And If You Give Me Half A Chance, I'd Do It Now!!! - John Cale

John Cale


I guarantee you this guy has made some music that is not what you expect of him. Unless of course you are intimately familiar with John Cale's entire career, in which case you should be the one writing about him.

All right I'm gonna back up a bit. Maybe there are people reading this who don't know who John Cale is. If so, hoorah! It means my blog has extended beyond just Brandon, Holly and Volvo! All right then. I'm not gonna do a whole history here cuz that's easy to find elsewhere (Julian said "everyone believes the wiki") but just some general stuff. Like any other Cale fan, I checked him out because of his old band. "Oh great, another one of those guys people say I should know cuz of his old band. You f-in' smug hipsters think that you know more than I know."  Okay, fair point. I'm sorry. But he wasn't a member of some little obscure cool band that only my friend Pete knows. He was in the Velvet F@#kin' Underground!!!! Cale was the electric viola player on sonic assaults to the system like this.

So anyway, the Velvet Underground entered their "Can't tell Lou Reed from Doug Yule" phase and Cale went solo. Since Cale never reached the fame of Lou Reed his solo albums were hard to find and therefore held in mythical reverence by 19 year old Greg.  I would have ranked his album "Paris 1919" in the top ten before I even heard it based on reputation and my audio imagination. And then, I discovered e-mail groups and tape trading. And of course, my first reaction was disappointment. Cale's music didn't conform to my original expectations. Where's the wild screaming viola shrieking?

I thought John Cale was a viola player with punk rock sensibilities. What I found out was that John Cale is a diverse musical genius who plays the viola (and about 10,000 other instruments.) Oh and he's a way better singer than Lou Reed (you tell me that to 1992 Greg he's gonna punch you, but since that guy's about 150 pounds and just graduated from a private school the punch won't hurt.) So I took some time to absorb the sounds he gave me and I grew to appreciate them. Cuz eventually you find that the genre/style doesn't always matter. The spirit of the artist shines through. If you love "Venus In Furs" you might find what you're looking for in "The Academy In Peril."  Maybe not on first listen, but it's there.

Oh, then I discovered the mid to late 70s Cale. Not only was it everything I was growing to love, it was a lot of what I had originally expected. Holy shit man, "Leaving It Up To You" is kind of a scary song!! But then again, fear is a man's best friend. And if you can't handle this music, it's cuz you got no guts!!

As usual, I hope there is someone reading this (okay I could end the sentence right there) who knows Cale's work better than me. I'm just now starting to delve into his post 2000 work a little bit. Guide me if you so desire. Otherwise, just play the songs below and turn them up loud enough to scare the cats!


Amazing live version of "Leaving It Up To You" I just found today

Sabotage/Live full album

Yeah well I prefer pretty melodies

Buy John Cale's music on Amazon


P.S. If you can spot the multiple Fall references here you win a prize. The prize is just my appreciation though.

P.P.S. I once earned extra credit in an African American History course based on knowledge I gained from a John Cale record.