A Pagan Place
A Pagan Place is the second studio album by the Waterboys, released by Ensign Records on 28 May 1984.[1] It was the first Waterboys record with Karl Wallinger as part of the band and also includes Roddy Lorimer's first trumpet solo for the band on the track "A Pagan Place".
For the novel by Edna O'Brien, see A Pagan Place (novel).A Pagan Place
28 May 1984
November 1982 at Redshop Studio
September 1983 at Rockfield Studio
41:03
The album shares a title with the book A Pagan Place, written by Irish novelist Edna O'Brien. According to a post at the official Waterboys forum, Mike Scott, who chose the album name, has never read the book,[2] and neither the album nor the title track share any other similarities with the novel.
Production history[edit]
Recording for A Pagan Place was begun before either the band's first single, "A Girl Called Johnny", or album, The Waterboys, were released. The album comprises two recording sessions. The first, in November 1982 at Redshop Studio in London, involved Mike Scott, Anthony Thistlethwaite and Kevin Wilkinson. The second session, held September 1983 at Rockfield Studio in Wales, included contributions from Wallinger, who had joined the band that year.[3] The four, the early band's core membership, were joined by Lorimer, Tim Blanthorn, and Eddi Reader, among others, for later overdubbing of the sessions to add full instrumentation to the recordings.
A remastered, edited and expanded version of A Pagan Place was issued in 2002 by Chrysalis Records. It added the song "Some of My Best Friends Are Trains", not present on the original LP release, as track 5, and replaced the original versions of "All the Things She Gave Me" and "The Thrill Is Gone" with their full, unedited versions. "The Thrill Is Gone" also features a different vocal take. In the sleeve notes, Scott explained that edited versions of the two songs were included to keep the duration of each side of the LP to around 20 minutes for sound quality reasons, although he has always considered the full, unedited versions to be the "real" ones.[4]
Notes: