In the early 1970s when I was living in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, WNEW-FM was the premier New York radio station playing what we now call Classic Rock and also ushering in the era of the singer/songwriter. Artists such as James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Jackson Browne and Elton John graced the airwaves.
A British musician who also belonged in this group stood apart somewhat because his music was singular, based in folk but incorporating elements of rock, pop and ethnic music from Celtic to Greek. That was Cat Stevens.
He produced a memorable string of albums from Tea For The Tillerman to Foreigner and continued to make records for the rest of the decade. Then he disappeared, pledging his life to education and philantropy in the Muslim community, after two life-threatening incidents, the second a near drowning.
I didn’t like seeing him leave and never believed he would come back on to the pop music scene but he’s here as Yusuf Islam and has just released his second album since his return, Roadsinger. The songwriting skill and perspective, the familiar warm, deep voice and the folk music approach wrapped in so many other musical styles are all still there. His music may not be quite as compelling as it was nearly 40 years ago but his journey still is.
Cat Stevens’ music took the listener on a journey that was adventurous, observant and questioned the meaning of things, and sometimes came up with answers in a style that seemed so simple but could be deeply philosophical as in Father And Son, Peace Train, The Wind and so many other classics.
Yusuf appears to have arrived at his destination and is now on another journey to spread the word. Still observing, still questioning to some extent but more reporting on the world as it is and trying to point the way to something better. Without being overtly religious in his lyrics, Yusuf still leaves interpretation open for the listener. He does create some nice surprises along the way.
Many of the songs quote pieces of Cat Stevens’ music, for instance the rhythm guitar in the opener Welcome Home echoes Longer Boats from Tea For The Tillerman or the piano introduction to Be What You Must, which is taken directly from Sitting on Catch Bull At Four. That same latter theme pops up in a few other places, including the closer Shamsia, on which the piano opening of Sad Lisa, again from Tillerman, is hinted.
What is missing in many of the songs are the surprising and sometimes stratling arrangements that Stevens was known for in the ’70s with unusual stops, starts, sudden dynamic changes and captivating rhythms that caught the listener off-guard, many of which may have been influenced by producer Paul Samwell-Smith, from The Yardbirds.
These tracks are more or less played straight with familiar instrumentation, acoustic guitar, piano, bass and sparse use of drums with some string and horn accompaniments. Not that they aren’t arranged well, they just seem to lack some of the fire and angst that Stevens used to generate, keeping more to an even keel. Stevens’ unique and proficient voice, however, is still intact, sounding much like he did on his earlier work. That alone is cause for celebration.
The title track and the opener, Welcome Home, are two of the strongest pieces, beautifully played and sung. Welcome speaks of being on that journey, finding warm greetings in likely and some of the most unlikely places. It’s augmented with gliding bottleneck electric guitar from Yogi Lonich. Roadsinger, played in a gentle country feel, sings of a traveling troubadour asking where do you go to find hope in a world of darkness and fear with the most infectious chorus on the record.
Welcome gives way to the lovely Thinking ‘Bout You, with its guitar intro reminiscent of another Stevens’ song, How Can I Tell You. The track has a nice payoff in the chorus with its dynamic rise and lyrics that could be personal or perhaps hinting at something more spiritual.
Yusuf still has a way with melody and it’s evident on Everytime I Dream, which is accented with the use of a horn section, heavy with trombone, tuba and french horn. This is another tune that has a definite country feel, a new element for Yusuf, who as Cat never really crossed over to anything remotely like country rock.
The two-song interlude The Rain and World Of Darkness looks to forboding times in the world with the first featuring an intricate and effective string section in the middle section. Darkness, dominated by a finger-picking electric guitar and strummed acoustic, hints at a ray of hope.
Sounding almost like a children’s choir, a chorus of mainly female singers enhances Be What You Must, and the delicate This Glass World, which also has female background singers, opens up into one of the only moderate rock tempos complete with a distorted, driving electric guitar.
The pretty All Kinds Of Roses stands as a poem set to music with simply acoustic guitar, voice and a hint of cello and violin, the kind of song that is exquisitely in Cat Stevens’ inimitable style, while Dream On shows jazz leanings with the tenor sax phrasing of Jimmy Bowland. The precious instrumental Shamsia, meaning beautiful shining star or one and only, with aforementioned quotes, ends the record.
If you have all or most of Cat Stevens’ work, there is a good chance you already have this album and his previous release, An Other Cup. If not, it’s worth checking out. If you don’t have any of his early work on digital media, collect that first. Tea For The Tillerman and Teaser And The Firecat were both recently released in Deluxe Edition with the original albums plus live sets and demos. Those are essential.