Bringin’ the Crazy, Part II: In Which John Cale Beheaded a Chicken

By Emily Carney

It’s no secret that John Cale may have had some slight mental health issues during the mid-1970s. During this period in his esteemed career, Cale was suffering from a nasty cocaine and alcohol addiction. In 1975, he went through a particularly acrimonious divorce from his second wife, ex-GTO Cindy Wells, who infamously slept with dopey ex-Soft Machine singer Kevin Ayers during their tumultuous-at-best marriage.

These factors undoubtedly contributed to Cale’s often-insane performances during this stage in his career. He was known for assaulting female mannequins onstage. It was not uncommon for him to leave entire venues, including dressing rooms, completely destroyed (I read some reminiscence about him from this time in which he somehow managed to walk through a dressing room door, emerging unscathed . . . and completely unaware of what he had just done). I have a photo of him after a typical performance; he is covered in blood. I am not sure if it’s fake blood or if he drained it from one of his own veins. None of that really matters, because he looked like the male embodiment of Stephen King’s Carrie. If I had to analyze Cale’s onstage self-destruction, I would say he was feeling so bad at the time he became sort of a conduit of brutality.

In April 1977, Cale brought the crazy train to Croydon, England. He was playing at a club called The Greyhound. During the show, he and his band launched into their signature lurching performance of Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” which retained none of its rockabilly sound; under Cale’s watch, the song sounded more like the Bataan Death March or something similarly horrifying and scary. (See also his production of Nico’s “The End,” which really sounds like The End.)

Photo from Forgotten Songs blog

At any rate, Cale decided to bust out a chicken. In his book What’s Welsh for Zen, he described singing the verse, “We could be so lonely . . .” (which sounds more like “WE COULD BE SO LONELY . . . I COULD DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!!!!!!!” on the associated album, 1975’s Slow Dazzle) and he proceeded to behead said chicken with a meat cleaver. The chicken’s head then landed in some random dude’s beer.

Apparently the audience was completely grossed out and terrified. In addition, two vegetarian members of Cale’s band were disgusted and walked off the stage in protest. Cale later said that the chicken had already died prior to the performance; this wasn’t analogous to a later Ozzy Osbourne stunt, in which the former Black Sabbath singer decapitated a live bat onstage . . . with his teeth (necessitating a set of emergency rabies vaccines). To his credit, Cale did apologize for the incident. The entire sordid affair is discussed at length in What’s Welsh for Zen, which is a must-read for all rock fans and is often completely hilarious.

The Cale Crazy Circus lasted for a few more years, causing concern to many of his loyal fans the world over. In 1985, his daughter Eden was born. Almost immediately, Cale sobered up and the insanity of his previous decade was replaced by fine performances and the great music we’ve come to expect by the best solo artist from The Velvet Underground. However, one great thing remained from The Croydon Chicken Disaster: a song from his 1977 Animal Justice EP, called “Chickenshit.”

For more information about Cale’s 1977 foray into chicken-cide, check out this link.