Cale is a bit of an eccentric, but he isnt a freek like Lang.
Her treatment of the song was creepy to me as well.
I have much respect for Cale and his eccentricities. I think he made a perfect foil (or compliment depending on how you look at it) to Reed’s raw/untrained genius. I think the reason I’m not as enthused at the Lang version is because I get the feeling (although not being very familiar with her work I could be totally off base here) that she could never have written a song of this caliber. And it is not very often that I am moved greatly by an artist (Lady Day being a notable exception) that subsists off the brilliance of others.