JOHN CALE: “The Factory was a maelstrom for me. There was so much mischief and stuff going on. It was always lighthearted and fun to be around Andy. Others were not quite as light. Others were a bit more scurrilous, a lot more bitchy about their fun. That’s when I bailed out and married Betsey.”
JOHN CALE: “We met at her shop Paraphernalia’s fashion show, but Betsey was going out with Sterling at that point. I liked Betsey because of the energy she had. Here was somebody who was really alive, a sparkling personality, and also generous. She was doing in fashion what we were doing in music. At the time I met her she was designing costumes for the underground movie ‘Ciao! Manhattan’ starring Edie Sedgwick. Those clothes were spooky as hell. They were for somebody who’d been up too long. And sure enough, Betsey took amphetamine every day – diet pills, black bombers. She was a little overweight and sensitive about it, and she would sit up all night making clothes. It seemed to me that Betsey knew everybody I knew, and she was living at the Chelsea Hotel. It was a match made in heaven.”
TIM MITCHELL: “Cale, having recently moved into Betsey’s loft in La Guardia Place, had begun putting together the beginnings of a studio there. All his instruments had been gathered together: not only the viola, organ and bass but also all the bowed instruments he had been able to find, including Eastern ones such as the sarinda, the serongi and the dilruba. Cale thought that record albums should be released together with coloring books and toys and that music should be created which, by using both ultra-high and ultra-low frequencies, could be made to create weather. Tapes might be compiled that would consistently regulate the heat around the listener.”
BETSEY JOHNSON: "... I remember Terry Riley and his peanut butter 'Eat Me Out', being around our apartment a lot, and La Monte Young. Nico under the sink! Nico used to come over and live under my big stainless steel sink. And the whole loft was just music. We had a little bed in the corner."
PAUL KATZ: “There’s no question that John was flirting with a dangerous situation and if he had had the money and the access to heroin he probably would have been a junkie. Because John was always anti-speed. He may have enjoyed spending time with Ondine, it was always a joy to spend time with Ondine. Sterling and Lou ran around all day talking like Ondine. There were expressions like ‘Leave the confessional!’ John appreciated Ondine too, but as a group he didn’t like the speed-freaks. He always used to point out to me certain rhythms that heroin would bring out. For instance, he always used to talk about how when you listen to certain black music you could see where the heroin had an effect. Where there’s a pronounced beat and a very strong bass line it’s much more conducive to heroin and being on heroin. And things he identified as being more conducive with people who take speed were inevitably things he didn’t care for like that shriekiness and a certain redundancy. The hastiness of the speed people and their relationships with each other may be fun to look at and laugh at, but basically the speed scene did not agree with him. It was really demented and it was very hard to spend time with these people because they would go through such mood changes and there was always something near violent occurring. Arguments culminating in phrases like ‘How dare she!’ John got kicked out of it to a certain degree but he really didn’t like speed. He didn’t like being in the audience and he certainly didn’t like being thrown in the middle of the arena.”
BETSEY JOHNSON: "I must have established some kind of something for myself at Paraphernalia, the press was really great. Ladies Home Journal found out we were getting married and was going to pay for this huge bash. They just wanted to be there and photograph the freaky little rock'n'roll scene wedding ceremony and party even though we did it at City Hall. It was all set up and we had all the wedding invitations printed and they were all set to go to the mailbox and the day that they were supposed to go in the mail John was turning bright yellow! He went to the hospital and I said, 'Well, dear, when shall I mail these out? I'll wait for you to get your blood test.' He didn't even leave the hospital. He went straight into quarantine with hepatitis and a non-existent liver... Ladies Home Journal was so outraged that they wanted me to go on with the whole wedding, go to City Hall, no John and they said, 'Well later we'll take a picture of John and strip him in!'"
