Brian Eno & John Cale

Wrong Way Up (5 October 1990/Reissue 2006)

               ^{Brian Eno & John Cale — Wrong Way Up} »   “Přijde mi, že konečný výsledek je jen díky skutečné spolupráci,”  řekl Cale. “"One World" je toho dokonalým příkladem: dvě osobnosti opravdu zapadající do sebe a přestože dokonce i zpívají různé věci, myslím, že toto je ideální. Jsem opravdu rád, že jsme vytrvali.” John Cale Location: Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK
Album release: 5 October 1990 / Reissue 2005
Recorded: April — July 1990 at Brian Eno's Wilderness Studio, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK
Record Label: All Saints Records
Duration:     48:35
Tracks:
01. Lay My Love     4:46
02. One Word     4:36
03. In The Backroom     4:04
04. Empty Frame     4:29
05. Cordoba     4:25
06. Spinning Away     5:29
07. Footsteps     3:16
08. Been There Done That     2:55
09. Crime In The Desert     3:44
10. The River (Brian Eno)      4:25
11. Grandfather's House*     3:48
12. You Don't Miss Your Water (William Bell)     2:36
»   All tracks written by John Cale & Brian Eno except where indicated.
»   Bonus tracks on 2005 remaster: UK & rest of the world     11, 12
Awards:
Billboard Singles
»   1990   Been There Done That    Modern Rock Tracks     #11
Personnel:
»   John Cale: vocals, pianos, keyboards, bass, harp, horn, dumbek, viola, strings, omnichord
»   Brian Eno: vocals, keyboards, rhythm bed, Indian drum, guitars, Shinto bell, bass, little Nigerian organ
»   Robert Ahwai: rhythm guitar
»   Nell Catchpole: violins
»   Rhett Davies: backing vocals
»   Daryl Johnson: bass
»   Ronald Jones: tabla, drums
»   Bruce Lampcov: backing vocals
»   Dave Young: guitars, bass
CREDITS:
»   Robert Ahwai Drums (Snare), Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm)
»   John Cale Arranger, Bass, Chords, Composer, Drums (Snare), Dumbek, Guitar, Harp, Horn, Keyboards, Organ, Performer, Piano, Producer, Strings, Timbales, Timpani, Viola, Vocal Arrangement, Vocals
»   Kevin Cann Art Direction, Artwork, Design, Typography
»   Duchess Nell Catchpole String Arrangements, Violin
»   Tony Cousins Mastering
»   Rhett Davies Mixing, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
»   Brian Eno Arranger, Art Direction, Artwork, Bass, Bells, Composer, Cover Photo, Design, Drums, Drums (Snare), Engineer, Guitar, Keyboards, Melody Arrangement, Mixing, Native American Drums, Omnichord, Organ, Performer, Photography, Producer, Pulse Organ, Rhythm, Slide Guitar, Treatments, Viola Arrangement, Vocal Arrangement, Vocal Harmony, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
»   Roger Eno Keyboards
»   Jeff Foster Vocals, Vocals (Background)
»   Darryl Johnson Bass
»   Ronald Jones Drums, Drums (Bass), Drums (Snare), Tabla, Unknown Contributor Role
»   Bruce Lampcov Mixing, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
»   Dave Young Bass, Engineer, Guitar
»   Dave Young Orchestra Bass, Engineer, Guitar, Guitar EffectsAllMusic Review by William Ruhlmann;  Score: ****½
»   Both Brian Eno and John Cale have always flirted with conventional pop music throughout their careers, while reserving the right to go off on less accessible experiments, which means they've always held out the promise that they would make something as attractive as this synthesizer–dominated collection, on which Eno comes as close to the mainstream as he has since Another Green World and Cale is as catchy as he's been since Honi Soit. The result is one of the best albums either one has ever made.REVIEW
BY JIM DeROGATIS POP MUSIC CRITIC, October 5, 2003
»   On paper, the pairing looked ideal: Two English art–rock legends, John Cale and Brian Eno, coming together to craft the sort of buoyant, uplifting pop album that neither had made in more than a decade. And the result, 1990's "Wrong Way Up," was indeed a brilliant effort: a collection of 10 amazingly beautiful, wildly inventive and instantly unforgettable tunes.
»   But as the cover art depicting daggers shooting between the two men indicates, the making of the disc was anything but idyllic.
»   The Welsh–born, classically trained bassist, keyboardist and viola player Cale was and is a rock legend, a founding member of the hugely influential Velvet Underground who also has recorded more than a dozen classic solo albums, in addition to producing the debut efforts by the Stooges, the Modern Lovers, Patti Smith and Squeeze.
»   Eno was among the many who'd been inspired by Cale's work in the Velvets. He drew on their raw energy and dissonance first as the synthesizer player in Roxy Music and then on four electrifying solo pop albums through the mid–'70s: "Here Come the Warm Jets," "Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)," "Another Green World" and "Before and After Science."»   From there, he abandoned rock to concentrate on ambient sounds — sparse collections of atmospheric instrumentals such as "Thursday Afternoon" and "Music for Airports" that laid the groundwork for new age music — though he continued to produce other artists, including David Bowie, the Talking Heads and U2.
»   The two strong–willed giants had worked together before, when Eno produced Cale's 1974 album, "Fear," and Cale performed on Eno's "Another Green World." They also performed together live as part of the art–rock supergroup captured on the concert album "June 1, 1974." They had always shared an appreciation for each other's working methods — both believe in improvisation and encouraging "happy accidents" in the recording studio — and they first reunited in 1989, when Eno went to Moscow with Cale to produce "Words for the Dying," an album of Cale compositions performed by the Orchestra of Symphonic & Popular Music of Gostelradio.
»   Tacked on to that album almost as an afterthought was a short, catchy throwaway called "The Soul of Carmen Miranda" that Eno and Cale wrote while fooling around in the studio. “It was kind of like ESP, the way it developed, and I was really encouraged,” Cale told me at the time. “I never expected that Brian and I would work together on songs, so it was a surprise. I thought that if we could reproduce the circumstances, we could do the same thing for an album.”»   Eno fans had been asking for years when he would sing on album again — the stacked harmony vocals on his pop albums was one of the highlights of those discs — but he'd been more interested in creating instrumental landscapes. “If you look at the transition through my first three albums, you'll see that the vocals occupy less and less of a place on those records,” he told me. “People always assume that the stuff with words is the good stuff, the stuff that sold a lot and that everyone liked, and the other [ambient] stuff was not so well–liked. In fact, the opposite is true. My most popular record is 'Music for Airports.'”
»   “I like the way I sing, but I never really expected anyone else to like it,”  he said. “I think of my voice as a sort of precision instrument. It's like a very sharp pencil. But most of the voices that people seem to like, most of the people that get described as good singers, have these fantastic paint brushes and great palettes of color.”
»   Nevertheless, inspired by the chance result of "The Soul of Carmen Miranda," Eno decided to sing again, and he invited Cale to spend at month at his home and studio in Woodbridge, England. Hypnotic, driving and ultramelodic songs such as "Lay My Love" (which would eventually be covered by Chicago's Poi Dog Pondering), "Spinning Away" and "One Word" came together in the studio as Eno created gently pulsing rhythm beds on the drum machine and played swirling synthesizer and odd guitar parts while Cale added regal piano, organ and viola. They both arranged the tasteful contributions of a handful of outside musicians (notably the string players who color several songs) and shared the vocal duties, Cale with his rich, resonant baritone and Eno with his dirty choir–boy tenor.
»   The typically enigmatic lyrics were improvised at the mike. For "Cordoba," a haunting tale of a terrorist searching for his mark, the two musicians drew inspiration from a Spanish–language instructional text that happened to be lying around the studio. They flipped through the book's random sentences to find the most interesting, then strung them together to create a creepy and mysterious story–song.
»   Though the collaboration yielded great results, from the beginning, the artists made it clear that the chances of a reprise were slim. Eno issued a press release at the time the album was issued, listing several obvious questions and his responses. In answer to the query, “Do you plan to work with John Cale again?”  he wrote, “Not bloody likely.”
»   “A lot of people, when you're going to do an album, give themselves more time than what we were given,” Cale elaborated. “When [Eno] was in the hot seat all the time as the engineer, the host, as a creative artist, those are things that you're really treading the light fantastic to think that something isn't going to give there. I understand that he wants to be a hero. Everybody in rock 'n' roll wants to be a hero. Then when things start going wrong, you've got to be prepared to understand.”
»   Still, "Wrong Way Up" stands as one of the best albums of either man's career, and it remains a unique and captivating disc that draws the listener in each and every time he or she plays it. Regardless of the turbulence behind its making, Eno and Cale drew the best from each other.
»   “To me, the end result is a true collaboration,”  Cale said. “'One Word' is a perfect example of collaborating: two personalities really fitting together and even singing different things. I think that's ideal. I'm really happy that we persevered.” ♣   http://www.jimdero.com/LYRICS ONE WORD
1.) Night–time is falling on the Louvre.
It's been a lazy afternoon.
We walk to the house, the air is clear,
The water’s still moving in the pool.
2.) You say
the same
thing
again.
One word;
we fight.
We're in
a game.
Let it all
fade away.
3.) We were miles away, we were miles away,
We were miles and miles away.
Remember this oil by Augustus John?
These are the ones I found in Rome.
There are few things I keep for long.
When does your plane leave for Cologne?
4.) I recall
the train —
People danced
again.
One world
we're in.
We'll find
the same thing.
Never mind...
with time,
we'll dance again.
If it all fades away...
5.) All the sounds I heard
on a summer night,
and the quiet words
we exchanged. I felt
she was pulling back
to emphasize —
I was falling
into Mona Lisa's eyes.
And she turned,
and she turned,
she was far away.
She was miles away.
She was miles away.
She was so many miles away.
6.) One word.
One sound.
It makes
the world go 'round.
You'll see
you can't win —
the same place
but not the same spin.
If it fades away,
I don't mind.
7.) One word —
I saw —
that's all it took
to turn them around.
Strange world,
no sound.
The same things
are everywhere around.
You'll see,
with time
we'll dance again.
Let it all fade dancing away.
8.) One word,
I found,
that's all it took
to turn him around.
She watched.
He sighs.
He waits for
a touch of her eyes.
And then
she turns away.
She won't let him
touch her any more today.LYRICS LAY MY LOVE
1.) I am the crow of desperation
I need no fact or validation
I spin relentless variation
I scramble in the dust of a failing nation
I was concealed
Now I am stirring
And I have waited for this time.
2.) I am the termite of temptation
I multiply and fly my population
I am the wheel I am the turning
And I will lay my love around you.
3.) I am the sea of permutation
I live beyond interpretation
I scramble all the names and the combinations
[I] penetrate the walls of explanation
I am the will
I am the burning
And I will lay my love around you.
4.) I am the will
I am the yearning
And I will lay my love around you.
Notes:
(We can't make out the other words being sung in the background.)
______________________
EMPTY FRAME
1.) So they rode the sea,
It went on and on
They were years away
Though it seemed so long
But the captain never told them what he knew
As the poor ship laboured on through the endless blue.
2.) Oh the storm was strong
And the ship was so frail
But they stumbled on
Raising broken sails,
And they held the heavy sky on their open hands
And they dreamed of when their poor feet would touch the land.
3.) Baby, we're going round in circles!
Where is this place we're going to?
Does anybody know we're out here on the waves?
And are any of our signals coming through?
4.) We're going 'round in circles.
We have no single point of view.
And like the clouds that turn to every passing wind,
We turn to any signal that comes through.
5.) At the edge of the sea
Were the signs of the dove —
But the wrong way out
And the wrong way up.
We pushed the empty frame of reason out the cabinet door,
No we won't be needing reason anymore.
Ooh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh, yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
♣   http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/wwulyric.html
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Website: http://john-cale.com/_____________________________________________________________

Brian Eno & John Cale

Wrong Way Up (5 October 1990/Reissue 2006)

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