John Cale Mourns Lou Reed

JOHN CALE, LOU REED’S viola-torturing foil in the Velvet Underground, has released a longer statement in response to the death of his old friend and sometime sparring partner. “The news I feared the most, pales in comparison to the lump in my throat and the hollow in my stomach,” writes Cale. “Two kids have a chance meeting and 47 years later we fight and love the same way – losing either one is incomprehensible. No replacement value, no digital or virtual fill...broken now, for all time. Unlike so many with similar stories – we have the best of our fury laid out on vinyl, for the world to catch a glimpse. The laughs we shared just a few weeks ago, will forever remind me of all that was good between us.”

Cale left the Velvet Underground in early 1968 after completing the White Light/White Heat album. Without him the group moved out of their drone/noise phase and into the straighter rock’n’roll and gentler pop climes of the band’s third album, The Velvet Underground.

Subsequently, Cale and Reed did not always see eye to eye, but they came together for 1990’s poignant tribute to Andy Warhol, Songs For Drella, and collaborated thereafter in reformed Velvets line-up of 1992-93.

Here they are together, performing the brilliant Work, from Songs For Drella.

PHOTO: Piper Ferguson