Tuesday 24 December 2019

John Cale ‎– "Stainless Gamelan: Inside The Dream Syndicate Volume III" (

They call it 'inside the Dream Syndicate', but its the Welshman's name in large capitals on the cover!?
Ahh, but this has a picture of 'sexy' era John Cale,when he realized that 'art' ain't worth  a fuck, but a fuck is worth selling out for.
The music is from before he sold out to very minor fame, but there's a particularly amusing ending when someone,a neighbour, or the New York Fire Dept, enters Conrad's apartment and tells them to shut up or else......surprisingly they do!?...not very Rock'n'Roll is that eager compliance.

Tracklist:
1 Stainless Steel Gamelan
Harpsichord [Cembalet], Guitar [Fretless] – John Cale, Sterling Morrison 10:30
2 At About This Time Mozart Was Dead And Joseph Conrad Was Sailing The Seven Seas Learning English
Tape [Wollensak] – John Cale Viola, Guitar – John Cale, Sterling Morrison 26:27
3 Terry's Cha-Cha
Drums [Hand], Tambourine – Angus Maclise Soprano Saxophone – Terry Jennings Tape [Wollensak] – John Cale 8:20
4 After The Locust
Electric Piano – John Cale; Performer [Thunder Machine] – Tony Conrad 4:18
5 Big Apple Express
Viola, Tape – John Cale;Vocals – New York Fire Department 5:45


1 - Mid 1960s. 
2 - May 1967. 
3 - May 1967.
4 - Circa 1968.
5 - Early/mid 1960s

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

surprisingly they do!?...Know what you're saying though arty types are usually timid...
Saw Whitehouse making a racket in a pub basement club and when the landlord came down and told them to shut the F.up, they immediately did just that and cleared off as fast as their could...

Anonymous said...

merry crimbo JZ

Jonny Zchivago said...

Merry crimbo to all anonymous's out there...with the exception of a few, who are just plain ol' nasty Anonymous's,who try to upset me. I bid those anon's a very shit Chrimbo indeed. ho! Ho! Ho!

parmalee said...

There's gotta be a relatively benign reason that Cale's name fronts these releases. I dunno, to my knowledge Jeff Hunt (Table of the Elements) worked exclusively with Tony Conrad, and I don't think he was overly concerned with sales. The other one, that you haven't posted (yet?) is mostly Cale, at least. It's weird, and I never really thunk much about it, til you pointed it out. Regardless, he (Hunt) brought Faust to the US in 1994, with Gate (Morley and Lee Ranaldo), and it was amazing.