Al Stewart - Year of The Cat...C/D?

If someone wants to cherry pick the best tracks, I'd love a list!

I'd say the strongest albums that followed Time Passages were 24 Carrots and Last Days of the Century. The latter has a late-80s sheen but the songs are great, esp the title cut, Fields of France, Where Are They Now and Antarctica. Russians & Americans was disappointing to me after 24C.

My father-in-law is a hardcore Al Stewart fan. Has seen him live dozens of times, brings him up in conversation regularly, and would not hesitate to say he never made a less-than-great album. I will try to hit him up for a post-Time Passages playlist.

Or, you know, you could just ask me, what with me also being a hardcore Al Stewart fan who has seen him live dozens of times.

My post-Time Passages playlist would be:

From 24 P/Carrots:

Murmansk Run/Ellis Island
Running Man
Merlin's Time
Rocks in the Ocean

From Russians & Americans:

Accident on 3rd Street
Russians & Americans

From Last Days of the Century:

Fields of France
Antarctica

From Famous Last Words:

Trains
Feel Like

From Between the Wars:

Three Mules
League of Notions

From Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time:

Coldest Winter in Memory (one of his greatest songs ever, yet it languishes on an outtakes compilation)

From Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time:

Coldest Winter in Memory (one of his greatest songs ever, yet it languishes on an outtakes compilation)

No arguments here. This one is fantastic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR4-CvASpkI

I already recommended this song upthread but with the recent requests for suggestions, it bears repeating.

Or, you know, you could just ask me, what with me also being a hardcore Al Stewart fan who has seen him live dozens of times.

Cool! I think there will be a lot of overlap between his playlist and yours (asked him about it tonight before I saw your post), but I'll post it anyway when he gets it to me.

I remember really enjoying A Beach Full of Shells when it first came out but haven't listened to it in years.

1) I have heard "Year of the Cat" on my favorite radio station (87.7 MeTV radio!) and have enjoyed it but never knew who was singing because they rarely say (I know you can check the website but I don't look at the internet in the shower or while I am driving and I always forget to look it up)
2) Thanks to this thread I knew it is Al Stewart
3) The radio also tells me that Al Stewart is touring with the band America

here's what i don't know -- is there some connection between Al Stewart and the band America?

Al Stewart is English, which wouldn't necessarily preclude him from being somehow associate with America, but, no, I don't think they have any sort of history with each other.

Oof, my bad. He's actually a Scotsman.

he sounds kinda like robyn hitchcock

even if i watched this on mute i would have bet for sure he was from somewhere in the UK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckthyI3UQbI

here he is in 2014 -- he still sounds good imo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMZ9gEPgI9o

I know what you mean, niels i.e. Lennon's voice. It's the aspect that makes you want to stick out your chin a little if you try an impersonation.
hehe, exactly

America and Al Stewart have the soft rock FM radio thing in common?

he's also playing the... Moody Blues Cruise aka Moodies Cruise http://moodiescruise.com/

had no idea how deep this dude's catalog is. been listening on spotify all afternoon.

i saw al stewart live last year, he's wonderful

Every time I've seen him he has been great, but it's almost always in a duo with this dude Dave Nachmanoff who probably Googles himself so I won't say anything else about him. He's been sporadically getting together with a backing band called The Empty Pockets and playing Year of the Cat in its entirety. I just found out last night that they're finally coming within driving distance in October, so I'm extremely excited for that.

this dude Dave Nachmanoff

that dude is extremely endearingly lame

oh wait lol i am definitely thinking of someone else

(sorry dave if you googled yourself)

xp are you sure? endearingly lame is super otm.

(also sorry dave)

someone praised him in the comments to the 2014 video! called him "fabulous"

America and Al Stewart have the soft rock FM radio thing in common?
i already know this, wondered if there was something else i was missing

Uh, who are musicians from the UK who later relocated to California?

Artists with animals in the title of their biggest hit?

Artists filed under "A" by record store clerks of less than average intelligence?

An Al Stewart listening thread might be esoteric but could also be fun someday.

i recommend just listening to 'apple cider reconstitution' 1000 times like i have

I love that song

Artists with animals in the title of their biggest hit?

― pplains, Sunday, August 6, 2017 8:46 PM (yesterday) Bookmark

i think we have a winner

there are a surprising number of these oldies tours in 2017

Btw LL I never thought about a voice timbre kinship between Stewart and robyn but there is something there. They are both double reeds but RH has more croak; if Al is an oboe robyn is a cor anglais

The big resemblance for me is al stewart/singer from pet shop boys. When west end girls first came out I was like wait what is happening?

Also I had completely forgotten about the al Stewart single Midnight Rocks even though, as a denizen of the K-Tel album Full Tilt, I must have listened to it a hundred times. Great verse melody.

The big resemblance for me is al stewart/singer from pet shop boys. When west end girls first came out I was like wait what is happening?

Ha! Totally hear that.

for some reason he also reminded me of this guy and this song (tom newman- sad sing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYMWPD51XKE

Tennant got many Al Stewart comparisons in 1986, not always flatteringly.

i recommend just listening to 'apple cider reconstitution' 1000 times like i have

― ciderpress, Sunday, August 6, 2017 11:18 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I love that song

― harbinger of failure (Jon not Jon), Monday, August 7, 2017 7:30 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes, if you could only save on Al Stewart song in a fire, that's the one.

I might go for "In Brooklyn"

heard this song this morning while getting my coffee in London, always a good way to begin a morning.

Oof, my bad. He's actually a Scotsman.

Grew up in England, hence the accent.

But, yes, Bert Jansch, Donovan, John Martyn, Al Stewart, there was a lot of them bumping around in Soho coffee houses at the same time.

Just found this, feel like I've been looking for this album for years without knowing it. I just walked into an apartment in North Beach in 1982 with a bunch of hanging plants, a Ganesha on the end table, smoking a gentle spliff and laughing about our plans to start a cult focused on good sushi and regular naps.

Thought the revive would be about the reissue box set that has just come out, remastered by Alan Parsons, 5.1 mix etc.

They're not gonna release a remastered vinyl, really?

There must be millions of copies of this LP lying about neglected, do consumers really care that much about remastering?

also the original sounds perfect tbh

This may not be the thread in which to pose this question, but am I the only one who loves the songs "Year of the Cat" and "Time Passages", but finds his albums full of well-crafted banality?

Does anyone else mainly remember Time Passages from when HBO used to play the video to fill up time between movies?

xxp I love those songs too, and "Song On The Radio", but can't stand it when he gets all Lord Grenville

xp I do recall those Video Jukebox interludes. Chaz Jankel's "Questionnaire" was in pretty heavy rotation. (Didn't Showtime fill the movie segues with Aerobicise, aka soft-core porn masquerading as "exercise" clips?)

no it's CD only xposts

Love this song. Neil Tennant should cover it.

Just watched the Old Grey Whistle Test video of this, and was struck by how the guitar solo (clean) segues into a different guitar solo (distorted).
And then that segues into a sax solo.

Classic.