Month: September 2024

Following the release of POPtical Illusion earlier this year, John Cale announces the Paris 1919 Deluxe Edition and The Academy in Peril reissue, out November 15th via Domino. Both remastered by Heba Kadry, this is the first artist sanctioned reissue of these beloved records. Paris 1919 includes previously unreleased outtakes and liner notes by Grayson Haver Currin, and features a brand new recording, “Fever Dream 2024: You’re a Ghost,” and The Academy of Peril includes bonus track, “Temper.” Both will be available on CD, vinyl and digitally.

“Revisiting work from the past is a double-edged sword for me.  Of course, it’s bound to happen when you’ve been making music for 60 years or so. . . What’s unique about this process with Domino, is their desire to get it right.  Not merely re-issue something for the sake of an anniversary or racking up a catalogue favorite – but finding new treasures and highlighting what made it special in the first place.  After hearing the test pressings, it occurred to me that the new mastering was a major part of how these works will be presented, rather than simply being preserved. There are moments of clarity and even a laugh or two had by revisiting not only the music, but recalling the sessions (and antics) that made up what became these two recordings. It is my pleasure to share these with you . . . again.”
– John Cale, September 2024

John Cale was never very kind to his solo debut, Vintage Violence. Released in early 1970, Cale had been out of The Velvet Underground for less than two years, and had been wanting to prove he could be the songwriter behind which a band could work. “I was masked on Vintage Violence,” he wrote much later. “You’re not really seeing the personality.” Indeed, Cale’s personality as a polyglot seemingly interested in everything emerged more and more on his next two solo albums and only two for Reprise: 1972’s bracing and exploratory classical sojourn, The Academy in Peril, and 1973’s masterclass in anxious but accessible songcraft, Paris 1919. By reissuing both records in tandem, Domino—Cale’s home now for a dozen years—affirms the artistic fearlessness Cale then fostered at the edge of 30, when all of music seemed like one inviting playpen.

When Cale arrived in Los Angeles from New York in the early ’70s, he was a pinball in the world; out of The Velvet Underground, out of a marriage with designer Betsey Johnson, no longer a vital piece of a New York scene. He had just kicked heroin, too. In California, he entered a chaotic new relationship, starting his new industry gig, and found his West Coast drug of choice, cocaine. Despite its reputation as Reprise’s first classical album, The Academy in Peril indulges that extreme upper energy, bouncing among ambitious ideas with unguarded zeal. Warner Brothers spent $120,000 on The Academy in Peril, and Cale even enlisted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to play on several of its tracks. Still, there is an early punk energy to it all, with a frantic pace of making from idea to execution, where he created his own secret fusion and ignored the strictures of expectation.

The frantic pace of making The Academy in Peril, though, taught Cale an important lesson: take the time you need to make the album you want to hear. And that is precisely what he did on Paris 1919. Arriving at the studio with songs already written, he worked with Little Feat and bassist Wilton Felder at Sunwest Studios in Hollywood, and fully relinquished production duties to English producer Chris Thomas. This remastered and expanded reissue of Paris 1919 is a testament to the progress and the patience that engendered it. In previously unreleased tapes, Cale teases his new chemical habits as he tries to find his way through “Half Past France,” then attempts new vocal arrangements for its beginning in an alternate version. A brilliant “Drone Mix” of “Hanky Panky Nohow,” with Cale’s viola seesawing in hypnotic waves, shows just how much he and Thomas were willing to tinker with these tunes and test the bounds of songcraft. Appended at the end of these extras, “Fever Dream (You’re a Ghost)”—a new Cale composition that perfectly flows out of yet another mix of “Hanky Panky Nohow”—shows that he’s still doing just that into his 80s.

Pre-order Paris 1919 Deluxe Edition
Pre-order The Academy in Peril

As previously announced, John Cale’s POPtical Illusion tour begins in Europe on February 28th. 

John Cale POPtical Illusion Tour Dates
Fri. Feb. 28 – Groningen, NL @ De Oosterpoort
Sat. Mar. 1 –  Maasmechelen, BE @ CC Maasmechelen
Mon. Mar. 3 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon
Tue. Mar. 4 – Brussels, BE @ Cirque Royal
Thu. Mar. 6– Karlsruhe, DE @ Tollhaus
Fri. Mar. 7 – Munich, DE @ Alte Kongresshalle
Sun. Mar. 9 – Stuttgart, DE @ Theaterhaus
Mon. Mar. 10 – Esch-sur-Alzette, LU @ Rockhal
Wed. Mar. 12 – Nurnberg, DE @ Markgrafenhalle
Thu. Mar. 13 – Leipzig, DE @ Haus Auensee
Fri. Mar. 14 – Berlin, DE @ Columbiahalle
Sun. Mar. 16 – Hamburg, DE @ Laeiszhalle
Mon. Mar. 17 – Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg
Tue. Mar. 18 – Cologne, DE @ Carlswerk Victoria
Thu. Mar. 20 – Nottingham, UK @ Playhouse
Fri. Mar. 21 – London, UK @ Royal Festival Hall
Sun. Mar. 23 – Birmingham, UK @ Town Hall
Mon. Mar. 24 – Glasgow, UK @ Pavilion
Tue. Mar. 25 – Newcastle, UK @ New Tyne Theatre
Thu. Mar. 27 – Bexhill on Sea, UK @ De La Warr Pavilion
Sat. Mar. 29 – Cardiff, UK @ Wales New Theatre
Sun. Mar. 30 – Liverpool, UK @ Philharmonic Hall
Mon. Mar. 31 – Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jessica and Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]