Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod the Mod finds his solo footing, headed for stardom, with the Faces in his wake.
6:00 AM GMT 22/06/2011
Features Disc of the day
John Cale
Fragments Of A Rainy Season
(Hannibal, 1992)
A man, a plan, a grand piano.
I've not had much luck with John Cale performances. Every time I decide to go and see the man live, secretly harbouring the Luddite-fan's wish that he will just be sitting at the piano, under a single spotlight playing "the hits", I'm treated to "very special" one-off showcases of pop-electronica, experimental new directions or some collaborative exploration of the limits of modern composition in which John constantly defers to a dull man on a very high chair, playing an input board. I know he still does the hits in Spartan circumstances but, just, you know, not when I'm around. The problem, and the solution, lies with this album. I first heard Fragments Of A Rainy Season when it came out, in 1992. I was 26, with limited Cale education and I was floored. Recorded live with just grand piano on his 1992 European tour, this is John Cale's oeuvre stripped of its production, art attack and orchestration. Cold, clear and unadorned, minus Phil Manzanera's guitar, the songs blossom anew: beautiful, cryptic snapshots of lives lived in the shade of high trees, the death-stricken houses of Dylan Thomas land, and Somerset Maugham short stories bleached to their bones in the midday sun. The live set-up - just a man and a piano staring out into the dark - perfectly suits the solitary mood at the heart of songs like Dying On The Vine, The Ballad Of Cable Hogue and Buffalo Ballet, these hallucinatory dispatches home from attenuated wayfarers who've cut off all ties or only wish they could. It's an album that plays best at night-time, in winter, sleep becalmed under the mile-off moon, when everyone else in the house is elsewhere. Only then can you still enjoy Cale's definitive version of Hallelujah, untainted by Shrek, Buckley, X Factor and American Idol. And oddly, given that holy grail of the solo Cale performance, it works better without pictures. YouTube has a handful of clips from the same 1992 tour and they just don't hold the magic in the way this CD does. Lights out for the territory.
Andrew Male
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 17/12/2010
Further Listening
John Cale - Music For A New Society (Ze, 1982)
John Cale - Sabotage (Spy, 1979)
Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall, 1971 (Reprise, 2007)
Previous Disc of the day
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Earl Brutus - Larky
Last salvo of Ginsters Pasty-Warholism from Britpop ramraiders.
12:04 PM GMT 08/06/2011
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Loudon Wainwright - T-Shirt
An overlooked small wonder from an unpredictable career.
6:00 AM GMT 03/06/2011
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Landscape - From The Tea-rooms Of Mars… To The Hell-holes Of Uranus
Dry computer club Futurists, upon hitting implausible chart paydirt.
6:00 AM GMT 17/05/2011
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Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
Epic Danish jams, for when the neighbours get you down.
6:00 AM GMT 12/05/2011
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Comments
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Good call. Cale's take on "Heartbreak Hotel" on this record gives me goosebumps.
Posted by Danson at 11:37 PM GMT 23/12/2010 Report Abuse
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Well, it's a nicely album. Cale at piano (and at guitar) shines with his sharp voice in wonderful nude takes of classics like "Chinese Envoy", "A Child's Christmas in Wales", "Buffalo Ballett", "Thoughtless Kind", "(I Keep A( Close Watch"...... And a spare "Hallelujah", in the same high level of sadly gone spanish cantaor Enrique Morente (included in "Omega").
This record is a must in Cale's career.
Posted by carneham at 11:27 AM GMT 26/12/2010 Report Abuse
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I admire and respect John Cale as much as anyone but this has been the Disc of the day for nearly three weeks.Isn't there any other disc Mojo wishes to put in this slot?
Posted by Bokonon at 3:33 AM GMT 05/01/2011 Report Abuse
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Oi, Mojo, pull yer fuckin' finger out!
Posted by Simon Cowell at 12:06 PM GMT 06/01/2011 Report Abuse
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Posted by Thaliaadvit at 5:21 PM GMT 06/01/2011 Report Abuse
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Posted by wowgold at 7:38 AM GMT 17/01/2011 Report Abuse
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Some of the you-tube clips are from the same concert as the cd
Posted by gaza at 3:35 PM GMT 21/03/2011 Report Abuse
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RE: gaza
Yes.
Posted by AM at 4:44 PM GMT 23/03/2011 Report Abuse
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