“WHATEVER JOHN WANTS”
“Stark and bold”: Cale and Reed at NewYork’s Café Bizarre, December 1965
ADAM RITCHIE/REDFERNS; BY BURAK CINGI/REDFERNS
I
F you ever should hear of John playing a solo show, go one hundred miles to seeit. If you’re a musician, go four hundred. There’s nothing quite like being in a room with him and a piano. No one strings chords together the way he does. It’s kind of spooky. I’ve sat in with him on stage a few times over the years.I can make him laugh (that’s hard). If I ever hear of him playing solo somewhereI can get to, I’ll bring myguitar and seeif he’ll let mesit in.
Not only becauseit’s fun and I’m sure to learn something, but also it’s respect and gratitude, eternal. A few years ago, he was getting a lifetime achievement award from a cultural center in NewYork called the Kitchen; me and Tommy[Larkins] were requested to play. Since it was eight hundred miles back from Chicago where we were already booked to NewYork, then right back out West after the show,it was sixteen hundred miles out of our way.I asked, “Did John himself ask for us?” Hedid. So back to NewYork wewent. For John. Respect and gratitude eternal. Ohyeah,I forgot to tell you, it was going to be a ten-minute show for our part. Whatever John wants.