Try To Separate Me From My Life

A belated happy birthday to John Cale on 9th March. Last year (and on time), I posted several videos; in November, I then got excited about the prospect of a new JC album (Mercy, which was released at the beginning of 2023. But this is the first John Cale selection I've compiled and posted on this blog.

For reasons which may become clear soon - but not here - I've been revisiting John Cale's music recently. There is so, so much to immerse yourself in that even trying to distill some of that into an hour long selection is a daunting task.

A couple of rules: The Velvet Underground and other collaborations were fair game but had to include John on lead (or at least prominent) vocals. I also stopped at 2012's Shifty Adventures In Nookie Wood, so nothing from M:FANS, Cale's 2016 return to Music For A New Society, or Mercy. 

With seventeen solo studio albums, singles, live performances, collaborations, The Velvet Underground and more, my 12-song selection neither collects all of the 'hits' and even attempts to cover all of the 'important' albums. More by accident than design, I have been able to broadly represent each decade from the 1960s to the 2010s; more importantly, I think these are all just good songs. If you haven't explored John Cale's music in depth before and this inspires you to, then I'll be a very happy person indeed.

1) Save Us (1975)

2) Overture: A Tourist / A Contact / A Prisoner: John Cale & Bob Neuwirth (1994)

3) Secret Corrida (1996)

4) Mercenaries (Ready For War) (Single Version) (1980)

5) Look Horizon (2003)

6) Broken Bird (Album Version) (1982)

7) Forever Changed: Lou Reed / John Cale (1990)

8) Guts (1975)

9) Hemmingway (2012)

10) Whaddya Mean By That? (Single Version) (2011)

11) The Gift (Album Version): The Velvet Underground (1968)

12) The Endless Plain Of Fortune (Album Version) (1973)

 

1968: White Light/White Heat: 11

1973: Paris 1919: 12

1975: Helen Of Troy: 1

1975: Slow Dazzle: 8

1980: Mercenaries (Ready For War) EP: 4 

1982: Music For A New Society: 6

1990: Songs For Drella: 7

1994: Last Day On Earth: 2

1996: Walking On Locusts: 3 

2003: HoboSapiens: 5

2011: Extra Playful EP: 10

2012: Shifty Adventures In Nookie Wood: 9

 

Try To Separate Me From My Life (1:00:30) (KF) (Mega)

In My Dreams I Wrote The Best Song I've Ever Written

Another random, eclectic selection for your listening pleasure.  

 

Fujiya & Miyagi start proceedings with a bold attempt at a New Order classic from Power Corruption & Lies, swiftly followed by a track from the sole EP from The Badgers, one of many (I've lost count now) bands that I've discovered thanks to the ever-wonderful music blog The Vinyl Villain. We then jump from Norfolk to the Netherlands, and 90s indie pop to 80s electro disco, with the Modern Danceable Music Company, who thankfully also used the acronym M.D.M.C. Ben Liebrand on the mix here, luckily a few years before he incorporated the break from Think (About It) by Lyn Collins in every bloody remix he produced.

 

Fast forward to a contemporary favourite - and the source of today's post title - the wonderful Courtney Barnett, remixed by the equally wonderful 10:40 aka Jesse Fahnestock. As the mix title suggests, most of the vocals have been excised but this is definitely a case of less is more, with a lovely dreamy vibe leading into Psychic TV's foray into vocal house music with 1990's Towards Thee Infinite Beat and remix companion Beyond Thee Infinite Beat.

 

A sharp swerve Psychic TV to Micah Blue Smaldone, who was brought to my attention earlier this month by The Swede, firstly via an excellent Imaginary Compilation Album at The Vinyl Villain then a follow up post on his own blog, Unthought Of, Though, Somehow. The Swede perfectly describes Micah Blue Smaldone as "an old-timey acoustic folk-blues troubadour [...] delivering a series of lyrically dense, folk-noir songs" and Time, the track featured here, was the stirring closer to his ICA. 

A trio of legends follow: John Cale collaborating with Bob Neuwirth and David Byrne almost remixed out of existence by Jack Dangers, the latter dovetailing into an early instrumental of The News About William, preceding the vocal version that appeared on Calexico's 2008 album Carried To Dust.

 

Bringing the selection to a close is Irish singer/songwriter Gemma Hayes who I first heard via her cover of Bob Dylan's Lay Lady Lay in 2004, which I featured with multiple other versions of the song in January this year. Iona features on Gemma's (to date) last album, 2014's Bones + Longing but Gemma's been back on the live circuit this month and is promising new music later in 2022.

 

1) Your Silent Face (Cover of New Order): Fujiya & Miyagi (2011)

2) Ragged Jack: The Badgers (1992)

3) How About It (12" Version By Ben Liebrand & Sander Bos): M.D.M.C. ft. Karin Klare & Margie Davies (1983)

4) History Eraser (10:40's Redacted Dub) (Remix By Jesse Fahnestock): Courtney Barnett (2021)

5) Horror House (Album Version): Psychic TV (1990)

6) Time: Micah Blue Smaldone ft. Colleen Kinsella (2013)

7) Who's In Charge?: John Cale & Bob Neuwirth (1994)

8) Ava (Nu Wage Mix By Jack Dangers): David Byrne (1991)

9) The News About William (Instrumental Version): Calexico (2007)

10) Iona: Gemma Hayes (2014) 

1983: How About It EP: 3

1990: Towards Thee Infinite Beat: 5

1992: Picnic EP: 2

1994: Last Day On Earth: 7

2002: Pro.File 1: Meat Beat Manifesto/Jack Dangers Remix Collection: 8

2007: Tool Box: 9

2011: Power Corruption & Lies Covered (Mojo magazine promo CD): 1

2013: The Ring Of The Rise: 6 

2014: Bones + Longing: 10

2021: Left Behind Blues EP: 4

 

In My Dreams (45:25)