John Cale and Lou Reed co-founded the influential Velvet Underground — discovered by Andy Warhol, who snagged a producer’s credit on the band’s first record, released in 1967. Cale plays the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Nov. 16, 17 and 18. The first two nights will have Cale, accompanied by the Wordless Music Orchestra and other guests, perform that debut album, “The Velvet Underground & Nico.”
We caught up with the 75-year-old Cale, a native of Wales, for some insight into his old band.
What do you remember about making that first Velvet Underground album?
We had to be very careful about how we crossed the studio. There were gaping holes in the floor. Plus nobody really understood Andy’s role. He sat very quietly in the corner while we ran through the songs as quickly as possible. Time was money and we were scared of what we sounded like [on vinyl]. The entire experience ran only $1,500.
One of the band’s early gigs was at a high school dance in Summit, NJ. Were you surprised to have been booed off the stage?
We knew it would happen. [It paralleled] our experiences with club owners. At Cafe Wha we played “The Black Angel’s Death Song” and the owner said that if we play it again we’re fired. So we played it again.
The peelable banana on the cover on the original edition of the “The Velvet Underground & Nico” is pretty iconic. How did it come about?
Andy would go to his pill doctor in the morning. One day he came back to the Factory; I arrived early for some reason and was the only one there. He showed me a magazine from the doctor’s office with a really expensive ad for a pill that contained all the vitamins of a banana. It said on the page “peel slowly and see,” and you were able to peel the [printed] banana to see all the ingredients in the pills. Andy showed it to me for a potential album cover and I freaked. I thought it was fabulous. It had his colors and the black outline. It struck me as cheeky and suggestive as hell.
The original, unpeeled, sells for $400 on eBay.
Only $400, huh? Our label freaked out when they found out that the cover would cost 35 cents to make instead of the usual 2 cents. They didn’t like us.
Your primary instrument is the viola. Did it take any convincing to get Lou Reed to allow a viola player in the band?
No. It made sense. We started with a lyrical viola and it eventually became a drone. Lou also liked that it left his words alone and even made them stick out. The viola’s drone gave his words a platform.
You grew up in Wales and came to New York in the early 1960s to train with Aaron Copland. Did he ever get to hear the Velvet Underground?
I gave Aaron a copy of “The Marble Index” [a record Cale produced for the Velvet Underground guest vocalist Nico]. His only comment was, “Well, she has a gravelly voice.” I did not send him the first Velvet Underground record. I knew he would have no interest.
During a 1977 performance in England, you notoriously decapitated a dead chicken. Any chance of you repeating that onstage at BAM?
I doubt it. Don’t suggest it or someone will surely bring a chicken.