Of the two I would say that Lou Reed has legendary status yet to me John Cale has always been more interesting. The albums Paris 1919, Fear and Helen of Troy surpass any album that Reed made even though I am a fan of some if not all of his output.
I also think Vale is much better live than Reed ever was.
So how come the skewed reverence?
John Cale or Lou Reed?
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Lou for me. If he did nothing after the V.U. that would still be the case, but he did Transformer, Berlin, Street Hassle, New York, Magic and Loss etc. Met my fellow countryman once and he was a bit of an arse, not that that is my main reason. Do love Songs for Drella though.
T’would be odd, in a popularity contest between Lou and someone else, for the other guy to lose because he was “a bit of an arse”..
Cale, for me. But only just.
And the VU wasn’t all Lou Reed. John Cale had a lot of good input too.
Guys in boxes can’t stab themselves in the head I tells yer!
Lou wrote nearly all the songs though. Never met Lou, heard he was very nice 😉
I live just down the road from Chipping Sodbury, you know. See it on the front of buses and everything.
Frank Spencer lived there too.
Just up the road is the excitingly named town of Yate
Yate, the sort of place referees come from.
Cale for me, although also a big listener to most of Uncle Lou’s output.
The viola numbers on the first two VU LPs; Paris 1919; the early classically-inflected LPs and Words for the Dying; and, especially, Music for a New Society….truth is I like just about everything he’s recorded….
His voice alone….evidence below….
Cale, he’s A GHOOST, nananananaaa…
And in any case the bugger in the short sleeves fucked his wife and he can’t afford to or-gee, poor lad, give him a break
Have you been drinking?
And, if not, why not?
I’m quoting his lyrics, you civilian putz!
Mr Cale, the man who couldn’t afford to orgy, is my choice.
In fact it’s not a choice. I have loathed Reed ever since I walked out of his gig at the Albert Hall.
Lou Reed is “the artist”. John Cale is the enabler, I’m sure it was him that held it all together.
Reed’s solo stuff is phenomenally great at times, and unfathomable at other times (example: Lulu with Metallica – what the bloody hell was that?).
If Cale had only done Paris 1919 his position would be assured
Lou and Sam Moore doing ‘Soul Man’! What the bloody hell was that?
When I was about 17 and these things really mattered my favourite album was Berlin. I was quite angsty, but there was some humour in this conclusion. Reed it is then, because decisions of this type made at that age can never be rescinded.
I am with you on both counts @Gatz
Cale for me. I saw him play in quite small venues a couple of times in the early 00s and he was excellent, very charismatic and engaging so maybe that makes a difference – but ultimately his solo stuff grabs me more than the LR stuff – and I do like a good drone:
Also Sabotage is a phenomenal live album.
I like them both, but there is an element of surprise and restlessness in Cale’s career that makes him the more compelling.
Doug Yule or Walter Powers?
More Cale. Nearly 40 years a VU fan – saw their first comeback gig in Edinburgh. Love them. And If I play VU it more likely to be the Lou songs (you know, the ones with tunes). I loved Berlin – and then havent listened it for 20 years. New York is just great. But it switched with Songs for Drella (which is also great, and Lou was unsparing). Since then its been the welsh wizzard all the way. Fragments of a Rainy Season is one my favourite records. And then there is “That” version of Hallelujah on I’m your fan, and then Paris 1919… and before you know it you are away and listening to Things to do in Denver when youre dead
Fragments of a Rainy Season is a fantastic album, one of my favourites too. I saw Cale when he was touring that show, just him and a piano or guitar – one of my first gigs and still one of the best I’ve been to. I only knew of his work with VU and Songs for Drella (I was a Lou Reed fan at that point), but Cale blew us all away. Hell of a performance.
Let’s not forget, he’s got a decent track records as a producer as well.
Cale has done loads of producing, many of them are personal favourites. Even if he hadn’t been in VU, he would be recognised for that.
Mmm, Squeeze speak very lowly of him……
He might not be very personable as a producer, but he’s helmed some crackers. The Goya Dress album is massive chez Fenton.
Happy Mondays complained of him continually peeling tangerines in the studio (Cale was kicking his own smack habit at the time) – slightly ironic, given what was to come for Shaun and Bez.
I think he’d have earned his producer’s stripes if only for The Marble Index and the Stooges first album….
Horses and the Modern Lovers too. And his contributions to Nick Drake’s Northern Sky lift it into the sublime.
And without him, Hallelujah would likely just be another obscure Leonard Cohen song.
Cale for me by a head – simply because of Paris 1919
Another vote for the Welshman here. As has been said, there are one of two albums of his that are beyond compare. Lou had his moments, that’s for sure, but Cale has more depth, for me.
I heard a tale once that Cale once threw Punk Poet Laureate Dr John Cooper-Clarke out of a first floor window at a party. Fortunately he landed on the flat roof of a kitchen extension.
What this has to do with anything I don’t know, but its a good yarn
Lou for ‘New York’ if nothing else, but JC is definitely a more interesting character. Fascinating biography as I recall, and how he got from where he was in Wales to where he ended up in New York is a bit of a marvel in itself.
Maybe Lou had mellowed a bit by the time I saw him in Sydney with Anthony (as was, Anohni now) in vocal support. That was a pleasure, and not the trial I had been half expecting.
Lou Reed’s surliness, combativeness etc. was almost exclusively directed at music journalists. He absolutely detested them, didn’t hide it and seemingly didn’t care that he got a bad press in return.
That’s a bit much… considering the music press fawned over the VU when the gen. pub. were almost completely indifferent to them.
Admit it – his arsiness was a great and entertaining thing in itself. Would we have had him any other way? No.
If it’s one bullet, then it has to be Lou Reed. Yes, I’m aware it will probably shatter the urn.