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John Cale: Paris 1919

Mick Gold, Let It Rock, October 1973

IN THE PAST John Cale has appeared to be engaged in investing themes of madness and chaos with a deranged from of classical dignity. I saw him play with Lou Reed and Nico in a one night reunion of the Velvet underground in Paris last year and he seemed to be a most unlikely man. Dressed in a Shetland pullover and plain slacks he had about as much charisma and identity as a computer salesman, as he carefully played blood-clotting trills and rasps on his viola to give 'Heroin' a brain-damaged sense of conviction. The man seemed far removed from the music he was making, watching with dispassionate interest as an audience of sixteen-year-old maniacs covered in glitter flicked lighted matches at each other and fell on their stoned faces in an eerie acting out of the Velvet underground's themes of juvenile corruption.

Total word count of piece: 630

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