John Cale's enigmatic masterpiece Paris 1919 appeared at a time when the artist and his
world were changing forever. It was 1973 the year of Watergate and the oil crisis and the end
of the Vietnam War and Cale was at a crossroads. The white-hot rage of his Velvet Underground
days was nearly spent and he was struggling to find a path forward. He needed to lay to rest
some ghosts but he couldn't do that without scaring up others. Paris 1919 was the result. In
this vivid wide-ranging book Mark Doyle hunts down the ghosts haunting Cale's most enduring
solo album. There is the ghost of the Velvet Underground whose abrasive sound and ethos Cale
nearly managed to exorcise. There is the ghost of Dylan Thomas a fellow Welshman who haunts
not just Paris 1919 but much of Cale's life and art. There are the ghosts of history of a
failed peace and a cold war and of Christmas a surprising visitor who lends the proceedings a
nostalgic childlike air. With erudition and wit Doyle offers new ways to listen to an old
album whose mysteries will never fully be resolved.
