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John Cale Quotes

John Davies Cale, OBE is a musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer, born in Wales, who was a founding member of the experimental rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his five-decade career, Cale has worked in various styles across rock, drone, classical, avant-garde, and electronic music. He studied music at Goldsmiths College, University of London, before relocating to New York City's downtown music scene in the mid-1960s, where he performed as part of the Theatre of Eternal Music and formed the Velvet Underground. Since leaving the band 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, Lio, the Modern Lovers, Art Bergmann, Manic Street Preachers and frontman James Dean Bradfield, Super Furry Animals, Marc Almond, Element of Crime, Squeeze, Happy Mondays, LCD Soundsystem, the Replacements, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Soldier String Quartet, and Animal Collective. He produced the first albums of the Stooges, the Modern Lovers, Patti Smith, Squeeze, and Happy Mondays.

Cale was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996, and appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2010.

✵ 9. March 1942
John Cale photo
John Cale: 13 quotes0 likes

Famous John Cale Quotes

“I am a ham. I've no business being rock 'n' roll. I've said it over and over again that I'm a classical composer, dishevelling my personality by dabbling in rock 'n' roll.”

John Cale

Attributed without citation at John Cale - Quotes, xs4all.nl, 16 November 2012 http://werksman.home.xs4all.nl/cale/quotes/index.html,

“The only reason we wore sunglasses onstage was because we couldn't stand the sight of the audience.”

John Cale

Attributed without citation at John Cale Quotes, inspirationalstories.com, 16 November 2012 http://www.inspirationalstories.com/quotes/t/john-cale/,

“Being a living legend is such a precarious livelihood. It’s like being a bar of soap in a shower which doesn’t have any water in it.”

John Cale

Attributed without citation at John Cale - Quotes, xs4all.nl, 16 November 2012 http://werksman.home.xs4all.nl/cale/quotes/index.html,

“I learn from thinking about the future, what hasn't been done yet. That's kind of my constant obsession.”

John Cale

Attributed without citation at John Cale Quotes, inspirationalstories.com, 16 November 2012 http://www.inspirationalstories.com/quotes/t/john-cale/,

“The value of having a computer, to me, is that it'll remember everything you do. It's a databank.”

John Cale

Attributed without citation at John Cale Quotes, inspirationalstories.com, 16 November 2012 http://www.inspirationalstories.com/quotes/t/john-cale/,

“If you're all loaded up on love, you haven't got anywhere else to go.”

John Cale

Attributed without citation at John Cale Quotes, inspirationalstories.com, 16 November 2012 http://www.inspirationalstories.com/quotes/t/john-cale/,

John Cale Quotes

“When somebody grabs a movement, you're kind of locked into it. It's all par for the course.”

John Cale

citation needed

“I use cracks on the sidewalk to walk down the street. I'd always walk on the lines. I never take anything but a calculated risk, and do it because it gives me a sense of identity. Fear is a man's best friend.”

John Cale

Attributed without citation at John Cale - Quotes, xs4all.nl, 16 November 2012 http://werksman.home.xs4all.nl/cale/quotes/index.html,

“I'm bent on proving that you can make living as musician and not die young and crazy like Mozart.”

John Cale

Attributed without citation at John Cale - Quotes, xs4all.nl, 16 November 2012 http://werksman.home.xs4all.nl/cale/quotes/index.html,

“I'm content with making records, but I don't want to be doing the same thing all the time.”

John Cale

citation needed

“The viola is the saddest of all instruments.”

John Cale

Attributed without citation at John Cale - Quotes, xs4all.nl, 16 November 2012 http://werksman.home.xs4all.nl/cale/quotes/index.html,

“The avant-garde makes more sense to me.”

John Cale

Attributed without citation at John Cale Quotes, inspirationalstories.com, 16 November 2012 http://www.inspirationalstories.com/quotes/t/john-cale/,

“John Cale is fantastic, and he made the sound of the Velvet Underground.”

John Cale

Jayne County, attributed without citation at About Cale, xs4all.nl, 16 November 2012 http://werksman.home.xs4all.nl/cale/quotes/quote_others.html,

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