"You can easily end up just being a techno guy if you're not careful. You have got to have some humanity in there."John Cale
John Cale setlists
Touring in The Eighties
Cale was all over the place during the Eighties. There were ambitious projects like The Nine Lives Of Gordon Liddy, his first outings as a solo perfomer with just a guitar and a piano (from 1983 onwards), coke fueled chaotic shows, and trying his hand at classical music for an orchestra in 1987, and reuniting with Lou Reed in 1989 to pay tribute to Andy Warhol.
The Nine Lives Of Gordon Liddy
Performs the song cycle The Nine Lives Of Gordon Liddy at the Squat Theater in New York on May 24 and 25, 1980.
Gordon Liddy was one of the Watergate burglars. It combines older songs - Only Time Will Tell (Sabotage/Live), later to be released material like Thoughtless Kind (Music For A New Society), Streets of Laredo (Honi Soit) coupled with Cable Hogue (Helen Of Troy), and unreleased pieces: Cold Country Comfort and Coming Around Again.
"Convergence" shows with Bob Neuwirth
He plays four "Convergence" shows with American folk singer and visual artist Bob Neuwirth at The Kitchen in New York (September 9, 10 & 11 - early and late, 1982):
"John Cale and Bob Neuwirth present a series of new works. by both artists. With Ruskin Germino. John Cale, piano, vocals, viola and guitar; Bob Neuwirth, guitar and vocals; Ruskin Germino, tenor saxophone."
New York Times critic John Rockwell came away with mixed feelings in his review:
"The result was morose, in two senses. Most of the songs were depressed and depressing. And neither man matched his own best accomplishments of the past; because Mr. Cale had further to fall, the distance in his case was greater. Mr. Cale's viola playing was still very pretty, and the final suite, with Mr. Neuwirth's narrations and Mr. Cale's technically clumsy but doggedly impassioned piano playing, had its moments. But mostly the evening was one for sad reminisence, for both performers and audience."
Screams and substances
His cocaine addiction often resulted in shambolic shows - one of them was caught on tape for German TV at a gig in Essen (October 10, 1984). His audience wanted him to scream and he obliged, backed by a band at whom he yelled the chord changes. Part of a typical early 1984 show, recorded in London (February 26) was released on the John Cale Comes Alive album.
He cleans up his act after the birth of his daughter Eden in 1985:
"I took a year off to be a father. I wanted to learn parenting. Then I decided, okay, I'm not going to go out and tour and leave my family, and I'm not going to take my family with me. I'll do something that would be a compromise: I'll write more classical pieces."
Falklands Suite
He does a lot of movie soundtracks and composes the ambitious Falklands Suite, setting four poems by Dylan Thomas to music. The world premiere is at the Paradiso, Amsterdam, The Netherlands - November 14 and 15, 1987. It is the first time he plays a live concert with a full orchestra and a children's choir. The November 15 show was filmed by Dutch television. The suite is later recorded for the Words For The Dying album.
"This was a period of much creativity. Yet the sessions seemed to be longer and more tiring as they proceeded. The orchestration had to wait another nine months and had it not been for a proposal of the Paradiso Club in Amsterdam that I give a performance of the poems with the Metropole Orchestra, this piece might have died there and then. It forced my hand and I went to work immediately. My having a tape recording of the performance was an importantfactor in the future of the piece. I sent a copy to Brian Eno, how had by now established Opal Records via Warner Brothers, and the enthusiasm Brian showed for the piece was immediate and very gratifying."
Songs for Drella
On January 7 and 8, 1989 Cale and Lou Reed perform a selection of the song cycle Songs for Drella in the Church of St. Anne's in Brooklyn, New York. Billed as a work-in-progress at this stage, the musical tribute to Andy Warhol, co-commissioned by Arts at St. Ann's and The Brooklyn Academy of Music, is their first musical collaboration since 1968.
The first full version is played on 29 and 30 November, and 2 and 3 December at the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York. On the last date they are joined onstage by Maureen Tucker for the encore of Pale Blue Eyes. An extra perfromance without an audience is taped on December 4 or 5 for the Songs for Drella live video.
» Fresh Cale
Order the remastered and expanded Paris 1919 album (2LP, CD) via Domino Records
Order the remastered and expanded The Academy in Peril album (LP, CD) via Domino Records
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