unfashionable) ...
John Cale and Patti Smith: How We Met
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Independent on Sunday, 25 August 1996
JOHN CALE, 55, rock musician and composer, was born in South Wales, moved to New York in the early 1960s and became a founder member ...
John Cale: Remembrance Of Things Past
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 28 June 1997
WHEN THE VELVET Underground split, John Cale flew the coop most effectively. While his partner Lou Reed (who evicted Cale from the band in 1968) ...
Interview by Cliff Jones, Arena Homme Plus, Fall 1997
John Cale arrived in New York City in 1963, a 21-year-old classical music prodigy from the Welsh valleys. He never went home. Via the colour ...
John Cale: What's Welsh for Zen?
Interview by David Dalton, Gadfly, January 1999
THE VELVET Underground in their classic phase (1966-1968) lasted barely two years and released only two studio albums, but their influence has been immense. ...
What's Welsh For Zen? By John Cale & Victor Bockris (Bloomsbury Hbk £20, Special Edition £30)
Book Review by Mark Sinker, The Wire, February 1999
OF THE alliance at the heart of the original Velvet Underground, John Cale writes: "We hated everybody and everything. Other musicians were viewed as competition. ...
John Cale: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, March 2004
RESCUED FROM his latest career cul-de-sac by an EMI Radiohead associate with clout and taste, Cale's unlikely major label comeback has attracted a relatively sparse ...
Interview by Paul Trynka, MOJO, February 2007
What drives the Velvets' viola-wielding Welsh polymath who tutored Nick Drake and Patti Smith, quit drugs for clothes and suffered 40 years of Lou Reed? ...
John Cale meets LCD Soundsystem
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 15 June 2007
They are both stars of New York's music scene – pioneers of the coolest pop, separated by 30 years. James Murphy and John Cale get ...
Cold, Black Style: The John Cale Interview
Interview by Mark Mordue, Rock's Backpages, January 2010
N.B. An edited version of this story appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald Spectrum on January 2, 2010. ...
"You Can't Escape Your Influences" Mark Lanegan's Favourite Albums
Interview by Julian Marszalek, The Quietus, 26 January 2012
In one of our best Baker's Dozens yet, Mark Lanegan talks Julian Marszalek through the most-played discs in his collection. ...
Overview by Graeme Thomson, The Word, March 2012
Because sometimes the only way musicians can actually talk to each other is by writing songs ...
John Cale: Shifty Adventures In Nookie Wood
Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, Fall 2012
IT'S UNFAIR THAT, almost half a century since their formation, John Cale remains best known for his role as co-founder of the Velvet Underground. ...
"Danger: Depressing": John Cale's Music for a New Society
Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Domino Records, January 2016
JOHN CALE'S Music for a New Society startled in 1982 and it startles in 2016. It was markedly at odds not only with the synthetic ...
John Cale: Fragments of a Rainy Season
Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Domino Records, December 2016
THOUGH FRAGMENTS of a Rainy Season is the fourth live album released by John Cale in his post-Velvet Underground career, it's the first to feature ...
see also Velvet Underground, The
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