Words For The Dying is a 1989 album by John Cale

John Cale

John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....

.

The main part is oral work, read or sung by Cale, written in 1982 as a response to the Anglo-Argentinian Falklands War

Falklands War

The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...

, using poems written by fellow Welshman, Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas

Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...

. There are also two orchestral interludes, two other solo piano pieces "Songs Without Words", and finally a song by Cale, "The Soul Of Carmen Miranda

Carmen Miranda

Carmen Miranda, GCIH was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, Broadway actress and Hollywood film star popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was, by some accounts, the highest-earning woman in the United States and noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in the 1943 movie The Gang's...

". It was recorded in Moscow, New York, London and Suffolk, England. It was produced by Brian Eno

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

.

"The Falklands Suite" was first performed live on November 14, 1987, at the Paradiso

Paradiso (Amsterdam)

Paradiso is an iconic rock music venue and cultural center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.-History:It is housed in a converted former church building that dates from the nineteenth century and that was used until 1965 as the meeting hall for a liberal Dutch religious group known as the "Vrije...

 in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, The Netherlands.

Track listing

All tracks composed by John Cale; except where indicated

The Falklands Suite

1. "Introduction"
2. "There Was a Saviour" (Words: Dylan Thomas
   Dylan Thomas
   Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
   
   )
3. "Interlude I"
4. "On A Wedding Anniversary" (Words: Dylan Thomas)
5. "Interlude II"
6. "Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed" (Words: Dylan Thomas)
7. "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
   Do not go gentle into that good night
   Do not go gentle into that good night, a villanelle, is considered to be among the finest works by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas . Originally published in the journal Botteghe Oscure in 1951, it also appeared as part of the collection "In Country Sleep." Written for his dying father, it is one of...
   
   " (Words: Dylan Thomas)

Songs Without Words

1. "Songs Without Words I"
2. "Songs Without Words II"

"The Soul Of Carmen Miranda"

Personnel

• John Cale : vocals, piano, guitar, bass, organ, viola
• Nell Catchpole : violin, viola on "The Soul of Carmen Miranda"
• Brian Eno
  Brian Eno
  Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
  
   : keyboards on "The Soul of Carmen Miranda"
• The Orchestra of Symphonic & Popular Music of Gostelradio, Russia
  • Conductor : Alexander G. Mikhailov
• The Choir of Llandaff Cathedral Choir School, Swansea, South Wales
  • Choirmaster : Dr. Michael Kent Smith

Recording

The Falklands Suite was recorded at Gostelradio Studios, Moscow; engineered by Sasha Karasiov. John Cale was recorded at The Strongroom, London, and Wilderness Studios, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England; engineered by Stephen Taylor and Brian Eno.

Songs Without Words I & II were recorded at the Living Room, New York City, USA; engineered by Paul Rice and Blaise Dupuy.

The Soul Of Carmen Miranda was recorded at Wilderness Studios, Woodbridge, UK.

Other media

In 1993 an 80-minute documentary film Words For The Dying, directed by Rob Nilsson

Rob Nilsson

Rob Nilsson is an American independent film director, writer, and sometimes actor. He has won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.-Early life and education:...

, was released on DVD. It follows Cale and Eno to Moscow, London, and Wales during the creation of the album.