The Manics and John Cale

[Phil C]

I've recently been really getting into John Cale's solo albums and I've noticed a couple of connections with the Manics, some suggest influence and others are almost certainly just co-incidences.

There are the obvious ones - James playing two songs with Cale in the documentary film about him, Cale then appearing on 'Auto-Intoxication', I think Nick once said they would like Cale to produce a Manics album, and the Manics have covered Cale's 'The Endless Plain Of Fortune' on the 'National Treasures' vinyl as well as James covering it solo. I believe Cale curated the Nico tribute concert that James covered 'Janitor Of Lunacy' at as well.

On top of this I was listening to Cale's 'Fear' album, and heard his superb 'Ship Of Fools' for the first time, and it struck me that the track could well have been an influence on the 'music box' element of 'Builder Of Routines' (judge for yourselves - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGPC-ZKrrtY )

And I was just reading an interview with Cale which said his 2005 track 'Hey Ray' was about Ray Johnson, who was the subject of the Manics' b-side 'Locust Valley'.

I'm still working my way through Cale's back-catalogue and I'm far from an expert in his stuff, so I was wondering if anyone else here has noticed any other connections/influences?