Blog: A Town Full of Losers

John Cale is 67 today. The Welshman was a co-founder of The Velvet Underground with Lou Reed and he played viola, bass and piano on their first two albums. He also contributed a few vocal turns on those records before he and Lou fell out. He went on to make loads of fine solo recordings, among them the title track of his 1973 album, Paris 1919, below. It was also his interpretation of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah on the tribute album, I'm Your Fan, that inspired Jeff Buckley's version and has made the song so ubiquitous since. I've included a live [...]