Portrait of John Cale

John Cale

Actors · Directors · Musicians · autobiographer · lyricist · model · music arranger · pianist · record producer

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

Welsh composer, singer-songwriter and record producer (born 1942)

About John Cale

John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh singer, musician, composer, record producer and arranger. He was a founding member of the influential American rock band the Velvet Underground, with whom he recorded two studio albums. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styles of rock and avant-garde music.

John Cale studied music at Goldsmiths, University of London, before moving to New York City in 1963, where he performed as part of the drone collective the Theatre of Eternal Music and formed the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed. Since leaving the band in 1968, Cale has released seventeen solo studio albums, including Paris 1919 (1973), which is retrospectively considered to be his masterpiece; Fear (1974); Slow Dazzle (1975); and Music for a New Society (1982). In 1990, he collaborated with Reed on Songs for Drella, a tribute to the Velvet Underground's mentor and one-time manager Andy Warhol.

Cale has worked as a record producer with artists including Nico, the Stooges, the Modern Lovers, Patti Smith, Squeeze, Happy Mondays and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Cale was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996.

Quick facts

Known for
Paris 1919, Music for a New Society, House
Born
1942-03-09
Artist type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
Garnant
Associated area
Los Angeles
Active period
1942-03-09
MusicBrainz description
The Velvet Underground founder
Genres
art pop, art rock, avant-garde pop, baroque pop, drone, experimental rock, minimalism, modern classical, proto-punk, rock, singer-songwriter
Music tags
art pop, art rock, avant-garde pop, baroque pop, british, classic pop and rock, drone, experimental rock, minimalism, modern classical, proto-punk, rock, singer-songwriter, uk, welsh
ISNI
0000000121028211, 0000000382910405
IPI
00033982178, 00049983916

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