John Cale announces 'Paris 1919 Deluxe Edition' and 'The Academy in Peril' reissues
John Cale
Announces Paris 1919 Deluxe Edition and The Academy in Peril reissues
Out November 15th
Touring UK + Europe Spring 2025
Following the release of POPtical Illusion earlier this year, John Cale announces the Paris 1919 Deluxe Editionand 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 favourite - 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 and The Academy in Peril reissues here.
As previously announced, John Cale’s POPtical Illusion tour begins in Europe on February 28th.
John Cale POPtical Illusion Tour Dates
Friday 28th February – De Oosterpoort, Groningen
Saturday 1st March – CC Maasmechelen, Maasmechelen
Monday 3rd March - Le Trianon, Paris
Tuesday 4th March - Cirque Royal, Brussels
Thursday 6th March – Tollhaus, Karlsruhe
Friday 7th March - Alte Kongresshalle, Munich
Sunday 9th March – Theaterhaus, Stuttgart
Monday 10th March – Rockhal, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
Wednesday 12th March - Markgrafenhalle, Nurnberg
Thursday 13th March - Haus Auensee, Leipzig
Friday 14th March – Columbiahalle, Berlin
Sunday 16th March – Laeiszhalle, Hamburg
Monday 17th March – TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht
Tuesday 18th March - Carlswerk Victoria, Cologne
Thursday 20th March – Playhouse, Nottingham
Friday 21st March - Royal Festival Hall, London
Sunday 23rd March - Town Hall, Birmingham
Monday 24th March – Pavilion, Glasgow
Tuesday 25th March - New Tyne Theatre, Newcastle
Thursday 27th March - De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea
Saturday 29th March - Wales New Theatre, Cardiff
Sunday 30th March – Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
Monday 31st March - Vicar Street, Dublin
Paris 1919 Deluxe Editon tracklisting
Child’s Christmas in Wales (Remastered)
Hanky Panky Nohow (Remastered)
The Endless Plain of Fortune (Remastered)
Andalucia (Remastered)
Macbeth (Remastered)
Paris 1919 (Remastered)
Graham Greene (Remastered)
Half Past France (Remastered)
Antarctica Starts Here (Remastered)
I Must Not Sniff Cocaine (Remastered)
Hanky Panky Nohow (Drone Mix) (Remastered)
Child’s Christmas in Wales (Rehearsal 1) (Remastered)
Half Past France (Intro Chat) (Remastered)
Macbeth (Take 11) (Remastered)
Hanky Panky Nohow (Guitar Mix) (Remastered)
Fever Dream 2024: You’re A Ghost
The Academy in Peril tracklisting:
The Philosopher (Remastered)
Brahms (Remastered)
Legs Larry At Television Centre (Remastered)
The Academy In Peril (Remastered)
Intro (Remastered)
Days Of Steam (Remastered)
3 Orchestral Pieces: a) Faust b) The Balance c) Capt. Morgans Lament (Remastered)
King Harry (Remastered)
John Milton (Remastered)
Temper (Bonus Track)
Paris 1919 will be available as a double vinyl with liner notes and replica promotional insert, a CD with liner notes and digitally. Pre-order Paris 1919 Deluxe Edition here.
“Temper” is a bonus track on The Academy in Peril. It will be available on CD and digitally and included on a DL card for the vinyl. The vinyl edition of The Academy in Peril also comes with replica promotional insert. Pre-order The Academy in Peril here.
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