condition (record/cover): NM / EX- (light spine wear)
The 30th Street Studio sessions ran on 18 and 28 May 1969, with overdubs and vocal additions stretching into 1970. John McClure (head of CBS Masterworks) had offered Cale, fresh out of the Velvet Underground, a two-album solo deal; he and Riley, who had just delivered A Rainbow in Curved Air on the same label, were paired up by McClure himself. Both had been La Monte Young's acolytes in the Theatre of Eternal Music in the early sixties; the collaboration was decades in the making.
Cale plays bass, harpsichord, piano, guitar, viola, organ. Riley plays piano, organ and soprano saxophone (mostly through tape delay). Drummers Bobby Gregg and Bobby Colomby (the second a founder of Blood, Sweat & Tears) sit uncredited on the original sleeve. The Soul of Patrick Lee, the album's only vocal track, is sung by Adam Miller. Riley reportedly walked out during mixing, unhappy with Cale's prominence in the final stereo image. CBS sat on the tapes until February 1971. The S 64259 catalogue is the UK CBS pressing; US issue is Columbia CS 30131.
