Vintage Violence

Produced for a mere $15,000, Cale stated in his autobiography What's Welsh for Zen? that there wasn't "much originality on that album, it's just someone teaching himself to do something". He also "thought the songs were simplistic". He pieced together a band to play on the album, and they named themselves Penguin. However, the band didn't last beyond the recording sessions.{{cite book|last1=Cale|first1=John|author-link1=John Cale|last2=Bockris|first2=Victor|author-link2=Victor Bockris|title=What's Welsh for Zen|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|location=London|year=1999|isbn=0-7475-3668-6|page=123}}

The cover of the album features Cale with his face obscured by a glass mask over a nylon stocking, which he would later cite in his autobiography as symbolic of the content of the record: "You're not really seeing the personality".

Vintage Violence was released on 25 March 1970 by record label Columbia.

The album was re-released in remastered form in 2001.

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite web|last=Deming|first=Mark|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/vintage-violence-mw0000196294|title=Vintage Violence – John Cale|publisher=AllMusic|access-date=28 March 2015}}

| rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide

| rev2score = C+{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|chapter=C|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=C&bk=70|access-date=23 February 2019|via=robertchristgau.com|title=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|title-link=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|publisher=Ticknor and Fields|year=1981|isbn=0-89919-026-X}}

| rev3 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev3score = A−{{cite magazine|last=Brunner|first=Rob|url=https://ew.com/article/2001/03/16/vintage-violence/|title=Vintage Violence|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|date=16 March 2001|access-date=23 September 2020}}

| rev4 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev4score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite book|last=Hull|first=Tom|author-link=Tom Hull (critic)|editor1-last=Brackett|editor1-first=Nathan|editor1-link=Nathan Brackett|editor2-last=Hoard|editor2-first=Christian|editor2-link=Christian Hoard|chapter=John Cale|title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide|title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide|publisher=Simon & Schuster|edition=4th|year=2004|isbn=0-7432-0169-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/131 131–32]}}

| rev5 = Spin Alternative Record Guide

| rev5score = 7/10{{cite book|last=Powers|first=Ann|author-link=Ann Powers|editor1-last=Weisbard|editor1-first=Eric|editor1-link=Eric Weisbard|editor2-last=Marks|editor2-first=Craig|chapter=John Cale|title=Spin Alternative Record Guide|title-link=Spin Alternative Record Guide|publisher=Vintage Books|year=1995|isbn=0-679-75574-8|pages=70–71}}

}}

Vintage Violence received mostly positive reviews. Rolling Stone magazine's Ed Ward said that the album sounds "like a Byrds album produced by Phil Spector who has marinated for six years in burgundy, anise and chili peppers".{{cite magazine|last=Ward|first=Ed|author-link=Ed Ward (writer)|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/johncale/albums/album/202156/review/6210934/vintage_violence|title=John Cale: Vintage Violence|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=17 September 1970|access-date=28 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070211051059/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/johncale/albums/album/202156/review/6210934/vintage_violence|archive-date=11 February 2007|url-status=dead}} Ward was also quoted in Billboard magazine as saying, "I believe that this is destined to become one of the most important albums of the past few years."

Greil Marcus described it as "an exquisite, unheard solo album that was in some ways comparable to Van Morrison's Astral Weeks: the personal vision was that intense, the execution almost as graceful."{{cite book|last=Marcus|first=Greil|author-link=Greil Marcus|title=In the Fascist Bathroom: Punk in Pop Music, 1977–1992|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1993|isbn=0-14-014940-6|page=95}}

In his retrospective review, Mark Deming of AllMusic wrote: "John Cale had the strongest avant-garde credentials of anyone in The Velvet Underground, but he was also the Velvet whose solo career was the least strongly defined by his work with the band, and [...] Vintage Violence certainly bears this out."

{{Track listing

| all_writing = John Cale, except where noted.

| headline = Side A

| title1 = Hello, There

| length1 = 2:48

| title2 = Gideon's Bible

| length2 = 3:22

| title3 = Adelaide

| length3 = 2:18

| title4 = Big White Cloud

| length4 = 3:31

| title5 = Cleo

| length5 = 2:35

| title6 = Please

| length6 = 4:19

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side B

| title7 = Charlemagne

| length7 = 5:03

| title8 = Bring It on Up

| length8 = 2:24

| title9 = Amsterdam

| length9 = 3:14

| title10 = Ghost Story

| length10 = 3:48

| title11 = Fairweather Friend

| writer11 = Garland Jeffreys

| length11 = 2:32

| total_length = 34:25

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Bonus tracks on 2001 remastered CD

| title12 = Fairweather Friend

| note12 = alternate version

| writer12 = Jeffreys

| length12 = 2:29

| title13 = Wall

| length13 = 6:06

}}

Credits are adapted from the Vintage Violence liner notes.{{cite AV media notes|title=Vintage Violence|others=John Cale|publisher=Columbia Records|year=1970|type=CD booklet}}

• John Cale – vocals, bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, arrangements, conductor

;Penguin

• Garland Jeffreys – guitar, backing vocals
• Ernie Corallo – guitar
• Sanford Konikoff – drums
• Harvey Brooks – bass guitar
• Stan Szelest – piano

Production

• John Cale – producer
• Lewis Merenstein – producer
• John McClure – executive production
• Don Meehan – engineer
• Jim Reeves – engineer
• Israel "Isi" Véléris – photography

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Category:John Cale albums

Category:1970 debut albums

Category:Albums produced by John Cale

Category:Columbia Records albums

Category:Albums produced by Lewis Merenstein

Category:Baroque pop albums