23rd November - Cat Stevens' Tea for the Tillerman

Artist – Album: Cat Stevens – Tea for the Tillerman

Released: 23^rd November 1970

Sounds Like: More owl than Cat-like (sorry…)

Cat Stevens was 22 when he released Tea for the Tillerman. Judging by the pearls of wisdom he scatters across the album, he felt like he was 122. “You are young, that’s your fault, there’s so much you have to live through” he trills on ‘Father and Son’. “I was once like you are now, and I know that it’s not easy”.

That’s not to say that Tea for the Tillerman sounds jaded. Far from it – Stevens is full of energy and he supports his life-lessons with stonking good folk-pop. ‘Where Do the Children Play?’, ‘Hard Headed Woman’ and ‘Wild World’ make up an opening trio of the most singalongy pop songs ever. You could take issue with the sincerity of Stevens and he doesn’t always seem so sage-like when his lyrics are treated to a closer inspection, but if you’re gonna get hung up on things like that I may as well just point you towards ‘On the Road to Find Out’: “Kick out the devil's sin, pick up, pick up a good book now”.

The record also enjoys the double life of being zealously raided for the soundtrack to the fantastic black comedy Harold and Maude. To any of you that are fans of one but don’t know the other, I demand that you right that wrong straight away. Go. Now. Shoo!

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Where Do the Children Play? – 3:52

2.       Hard Headed Woman – 3:47

3.       Wild World – 3:20

4.       Sad Lisa – 3:45

5.       Miles from Nowhere – 3:37

6.       But I Might Die Tonight – 1:53

7.       Longer Boats – 3:12

8.       Into White – 3:24

9.       On the Road to Find Out – 5:08

10.   Father and Son – 3:41

11.   Tea for the Tillerman – 1:01

Listen to ‘On the Road to Find Out’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ--odAAA1A