Mix CD: The Essential John Cale

John Cale is cooler than Lou Reed. Not only is he a very nice man, the consistency of his albums also exceeds that of Lou. Still, you can't deny that Cale's 70's output is by far his greatest material, with the 3 albums Vintage Violence, Paris 1919 and Fear being his classics. This mix covers this era, ending with a tracks from his 1975 album Helen of Troy. I realize I didn't cover nearly as much ground in his career as I did for Lou Reed, yet the 5 years this mix spans was so musically productive for Cale, it was difficult enough narrowing it down. I chose to end it with "Leaving it Up to You," definitely the most deranged song on the mix. I of course had to represent the hockey mask wearing, chainsaw yielding, dead chicken decapitating side of Cale somewhere.

The Essential John Cale

1. Hello, There
2. Gideon's Bible
3. Big White Cloud
4. Amsterdam
5. Child's Christmas in Wales
6. Hanky Panky Nohow
7. Andalucia
8. Paris 191
9. Half Past France
10. Antarctica Starts Here
11. Fear is a Man's Best Friend
12. Ship of Fools
13. Gun
14. You Know Me More Than I Know
15. Darling I Need You
16. Guts
17. Helen of Troy
18. Cable Hogue
19. (I Keep A) Close Watch
20. Leaving it Up to You

John Cale Albums @Amazon.com

Mix CD: The Essential Lou Reed

Lou Reed is kind of a douche in real life. In this picture Lou Reed has some of the worst hair ever. However he still is Lou Reed. He still fronted a band that one could argue as the most influential band in Rock & Roll over the last half century. Still the guy has released a good share of crap. Apart from Transformer it's hard to pinpoint his essential albums, as people tend to be really polarized in opinion about his many other records. Still it's pretty safe to say that Berlin, Coney Island Baby, and New York are his other biggies.

Though with many artists if you neglect an album of theirs that is not particularly good overall, you may be neglecting a song or two that you'll be missing out on. See "Sally Can't Dance" for an example. Well what I'm getting to here is that I've created an essential Lou Reed mix. Now I'm not a huge Lou fan or anything, and to be perfectly honest I'm only especially familiar with Transformer and Berlin. So when I went out on this project I had to do a little research, both looking at previous Best of Lou mixes and last.fm charts to see what songs are the most beloved. Out of all the commercial compilations I found Wild Child to be the best, though it was a bit too heavy on Berlin. Not a bad thing in spirit, but when you're trying to give a career overview and include more than half of the songs on a single album you're not looking wide enough. Plus it's Berlin- putting most of the album's songs out of context and out of order is a bit ridiclous. On my mix I cut it down to 4- a lot but I couldn't bear to lose any of them. Also in terms of the Wild Child mix I got a kick out of how they included a minute and a half excerpt of Metal Machine Music. I had to go along with including that.

Here's the tracklist and link:

The Essential Lou Reed

1. Vicious
2. Satellite of Love
3. Walk on the Wild Side
4. Perfect Day
5. White Light-White Heat
6. How Do You Think It Feels
7. Carolina Says II
8. Berlin
9. Lady Day
10. Sad Song
11. Sally Can't Dance
12. Metal Machine Music (excerpt)
13. Coney Island Baby
14. Street Hassle
15. The Blue Mask
16. Legendary Hearts
17. I Love You Suzanne
18. Dirty Blvd.

I wish I could have included more from New York, but ran out of room. Street Hassle takes up a lot of space, but man on man is that a good one. I went along with the original compilation's inclusion of White Light/White Heat to represent Rock 'N Roll Animal due to space restrictions. I'm a bigger fan of the alternate arrangements of Sweet Jane and Herion, but unfortunately those were too long. The White Light arrangement though is pretty cool for taking it in a way different direction than the original. And though a lititle on the lame side, I had to include I Love You Suzanne.

The Essential John Cale is coming soon....

Lou Reed albums @ Amazon.com

Belle & Sebastion - Freak Scene, Dinosaur Jr. - Freak Scene (solo version)

Now this is odd. Belle & Sebastian, a gentle indie-pop band, covering Dinosaur Jr. one of the loudest most blistering bands of the 80's. However the cover works and works well. It goes to show you that despite being best known for their quiet-loud dynamic and use of feedback (which preceded the Pixies and of course Nirvana by several years), and uses of riffs and solos,
techniques the indie scene barely ventured before them, they had deeply rooted pop sensibilities. On the other hand it shows you that Belle & Sebastian has more balls than they are often given credit for.

This version of Freak Scene is a bit hard to come by. It's from a Peel Session in the early 2000's, when Dinosaur Jr. was still the J. Mascis project it had been since 1988. Of course, the full band reunited in 2005, and along with Mission of Burma are one of the few reunion acts who are not only as tight as they were in their heyday, but have recorded new material that holds up with their previous work.

Anyways, this version of the song is noteworthy as it is just J. with his acoustic guitar. However he still whips out the distortion at times, particularly during the solo.

Dinosaur Jr. - Freak Scene (Peel Session)
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Belle & Sebastian - Freak Scene (Live)
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Freak Scene music video


Freak Scene solo performance

Galaxie 500 - Fourth of July

One of my all-time favorites....

Galaxie 500 - Fourth of July
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Galaxie 500 - Fourth of July (live)
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I wrote a poem on a dog biscuit
And your dog refused to look at it
So I got drunk and looked at the Empire State Building
It was no bigger than a nickel

And if it don't improve
Then I have to move
I never thought that I would end up here
Maybe I should just change my style
But I feel alright when you smile

I stayed at home on the Fourth of July
And I pulled the shades so I didn't have to see the sky
And I decided to have a Bed In
But I forgot to invite anybody

And when I fell asleep
The neighbors had a peep
I never thought that I would end up here
Maybe I should just change my style
But I feel alright when you smile



Galaxie 500 - This is Our Music @amazon
Galaxie 500 - Copenhagen @amazon

Karen Dalton - Green Rocky Road

There's something absolutely fascinating about obscure folk artists who during their time never made much of an impact, but years later their music is somehow re-discovered and they finally come closer to receiving the respect they deserve. Now this isn't the case for all 60's and 70's folk artists who don't hit it big of course. Many are forgotten because frankly their music was forgettable. However Karen Dalton sure is not forgettable. During her lifetime she only released two albums, It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love in 1969 and In My Own Time in 1971. None of the songs on either of those albums were written by her, most being traditional songs, though there's the occasional popular cover. However she's one of the few artists who truly makes a cover their own, allowing listeners to get gloriously lost in her music and never even question who originally wrote the music. Bob Dylan, Nick Cave and Devendra Banhart all consider her their favorite female singer, and Joanna Newsom, Fred Neil, Lucinda Williams, the band Fleet Foxes among numerous others are big fans. Hey, "Katie’s Been Gone" from the Basement Tapes is apparently about her.

Recently she's been shaping up to what could be seen as a female Nick Drake, another artist who struggled to get their music heard during their live time, yet wasn't fully embraced until long after his death. Last year a song of her's was featured on the soundtrack for Margot at the Wedding, and earlier this month a new collection of hers was released, Green Rocky Road, containing recently unearthed two-track recordings from 1963.

This is the title track from the album-

Karen Dalton - Green Rocky Road

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Now a performance video from 1969 of the song "It Hurts Me Too"


Karen Dalton @ amazon

Don Lennon - John Cale

This is a song about John Cale.

Don Lennon - John Cale

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Hey let me tell you about my dream
There isn't really much to tell
At first I'm playing in the Velvet Underground
Then I'm speaking Welsh and then I can do the...

Then I'm on the West Coast
All fucked up on heroin and speed
And then I'm riding in the back of someone's car
And I'm saying all these nasty things about Lou Reed

Nobody can take my dream away

And then it's night time in New York
It's cold and I can see my breath
It's cold I think I'll maybe stop in for a drink
At the White Horse tavern where I drink myself to death

Don Lennon - Downtown @amazon

The Raincoats - Lola

How's this for a Kinks cover? Personally this is one of my favorite cover versions of all-time. It comes from the Raincoats s/t 1978 debut album, which has been sadly out of print for over a decade.
Fantastic stuff.

The Raincoats - Lola

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I met her in a club down in old soho
Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry-cola
C-o-l-a cola
She walked up to me and she asked me to dance
I asked her her name and in a dark brown voice she said lola
L-o-l-a lola lo-lo-lo-lo lola

Well I’m not the world’s most physical guy
But when she squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine
Oh my lola lo-lo-lo-lo lola
Well I’m not dumb but I can’t understand
Why she walked like a woman and talked like a man
Oh my lola lo-lo-lo-lo lola lo-lo-lo-lo lola

Well we drank champagne and danced all night
Under electric candlelight
She picked me up and sat me on her knee
And said dear boy won’t you come home with me
Well I’m not the world’s most passionate guy
But when I looked in her eyes well I almost fell for my lola
Lo-lo-lo-lo lola lo-lo-lo-lo lola
Lola lo-lo-lo-lo lola lo-lo-lo-lo lola

I pushed her away
I walked to the door
I fell to the floor
I got down on my knees
Then I looked at her and she at me

Well that’s the way that I want it to stay
And I always want it to be that way for my lola
Lo-lo-lo-lo lola
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls
It’s a mixed up muddled up shook up world except for lola
Lo-lo-lo-lo lola

Well I left home just a week before
And I’d never ever kissed a woman before
But lola smiled and took me by the hand
And said dear boy I’m gonna make you a man

Well I’m not the world’s most masculine man
But I know what I am and I’m glad I’m a man
And so is lola
Lo-lo-lo-lo lola lo-lo-lo-lo lola
Lola lo-lo-lo-lo lola lo-lo-lo-lo lola