Words For The Dying

Description

In a musical catalog as rich and varied as John Cale's, there are no exceptions. All his albums bear Cale's indelible mark: whether exploring Beach Boys-inspired classics on his early 1970s albums, exchanging fuzzy organ riffs with Terry Riley on *Church Of Anthrax*, attempting modern classical miniatures on *The Academy In Peril*, right through to *Sabotage*, the art-house film soundtracks for Les Disques Du Crépuscule, encompassing confrontation and harshness. Eno and Cale had previously collaborated on numerous occasions, appearing on each other's solo albums in the 1970s, releasing a live album alongside Nico and Kevin Ayers, and the year after *Words For The Dying* came out, they released their one and only collaborative album, the much-loved *Wrong Way Up*. The creative process for *Words For The Dying* was documented in a monochrome film by Rob Nilsson, capturing the sometimes-tense process of bringing Cale's artistic vision to life. Lou Reed chose the album as one of his “favourites of 1989,” and in its retrospective, Fact Magazine described it as “arguably the last great album John Cale ever recorded.”