Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #82988 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-05
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, Enhanced, Live, Original recording remastered, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 61 minutes

Amazon.com
John Cale will probably always be best known as a member of the Velvet Underground, but Fragments of a Rainy Season, basically a live retrospective of the first two decades of his solo career, shows that Cale's subsequent years have yielded more interesting and varied work than his relatively brief stint in the '60s with that legendary New York group. Recorded in Brussels in 1992, this hour-long concert finds Cale performing by himself, on piano and acoustic guitar. Though classically trained, he's not a great pianist; nor is his guitar playing dazzling, and he's no one's idea of a technically great vocalist. Still, Cale is a convincing, passionate performer, and his songs--theatrical, narrative in nature, not conventionally "pretty" (indeed, they're sometimes quite harrowing) but usually compelling--suggest what Kurt Weill might done had the late German composer brought his avant-garde sensibilities to the rock era. Cale draws his inspiration from an astonishing variety of sources, from film director Sam Peckinpah ("Cable Hogue") to poet (and fellow Welshman) Dylan Thomas (three songs are taken from the "Falkland Suite" from Cale's Words for the Dying album, all with words by Thomas); Cale also throws in plenty of his own bons mots, like "life and death are just things you do when you're bored" (from "Fear Is a Man's Best Friend"). It's ironic, perhaps, that two of his best known tunes were written by others (Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" and Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," which appeared in the first Shrek movie). But whatever John Cale is singing, this is an artist worthy of serious attention. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews

Totally disagree with "Crashon": Excellent audio quality!
I don't know what version of this DVD the previous reviewer has in their hands, but I just picked this up and the audio quality of my copy is excellent (sharp, clear, full dynamic range, etc., even at high volumes). Certainly similar to that of the CD release of this concert. The video quality also is not bad and Cale does not look like a "corpse". This DVD does not include 5 songs that are on the CD, but does have one (Carmen Miranda) that is not on the CD. I can't explain the differences reported by Crashon (perhaps there is an actual badly-copied bootleg of this DVD cirulating?). Bottom line is I highly recommend ths DVD for Cale fans. Its one the best of Cales' recorded live solo performances and a real pleasure to see him in action.

Unplugged Cale
This is really very good. John Cale is not a showman so don't buy this DVD if you're expecting that sort of thing.

What you do get is a good musician performing some of his best material alone at the Piano or Guitar. Stripping away some of the elbaorate arrangements of Cale's songs helps you to concentrate on whats important in the songs.

The concert was recorded in Brussells in the early 90's the DVD has fifteen tracks on it, including "Paris 1919" and "Dying of the vine".

This well worth getting.