Timeline: 1994
Seducing Down The Door: A Collection 1970-1990
Rhino Records releases the extensive 2-CD compilation in a slipcase with a booklet: Seducing Down The Door: A Collection 1970-1990. The label used a rather corny text for the hype sticker on the slipcase:
The only comprehensive anthology of this alternative godfather!
38 tracks on 2 CDs spanning 20 years (1970 - 1990) including rare and unreleased tracks plus detailed sessionography with photos and commentary from Cale!
This compilation includes rare tracks like Jack The Ripper and Dixieland And Dixie. Also of interest are the two included tracks from Comes Alive, an album that never was released on CD.: Waiting For The Man and Ooh La La (albeit in a quite different mix). The booklet contains liner notes by Barry Alfonso.
Life Underwater
American director Zoe Beloff collaborates with Cale in the creation of "an hour long B/W 16mm Film/3D Side/Music live-performance piece (...) commissioned by The Arts at St. Ann's." Cale and the Soldier String Quartet accompany screenings of the film on April 22 and 23.
Cale premiered Life Underwater in 1987 in New York.
Last Day On Earth
Release of Last Day On Earth, an album with Bob Neuwirth, 'a blueprint for theatre'. The theatre piece never happens. The music is performed live during an extensive tour in Europe, playing shows in Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Belgium, France and the Netherlands.
"When I got through with Drella I went to St Ann's and got them to commission the project. Then MCA popped up and said lets do it. I'd known Bob for years and we jumped at the chance. I don't know any record label who could have foreseen what this piece was going to be. I'm really gratified with the results...the concept is pretty expansive. The thread between the songs could have been pretty much anything. There are so many hooks thrown away in the record that you could fashion more than one story. It depends on what kind of story you want to tell, whether you want a romantic story, a tragic story, or a social commentary story...all those are possible as the record stands."
- Cale interview (art+performance magazin)
Opening the Archa Theatre in Prague
On June 5 Cale performs at the festive opening of the Archa Theatre in Prague, collaborating with the Japanese dancer Min Tanaka.
In the course of the evening, a word about the not-so-easy communication of different cultures sounded in the opening short speech of the director of the Archa Theatre Ondrej Hrab. John Cale had a relatively easier situation, as he only introduced his music to a confrontation - a momentary reaction for Tanaka was precise. For the greater part, Cale alternated the pre-recorded compositions with live performances of a piano repertoire including his most recent works (Chinese Envoy, Broken Hearts,...) and one (completely disharmonic) guitar solo to a pre-recorded composition. At first it seemed that the expression of the much more proportionate in the shadows of the intensity of expressions of the milder and entirely more abstract Min Tanaka was exposed to a confrontation of everything that came into his world from elsewhere - the gradually brought attention to a stronger experience that was strongly built on communication. The absolutely concentrated Tanaka (for several years, he was holder of the title Best Dancer in the Empire) gradually wandered through the evening. He started with barely visible movements, and near the end, he was already responding to the rhythm of the piano. At the end, John Cale acknowledged that the evening emerged from both sides: the meditation, the supple improvisation on the borders of harmony and disharmony was a magical approach to the exact imprint of the present moment.
The show was filmed for Czech TV and broadcasted in 1995.
Acoustic Paris 1919 on "In Their Own Words, Vol. 2"
Plays an acoustic version of Paris 1919 on the In Their Own Words, Vol. 2 album, recorded live at The Bottom Line in New York on March 24, 1994.
"The concept for In Their Own Words was developed by Allan Pepper and Vin Scelsa during the first part of 1990. Their aim was to create a special kind of musical performance - one that struck a balance between concert and interview, allowing artists to open up their vast stores of musical resources, and share insight into the process of songwriting."
Torture and Modernity: Self, Society and Iran
Cale takes part in the spoken word performances at Thread Waxing Space in New York (June 15, 16 and 17) for the Memory Broadcast Network, reading cut-up pieces from "Torture and Modernity: Self, Society and Iran", , whilst the art scenery moved around him. It was an unpublished book at the time, written by Darius M. Rejali, who is a professor of political science at Reed College in Portland.
Piano for Vince Bell
Bob Neuwirth invites Cale to play piano on American singer-songwriter Vince Bell's debut album Phoenix. Geoff Muldaur plays banjo, mandolin and guitars.
My Friend the Chocolate Cake cover "Chinese Envoy"
Australian folk rock group My Friend the Chocolate Cake cover Chinese Envoy on their Throwing It All Away CDEP. The track can also be found on their Brood album.
Ah Pook Is Here soundtrack
Writes the soundtrack for the short animation movie Ah Pook Is Here. Directed by Phillip Hunt, written by John Carter. Voice by writer William S. Burroughs. Produced at the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. Cale contributed to the Dead City Radio Burroughs tribute album released in 1990.
Rare On Air: Cordoba
Contributes an unplugged version of Cordoba on Rare On Air Vol. 1 - KCRW Live Performances, a collection of performances recorded for the independent radio station broadcasting from Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California.
Producing Siouxsie & The Banshees
During the Summer he produces five tracks of Siouxsie & The Banshees' album The Rapture: Tearing Apart, Falling Down The Lonely One, Forever and The Rapture. He mixed Fall from Grace. The album is released in 1995.
Tearing Apart is included on the Conflict & Catalysis: Productions & Arrangements 1966-2006 compilation album (2012).
Elvis - The Tribute Concert
Performs Heartbreak Hotel at Elvis - The Tribute Concert, live at The Pyramid Arena in Memphis, TN - October 8, 1994. Broadcasted as a pay-per-view special.
Performing Eat/Kiss
Performs Eat/Kiss with Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, USA, November 18/19, 1994.
Another version - recorded live with a string quartet and B.J. Cole on slide guitar at the Theatre Sebastopol in Lille, France on October 13, 1995, is released in 1997.
Your Pain Shall Be A Music
Performs the Dylan Thomas poem Your Pain Shall Be A Music on the Your Pain Shall Be A Music album, a collection of spoken word pieces for Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto.
Recording The Unknown
He is commissioned to write the music for a screening of the classic silent movie The Unknown for the Giornate del cinema muto de Pordenone in Italy (October 15). The American silent horror film was directed in 1927 by Tod Browning, and starring Lon Chaney.
Another performance is recorded for the The Unknown album at the Théatre de La Colline during the Cinémémoires Festival, Paris, France, on December 5th. Also performed in Brussels (October 18) and Lyon (December 8).
The soundtrack album is released in 1999.