Are there any Bowie/Cale collaborations?

August 29, 2008 8:47 PM

Are there any David Bowie/John Cale collaborations?

They've worked prominently with a lot of the same people (Eno, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop); is there any documented reason Bowie and Cale haven't made music together? Are there demos in a vault somewhere? I had no luck with Google.

posted by Bigfoot Mandala to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

There aren't any official ones, for whatever it's worth.

There was a bootleg at one point of a session in 1979 that didn't quite work out.

There was a great deal of animosity between Cale and Reed by 1968 and aside from a few shows, they barely spoke for two decades. Bowie's working with Reed in the early 70s might have chilled Cale's interest in working with him for a while, but I've never seen anything to suggest there was lasting animosity.
posted by el_lupino at 9:18 PM on August 29, 2008

"I'd also love to see him collaborate with someone like David Bowie"

By no means an official statement that there has never been a collaboration between the two, but the guy does seem to know his stuff. He also mentions how "In contrast with Lou Reed and David Bowie, who act out personas (and do so quite well), Cale has no pretensions". While I don't agree that Cale wasn't/isn't pretentious (based on other quotes i've read), it's probably true that Cale has a different style than Iggy, Reed and Bowie. Maybe two of the three was enough for Cale. But thats pure speculation and I don't really know enough about it all.
posted by atmosphere at 6:53 AM on August 30, 2008