Something that rarely gets mentioned is that, although there may have been a working title as Jaco suggests, is that the album was always going to be called "A Passion Play". There was a newsbit in the French music press when JT began recording at Hérouville ca. September 1972 that said the album they were working on would be called "A Passion Play". As this abandoned album has been known under titles like "Château d'Isaster", there is a misconception that "A Passion Play" was only the title for the finished album, and a different concept altogether, but they are actually v1 and v2 of the same project.

@ShedSoundsMediawithIanBeabout

2 ай бұрын

That is fascinating, thanks for this comment ! Are any of those articles available to read online ?

@aymericleroy8500

2 ай бұрын

@@ShedSoundsMediawithIanBeabout I'm afraid not. I think I read that in a publication called Pop Music Superhebdo (a shortlived attempt to create a French equivalent to the UK music weeklies) while researching my book on the Canterbury Scene. I must have the exact date of the issue somewhere in my notes if someone is really interested.

@ShedSoundsMediawithIanBeabout

2 ай бұрын

@@aymericleroy8500 we’re nerds ! If you come across it again please let me know. 😊

@aymericleroy8500

2 ай бұрын

@@ShedSoundsMediawithIanBeabout It's in the issue dated 6 December 1972. There is an announcement that JT will release a new album called "Passion Play". It's much too early to be about the second version coming out (this had yet to be recorded, hadn't it ?), so it must have been something reported to them in relation to the original sessions at Hérouville.

Thanks for sharing this, Brilliant and excellent conversation, well done to both of you for an intelligent and very informative discussion, 1st class 👍

The Minstrel in the red house tape is from 1988 and was made during the preparation of the 20 years box set. David Rees got that cassette back then as well and was furious as it looked back then that he leaked it.

I think as well, that the accordion was recorded during the Warchild session. John played it a lot there, but I don't think he had it in France.

The Nightcap release is so poorly mixed - too beefy, too much reverb. I have to agree - I would have loved a tasteful mix WITH flute. It would have been nice to have both options on the Passion Play box.

@aymericleroy8500

2 ай бұрын

One could always use AI to isolate the flute from Nightcap and add it back (where necessary, i.e. not in every instance) to the flute-less versions.

@johnnyb8250

Ай бұрын

Indeed. It's classy of them not to go there, but the mix on Nightcap really blows. Listen to the noise-gating during the spoken parts! Barf.