John Cale - Paris 1919 Poll

Gotta go with "Hanky Panky Nohow", although on any given day it could be almost any of the others.

Paris 1919 is my favourite here. Gorgeous album by the way.

"Hanky Panky Nohow," especially on a day like this.

Went with Half Past France (I prefer the live solo piano version of the title track)

Paris 1919 for me, but really, it could be any of half-a-dozen, depending on the day.

Andalucia for me! That song brings back so many exciting memories...

I've been totally obsessed with this album lately. Good timing. This is a really hard decision, but I guess that the title track just barely takes the cake.

I guess so.

This is one of those few albums where you have a new favorite song every day.

Yeah, "Child's Christmas", "Hanky Panky," "Andalucia", "Paris 1919", and "Half Past France" are pretty much interchangeably fantastic, and the rest are merely amazing.

Wow, what a coincidence..was just listening to this one in the car this morning, first time in a long long while. "Child's Christmas in Wales" is my favorite song, though topped by the acoustic piano version on Fragments of a Rainy Season.

I like "Andalucia", except for one little detail-- the 'Andalucia/when can I see ya' line always bugged me.

you're a ghost la la la la la la la la la

can anyone hear a difference between the remastered cd and the original?

This is a hard one because every song is genius, but "Endless Plain of Fortune" kills me everytime.

I love Sally Timms' cover of "Half Past France."

You know what's really been bothering me lately? I feel really bad about John Cale's wife sleeping with Kevin Ayers. I like Ayers records, the first 2 or 3 are mostly good to great, but I've been feeling/exploring Cale's 70s stuff a lot lately and I just feel really sad for John being cheated on. I guess he may have been a coked up asshole so who knows. Still, it just breaks my heart.

Tape Store, you seemed to have tapped into the collective unconscious of ilXor, as I was listening to this the other day as well! I was trying to pick a song to put on a friend's mix, but I gave up when I couldn't decide on just one. I doubt I'll fare any better with this poll, but I've at least it narrowed down to "Hanky Panky Nohow", "The Endless Plain of Fortune", "Paris 1919", and "Graham Greene". I'm leaning toward "Hank Panky".

xpost

Yes, the remastered CD sounds wonderful, and the bonus tracks are nice-to-haves, though not essential.

paris 1919

any of his other solo stuff as good as this?

Nothing I've heard is quite the same, Slow Dazzle is the only one I listen to as much, lots of people like Fear too.

I've only ever heard the remaster, so I think of A Burnt Out Affair as the closer. Graham Greene FTW though.

"Child's Christmas in Wales" for me, that melody is unbelievable

J0rdan: Fragments Of A Rainy Season = his best IMHO. Solo live/best of kinda thing.

I feel really bad about John Cale's wife sleeping with Kevin Ayers

Don't feel so bad, I think a lot of men's wives slept with Kevin Ayers in the 70s. Just ask Richard Branson.

This is one of my Top 10 favourite albums of all time.

The Island Years comp has some great stuff on it.

Why is there still no cd reissue of Helen of Troy? Totally crazy. I wanna know what Jonathan Richman with Phil Collins on drums sounds like.

"THE ENDLESS PLAIN..." because it will always remind me of driving into Alexanderplatz on a clear November night first time I went to Berlin. It was playing on the car stereo at the time. It fit perfectly with the view out the window.

xpost

"The Island Years" contains the entirety of "Fear", "Slow Dazzle", and "Helen of Troy"... so you should pick that up!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

title track

i'm listening to this now and wishing i voted for 'macbeth,' because of guitars.

I listened to this a few days ago and wished I'd voted for "Child's Christmas," if only for the opening piano riff following by the guitar.

regret

i also went w/ the title track, but it could have been anything

Andalucia or The Endless Plain of Fortune

Title track. No regrets.

god i love this album

any of his other solo stuff as good as this?

-- J0rdan S., Monday, March 24, 2008 7:52 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Link

Vintage Violence and Fear both rank with this one, though for different reasons. VV for the odd country vibe ("Charlemagne", plus "Gideon's Bible" has a signature killer chorus), Fear for the emotion ("You Know More Than I Know", the killer chorus award goes to "Buffalo Ballet"). Helen of Troy and Slow Dazzle are a step or two behind.

Voted "Paris" but flipped-flopped between that and "Hanky Panky."

any of his other solo stuff as good as this?

Only "Music For a New Society". Difficult to make albums as good as "Paris 1919"!

Half Past France

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow, the top five are pretty much exactly the order in which I would rank them.

Yeah, and by the same margin (tho I don't mean to denigrate the rest of the disc beyond the title track; the first five songs listed in the poll results are all top-shelf).

If I had to Pick Only One song ever, there's a good chance it would be the title track. It gets me every. single. time. While I'm generally a guitar kinda guy, there's something about certain piano riffs like this that make me weak in the knees, bring out the rare sentimental feeling in me. The other songs would be the Stones "We Love You", Bowie's "Oh You Pretty Things", These Immortal Souls "Marry Me (Lie)" and Nina Nastasia's "Treehouse Song".

"Half Past France" and "Hanky Panky" tie, but I mean I love Paris 1919. Too bad Little Feat didn't just become Cale's band, playing Cale's songs...altho Cale doing "Oh Atlanta" might've been fun.

as for the other stuff--I think Honi Soit is a good record; I love Fear and Slow Dazzle as much as I do 1919, and actually, Black Acetate was real good too.

it was my vote that pushed it over the top

Maybe I should give Black Acetate another try

Recording of Cale playing this album w/ orchestra this week http://proskynesis.blogspot.com/2010/03/john-cale-05032010-london.html
Haven't listened, so I dunno what the quality is like. Hope it's good!

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

Thank you for bumping this thread and reminding me about this album. It was exactly what I wanted to listen to while quilting today.

I also listened to this just yesterday! It felt like a snuggly blanket.

the previous remaster of this was pretty brickwalled iirc. very excited to listen

Had a Spotify listen, and yes, wow, lots of detail that made it feel fresh to me. I hear Little Feat more in the sparkle and slide of the guitars, and the Americana feel becomes a more vivid a contrast to Cale's Europondering. Also, had it been recorded in 1919, this remaster would have hit in 1970.

xp I had no prob w audio of *expanded* prev reissue---will rip its exclusive bonus tracks in with this whole latest thing.

my vinyl copy of this is fucking trashed, will have to pick up a new one

it is very very funny to hear multiple instances of Johnny Boy blowing rails on the extras on this deluxe reissue

lol yeah incredible that they left that stuff in. its hilarious that this is such a cozy comfort album when in the studio he was apparently grinding his teeth down to nubs

so revelatory that it's like having a whole new relationship to one of my favorite records

Just gave it a listen and ... yeah. Wow. Who cleaned this up? Is it going to be revealed that some AI did it?

I believe all credit is due to the mastering job by Heba Kadry. It’s rare that a remaster can be this revelatory. Almost sound like a remix… but it isn’t!

I just picked up a promo copy of this at a record store this morning

https://www.discogs.com/release/1487184-John-Cale-Paris-1919

it is very very funny to hear multiple instances of Johnny Boy blowing rails on the extras on this deluxe reissue

wait can you elaborate on this

10 I Must Not Sniff Cocaine (Remastered)

wow.

the warm blanket that was over this album is now gone - the only other album I can think of that had something this drastic is Skepticism's Stormcrowfleet.

I would agree that the warm blanket is gone, maybe I miss that blanket? It's very clear, for sure.

yeah, that's indeed the thing: do I want this clarity? I,m keeping my old CD for now, I'll see if I ever choose

Kinda like the Replacements "Tim" remaster: once you're used to the murk/muddy, is better really better? In this case, the songs are so lovely that I think the warm blanket vibe is still there for me.

Holy shit this remaster is amazing— does incredible favours for the placement of “Macbeth”, which I’m used to skipping. This is the best album

I've only known this on LP, and listening to samples of the remaster online, I don't hear a huge change except maybe on the up-tempo tracks, where the percussion seems crisper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9IKnVVRsmk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDkTSPzciko

it's like he's now facing in our direction when he's singing

XXXpost

OTM re: MacBeth… just sounded like a compressed dark mess before and now it breathes and rocks so much harder!

Re: Replacements “Tim”… that was a remix, and a fairly drastic one. This is just a remaster, so the mixes remain the same.

Re: Replacements “Tim”… that was a remix, and a fairly drastic one. This is just a remaster, so the mixes remain the same.

The LP mastering is somewhere in the middle of those two examples, in terms of clarity and range.

yeah doesn't strike me as radical on first listen. but it sounds good! what a great album.

Same. Hearing some Wilton Felder bass runs I never noticed before, for example.

The remastering is indeed a revelation.

Hanky Panky Nohow has always been my favorite on this. And the Drone Mix of that is incredible.

Also really enjoyed the last track, Fever Dream. I get why some people may not care for his 21st century pomo MPC reinterpretations of his earlier work. But they feel entirely in keeping with Cale’s career arc.

One other thing that occurred to me is that the strings on the Hanky Panky Nohow Drone Mix feel very influential on Nell Catchpole’s string arrangements for Eno’s 90s-00s work. Likely more something that comes from Wrong Way Up where I believe the three of them worked together. But the similarities with the stacked violas here—both the Tony Conrad-y textures but also the harmonic movement and swelling—are clear.

Was that Drone Mix released at the time?

No, the first we heard about it was on the 2006 2CD version where it was one of the "previously unissued rehearsals, alternates and outtakes from the "Paris 1919" sessions." on the 2nd CD.

Weird how the two reissues differ so much on the outtakes disc.

Was that Drone Mix released at the time?

What a remarkable remaster. "The Endless Plane Of Fortune" sounds even more glorious, bombastic and melancholy.

*Plain (dammit)