John Cale Biography
9 March 1942, Garnant, Carmarthenshire, Wales. Cale was a student of viola and keyboards at London’s Goldsmith’s college when introduced to electronic music. In 1963 he won a Leonard Bernstein scholarship to study modern composition at the Eastman Conservatory in Massachusetts, but later moved to New York where he joined the Dream Syndicate, an avant garde ensemble founded by LaMonte Young. It was during this period that Cale began playing rock and the following year he met Lou Reed through a mutual association with Pickwick Records. Sceptical of the company’s desire for exploitative releases, the duo left to form a group that later evolved into the Velvet Underground. Cale remained with this highly influential act until 1968, during which time his experimental predisposition combined with Reed’s grasp of pop’s traditions to create a truly exciting lexicon, embodied to perfection in ‘Sister Ray’ from White Light/White Heat. Cale’s contribution to the Velvet Underground should not be under emphasized, a fact enhanced by the shift in style that followed his summary dismissal from the line-up.
Cale produced The Marble Index for Nico, the first of several collaborations with the former Velvets chanteuse, and worked with the Stooges, before embarking on a solo career with 1970’s Vintage Violence. Those anticipating a radical set were pleasantly surprised by the melodic flair that marked its content. However, Church Of Anthrax, a rather unsatisfactory pairing with Terry Riley, and the imaginative The Academy In Peril, reaffirmed his experimental reputation. While working for the Warner Brothers Records label in studio production and A&R, he assembled a backing band that included the services of Little Feat members Lowell George and Richard Hayward. Together they recorded the haunting Paris 1919, which continued the popular style of Cale’s debut and remains, for many, the artist’s finest work. Cameos on albums by Nick Drake and Mike Heron preceded a spell with the UK-based Island Records. Cale’s first album for the label, Fear, included a selection of compositions both overpoweringly dense and light-hearted. It featured Brian Eno, who also contributed to the follow-up, Slow Dazzle, and appeared with Cale, Nico and Kevin Ayers (as ACNE) on June 1, 1974. Such a punishing schedule undermined Cale’s creativity, a fact exemplified in the disappointing Helen Of Troy, but his production on Patti Smith’s Horses nonetheless enhanced the urgency of this exemplary work. Now fêted by the punk audience, Cale’s own recordings increasingly borrowed ideas rather than introducing them and he hit an artistic trough with the onstage beheading of a chicken, which led to his band walking out on him. However, the striking Music For A New Society marked a renewed sense of adventure, adeptly combining the popular and cerebral. The personal tribulations of the 70s now behind him, Cale continued to offer innovative music, and 1989’s Words For The Dying matched his initial work for purpose and imagination. Songs For Drella, a 1990 collaboration with Lou Reed that paid tribute to their recently deceased former mentor, Andy Warhol, was rightly lauded by critics and audiences alike. Cale was part of the Velvet Underground reunion in 1993 but old wounds between himself and Reed resurfaced, and Cale soon returned to recording his solo albums. The experimental 5 Tracks and HoboSapiens, both released in 2003, contained some of his most radical and experimental work to date, a remarkable achievement for an artist now into his sixties. Cale is also a highly respected soundtrack composer, with credits including scores for I Shot Andy Warhol, Basquiat, American Psycho, and Beautiful Mistake.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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