Song of the Day 11/14: John Cale, “Half Past France”

Most American music fans know Welsh musician John Cale through his role as a founding member of the Velvet Underground. But his career in avant-garde music began years before he met Andy Warhol and continues to this day. Most of it, from the ethereal droning of La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music to his electronica albums in the early ’00s, is an acquired taste that over the years few have bothered to acquire — about what you’d expect of a guy whose “wild” musical ideas prompted Lou Reed to kick him out of VU.

Most of Cale’s mainstream success came as a producer, but his own releases of more accessible albums tended to fly well under the radar. Many of them earned critical praise both contemporaneously and in retrospect, but he seems to have made a greater impression on this side of the Atlantic. I only recently learned about “Paris 1919,” Cale’s 1973 song cycle inspired by the post-World War I Paris Peace Conference, from a French fan of experimental music. “Paris 1919” isn’t experimental in Cale’s usual way, but it was very much a departure for a guy known for his avant-garde work. About a decade ago he started performing the album in concert in its entirety with a 19-piece orchestra.

The Cale compositions that sound best these days came from a trio of solo albums in the early to mid-’70s. Their dark, brooding vibe retains its menace better than most of the punk and metal that it influenced. Listen to what he did with Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” in 1975 on “Slow Dazzle.”

Cale most recently released a new tune, “Lazy Day,” last year.

He also collaborated with Welsh electronic musician Kelly Lee Owens on “Corner of My Sky,” a track from her 2020 LP “Inner Song.” The video features Welsh actor Michael Sheen as a man with a mysteriously malfunctioning toaster, and Cale sings parts of the song in his native tongue.