John Cale setlists 1979

New York 1979-10-15

Studio rehearsals with David Bowie at the Ciarbis studio in New York on October 15. Cale on piano and Bowie singing. Note: the back cover of the Two Gentlemen in New York 7" bootleg claims the tracks were recorded on October 5th, which is wrong since Cale was performing in Kansas City on that day. It is highly likely that the songs were recorded on October 15th instead.

Setlist

Velvet Couch
Piano La

On meeting Bowie:

"David and I didn’t actually meet until I first went back to New York, after I’d done Patti [Smith]. When we did that bootleg, it was like the good old bad old days. We were partying very hard. It was exciting working with him, as there were a lot of possibilities and everything, but we were our own worst enemies at that point."

"We also played that show for Steve Reich and Philip Glass. That was a lot of fun. That was when we were hanging out, so I asked David if he’d like to come and play Sabotage with me. I ended up teaching him the viola part, which he had a whack at and then ended up playing on stage for the first time."

"Did I ever want to produce Bowie? After spending time with him, I realised the answer was no. The way we were then would have made it too dangerous. Nowadays it would be different, though. He could improvise songs very well, which was what that bootleg was all about. The great thing about when we met and then started hanging out in the ’70s was that he would say [puts on thick Welsh accent] “That’s Dai Jones from Wales, isn’t it?” He loved all that. That set us off. We got along really well, but most of what we were doing was just partying."