Friday, July 29, 2005

Set Fire to Anything
Set Fire to the Air

Music for a New Society

Back in April, I posted a kind of review of the Legacy Edition of the Clash's London Calling. Here are few comments about another favourite album, John Cale's Music for a New Society.

The AllMusic Guide describes the music as "calm, spare, and spectral" and the songs as a "handful of stories of terribly damaged lives." Finally, AMG says that this album is "Spare, understated, and perhaps a masterpiece." I agree. If there is any one album deserving of the title masterpiece, this may be it.

(I'd be curious to know what other albums people regard as masterpieces).

It's hard to say why I am drawn to an album that is so dark and even depressing. The music is ambient in a haunting and occasionally frightening way. To my ears, there is something unsettling about the composition. Perhaps because of that, I listen to other Cale albums more frequently, albums like Paris 1919, Fear, Slow Dazzle, and Helen of Troy. Perhaps the musical enjoyment is circumscribed by the intensity of the listening experience.

It has always irritated me that Lou Reed, another of my favourite musicians, is far more famous than Cale, Reed's co-founder of the Velvet Underground. Sure, I like Reed's music, but John Cale is a musician and not a pop star. If anything perplexes me it is that Cale sees himself as living in Reed's shadow. He even mentions Lou Reed in the first paragraph of his autobiography.

Some John Cale links:

1) Official site
2) John Cale Homepage
3) Fear is a Man's Best Friend
4) Wikipedia

"Roll up the history books, burn the chairs
Set fire to anything, set fire to the air
They're riding to begin and running at the end
'Cause mama said, you take your life in your hands"

Technorati Tags: , ,

11 comments:

running42k said...

Classic albums. Mine is New Gold Dream by Simple Minds. Every tune is great.

Anonymous said...

I have nothing to offer, except the note that I'll be checking out everyone's recommendations.

(I listen to everything, but don't categorize, and tend to favor individual tunes over albums)

Anonymous said...

Great site, check mine out at http://anthonylemons.blogspot.com

laura k said...

Top Four Masterpieces, in need of their own category:
Stones, Exile On Main Street
Dylan, Blood On The Tracks
Bruce, Born To Run
Joni Mitchell, Court And Spark

Other Masterpieces:
Joni Mitchell, Blue
The Clash, London Calling
Elvis Costello, Get Happy
Miles Davis, Birth of the Cool
The Band (the brown album)
Elvis Costello, Armed Forces
Talking Heads, Remain In Light

I agree with many of G's picks, above, too. Ah, and there are so many more...

laura k said...

Oh dear, I had to return to say:

REM, Reckoning

Anonymous said...

Don Ho - Gold!

mister anchovy said...

um, you mean pop music? I've listened to Blood on the Tracks about a squillion times over the years, so I guess I should say that one....but these days, you're more likely going to find me listening to Polka music by the Dynatones, or maybe some Sun Ra jazz, or some cigarbox guitar blues, or some Conjunto/Norteno, or some old scratchy Cajun stuff. I like pop music, but I don't think of it in terms of masterpieces much....

laura k said...

Mr Anchovy, interesting thought.

I like much of the music you named too. I mostly listen to blues (all types), New Orleans music, bluegrass, swing, country, etc. etc. - but none of those are album-oriented, so I mostly didn't think of those.

But... how does an album like BOTT and pop music go together? Doesn't pop mean popular, played on radio, known by masses? BOTT is known to millions of fans, but unknown to gazillions more.

I think these albums are masterpieces because of the quality of the writing, and how they hold together as a whole.

Tell me your thoughts, I'll try to remember to come back and read them.

mister anchovy said...

I-girl - Yeah, I guess Weird Bob is a little outside the realm of 'pop', so your point is well taken...and there are others too, that surf the edges of the big money music industry, like Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, for instance, or almost anything by Tom Waits. Sometimes I think it is by accident that some stuff like that even gets released. The very fact that so many people download their music without paying for it is shreading the distribution system of the record company giants....it may just put everyone on a level playing field.

I like Michelle Shocked's idea of 'home-made jam'...if we all make music in our communities, then there won't be any need for the big corporate jam factories any more. A couple years ago (in my 40s) I started playing button-box and now piano accordion too. I live in a mostly Portuguese area in Toronto, and I've been having a great time learning to play Portuguese folk music on my squeeze-box. I thought I'd learn a few tunes to play for some of the neighbours... It is so much fun, and I'm learning about different traditions along the way.

laura k said...

Mr. Anchovy, I agree, it is a wonder this stuff gets out there - but the music biz was less rigid in those days, much more likely to go with quality vs marketability.

Home-made jam is great, but I don't want to be confined to music that happens to be next door. Ani DiFranco's and Aimee Mann's ideas for self-produced CDs may be the only way for quality artists who don't fit in a pre-established sound. I'm not into nostalgia, but this is one area where we've lost a lot.

I love accordion music! Esp zydeco (with or without fish ;-) ) and tejano. My favorite is when it gets mixed in with rock, like Los Lobos does/did. (One of my favorite bands.)

Btw, it's L-girl. On some blogs, blogger gives me that funny-looking, lower-case L, makes me look like I-girl.

G: cool picks!

Jay said...

I really like John Cale, but I don't consider myself an authority so I couldn't say one way or the other who is the greater musician. But then, I think that comparisons are kind of pointless in music, because everything is so different, and it still depends on taste.