How Does John Cale Write ?

I recently introduced a friend of mine to the music of John Cale, and while he says he quite likes it, he says that he can tell from listening that Cale mainly composes at the piano, in a ballad-y style. Can anybody else hear this, and is my friend right ?

I'm pretty sure he writes on guitar sometimes.

Also, he probably writes a lot using computer programs like protools.

As far as I remember from what he told in interviews in the last years is that he in these days exclusively composes inside the studio. I guess, there is no 'real' piano in his studio...only his Kurzweil buddy. But of course, I have no real clue. And "Catastrophic" and "Whaddya mean by that" indeed sound like being composed on guitar...maybe while sitting around a campfire. I wouldn't be surprised, if John has a lot of different styles of composing. He also emphasised in the Cardiff public talk that he always tries new things and does not shy away from using these new computer programs.

hmm, I thought I'd heard something about computer programmes . . .

I sent my friend a mix of stuff, and perhaps I accidentally picked things composed in a similar manner, but I didn't think Mr Cale was all that consistent in his habits. Perhaps my friend is hearing things.

Thank you !

Don't mean to sound twisted, but am I alone in wishing that he just wrote more often?

Or maybe I should say 'record more often'. There seem to be a lot of unreleased songs from the last few years that have made it to shows. Has JC grown tired of them? BlackAcetate seems a long time ago. 2005? A lot of water under the bridge since then. A lot of other stuff too.

Moza

there are many songs officially releqsed that appear on compilation cds that are not on any john cale solo album, some are still available as a cd or legal download. Maybe i should make a list ofwhere to find them?.

Moza wrote:Don't mean to sound twisted, but am I alone in wishing that he just wrote more often?

Or maybe I should say 'record more often'. There seem to be a lot of unreleased songs from the last few years that have made it to shows. Has JC grown tired of them? BlackAcetate seems a long time ago. 2005? A lot of water under the bridge since then. A lot of other stuff too.

Moza

Hi gazatthebop
Do you mean songs like Common Cold, Catastrophic, Hey Ray and Whaddya Mean? I'd love to hear compilation versions of those.

Do you know of others that aren't here, especially recent ones:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~werksman/cale/disc/unreleased_songs.html

Cheers
Moza

i meant studio recorded songs that are released, and some very hard to find. Songs like "Daybreak" "The Insult" "Hunger" "Don't Pretend" "She never took no for an answer" "Long Voyage" "The Moon" "Perfect Moon" "Where the creepyboyz sing" "Jack the ripper" "Frozen Warnings" "So Long Marianne" "The Queen and me" "Shuffle down to Woodbridge" "People who died" "First Evening" "Myfanwy" "The Andy Warhol suite" "In memorium" "Your pain shall be a music" "Sailor" "Saint Cyr" "In the library of force" and so on...