John Cale - Paris 1919 Poll

It's a great glam rock boogie song and it does kinda disrupt the flow, I agree, but without it the album would be too short/slow/samey, perhaps?

Wrote on "Macbeth" last year:

http://thisiheard.blogspot.com/2013/07/john-cale-macbeth-1973.html

hate Macbeth and Graham Greene

Graham Greene has fun lyrics even if it's not JC's best song.

I finally picked up a copy of this - the reissue with the demos and works-in-progress. I quite like peaking behind the curtain, I find it fascinating to hear how some artists conceptualize their songs hole and others take an amazing leap i the studio.

I quite like peaking behind the curtain

triggering acid flashbacks here

This album is so good I can't stand it

The album bends the very fabric of space and time by running barely more than 30 minutes yet never feeling short.

The anaesthetic wearing off

he should do something special in Paris 2020

haha that would be fun

love this album, such a vibe

I am a John Cale fan and I certainly like Paris 1919 a lot, I really do - but it's not my favourite, it often surprises me that it seems to have a revered status. I do find about half of it utterly brilliant, but that's a relatively short set. Title track, Endless Plain, Hanky Panky - gorgeous! But Graham Greene can get on my nerves, I'm not too fond of Macbeth and I find a couple of other tracks nice enough but not classics.
The Islands triology albums are just as good as Paris, I think.

A Cale classic I can fully get behind is Music For A New Society - astonishing. Conversely, I have a very high opinion of Caribbean Sunset as well (really hoping for a CD re-release of that one). Words For The Dying is an odd favourite of mine too.

Valentijn OTM on all points. Caribbean Sunset is indeed criminally underrated

i love caribbean sunset too!

Oh, I listen to The Island Years set more than anything else.

I find a couple of other tracks nice enough but not classics.

half past france is a classic imo

this isn’t my favorite cale album either but it’s perfectly formed regardless imo

half Past France is my favorite on this but yeah there are a couple of out-of-place clunkers on it (Macbeth, Graham Greene)

macbeth rules wtf

those tracks are fun and i would like the album less without them, especially "graham"

chopping down the ppl
where they stand

Yes, Caribbean Sunset rulez!!! Hungry For Love is my jam!!!!!

he should do something special in Paris 2020

The Endless Plain Of Fortune is my pick these days... opening track forever, tho

Down in Transvaal
Where Crocodiles and men fight on

"Graham Greene" might be my favourite John Cale lyric! He shoots for "Randy Newman, but English" and succeeds spectacularly, it's such a delicate yet savage song.

"Macbeth" isn't just out-of-place, it's also a bad song on an otherwise perfect album

this was being discussed on boring ass steve hoffman forums too. and ironically I'd been listening to it (and lots of Cale) a ton over the past few months. Certainly top-tier Cale IMO but really I like almost all of his output that isn't Words for the Dying.

i like the way "macbeth" interrupts the mood — I kinda feel like every classic album should have one of those outliers.

Yes, Macbeth is awesome, it's like Glam Rock before Glam Rock existed.

"Randy Newman, but English"

I assume this is a deliberate mistake?

People I must tell you right now my favorite John Cale song is Ski Patrol.

Why? It's, like, not very good.

Yes, Macbeth is awesome, it's like Glam Rock before Glam Rock existed.

uh, glam rock definitely existed in 1973

Deliberate mistake.

Oh Tom D, Ski Patrol is such fun!

Fair enough, sounds like a feeble throwaway to me, I suppose I have to give him credit for writing a song about such an unlikely subject.

I still stick with the older warner archives remastering of this, could not get comfortable with the bonus tracks remaster at all

it is true that Macbeth breaks the autumnal quality therein, but man its hard for me to understand how anybody thinks its bad. That is one bumpin' ass beat by richie fuckin' hayward! He never did anything remotely like it again, did he?

in early 2013, I saw JC do the whole record at BAM, and it was pretty much a drag: the tunes were in different keys than the record (of course he can't sing like that anymore), wasn't played in sequence, it didn't seem like he was into it, and Macbeth in particular sounded weak.

which is to say, cale never did anything like that again

didn't know about that earlier remaster, Ilike the new one but now I'm intrigued xxpost

I mean I think it’s the first CD of it so maybe remasterIng is the wrong word to use. Neither version sounds great to me but older one is less bad. Would like to hear a good vinyl rip.

there are, perhaps, a single-digit number of records i like more than this one

had no idea that lowell george and richie hayward played on this album

I like the slow songs on here the best

One vote for "Antarctica Starts Here"? That is insane.

The expanded, remastered CD sounds great (although some listeners prefer at least some of the original; it's good to have both). And I love hearing the demos, rehearsals, alt. takes, outtakes----nothing against the orchestration, but so good to be there with the basic group---Wilton Felder of the (then or recently Jazz) Crusaders on bass with George and Hayward of Little Feat, Cale playing the hell out of his keyboards and some other instruments.
10. Burned Out Affair (outtake)
11. Child's Christmas In Wales (alternate version)
12. Hanky Panky Nowhow (drone mix)
13. The Endless Plain Of Fortune (alternate version)
14. Andalucia (alternate version)
15. Macbeth (rehearsal)
16. Paris 1919 (string mix)
17. Graham Greene (rehearsal)
18. Half Past France (alternate version)
19. Antarctica Starts Here (rehearsal)
20. Paris 1919 (piano mix)
21. Macbeth (different instrumental backing track) - HIDDEN TRACK

Knew about the Little Feat fellows but had forgotten about Felder, if I ever knew he was on this.

This is one of the few perfect albums

The new expanded reissue of this features a (badly needed) remaster so revelatory that it's like having a whole new relationship to one of my favorite records... stunning!

Interesting! Will have to check it out. I think I used to listen to this album on a home-made cassette tape version and was fine with that.

What’s the big difference? More clarity?

What Davey D says about sound quality makes it worth my checking out, but xpost prev reissue shouldn't be skipped re bonus tracks.
from Domino's page on this 2024 re-reissue (also mentions 2024 The Academy In Peril)

1Child's Christmas in Wales (Remastered)
2Hanky Panky Nohow (Remastered)
3The Endless Plain of Fortune (Remastered)
4Andalucia (Remastered)
5Macbeth (Remastered)
6Paris 1919 (Remastered)
7Graham Greene (Remastered)
8Half Past France (Remastered)
9Antarctica Starts Here (Remastered)
10I Must Not Sniff Cocaine (Remastered)
11Hanky Panky Nohow (Drone Mix) (Remastered)
12Child's Christmas in Wales (Rehearsal 1) (Remastered)
13Half Past France (Intro Chat) (Remastered)
14Macbeth (Take 11) (Remastered)
15Hanky Panky Nohow (Guitar Mix) (Remastered)
16Fever Dream 2024: You're a Ghost