THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,236) John Cale — “Charlemagne”
John Cale (see #637) gives us a solo LP (his first) whose “placid compositions are all velvet, no underground[!]” (Rob Brunner, https://ew.com/article/2001/03/16/vintage-violence/) and a beautiful ballad whose “unison singing by Cale and [Garland] Jeffreys . . . is a thing of beauty, as is Jeffreys’ country guitar, especially when set against Cale’s simple piano figure”. (Michael Little, https://www.thevinyldistrict.com/storefront/2021/07/graded-on-a-curve-john-cale-vintage-violence/)
Of the song, Joe Viglione writes:
“Charlemagne,” a melancholy five-plus minute piano-dominated tune that the back cover of the disc proclaims is about “an inhabited region of Antarctica,” . . . Charlemagne” stands as a poetic and compelling statement, the band staying behind John Cale as he indulges in poetic exploration . . . . “They know good fences make good neighbors” is all you need to hear to grasp the isolation at play — “Don’t wanna be like all the rest.” Here Cale is the minstrel in the gallery, fusing Keith Reid-style Procol Harum words with a repeating piano line to underscore the monotone verses, magnified by the excellent chorus of “Many times, many tried…simple stories are the best.” It is John Cale in control with the freedom denied him when he played in a group format, finding a platform that he would expand on the music that followed this.
Of the album, Rob Brunner writes:
What must Velvet Underground fans have made of this 1970 solo debut from the former Velvets viola-sawer? Given its men-acing title and Cale’s avant-garde credentials, surely they were expecting noisy experimentalism. No such luck . . . . It’s an elegant collection of stately songcraft.
As Brendan says, “Cale proves he’s got mad pop song skills to match his solid, driving piano stomping. No doubt some of these songs should have been hits.” (http://therisingstorm.net/john-cale-vintage-violence/) And as Syd Fablo says:
John Cale’s solo debut is shocking. One might have expected some all-out avant-rock akin to what Cale did with The Velvet Underground. Maybe some droning classical compositions . . . . [or] maybe even something like the albums he produced for The Stooges and Nico. Instead he delivered a Bee Gees Odessa, a Beach Boys Sunflower, or something along those lines at least.
John Cale – Vintage Violence
Finally, Mark Deming:
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 . . . . 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 . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/album/vintage-violence-mw0000196294
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