Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
John Cale - The Man Who Couldn't Afford To... CD (album) cover

THE MAN WHO COULDN'T AFFORD TO...

John Cale

 

Prog Related

2.00 | 1 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Matti
Prog Reviewer
2 stars Welsh-born John Cale became known, like the American and more legendary singer- songwriter Lou Reed, as a member of the Velvet Underground. In his solo career Cale can be seen as a case of fall-in-between: too weird and avant-minded for the big pop/rock audience but often his albums are still too close to mainstream and lacking notably progressive elements to make him a big artist in the eyes of prog listeners either.

His album Fear (1974) is not among his artiest or most experimental, but it belongs to his 'classic albums' era of the 70's. The main collaborators are the Roxy Musicians Phil Manzanera and Brian Eno. This single features a song from Fear and a non-album B-sider. Unfortunately neither of them are very interesting. 'The Man Who Couldn't Afford to Orgy' (here for some reason the last word is marked as ...) is, according to All Music Guide's review, "a delightful Beach Boys pastiche". Yeah, something like that it attempts to be, but it definitely lacks the charm, energy and studio wizardry of Brian Wilson's finest achievements. At most, it is lukewarm nice, not delightful.

'Sylvia Said' is clearly better in my opinion, though not any proggier. It is a mellow, peaceful song with a beautiful, acoustically oriented arrangement featuring also some viola.

Matti | 2/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this JOHN CALE review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.