John Cale
John Cale is best known for forming the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed, and for producing albums for the Stooges, Patti Smith and Squeeze among others. Cale has also had a prolific and varied solo career that ranges from experimental music to straight out rock. Born in Wales, Cale expressed an interest in music early in life and eventually won a scholarship to study music in the United States in 1963. It was in New York that he met John Cage and played in a marathon piano recital with him. Cale also joined the minimalist ensemble the Dream Syndicate and then met Lou Reed in the mid-1960s. He played a variety of instruments with the Velvet Underground and contributed to the experimental sounds of the first two albums, which included droning string instruments and untuned guitar. Cale was ousted, or quit (depending on who is telling the story) VU in 1968 and began producing other groups. In 1970 he began a solo career with the albums Vintage Violence, Church of Anthrax, and one of his best, Paris 1919 (1973). In the mid-1970s he moved back to England and his music and stage performance drifted toward the aggressive and confrontational. During the 1980s and 90s he collaborated with Brian Eno on several albums and then with Lou Reed on a tribute album to Andy Warhol, who had managed the Velvet Underground. Cale has composed the score to several films, including Basquiat and I Shot Andy Warhol. In 2007 he released a retrospective album titled CIRCUS.
