Tag: Dirty Ass Rock ‘N’ Roll

Well, it’s too damn early and your eyes are bleeding
From the vicious bottle the night before
And the last thing you need is a nicety-nice
And small talk crawls out your ears

I always wanted to know more about John Cale of the Velvet Underground. That band influenced so many, and Cale was one of the reasons for that. This 1975 song is messy, mean, and totally alive. It’s a little offbeat and disjointed, but it never goes off the tracks. He has a nice groove going and space in the music.

By the mid-seventies, Cale was pushing back against the “serious composer” label that had followed him since the Velvet Underground days. Punk had taken off, and he pushed back by reconnecting with in-your-face rock ’n’ roll. The sound is quite dirty; this is not a crystal clear recording, and that is perfect for this.

The song took shape on the road, worked out with a touring band that thrived on volume and chaos. Cale wanted imperfection like letting riffs sprawl, tempos jumping forward, and vocals that snarled more than sang. It was finished without much revision at all. Cale resisted adding extra parts or effects. The final version reflects the session as it happened.

Lyrically and musically, the track was meant to sound blunt and slightly offensive. It would have been a deliberate swipe at anyone expecting his avant-garde music. This was on his 1975 album Slow Dazzle. On this album, he had Brian Eno on synthesizer, Chris Spedding on guitar, Geoff Muldaur on backing vocals, and super producer Chris Thomas on violin and electric piano. Cale produced the album.

John Cale – Dirty Ass Rock ‘N’ Roll

Well, it’s too damn early and your eyes are bleeding
From the vicious bottle the night before
And the last thing you need is a nicety-nice
And small talk crawls out your ears

Maybe it makes you feel just like an undercover Sigmund Freud
I hear it makes you feel just like an undercover Sigmund Freud

Hey there, hey now, hey there, hey now
Well, you can make a pacemaker blink, yeah, easy thing
Make a man’s heart go bibbity-bom, bippity-bom, bippity-bom
Like a gentle drum and knowing you, it ain’t ever done

So go on, go on, go on, darling, go on
Yeah, go on, go on darling, go on, go on

Yeah, the secretaries and typewriters chattering away
Chatter-chatter-chatter-chatter
Chatter-chatter-chatter, chatter away
It ought to make you sick when you hear a woman cry

When she don’t get just whatever she wants
But not my woman, she just keeps on keeping on
That’s my woman, my woman
That moving on shuffle side to side
That sure can turn me on

Dirty-ass rock ‘n’ roll
Dirty-ass rock ‘n’ roll
Dirty-ass rock ‘n’ roll
Dirty-ass rock ‘n’ roll

Hey now, hey now, hey now, hey now
And the beach is a thing and the bees don’t sting
Like complaining from a downtown whore
I got my plasma patches and my hypodermic
In hermetically sealed kid gloves

Yeah, tell me
Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me
Tell me
Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me

Dirty-ass rock ‘n’ roll
Dirty-ass rock ‘n’ roll
Dirty-ass rock ‘n’ roll
Dirty-ass rock ‘n’ roll

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