John Cale Song Of The Week - Buffalo Ballet

I was talking recently with a friend (hi, Stephanie!) about how John Cale is the most awesome, terrific, fabulous genius in the entire musical universe, and that's discounting the faraway galaxies we know nothing about. And maybe even there, they wonder why, why he never really met with the planetary success that is his due? Listen to the song above, isn't that freaking beautiful?
After talking to Stephanie, I got curious, thinking I hadn't seen him on stage since the mid-1990s in Paris, and what was he up to these days?

That's where I'm marveling at the power of the interwebs, compared to the times that under-20 youngsters can't have known, when this type of search would have taken digging into the archives of several music magazines and fanzines. Today, in 5 seconds, shazam! I learned that:

1) he was now walking among us, lonesome God in a land of dwarfs, since he apparently lives here in Los Angeles! He left New York to live in the land of surgically-enhanced, vapid Industry types! Which is also the land where Arnold Schoenberg immigrated to during World War II and where the Beach Boys are originated from, so maybe Cale can be happy here, too. That's all the evil we at FBC! are wishing him, to be happy in La La Land.

2) not only that, but he's playing at Royce Hall on September 30! WHOO HOO!!!! Individual tickets available for us, the vulgare pecus who can't afford to become members/buy series, on August 9. You know, everybody in the art world. Seriously, I've told 6 or 7 artists friends since last week and everybody is super excited and wondering how the heck they'll find the money to buy a ticket.*

I only regret it is at Royce Hall, because seats tend to be a bit of a hindrance if you want to move around a bit, and more personally because after being hit in 3 car accidents, seating down in Royce Hall's uncomfortable seats for a while is painful. Quite a bit painful.

Nevertheless, I'm overjoyed to get to see John Cale in LA, that is after I sell my putative first-born in order to afford the ticket. To celebrate (the concert, not the sale of my hypothetical offspring), I propose to upload once a week the John Cale Song Of The Week, to let us patient a bit until September 30.
And, for my Frenchy brethren back home, rejoice! Cale plays at the Salle Pleyel on September 5.

So to kick off the series, let's start with Buffalo Ballet, from the album Fear. If you like what you hear, please go buy the song on iTunes or an old-fashioned CD, so John Cale gets at least 1 or 2 pennies in his pocket. He probably needs them more than, say, Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber.

* I guess that's a reason why Cale doesn't enjoy an interplanetary fame and success: his natural constituency is also chronically un-moneyed.