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Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale?
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Popel Vooje
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Edited Apr 26, 2010, 13:42
Re: Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale?
Apr 26, 2010, 10:28
IanB wrote:
Popel Vooje wrote:
You've never heard of "Loki?", Carlos?

You surprise me. It's Arnaldo Baptista's solo album from 1974.


Not a clue. Should I seek it out?


It depends. I don't know if you're familiar with much Tropicalia - Arnaldo Baptista was the keyboardist and one of the two main songwriters in Os Mutantes. If you're not familiar with them (or Caetano Velose, Gilberto Gil, or Tom Ze, or Gal Costa) it's probably worth seeking out a good compilation of their stuff first rather than diving straight in at the deep end (especially as "Loki?" is now only available on a pricey Brazilian CD that imports here for around £20 ). If you're starting from scratch with the entire genre, Soul Jazz' "Tropicalia - A Brazilian Revolution in Sound" is probably the best primer.

"Loki?" is something akin to the Brazilian equivalent of "The Madcap Laughs" or "Oar" - written and recorded whilst Baptista was suffering from a debilitating, partially drug-induced bout of mental illness (which would eventually cause him to get sectioned and jump out of the hospital's ninth storey window) - so if you don't enjoy music made by people with bona fide mental health problems you might find it a bit too close to the bone.

Same goes for "Music for a New Society" - Cale obviously had a serious drink problem at the time and it shows in performances which are disjointed, maudlin and, in the case of "Damn Life", quite plainly the work of a man at the end of his rope. Having said that, I do think that "Taking Your Life in Your Hands" and "Close Watch" are lovely enough songs for anyone to enjoy, despite their downbeat nature. Whilst I'm not into romanticising anything as horrible as mental illness myself, I do prefer listening to music made by people in a genuine predicament over the lame, , affected, theatrical angst peddled by the likes of Marilyn Manson.

I was only surprised Carlos hadn't heard of "Loki?" because Tropicalia is his specialist area and he usually knows a damn sight more about it than I do.
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Re: Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale? (IanB)		 Replies:
Re: Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale? (IanB)
Re: Who's best: Lou Reed or John Cale? (Carlos)
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