John Cale

This was good for the information, but you have to work for it. What the hell was up with the editing? Or the lack of it? It reads like an exact transcription of Cale talking about his life--so much of it is him talking in circles, and there are typos like crazy. The layout of the text made it difficult to read at times, though after reading a recent interview with Cale, I found that was intentional and meant to resemble TV (which makes sense as I can't bear to watch most TV anymore...and show more anyway, it seems it would have been more apropos had it been published a decade prior). Ah well. I'm a big fan of Cale's solo work as well as his time with the VU, so I'm glad I picked this up. I was amused to find this was co-written by the same guy who wrote Lou Reed's bio--which my dad read while he waited for me to finish music lessons in 9th grade and regaled me with juicy stories when I returned--so I am both curious to read Reed's side but reluctant if the ridiculousness of the text is Bockris' doing. show less

While Cale specificaly chose typographical obstacles to making this an easy read, the autobiography is a fascinating tour of the career, accomplishments and missteps of this VU founder, punk hero, and avant-garde musician.

The only recording of the “classic” Theater of Eternal Music (ToEM) ensemble of John Cale, Tony Conrad, Angus MacLise, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela to emerge is the August 8, 2000 release of Inside the Dream Syndicate, Vol. 1: Day of Niagara. The formal title of this by La Monte Young's dating/cataloging method is "25 IV 65 c. 8:15-8:45 PM NYC day of niagra". The spelling of "niagra" is from hand drummer/artist Angus MacLise's calendar. The disc is only 30 minutes long and has very show more distorted sound. Angus MacLise's hand drums are barely audible as a dull thump for only the first several minutes and the drone vocals (sort of an "OM" sound) of La Monte Young are only rarely heard (Marian Zazeela maybe not at all) and the sound is dominated by Conrad's and Cale's red-zone strings. Still, it is a rare chance to hear an approximation of what the classic ToEM sounded like. For sound quality this is 1 star, for rarity value it is a 5. So let's call it a split as a 3.
Adapted from my original amazon.com notes on La Monte Young and The Theater of Eternal Music at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/1LRIRPRNIAZD2/ref=cm_srch_r... show less

1 No Artist– Van Gogh Boat
Voice [Spoken By] – Michael Wincott
Written-By [Dialogue] – Rene Ricard
0:10
2 Public Image Ltd.*– Public Image
Producer – Public Image Ltd.*
Written-By – J. Walker*, J. Lydon*, J. Wardle*, K. Levine*
2:58
3 Them (3)– It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Producer – Tommy Scott
Written-By – B. Dylan*
3:48
4 Nick Marion Taylor*– Suicide Hotline (Dialogue And Music Montage)
Producer, Engineer – Nick Marion Taylor*
Written-By – J. Schnabel*, N. M. Taylor*
Written-By show more [Dialogue] – Julian Schnabel
2:07
5 Toadies– I'm Not In Love
Mixed By – Paul Leary, Stuart Sullivan
Producer – Stuart Sullivan
Written-By – D. Byrne*
4:28
6 PJ Harvey– Is That All There Is?
Engineer – Head
Engineer [Additional] – John Parish
Producer – John Parish, Mick Harvey, PJ Harvey
Written-By – J. Leiber/M. Stoller*
5:07
7 Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel– White Lines
Producer – Sylvia Robinson
Written-By – M. Glover*, S. Robinson*
4:27
8 Tripping Daisy– Rise
Engineer – Eugene Rizzo, Keith Rust, Sia Ahmadzadeh
Producer – Tripping Daisy
Written-By – B. Laswell*, J. Lydon*
4:14
9 Joy Division– These Days
Producer – Joy Division, Martin Hannett
Written-By – B. Albrecht*, I. Curtis*, P. Hook*, S. Morris*
3:26
10 Brian Kelly– She Is Dancing
Engineer – Dave Lee
Producer – Brian Kelly, Julian Schnabel
Written-By – B. Kelly*, J. Schnabel*, P. Place*
2:54
11 Tom Waits– Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen)
Producer – Bones Howe
Written-By – T. Waits*
6:26
12 David Bowie– A Small Plot Of Land
Engineer – Dave Richards*
Producer – Brian Eno, David Bowie
Written-By – B. Eno*, D. Bowie*, E. Kizilcay*, M. Garson*, R. Gabrels*, S. Campbell*
2:48
13 The Pogues– Summer In Siam
Producer – Joe Strummer
Written-By – S. MacGowan*
4:05
14 Gavin Friday– The Last Song I'll Ever Sing
Mixed By – Tim Simenon
Producer – Tim Simenon
Producer [With] – Gavin Friday, Maurice Seezer
Written-By – G. Friday*, M. Seezer*
3:49
15 John Cale– Hallelujah
Producer – Jean-Michel Reusser, John Cale
Written-By – L. Cohen*
4:05 show less