John Cale - Producer
Searching for sound
Cale has been busy producing artists since the late Sixties, when he captured the raw sound of the Stooges and the teutonic tones of Nico.
Production jobs came and went (and sometimes fell through), but he is still in demand by acts who want "Producer: John Cale" in the liner notes of their albums.
- Last added: Snatch - Shopping For Clothes/Joey/Red Army (1980)
"I really love producing other artists. I love helping someone achieve his goals. I always try to approach it from the point of view, "What would a Zen master do in these circumstances?' And that is not to give the artist a direct answer to all his questions, but to suggest a solution by other means. You've got to stick to what you believe in. It might be lucrative for me to work with a particular personality, but if I don't feel sympathetic to what he's doing, I'm just letting myself down. And you lose all your credibility if you do that."
» More producing quotes
Producing overview
After the Quadrophonic project for rival record label Columbia fails to take off, Cale joins Warners as a staff producer in 1971. He moves from New York to Los Angeles.
Warners hopes to make a quadrophonic version of A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick. The
costs of refitting the theatres for the new sound are too high to make it happen.
Cale however was not compatible with big company big bucks producing methods and he left in 1975. He has been freelancing ever since.
In the Seventies he produced the classic Horses album by the Patti Smith Group.
In the Eighties he produced New Wave groups like Made for TV and Belgian singers of the Lio variety.
The Nineties found Cale producing the New Zealand act Garageland, Les Nouvelles Polyphonies Corses, Siouxsie & The Banshees and the Breton Alan Stivell.
He made the British musical ensemble Mediæval Baebes sound like 21th century angels.
Latest finished production job: The Boxing Mirror, an album by Alejandro Escovedo, released May 2, 2006.
Shelved Ambulance LTD recordings
In 2007 Cale was producing a new Ambulance LTD album with that band's last remaining member, Marcus Congleton. The results have never been released officially, because the record label went bust.
Conflict & Catalysis: Productions & Arrangements 1966-2006
Twenty Cale produced tracks can be found on the John Cale - Conflict & Catalysis: Productions & Arrangements 1966-2006 album.
More?
It's hard to keep track of everybody he had his hands on.
Any additions? Use the form.
Albums, EP's and singles produced by Cale
| Artist | Album | Year |
|---|---|---|
|
||
| Ambulance LTD | (never released) | 2007 |
| Art Bergmann | Crawl With Me | 1988 |
| Chistina | Disco Clone | 1978 |
| Chunky, Novi and Ernie | Chunky, Novi and Ernie | 1974 |
| Element of Crime | Try to be Mensch | 1987 |
| Alejandro Escovedo | The Boxing Mirror | 2006 |
| Louise Feron | Amour Fou | 1991 |
| Louise Feron | Louise Feron | 1991 |
| Garageland | Feel alright | 1997 |
| Goya Dress | Glorious | 1996 |
| Goya Dress | Rooms | 1996 |
| Happy Mondays | Squirrel And G-man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out) | 1987 |
| Happy Mondays | Loads (& Loads More) | 1995 |
| Harry Toledo & The Rockets | Harry Toledo & The Rockets | 1978 |
| Jesus Lizard | Jesus Lizard | 1998 |
| David Kubinec | Some Things Never Change | 1978 |
| Larry and Tommy | Yo-Yo | 1968 |
| Lio | Popmodel | 1986 |
| Made For TV | So Afraid of the Russians/Unknown Soldier | 1983 |
| Maids of Gravity | The First Second | 1996 |
| Marie et Les Garçons | Attitudes/Re-Bop | 1978 |
| Mediæval Baebes | Undrentide | 2000 |
| Menace | I Need Nothing (single) | 1977 |
| Model Citizens | Shift the Blame (ep) | 1979 |
| Modern Guy | Une Nouvelle Vie | 1980 |
| Modern Lovers | Modern Lovers | 1973 |
| Necessaries | You Can Borrow My Car / Runaway Child (single) | 1979 |
| Nico | Desertshore | 1970 |
| Nico | The End | 1974 |
| Nico | Camera Obscura | 1985 |
| Nico | The Frozen Borderline 1968-1970 | 2007 |
| Les Nouvelles Polyphonies Corses | In Paradisu | 1996 |
| Los Ronaldos | Sabor Salado | 1990 |
| Sham 69 | I Don't Wanna / Red London / Ulster (single) | 1977 |
| Silverhead | Sixteen And Savaged | 1973 |
| Siouxsie & The Banshees | The Rapture | 1994 |
| Patti Smith Group | Horses | 1975 |
| Snatch | Shopping For Clothes/Joey/Red Army | 1980 |
| Squeeze | Packet of Three (EP) | 1977 |
| Squeeze | Squeeze | 1978 |
| Squeeze | Wrong Way (single) | 1979 |
| Alan Stivell | I Douar | 1998 |
| Stooges | Stooges | 1969 |
| Harry Toledo & The Rockets | Harry Toledo & The Rockets | 1978 |
| Various Artists | Sixteen Candles | 1984 |
| Various Artists | Caged/Uncaged | 1993 |
| Ventilator | desert station frequency | 1999 |
| Big Vern | Lullabies for Lager Louts | 1989 |
| Jennifer Warnes | Jennifer | 1972 |
