Cat Stevens: Classic Or Dud?

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love this guy so much. Teaser + the Firecat is all time classic.

Mordy, Wednesday, 5 May 2010 17:32 (thirteen years ago) link

It varies. Early pop stuff: so-so
Teaser thru Buddah & the Chocolate Box: classic
Foreigner: OK-ish
The stuff after that: Dud
Izitso is among the most heinous Dudclumps I can think of.

ImprovSpirit, Wednesday, 5 May 2010 17:47 (thirteen years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-WuDK8nU7g

Brio, Wednesday, 5 May 2010 19:00 (thirteen years ago) link

wow that's a pretty shitty MoTown ripoff

the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 5 May 2010 23:08 (thirteen years ago) link

ha - that's pretty inarguable, but it has a certain craptacular charm I think. the Cat version on Matthew and Son is a bit more polished. "When I Speak To The Flowers" is the real gem off that.

Brio, Thursday, 6 May 2010 13:49 (thirteen years ago) link

one month passes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TWd3skb-Rw&a=i28oI7Dj_Sk&playnext_from=ML

really feeling the keyboard player here

NUDE. MAYNE. (s1ocki), Monday, 7 June 2010 19:51 (thirteen years ago) link

Surprised at the amount of duds here. I just assumed everyone was okay with Cat Stevens. I second the 'he seems to exist independent of any particular scene'. Is that the block? That parents generally like Cat Stevens and he doesn't really have a narrative? But hating the songs? Not sure I get that.

He gets a classic from me, because while I might not actively listen to the guy, I can recall at least half a dozen of his melodies. And if I were drunk, and someone put on a Cat Stevens record, I'd happily sing along.

Popture, Tuesday, 8 June 2010 00:37 (thirteen years ago) link

i'd say neither c nor d. i'm "okay with him", but am real fine w/out

If you can believe your eyes and ears (outdoor_miner), Tuesday, 8 June 2010 01:42 (thirteen years ago) link

two years pass...

classic. he makes me sad and nostalgic in a way that I don't think any other singer consistently does.

Poliopolice, Monday, 21 January 2013 00:32 (eleven years ago) link

just turn up the cat stevens and long for the days before bill gates put so many good polio policemen out of work

Rihanna Tootysalsafroyo (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 21 January 2013 01:05 (eleven years ago) link

two weeks pass...

The first cut is the deepest is a great song, could've been a motown single.

Moka, Saturday, 9 February 2013 20:49 (eleven years ago) link

one year passes...

A letter from him was published in the Toronto Star the other day. Didn't read the piece that prompted it.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2014/12/01/cats_message_is_still_peace.html

clemenza, Wednesday, 3 December 2014 00:44 (nine years ago) link

one month passes...

'Matthew & Son' is one of the most unheralded influences on British new wave, I think. The piano lick/chorus (lyrics aside) is something that Gary Numan could have come up with in the late '70s/early '80s. The middle-eight recalls the pre-chorus in Tears For Fears' 'Mad World'!

You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Thursday, 8 January 2015 04:12 (nine years ago) link

six years pass...

BABY I KNOW

brimstead, Thursday, 9 September 2021 22:43 (two years ago) link

“Sitting” is such an odd song, it almost reaches the intensity of those John Cale songs where he loses his shit a couple minutes in. And yet he ends a bunch of lines with this vague, half-hearted “or so”/“or something.” Weird songwriting choice!

JoeStork, Thursday, 9 September 2021 23:11 (two years ago) link

one year passes...

sometimes my Mom goes to the record shop with me and she always picks stuff out of the dollar bin for me to check out, it's usually garbage I really don't like such as Joe Cocker and James Taylor but she also grabbed Tea for the Tillerman and holy cow this album is amazing. she's still got a hit rate of about 5% but still kudos for this one

frogbs, Tuesday, 11 April 2023 02:19 (one year ago) link

my favorite album of his

werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 11 April 2023 02:58 (one year ago) link

Believe it features prominently in a certain scene in La maman et la putain.

Beatles in My Passway (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 11 April 2023 03:32 (one year ago) link

I like it too and along with Teaser and the Firecat probably his most engaging albums, but it took a while for me to get into them.

I had a music teacher in elementary school who taught "Wild World" to us - I didn't know Cat Stevens at all, but IIRC she interpreted the song as something he wrote for his daughter. I kind of forgot about the song after that or at least didn't play it for myself until years later when I discovered it had been widely interpreted as sexist. Unfortunately it was something I could hear myself upon revisiting it, even though I thought the musical elements were undeniable, and after an extensive search I couldn't find anything to suggest that it was intended the way my old teacher interpreted it. I eventually tried the album, and I had similar experience with "Sad Lisa" - musically undeniable, but the more I processed the lyrics, the more they stuck out as a major flaw. I didn't really play any of his music for a while, but between Wes Anderson's films and the warm and charming interviews he gave when he did a rare tour not too long ago, I decided to give his music another chance. I guess now I just focus on what I like about those albums and what I don't like come off as too-common flaws you'd find with anyone who's very young with a ways to go in becoming a wiser and more sensible person in their romantic life.

Beyond those two albums, Mona Bone Jakon is pretty good (I think most of the Harold and Maude songs came from that one) and there are some great compilations covering the highlights of his earlier years - I may prefer those songs to the later ones that made him a household name in the U.S.

birdistheword, Tuesday, 11 April 2023 03:41 (one year ago) link

rick wakeman tells a good story about "morning has broken," about how he got called into the session where they had a great tune that was only a minute and a half long and he had to come up with something on the spot to fill it out to single-length.

Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, 11 April 2023 10:12 (one year ago) link

maybe she picked out the wrong joe cocker album?

Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, 11 April 2023 10:13 (one year ago) link

There's a right Joe Cocker album?

hellboy falling through the bar (Matt #2), Tuesday, 11 April 2023 10:16 (one year ago) link

either of the self-titled's, mad dogs, greatest hits...but that's a topic for a different thread.

Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, 11 April 2023 10:23 (one year ago) link

oh, and his first one, "with a little help..", duh.

Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, 11 April 2023 10:25 (one year ago) link

Yes

Beatles in My Passway (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 11 April 2023 11:32 (one year ago) link


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