Paris 1919

Released

This is popular largely because it’s two members of Little Feat and one Jazz Crusader behind Cale, with Chris Thomas compressing it all down into an exciting little tube of mayhem the way he does. The three song sequence of “Andalucia” into “Macbeth” and then “Paris 1919” is a perfect snapshot of Seventies rock: controlled but hairy, emotional but twisty, strange but brief. The UCLA strings make it more oddly American? The claims of this album being about World War I are exaggerated, but “Graham Greene” (weak reggae?) is very much about England: the Queen, umbrellas, civil servants, Enoch Powell, Chipping, and Sodbury. If you ever want anything to sound “like The Beatles,” play steady eighth notes on the piano and a high variation melody on French horn—done. As much a document of cocaine’s creative potential as Rumours.

Sasha Frere-Jones

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