John Cale Unplugged--Meet Me When All The Shootings Over

Not that kind of live album
With Mistletoe and Candle Green-To Halloween We Go

I love the piano, but I hate the players--mostly. For a long time I had trouble finding keyboardists that I enjoyed in the rock pantheon. Of course, I had Thelonius Monk, Don Pullen, Cecil Taylor, and the freakishly awesome Bud Powell to listen to, but Billy Joel, Elton John didn't really do it for me. Since then I've found out about Professor Longhair, Richard Manuel and Sir Ian McLagan of the Faces, and others, but one of the most important to me is John Cale, best known for his stint with the seminal Velvet Underground. As much as I appreciate Lou Reed, perhaps my inner contrarian has led me to becoming a big fan of his viola screeching bandmate. He has been an experimenter, an innovator, who has created a disparate and fiercely intelligent body of work and has produced a wide variety of musical acts. He has remained interested in the development of  rock music, from becoming part of the burgeoning punk rock scene to today working with hip hop artists.

Fragments of a Rainy Season is basically a greatest hits collection. It features live solo renditions of some of his best songs and unfortunately is long out of print. The album is a great introduction to his artistry--an intimate bare bones set performed on piano and acoustic guitar. The piano accompaniment is effortless and expansive, as might be expected from a classically trained former prodigy.

The album starts out with a bang, with the Dylan Thomas influenced A Child's Christmas in Wales, from Paris 1919, one of his best and most accessible recordings. A dark beautiful surreal tune. He also performs three Dylan Thomas poems that were originally recorded on his Words For The Dying album, most notably the famous Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night and the stirring Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed. Another highlight on the disc is the laconic cinematic western imagery of Buffalo Ballet.

In addition to beautiful ballads, some of his darkest songs are included here, like the jealousy and murder of Guts, and over the top existential philosophy of Fear (Is A Man's Best Friend), lyrics like a demented Hallmark Card. Like on a lot of his best songs, the sunny instrumentation belies the darkness and dread within.

At the middle of the set he switches to guitar for four songs, most notably the Chanty-like Ship of Fools, and the touching Thoughtless Kind. Toward the end of set he sings the warm nostalgic Style It Takes, from Songs For Drella, his Andy Warhol tribute that he collaborated with Lou Reed on. He also performs the defiant Elvis standard Heartbreak Hotel as a funereal dirge, the arrangement matching the sadness of the lyrics.

Other highlights include the percussive pop of Dying on the Vine, the grandiose exhilarating Paris 1919, and the guarded confessional (I Keep A) Close Watch. The album ends with a tour de force, a fantastic version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, which is used in the first Shrek movie (probably where most people have heard him from) but for some reason was not included in the soundtrack. Instead, inexplicably, a version of the song by Rufus Wainright was included. All in all, a great set by an influential and talented performer. My one regret is that he did not perform the haunting Amsterdam in this set. If you can't find this at a reasonable price, the awesome Paris 1919, Vintage Violence, or the Rhino's Seducing Down the Door anthology are also good starting points for Cale's solo work.