Words about music (761): Chris Spedding

I wasn't aware of John Cale and his story with The Velvet Underground until I met him. When I met John, I found that I had a lot in common with him musically, ‘cos we both like to improvise. I like to improvise in the same sort of freedom that a jazz musician does – but not playing jazz: improvise but playing rock, or improvise a song, try and guess what the next chord's going to be. It's the same sense of freedom that jazz musicians have, but they just do solos based on standards, but to improvise a song and follow each other around… John could do that, and I liked to do that with him, so for the time being, for a couple of albums, we both enjoyed working with each other.

Chris Spedding