John Cale: Paris 1919 (2LP, deluxe remastered edition) [DOMINO RECORD CO.]

Why you'll love it

This deluxe 2LP set remasters the album from the original tapes and adds a disc of outtakes, alternate mixes and a brand new Cale recording, with new liner notes and a download card. Rolling Stone's Stephen Holden called the album a masterpiece.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Remastered from the original tapes
• Deluxe edition
• Printed inner sleeves
• Lyrics sheet
• Download card included
• Stereo mix

About the album

The man who sawed away at a viola through the Velvet Underground's loudest noise was not, perhaps, the obvious candidate to make a lush, orchestral pop record. John Cale did it anyway. He hired producer Chris Thomas, fresh from working with Procol Harum, to bring some objectivity, and recorded at Sunwest in Los Angeles in 1972 and 1973 with Lowell George and Richie Hayward of Little Feat, Wilton Felder of the Crusaders and the UCLA Symphony Orchestra.

The songs are steeped in European history and literature. "Child's Christmas in Wales" borrows its title from a classic Welsh Christmas story and opens the record in a warm swirl of piano and guitar, "Hanky Panky Nohow" is a fragile string-laced beauty, "Andalucia" is one of his loveliest melodies, and "Graham Greene" bounces with sly wit. The title track, named for the 1919 peace conference, sets a grand orchestral arrangement against Cale's wistful voice, and "Half Past France" drifts through the end of the First World War. The bonus disc adds rehearsals, a drone mix and a guitar mix of "Hanky Panky Nohow" and "Macbeth" (Take 11).

Cale called it an example of the nicest ways of saying something ugly. It is also the nicest way we know of saying "Chipping Sodbury" in a pop song.

Also at Kops: more John Cale on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Reprise / Domino (cat# REWIGLP139), a reissue of the 1973 album.