The Velvet Forum

The edition I have of John Cale's autobiography is horribly designed, leaving the text quite difficult -- and in some places, extremely difficult -- to read. Are there other editions in which the layout is more plain, and the text simpler to read?

The David Carson / Raygun era of book design. As you say, not great for actual reading.

I would point you in the direction of a PDF copy. It has the body copy on white. There are typographic errors and OCR-scanning quirks in places, but for the most part I think it will work for you. If you need help finding a copy please PM me.

Thanks very much. However I'm looking only to compare the design of published editions, and not to have a more readable text at-hand at this time.

Sheila Klein wrote: ↑07 May 2022 22:53 The edition I have of John Cale's autobiography is horribly designed, leaving the text quite difficult -- and in some places, extremely difficult -- to read. Are there other editions in which the layout is more plain, and the text simpler to read?

Found an interesting interview with Victor Bokris about WWFZ.
https://tobedamit.com/2017/11/24/whats-welsh-for-zen/

a quote: "John got into a creative relationship with the book's designer Dave McKean"
So I think all versions are the same, and only issued in printed format [no digital format on the market]

also there an interview with VB about Transformer
https://tobedamit.com/2017/02/12/transf ... r-bockris/ [haven't checked that yet]

Were all the bound Bloomsbury 1999 copies issued in that corrugated cardboard cover?

My copy got damaged when the pot holding a plant split and water seeped out. The plant was an indoor Musa, otherwise known as a banana ...

threechordwonder wrote: ↑09 May 2022 11:01 Were all the bound Bloomsbury 1999 copies issued in that corrugated cardboard cover?

My copy got damaged when the pot holding a plant split and water seeped out. The plant was an indoor Musa, otherwise known as a banana ...

Your choices are three:

— The boxed, loose leaf edition

— The corrugated cardboard cover

— The slightly later softcover edition

Prices for all three run high, but, if you are patient, bargains can still be found. I just bought this cardboard cover edition for £35. The seller wasn’t aware it is signed by Cale:

Stepeanut wrote: ↑09 May 2022 13:09
Your choices are three:

— The boxed, loose leaf edition

— The corrugated cardboard cover

— The slightly later softcover edition

Thanks, I'm not looking to buy, I just wondered if my cardboard promo copy was standard. I've checked for signatures but there are none.

The three editions are all basically the same. The cardboard cover edition is missing the Deerfrance essay (which is on the inner covers of the softback). The loose leaf copy has 12 extra pages of pictures, the Deerfrance essay in a separate booklet plus some pages are "onion skin" but the text layout is the same. Page 166 differs on all copies because of the lawsuit, loose leaf has the full Bonnie Tyler text as do some cardboard copies. Other cardboard copies have the text blackened out whilst the test is re-worded on the softback cover edition. The French version though smaller has the same design too

My cardboard cover edition has the Bonnie Tyler text blacked out:

The seller wasn’t aware it is signed by Cale:

My copy is signed by John too... probably with the exact same pen as he seemed to travel around with a thick black marker. He came into the radio station I worked in for an interview in 1999 when he was promoting the book. Puffed and panted up the stairs in his tight leather breeches. He was a bit cranky and grumpy. I got a bunch of things signed though and the interview was fine. I wish I had it... but all my recordings from the era weren't preserved.

I pointed out my original mono uk WL/WH and he said "what's the point in that?" (Probably thinking about The Gift being better to listen to in stereo). I said "it's louder" and he nodded and we left it at that.