John Cale – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

John Cale – Dirty Ass Rock ‘N’ Roll

Well, it’s too damn early and your eyes are bleedingFrom the vicious bottle the night beforeAnd the last thing you need is a nicety-niceAnd 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 bleedingFrom the vicious bottle the night beforeAnd the last thing you need is a nicety-niceAnd small talk crawls out your ears

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

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

So go on, go on, go on, darling, go onYeah, go on, go on darling, go on, go on

Yeah, the secretaries and typewriters chattering awayChatter-chatter-chatter-chatterChatter-chatter-chatter, chatter awayIt ought to make you sick when you hear a woman cry

When she don’t get just whatever she wantsBut not my woman, she just keeps on keeping onThat’s my woman, my womanThat moving on shuffle side to sideThat sure can turn me on

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

Hey now, hey now, hey now, hey nowAnd the beach is a thing and the bees don’t stingLike complaining from a downtown whoreI got my plasma patches and my hypodermicIn hermetically sealed kid gloves

Yeah, tell meTell me, tell me, tell me, tell meTell meTell me, tell me, tell me, tell me

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

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Modern Lovers – Roadrunner

I posted this song, covered by Greg Kihn a while back.

The simplicity is what gets me about this song. It reminds me a little of the Velvet Underground in that way. Jonathan Richman, who wrote the song, had seen the VU many times, and this was influenced by the Underground song Sister Ray. John Cale produced the 1972 version.

Jonathan Richman grew up in Natick, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. As a teenager in the mid-60s, he became obsessed with The Velvet Underground. He wasn’t just a fan; he followed them around New York City, crashing on couches, walking down the same streets Lou Reed walked. He took their sound and feel and made something a little brighter.

It was first recorded in 1972 with John Cale producing, but it would be recorded with different producers through the years. Roadrunner exists in multiple versions, some faster, some longer, some even sloppier, and it works in each version.

Richman takes the Velvet Underground’s art style and replaces it with suburbia. He created a song that manages to be a blend of punk, power pop, and garage rock all at once. It’s a great song to blast out of your windows while driving down the road. Richman took the Chuck Berry/Springsteen dream of a car equaling freedom and ran with it.

Here are two versions of the song. I like the original 1972 the best.

Roadrunner

Roadrunner, roadrunnerGoing faster miles an hourGonna drive past the Stop ‘n’ ShopWith the radio onI’m in love with MassachusettsAnd the neon when it’s cold outsideAnd the highway when it’s late at nightGot the radio onI’m like the roadrunner

AlrightI’m in love with modern moonlight128 when it’s dark outsideI’m in love with MassachusettsI’m in love with the radio onIt helps me from being alone late at nightHelps me from being lonely late at nightI don’t feel so bad now in the carDon’t feel so alone, got the radio onLike the roadrunnerThat’s right

Said welcome to the spirit of 1956Patient in the bushes next to ’57The highway is your girlfriend as you go by quickSuburban trees, suburban speedAnd it smells like heaven, I sayRoadrunner onceRoadrunner twiceI’m in love with rock and roll and I’ll be out all nightRoadrunnerThat’s right

Well nowRoadrunner, roadrunnerGoing faster miles an hourGonna drive to the Stop ‘n’ ShopWith the radio on at nightAnd me in love with modern moonlightMe in love with modern rock & rollModern girls and modern rock & rollDon’t feel so alone, got the radio onLike the roadrunnerO.K. now you sing Modern Lovers

I got the AM(Radio on!)Got the car, got the AM(Radio on!)Got the AM sound, got the(Radio on!)Got the rockin’ modern neon sound(Radio on!)I got the car from Massachusetts, got the(Radio on!)I got the power of Massachusetts when it’s late at night(Radio on!)I got the modern sounds of modern MassachusettsI’ve got the world, got the turnpike, got theI’ve got the, got the power of the AMGot the, late at night, hit ’em wide, rock & roll late at nightThe factories and the auto signs got the power of modern soundsAlright

Right, bye bye!

…

Velvet Underground – I’m Waiting For The Man

When I think of The Velvet Underground… the bands Big Star and The Replacements come up. Those three bands influenced a huge range of other bands but didn’t come along at the right time to make it themselves. They never had mainstream success but their music lives on with every 15-year-old guitar player that picks up one of their albums.

Ask Peter Buck, Paul Westerberg, Paul Stanley, and Rick Nielsen, about some of their influences. The Underground would come up and Big Star… In the 90s performers such as Kurt Cobain and Green Day were heavily influenced by The Replacements. Ok, I’ll step off of my soapbox now.

While the West Coast bands at the time had songs about free love and romanticized the psychedelic experience… The Velvet Underground was more about New York’s dirty streets and drug addictions.

It’s no big secret what this song is about. Waiting for his drug dealer to come. The song is about scoring $26 worth of heroin in Harlem. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Reed said: “Everything about that song holds true, except the price.” The place where the deal took place is a Harlem brownstone near the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 125th Street to buy drugs from a dealer.

The song was released in 1967 on The Velvet Underground & Nico album. Songs like “I’m Waiting For The Man,” “Heroin,” and “Venus In Furs” were what kept The Velvet Underground out of a record contract with Atlantic Records. Atlantic executive Ahmet Ertegun told them he would take them if they would drop those songs about drugs…they refused. They would eventually (1970) sign with Cotillion Records (a subsidiary of Atlantic Records that specialized in blues and Southern soul). Until then they were signed to Verve Records…subsidiary of MGM.

Lou Reed wrote this song. John Cale who played piano and bass guitar started to push Reed into more avant grade directions. You can hear Cale’s influence on Reed by listening to the demo version. It sounds like a traditional blues song. I have it at the bottom also above the studio version. The versions are night and day.

The album peaked at #129 on the Billboard Album Charts, and #43 in the UK in 1967.

David Bowie: “I actually played ‘Waiting for the Man’ in Britain with my band before the album was even released in America. Talk about oneupsmanship. A friend of mine came over to the states to do some work with Andy Warhol at The Factory, and as he was leaving, Andy said, ‘Oh, I just made this album with some people. Maybe you can take it back to England and see if you can get any interest over there.’ And it was still the vinyl test pressing. It hadn’t got a company or anything at the time. I still have it. There’s a white label on it, and it says ‘Warhol.’ He signed it. My friend gave it to me and he said, ‘This is crap. You like weird stuff, so maybe you’ll enjoy it.’ I played it and it was like ‘Ah, this is the future of music!’ I was in awe. It was serious and dangerous and I loved it. And I literally went into a band rehearsal the next day, put the album down and said, ‘We’re going to learn this song. It is unlike anything I’ve ever heard.’ We learned ‘Waiting for the Man’ right then and there, and we were playing it on stage within a week. I told Lou that, and he loved it. I must have been the first person in the world to cover a Velvet Underground song.”

The DEMO version

I’m Waiting For the Man

I’m waiting for my man
Twenty-six dollars in my hand
Up to Lexington, 125
Feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive
I’m waiting for my man

Hey, white boy, what you doin’ uptown?
Hey, white boy, you chasin’ our women around?
Oh pardon me sir, it’s the furthest from my mind
I’m just lookin’ for a dear, dear friend of mine
I’m waiting for my man

Here he comes, he’s all dressed in black
PR shoes and a big straw hat
He’s never early, he’s always late
First thing you learn is you always gotta wait
I’m waiting for my man

Up to a Brownstone, up three flights of stairs
Everybody’s pinned you, but nobody cares
He’s got the works, gives you sweet taste
Ah then you gotta split because you got no time to waste
I’m waiting for my man

Baby don’t you holler, darlin’ don’t you bawl and shout
I’m feeling good, you know I’m gonna work it on out
I’m feeling good, I’m feeling oh so fine
Until tomorrow, but that’s just some other time
I’m waiting for my man