John Cale
Fear Is A Man's Best Friend - John Cale

Solo albums

Wrong Way Up

Wrong Way Up

About this album

Released in 1990. Land LAND 012.

Tracks:

  1. Lay My Love
  2. One Word
  3. In The Backroom
  4. Empty Frame
  5. Cordoba
  6. Spinning Away
  7. Footsteps
  8. Been There Done That
  9. Crime In The Desert
  10. The River
Wrong Way Up reissue

The 2005 reissue comes with different cover art and contains bonus tracks.

North America

  1. You Don't Miss Your Water
  2. Palanquin

UK & Rest of the World

  1. Grandfather's House
  2. You Don't Miss Your Water

The 2020 reissue used the original cover art again and has these those bonus tracks worldwide:

  1. Grandfather's House
  2. Palanquin
Brian Eno and John Cale

Cale on collaborating with Eno:

"I was intrigued by the whole idea of working with Brian. There was never a question of, 'Well, I'll produce you and you produce me'. It was compartmentalized and cooperative at the same time. And I got elements in there of all the things I wanted Brian to have. I wanted Brian to belt out the songs; I got a little bit of that. And I got a style that we set for ourselves, which works just for the two os us. Especially the vocals work well. There's also something really english about this record that I like. It brought me back to what I would do if I was at home, a kid in Wales again. It's something I can't get away from, and Brian brought it out of me."

Brian Eno on the lyrics of Cordoba:

"I'm sure everything I do is riddled with paying attention to chance, so... OK, here's a good example. I've been learning Spanish for about 36 years [laughter] And I'm still not very good at it, but...When I was reading my Spanish book, I was reading this set of lines, exercises, and I thought, boy, these read like a poem. These lines from the Spanish book are the text... And they'd sort of go, um, I'll meet you in the square by the bakery. The lift stops between two floors, right, don't forget that. Um, I'll walk towards the station, you walk towards the bus... just going through the moves again and again. But the way John - that's John Cale, naturally - the way he sings it is this strange combination - sinister and tender at the same time."

All songs composed by John Cale and Brian Eno.

Musicians:
Robert Ahwai: rhythm guitar
John Cale: vocals, pianos, keyboards, bass, harp, horn, dumbek, viola, strings, omnichord
Nell Catchpole: violins
Rhett Davies: backing vocals
Brian Eno: vocals, keyboards, rhythm bed, Indian drum, guitars, Shinto bell, bass, little Nigerian organ
Bruce Lampcov: backing vocals
Daryl Johnson: bass
Ronald Jones: snare fills, bass drum, snare drum, tabla, drums
Bruce Lampcov: backing vocals
Dave Young: triplet guitars, bending guitar, bass, guitar

Other credits:
Produced by Brian Eno. Co-produced by John Cale
Cover picture by Brian Eno
Typography by Kevin Cann
Art and design by Brian Eno and Kevinn Cann
Recorded at Brian Eno's Wilderness Studio, Suffolk, United Kingdom, between April and July 1990
Recordings engineered by Brian Eno, except John Cale's vocals recordings, which were engineered by Dave Young in Woodbridge, and 'Oz' at Platinum Island, New York on Footsteps and In The Backroom
Mixing: Rhett Davies, Bruce Lampcov and Brian Eno at AIR Studios, London, early August 1990
Mastering: Tony Cousins at Townhouse Cutting Room and Stephen Marcussen at precision Lacquer, Hollywood, USA

One Word

Singles

The following 12 inches, CD singles and CDEP's were released during the release of Wrong Way Up.

One Word / Grandfather's House / Palanquin
(w. Brian Eno)
12 inch. October 1990.
Land LANT 04, UK

One Word / Grandfather's House / Palanquin
(w. Brian Eno)
CDEP. October 1990.
Land LANH 04, UK

Spinning Away (Edit) / Grandfather's House / Palaquin
12 inch. 1990.
(w. Brian Eno)
Opal/Warner Bros. 7599-21826-0, Germany

Spinning Away (Edit) / Grandfather's House / Palaquin
CD maxi single inch. 1990.
(w. Brian Eno)
Opal/Warner Bros. 7599-21826, Germany

Spinning Away / Grandfather's House
(w. Brian Eno)
7 inch 45rpm single. 1990.
Picture sleeve
Opal/Warner Bros. 5439-19475-7, Germany

One Word / Empty Frame / You Don't Miss Your Water / One Word (The Woodbridge Mix) / Grandfather's House
(w. Brian Eno)
CDEP. 1991.
One Word is a 3:38 edited version. Empty Frame same as on the album version. You Don't Miss Your Water taken form the Eno album Married To The Mob. Grandfather's House previously unreleased.
Opal/Warner Bros. 9 40001-2, USA

Words and Music from Wrong Way Up promo CD

Words and Music from Wrong Way Up promo CD

The Words and Music from Wrong Way Up promo CD is send out to the press in 1991. It is credited to Brian Eno. It is 27 minutes long and has Eno talking between and/or over six songs form the album, and he talks about Cale a lot, being very candid about how difficult and even stormy their working relationship was while making the record, but also how pleased with the results of their collaboration he is. Back insert is a color video self-portrait of Eno along with a quote mentioning that his co-writing the one track on Words For The Dying (The Soul of Carmen Miranda) with John led to them making Wrong Way Up.


© 1999- Hans Werksman