theman simpulse
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Re: Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale?
Apr 24, 2010, 14:02
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what does 'best' mean?
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handofdave
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Re: Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale?
Apr 24, 2010, 14:14
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theman simpulse wrote: what does 'best' mean?
Yeah, I sorta hate that word too.
I think what it means here, tho, is who's got the best combination of songwriting and performing skills.
And to some lesser degree; What level has their art been imitated, appreciated, sold, etc. in the music culture specifically and in the general culture generally?
Reed's impact on rock goes deeper than Cale's, tho of course Cale was a part of that initial, and most potent, time in Reed's career.
Still, how many people out there know 'Sweet Jane' as opposed to any Cale song? It's a huge gap.
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vince
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Re: Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale?
Apr 24, 2010, 14:38
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I'd still fight the corner for 'Loaded' in the post-Cale Velvets cannon. It might not be Lou's creative zenith. But it's a bloody good pop album for a sunny day.....
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Lawrence
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Re: Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale?
Apr 24, 2010, 15:05
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Ehh, I really can't decide which I like more. It's kinda like being asked what kind of ice cream you like better...
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The Sea Cat
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Re: Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale?
Apr 24, 2010, 15:32
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vince wrote: I'd still fight the corner for 'Loaded' in the post-Cale Velvets cannon. It might not be Lou's creative zenith. But it's a bloody good pop album for a sunny day.....
Seconded. Great album.
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Daminxa
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Re: Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale?
Apr 24, 2010, 16:04
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I'm gonna go for Lou Reed. I love his solo stuff as well as what he did with The Velvet Underground.
Tomorrow I shall probably come back, having changed my mind, and start blathering on about John Cale's musical genius.
Oh I don't know, really I don't. It's like asking me to choose between chocolate and cheese. Totally different foodstuffs but I can't decide which I like best.
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Sin Agog
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Edited Apr 24, 2010, 19:07
Re: Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale?
Apr 24, 2010, 17:33
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This clip of Cale on a weird American gameshow in 1963 just slayed me. Really hard to believe that I just saw that.
It seems to me that Cale is getting short shrift (is there such a thing as a regular-sized shrift?) as a melodicist and a songwriter here. His melodies were less reliant on rock 'n' roll archetypes than Lou's. He had the same ability as Bacharach, Brian Wilson and all those cats to just pluck a melody out of the air without ever letting genre come into the picture. And his lyrics... I can see how they might come across more than a little alienating, but I've never listened to anyone who had the same ability to make each line seemingly unrelated to the one before it but still part of a unified whole. Although whenever he gets a yen to write a really cathartic personal song, he always gets it dead right: Leaving it Up to You, Guts, Dying on the Vine.
Reed's sweet nothings may have gone down a storm in the classic rock climate of the '70s, but Cale's genre-shifting art-rock seems to mesh much better with today's music-world of clued-in hipsters.
It's interesting that they both played the Southbank centre within a week or so of each other recently. Reed did a live version of Metal Machine Music and Cale did Paris 1919. I wonder if... Naw, better not get my hopes up.
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Carlos
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Re: Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale?
Apr 24, 2010, 17:43
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Read all the answers! ;-)
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Carlos
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Re: Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale?
Apr 24, 2010, 17:44
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Mint for me, please! ;-)
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keith a
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Re: Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale?
Apr 24, 2010, 18:25
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Sin Agog wrote: This clip of Cale on a weird American gameshow in 1963 just slayed me. Really hard to believe that I just saw that.
That was great, thanks!
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