Most of you will never have heard of him, but one of the most gifted, if not THE most gifted musician in the history of modern music has passed away. Fair winds Mr. Cale! http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/27/showbiz/jj-cale-obit/index.html
He was an odd guy. He wrote a lot of great hits, that other people ran with and made famous... Cale wasn't going to change his style just to fit some popular genre, but he didn't care if other people made money off his songs. He wasn't a fame seeker. I once read an interview with him where the questions ran to his many songs about out of the way places. How did he know so much about these places, was he a biker, etc? Cale just said he liked to ride the bus. Even late in life, he'd ride the bus through the small towns in the rural US with the odd and often destitute people who can't afford to fly. He'd chat with them and look out the window, get off in some small town and stay a few days. Nobody knew who he was, or cared. He liked it that way.
Went along to an interesting event yesterday evening. Today sees the release of his posthumous album, 'Stay Around' , and Rough Trade Records in London's Brick Lane laid on a launch event/general appreciation of Cale's work. Fittingly, the guest of honour was Cale's widow, Christine Lakeland, who has worked hard to put the album together. A 'brief interview' with the editor of Uncut magazine turned into an hour-and-a-half conversation with many questions from the floor. She'd travelled a very long way to be there for the event and was obviously deeply moved to talk with a group of real J J fans so far from home ( it wasn't a big deal - if you pre-ordered the album from RT, you got in for free ). A very intelligent, forthright lady who answered every question thoughtfully. It felt a bit weird to meet her - 42 years almost to the month since the only time I saw Cale in concert at London's Victoria Palace theatre......
