Iconic Welsh musician, composer and singer-songwriter John Cale has announced that he’ll be reissuing his classic live album Fragments of a Rainy Season on 9th December via Double Six/ Domino. The live LP saw Cale performing some of his most melodic and moving pieces, and was the first live record of his to see him performing solo. The new reissued version will be released on a limited edition triple gatefold 12” vinyl, as well as a standard edition; both will feature the original album as well as previously unreleased outtakes.
Fragments of a Rainy Season features Cale’s version of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah,’ and to coincide with the announcement a new video for the song has been released, which appears to have been inspired by Macbeth. In Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell spoke of Cale’s version of Cohen’s classic song: “I’m guessing that [Jeff] Buckley’s version is the one you’re most familiar with – it’s the famous one, the definitive one. It’s not really a cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’, it’s a cover of John Cale’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ only with Cale’s piano swapped out for a guitar and of course, Buckley swaps out Cale’s voice for his own extraordinary voice.” Watch below.
