John Cale Jukebox

Play John Cale's songs without the need to search for it in YouTube.
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John Davies Cale, OBE (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground.

Though best known for his work in rock music, Cale has worked in various genres including drone and classical. Since departing from the Velvet Underground in 1968 he has released approximately 30 albums. Of his solo work, Cale is perhaps best known for his album Paris 1919, and his cover version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", plus his mid-1970s Island Records trilogy of albums: Fear, Slow Dazzle, and Helen of Troy.

Cale has produced or collaborated with Lou Reed, Nico, La Monte Young, John Cage, Terry Riley, Hector Zazou, Cranes, Nick Drake, Mike Heron, Kevin Ayers, Brian Eno, Patti Smith, The Stooges, The Modern Lovers, Art Bergmann, Manic Street Preachers and frontman James Dean Bradfield, Marc Almond, Element of Crime, Squeeze, Happy Mondays, LCD Soundsystem, The Replacements, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Cale was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as member of the Velvet Underground in 1996.John Cale was born 9 March 1942 in Garnant in the heavily industrial Amman Valley of Wales to Will Cale and Margaret Davies. His mother was a primary teacher and his father was a coal miner. Although Will spoke only English, Margaret brought John up to speak only Welsh. Being unable to speak the same language as his father naturally hindered their relationship. John finally began learning English around age seven at primary. Cale was molested by two different men during his childhood; one of the men was an Anglican priest, and the incident occurred in a church.

Having discovered a talent for viola, he studied music at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Whilst there he organised an early Fluxus concert, A Little Festival of New Music, 6 July 1963. He also contributed the short film Police Car and two scores published in Fluxus Preview Review, July 1963, to the nascent avant-garde collective. He conducted the first performance in the UK of Cage's Concert for Piano and Orchestra with the composer and pianist Michael Garrett as soloist. He felt an affinity for the U.S. and rock music from an early age, and subsequently travelled to America to continue his musical training, thanks to the help and influence of Aaron Copland.

Arriving in New York City, he met a number of influential composers. On 9 September 1963, with John Cage and several others, Cale participated in an 18-hour piano-playing marathon that was the first full-length performance of Erik Satie's "Vexations". After the performance, Cale appeared on the television panel show I've Got a Secret. Cale's secret was that he had performed in an 18-hour concert, and he was accompanied by a man whose secret was that he was the only audience member who had stayed for the duration.

Cale also played in La Monte Young and Tony Conrad's ensemble the Theater of Eternal Music also known as the Dream Syndicate (not to be confused with the 1980s band of the same name). The heavily drone-laden music he played there proved to be a big influence in his work with his next group, the Velvet Underground. One of his collaborators on these recordings was Velvet Underground guitarist Sterling Morrison. Three albums of his early experimental work from this period were released in 2001.In early 1965, he co-founded The Velvet Underground with Lou Reed, recruiting Reed's college friend Sterling Morrison and Cale's flatmate Angus Maclise to complete the initial line-up. Cale left the band in September 1968, due in part to creative disagreements with Reed.