John Cale, Producer

In the wake of his departure from the Velvet Underground, John Cale became something of a musical free agent. Armed with his pedigree as a classically trained musician and former member of the Velvets, he would not have to look very hard for new gigs. The first of such gigs was as producer and arranger of Nico's 1968 avant garde classic, The Marble Index. With Nico providing only Gothic lyrics and minimal harmonium accompaniment, it would be Cale's task to adorn the record with further instrumentation. The results were stunning, and The Marble Index would subsequently be considered an experimental classic. Below is a video collage for "Frozen Warnings," a track from the record. Note the thick (though evolving) drone that Cale created over Nico's poetry.

Avant folk? Experimental? Modern Classical? Nico's "Frozen Warnings"

Fresh from his sessions with Nico, John Cale was tapped to produce the debut album for the Stooges. Then relatively unknown outside of Detroit, Iggy Pop & Co had been signed to Elektra by an A&R scout who had seen the band opening for the MC5 (to whom he had also extended a recording contract). It seemed that if anyone would be able to capture the raw essence of the Stooges' live show, it would be Cale. Unfortunately, this did not turn out to be the case. The Stooges (1969) would become a classic album and spawn some of the band's most memorable songs ("1969," "I Wanna Be Your Dog"), but it sounds tame in comparison to the blown-out production of Fun House (1970) and Raw Power (1973). Though Cale most certainly coaxed some excellent performances out of the Stooges, none of his final mixes seemed to capture the raw angst of the group. As a result, these mixes were scrapped - the final master was mixed by Iggy Pop and Elektra president Jac Holzman. Four of Cale's original mixes would be released on a 2005 reissue of The Stooges, and I am providing one of them today: "I Wanna Be Your Dog." I have also included a video containing the album mix for comparison. Note that in comparison to the final album mix, the guitar is buried in Cale's mix. The percussion is much hotter, as is the bass. Not until the end of the track do we hear anything remotely approaching "in-your-face" guitar, and it comes in the form of a fuzz solo that is louder in the mix than Iggy's vocal.

The album version.

I Wanna Be Your Dog (Original John Cale Mix)