Soul Station π: Special 7
Listen @ Your Leisure.
John Cale 2 The Island Records Show
I did an earlier show that featured Cale's work after parting company with the Velvet Underground. Those early recordings are quite pop and feature delicate, shimmering melodies and first reveal Cale's interest in songs that have a debt to the Beach Boys. Once he had signed to Island, he began to further experiment in this vein, often using pumping piano parts that resemble Brian Wilson's borrowings from Fats Domino and Huey Smith. At the same time, Cale began to producing music that rocked harder than earlier works and incorporated narrative voices that are maniacal, deluded and horrifically violent. I have tried to balance these two very different sides of his work while with Island in the new show.
Broken into two sets, the opener features the title track from his debut, FEAR, and then tracks the entire second side. The second set is four varying gems from Slow Dazzle. The contract between the retributive voice of Guts and the mournful paean to Brian Wilson, Mr. Wilson, is stark and hard to miss. The tracks from Helen of Troy, which was released by Island before Cale was through mixing it, continue the contract between ‘ballads’ and something like hard rock fueled once again by dark, disturbed narrators. It ends with the touching lilt of I Keep A Close Watch, a song that has been in Cale's live concerts since Helen of Troy, usually performed as a solo piano piece. Much more music is coming and we all hope that my large backlog of shows, Chicago Rock, Soul/Blues/Funk, single artist tributes and lots of wild, subversive Latin Soul and Boogaloo, will be on-line soon! Till then, keep following Soul Station π to sparkle your ears and delight your feet.
FEATURING...
Set 1
- Gun
John Cale - The Man Who Couldn't Afford To Orgy
John Cale - You Know More Than I Know
John Cale - Momamma Scuba
John Cale
Set 2
- Taking It All The Way
John Cale - Rollaroll
John Cale - Guts
John Cale - Mr. Wilson
John Cale
Set 3
- Cable Houge
John Cale - Pablo Picasso
John Cale - Leaving It Up To You
John Cale - I Keep A Close Watch
John Cale