Vintage Violence

• Artist: John Cale
• Rating:
• Release Date: March 25, 1970
• Total Time: 34:25
• Genre: Rock

Review

John Cale had the strongest avant-garde credentials of anyone in the Velvet Underground, but he was also the Velvet whose solo career was the least strongly defined by his work with the band, and his first solo album, Vintage Violence, certainly bears this out. While the banshee howls of Cale's viola and the percussive stab of his keyboard parts were his signature sounds on The Velvet Underground and Nico and White Light/White Heat, Cale's first solo album, 1970's Vintage Violence, was a startlingly user-friendly piece of mature, intelligent pop whose great failing may have been being a shade too sophisticated for radio. Cale's work with the Velvets was purposefully rough and aurally challenging, but Vintage Violence is buffed to a smooth, satin finish, with Cale and his group sounding witty on tunes like "Adelaide" and "Cleo," pensive on "Amsterdam," and lushly orchestrated on "Big White Cloud." (Cale also gets a lot of production value out of his backing group, credited as "Penguin" but actually members of Garland Jeffreys' band, Grinder's Switch.) And anyone expecting the fevered psychosis that Cale let loose on later albums like Fear and Sabotage/Live is in for a surprise; Cale has rarely sounded this well-adjusted on record, though his lyrical voice is usually a bit too cryptic to stand up to a literal interpretation of his words. If Cale wanted to clear out a separate and distinct path for his solo career, he certainly did that with Vintage Violence, though it turned out to be only one of many roads he would follow in the future. [The 2001 CD reissue adds two bonus tracks: a previously unreleased alternate version of "Fairweather Friend," and the previously unreleased "Wall."] ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
Hello There	John Cale	John Cale	(2:48)
Gideon's Bible	John Cale	John Cale	(3:22)
Adelaide	John Cale	John Cale	(2:18)
Big White Cloud	John Cale	John Cale	(3:31)
Cleo	John Cale	John Cale	(2:35)
Please	John Cale	John Cale	(4:19)
Charlemagne	John Cale	John Cale	(5:03)
Bring It on Up	John Cale	John Cale	(2:24)
Amsterdam	John Cale	John Cale	(3:14)
Ghost Story	John Cale	John Cale	(3:48)
Fairweather Friend	Garland Jeffreys	John Cale	(2:32)

Credits

Howard Fritzson (Art Direction), Stephan Moore (Project Director), John Cale (Bass), John Cale (Guitar), Sanford Konikoff (Drums), Meren Stein (Producer), John Cale (Viola), Jim Reeves (Engineer), John Cale (Liner Notes), John Cale (Conductor), Lewis Merenstein (Producer), Darren Salmieri (Coordination), John Cale (Keyboards), Patti Matheny (Coordination), Ann Petter (Design), John McClure (Executive Producer), John Cale (Producer), Harvey Brooks (Bass), Garland Jeffreys (Liner Notes), Darcy Proper (Mastering), John Cale (Arranger), Don Meehan (Engineer), Bruce Dickinson (Producer)

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