John Cale, it seems, is often at his best in a live setting.  When I saw him in 1995 with the Soldier String Quartet, Cale himself on piano and occasional guitar, and pedal steel player BJ Cole filling out the ensemble,  it was one of those rare transcendent occasions where every audience member  seemed to be experiencing the same hypnotic glow, held in sway like the  tide under a powerful lunar magnetism.  A (regrettably) long out-of-print  live document, "John Cale Comes Alive," captures Cale's strength  on the other end of the spectrum, bashing out brutal rockers with a hot,  stripped-down backing band of guitar, bass and drums.  In this regard,  then, it should come as no surprise that "Fragments of a Rainy  Season" (1992) is an excellent set.  However, as it covers his work  from "Paris 1919" (1973) to "Songs For Drella" (1990),  it also illuminates certain songs in Cale's catalog and in effect smooths  out a lot of the rough spots in an interesting but erratic  career.