What is the best album John Cale ever produced?
Beginning a piece about John Cale by talking about David Byrne might seem odd, but just stay with me. During an interview, when Byrne was talking about his different musical influences, both for him as a solo artist and the Talking Heads, he said that The Velvet Underground played a pivotal role in his musical development. They showed him that there wasn’t a right way to make music, and that unpredictability can work on a large scale.
“The Velvet Underground were a big revelation. I realised, ‘Oh, look at the subject of their songs’. There’s a tune and a melody, but the sound is either completely abrasive or really pretty,” said Byrne when talking about the impact of the band. “They swing from one extreme to the other. ‘White Light/White Heat’ is just this noise, and then ‘Candy Says’ is incredibly pretty but really kind of dark. As a young person, you go, ‘What is this about?’”
I feel it was worth highlighting this quote, because we often think of The Velvet Underground as an underground band who did well, were underappreciated, and are now the stuff of legend. However, there were people who were listening, important people, and The Velvet Underground aren’t highlighted as a game-changing musical outfit as much as they should be. Without their input, the musical world would likely be very different.
John Cale was a hugely important part of this band, which would progress to impact the whole world. His musical talents knew no bounds, as he brought a range of expertise to the group. The fluctuations in style that Byrne was so impressed with were very much a part of Cale’s contributions to the band. The versatility that he brought to the table resonated in their unpredictability. It was a chaotic innovation that moved people interested in various genres.
John Cale’s production of The Stooges’ punk genesis
Cale continued lending out his producing talents to various bands once he had parted ways with The Velvet Underground, and it won’t surprise you to hear that a number of those albums also wound up being iconic. A lot of them were great, but one stands out above the rest, a record that was responsible for inspiring its own musical movement and that is often celebrated as being a precursor to punk. It was The Stooges’ debut self-titled album, specifically the lead single, ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’.
“Producing the debut album for Iggy & The Stooges after leaving The Velvet Underground was a consequential moment for me,” said Cale, “I’d been tapped to produce a different band and found myself floored by the explosive energy of The Stooges. In the period between rock and punk was this kind of unknown energy that was nearly combustible from the first sound coming from the stage, whatever the instrumentation.”
He was the perfect person to produce this record, and he understood the essence of the music, recognising that it wasn’t just about volume and chaos, but was also about delivering the meaning in a way that resonated with people. A lesser producer would have seen and heard the outrageous nature of The Stooges and run with it, but Cale knew better.
“It wasn’t so much about volume as it was the message, tension and the humour of the day,” he said, “Bottle this and the world would be on fire! By the time we got to recording ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, it was clear that one percussive repetitive note on the piano could hold the weight of a prowling Iggy!”
Because of the record’s impact and Cale’s ability to understand what the record needed, there is no escaping that this is the greatest record he ever produced (outside of The Velvet Underground).
