Cale And Hearty

John Cale
Paris 1919
(Domino)
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Booted out of the Velvet Underground in 1968 because Lou Reed objected to his continued commitment to experimentation, by 1972, Cale had made his name as a producer, recorded an unremarkable debut album ("Vintage Violence") and two largely instrumental, and highly experimental albums ("Church of Anthrax" and "The Academy in Peril"). More significantly perhaps, he'd moved to Los Angeles, discovered cocaine, and rediscovered the urge to write and record more traditional lyrically based numbers, some of which he'd been working on and occasionally playing live for the previous two years. 

The result which emerged in early 1973 was "Paris 1919", an album of finely crafted songs recorded with what for Cale, was a highly unusual cast of musicians. Specifically, Lowell George (guitar), Ritchie Hayward (drums) and Bill Payne (uncredited, keyboards) from blues rock purveyors Little Feat,  Wilton Felder (bass, sax) best known for his stint in jazz fusion band The Crusaders, and later for work with The Jacksons. Not to mention the UCLA Symphony Orchestra, because, well it's John Cale, viola maestro and experienced classical composer. An odd, eclectic mix of talents. Little Feat, especially might seem odd bedfellows for arch experimentalist Cale, but George had previously been in an early line up of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, so was no stranger to the musical fringes. Rereleased for the second time, this new re-mastered version of "Paris 1919" contains the original nine tracks plus seven additional tracks, five of them alternate versions of the album tracks, but different alternate versions from those included on the 2006 reissue.The two additional, previously unreleased, numbers are the truncated, self critical "I must not sniff cocaine" - at best an amusing studio outtake, and the second, the stunning nine minute "Fever Dream 2024: You're a Ghost". The songs themselves, in their original forms manage to sound not a million miles from those of other artists recording around the same time, but with absolutely no compromise to originality. Cale admits to having consciously taken influences from acts as diverse as The Beach Boys, The Bee Gees and Procul Harem - especially their 1972 live opus Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. The overall feel though is more of the avant-garde pop music of the early 70s, itself drawing influence from the edgier pop of the late sixties such as Syd Barrett and Cale's own work with Velvet Underground. There are hints of Elton John on the opening track "A Child's Christmas in Wales" a downbeat reflective number harking back to Cale's childhood in, you've guessed it, Wales, and of early Bowie on "The endless Plain of Fortune" and more pointedly on the pained and whispered vocals-over-piano of the closing number, "Antarctica Starts Here". While the title track with its dominant strings, booming horns and sharp changes of tempo is plainly channelling Sgt Pepper era Beatles. Not a bad match for a number waxing poetic on the political changes that swept Europe following the end of the first world war.