The affair that caused a rift between John Cale and Kevin Ayers
When iconic musicians collide, the resulting material can go one of two ways. While collaborations could result in unique and beloved tracks, like the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘What Have I Done to Deserve This’ with Dusty Springfield, others can form embarrassing and best-forgotten aspects of the artists’ discography – see: ‘Dancing in the Street’. Few collaborative efforts are as joyous and mind-bending as June 1, 1974.
Organised by the legendary psychedelic and prog-rock master Kevin Ayers, the album was recorded live on, you guessed it, June 1st, 1974. The full line-up of the record boasts such iconic figures as John Cale, Brian Eno, Nico, and Mike Oldfield, among many others. Recorded at London’s iconic Rainbow Theatre, the album sees the impromptu supergroup perform a variety of tracks, including covers of Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ and The Doors’ ‘The End’.
As is to be expected, for a project masterminded by the irreverent mind of Kevin Ayers, much of the tracklisting is taken up with his own compositions, namely his classic tracks ‘Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes’ and ‘Shouting in a Bucket Blues’ among others. However, Ayers was also at the forefront of some backstage drama that led the project to have a certain degree of tension and unease when recording.
Ayers had grown something of a reputation as a womaniser during his heyday – after all, who could refuse those long blonde locks and that characteristically deep, soulful voice? Over the years, the Soft Machine musician was said to have slept with various prominent names in music, becoming quite the talk of the town. As it turns out, Ayers’ sexual history would end up having a remarkable effect on the final album.
The night before the album was recorded, John Cale accused Ayers of sleeping with his then-wife Cindy Wells, which the songwriter and heartthrob admitted to. Upon finding out that there was this underlying tension between the album’s personnel, the record took on a slightly different atmosphere: one of conflict, shame and heartbreak. Fittingly, Cale’s only solo effort on the album was his version of ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, a live favourite that the former Velvet Underground star still performs to this day.
The tension between Cale and Ayers was captured within the album’s cover art. Taken on the night of the recording, the photographs sees Nico and Brian Eno looming over the pair, as John Cale stares at a smiling Ayers with a look of utter contempt – as though he was trying to fry Ayers with his laser vision. If that was not enough, Cale later used the adultery as inspiration for his track ‘Guts’ from the 1975 album Slow Dazzle, in which he affirms, “The bugger in the short sleeves fucked my wife, did it quick and split.” Followed by an entire track which seemingly espouses Cale’s desire to kill Ayers.
Cale and Wells divorced in 1975, and while their relationship had been fairly rocky from the beginning, it is thought that Ayers’ seduction of Wells played a big part in the split. Nevertheless, the inherent conflict at the heart of June 1, 1974 does not detract from the utter brilliance of the album, which surely goes down as one of the finest live albums of all time.
