Cat Stevens - 'Tea for the Tillerman'

 

Tea for the Tillerman is the fourth entry in Cat Steven's discography, and arguably his most popular.  That's in thanks to the legendary tracks "Wild World," "Father and Son" and "Where Do the Children Play?." To my ears, this is Cat Steven's best effort.

One of my favorite lyrics of all time ("Lord, my body has been a good friend/But I won't need it when I reach the end") is featured on the track "Miles from Nowhere." I could spend this entire review going on about some of the beautiful, simplistic lyricism on this album, but I won't.

Cat Stevens' voice is not talked about enough.  Sure, he may not have huge amounts of range; but he's similar to Dylan or Cohen in that way.  His delicate, soft voice pairs perfectly with soothing compositions.  This particularly shows through on tracks like "Longer Boats" and "Into White." Stevens also does a bit of really underrated keyboard work throughout the album. "Tea for the Tillerman," as short as it may be, shows Stevens' keyboard work quite well.

Besides Cat Stevens, the studio musicians hired for the album do some excellent work as well. Jack Rostein (Listed as John Rostein in the album's credits) does some fantastic violin work. In fact, his work on "Into White" completely take the song to a new level. Meanwhile, John Ryan's simple yet wonderful bass work really shine through on "On the Road to Find Out" in particular.

Paul Samwell-Smith (who you may know as former bassist for the Yardbirds) does some top-tier production on the album. "On the Road to Find Out," "Father and Son", and "Miles from Nowhere" among other tracks wouldn't be able to achieve the maximum beauty that they do without Samwell-Smith's production.

In my opinion, Stevens' career peaked upon the release of this album.

Today's free load is the Ultradisc II™ 24 KT Gold CD from Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's "Original Master Recording" collection, from 1992.

For the freeload, tell us what your favorite hot beverage is.

Donovan – 'Breezes Of Patchouli - His Studio Recordings: 1966-1969'

 

"The long gone breezes are blowing down the sky."

In 1968 at Caltech, there was a knock on my dorm room door.  It was my friend Sandy, who told me, “We are going to have a mini be-in in the common room, get high, and listen to Donovan’s new album, the ‘The Hurdy Gurdy Man’…you in?” I nodded my head and said, “Far-out, Sandy, I’ll be there in a few.”  When I got to the common room, everyone was sitting in a circle, and I took a place in the circle.  Joints were being passed around, one of which tasted odd, and the girl who passed it to me said, “That’s DMT, take another hit, and hold it in as long as you can” which I did. Three minutes later, I was “Joan of Arc,” as the needle dropped on Donovan’s ‘The Hurdy Gurdy Man’ and his words and music conveyed the Zeitgeist of the day.

In the mid-1960s, Scottish-born Donovan Leitch was viewed as both the epitome of hippiedom and unfairly as the UK’s answer to Bob Dylan.  Such perceptions (further enhanced by album titles such as Breezes of Patchouli) have followed him, often unkindly, ever since.  However, there was far more to Donovan than met the eye, as today's freeload will show.

'Breezes Of Patchouli' is a 4 CD set that contains 90 tracks, the 5 albums released during Donovan's heyday 1966-1969, and accompanied by essential related recordings.  The albums are: "Sunshine Superman" from 1966); "Mellow Yellow" from 1967; "The Hurdy Gurdy Man" from 1968; "Barabajagal" from 1969; and the double LP "A Gift From A Flower To A Garden".  The five aforementioned albums occupy the first 3 CDs, while CD4 contains "related recordings" ranging from the familiar extended stereo version of "Sunshine Superman" to alternate versions of "Superlungs" (perhaps best known for its cover version by British rocker Terry Reid) and "Epistle To Dippie."

All the hits are here: "Sunshine Superman", "Mellow Yellow", "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and "Jennifer Juniper" that represent high points in the 1960s pop/psychedelia.  As well, obscure album tracks such as "Writer in the Sun", "Sunny South Kensington" and "Mad John’s Escape" (to name but three) highlight Donovan’s classicist approach. Are there occasional moments of fey and whimsy? You bet, but there’s plenty of era-defining material here that also stands the test of time.  This impressive collection opens with the title track from Donovan's breakthrough LP "Sunshine Superman" which not only quickly climbed the Billboard album and single charts in the US, but began the short, yet incredible run of Mickie Most produced classics Donovan released between 1966 and 1969.

Represented are all the good qualities of "psychedelic rock" and is proof positive that music of this genre need not be filled with extended, heavy guitar riffs and solos, or shake the walls and shatter the windows.

Donovan fully embraced the wide-eyed optimism of the flower power movement, his dreamy, ornate songs radiating a mystical beauty and childlike wonder, and his recordings remain quintessential artifacts of the psychedelic era, capturing the peace and love idealism of their time to perfection.

The sound quality is excellent, and is the best remastering to date.  I've included the well annotated 24-page booklet written by Lorne Murdoch, which tracks through this collection quite rightly, and also includes rare photos as well as insightful information regarding Donovan's musical journey through 1966-69 and even beyond.

To qualify for the freeload, tell us what your favorite psychedelic album is.

Crosby, Stills & Nash - 'Rarities 1967-1971'

 

This is a 5CD compilation by "The Chief".

Initially formed in California, 1968 as Crosby, Stills and Nash or CSN, the trio was a supergroup like no other. Comprised of ex-Byrds guitarist David Crosby, ex-Buffalo Springfield frontman Stephen Stills and former Hollies man Graham Nash. Yada yada yada....

In my eye, for alleged "counter culture hippies", there was way too much ego, drama, internal politics and constant in-fighting.

Be that as it may, they were pretty damn good...

 

 

CD 1 - 1967-1971:

1. Kids And Dogs
2. Lady Friend
3. 49 Bye Byes
4. Guinnevere
5. Long Time Gone
6. Laughing
7. Mr. Soul
8. I've Loved Her So Long
9. Bluebird Revisited
10. So Begins The Task
11. Little Miss Bright Eyes
12. EEP Hour
13. The Wall Song
14. Is It Really Monday?
15. You Sit There
16. Over Jordan / Wayfaring Stranger
17. Walking In The Mountains
18. The Wall Song 
19. Cowboy Movie

 

 CD 2 - 1970-1974:

1. Dancer
2. Tamalpais High (At About 3)
3. Everybody's Been Burned
4. The Wall Song
5. Daylight Again / Find The Cost Of Freedom
6. Rolling My Stone
7. Throughfare Rap - Version One
8. Throughfare Rap - Version Two
9. Witching Hour
10. White Nigger
11. So You Want To Be A Rock'n'Roll Star
12. Your Life Is What You Fill Your Day With
13. Human Highway
14. Prison Song
15. See The Changes
16. And So It Goes
17. Little Blind Fish
18. Traces 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 CD 3 - 1974-1980:

1. Black Queen
2. Love Art Blues
3. Pushed It Over The End
4. Time After Time
5. Hawaiian Sunrise
6. See You In The Spring
7. On The Beach
8. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
9. Taken At All
10. One Moment At A Time
11. Colorado
12. Take Me Back To The Ohio Valley
13. Cherokee
14. Uncle James
15. Come On In My Kitchen
16. Samurai
17. Kids And Dogs

 

CD 4 - 1979-1990:

1. Precious Love
2. Melody
3. Flying Man
4. Turn Your Back On Love
5. Unknown backing track
6. Southern Cross
7. Susie Jane
8. Dangerous Woman On The Loose
9. Paris Song
10. Vote
11. Lonely Man
12. Unconditional Blues
13. He's An American
14. 65 + Jeans
15. Soldiers Of Peace
16. The Money And The Underdog
17. I'm Flying
18. America
19. Unknown

 

 

CD 5 - 1989-2002:

1. Silver And Gold
2. As Much As I Understand
3. The Shell
4. A Case Of You
5. On The Other Side Of Town
6. Try To Find Me
7. Born In Chicago
8. Treetop Flyer
9. Turn! Turn! Turn!
10. Acadienne
11. Mr. Soul
12. Live On
13. Out Of Control
14. The Dolphins
15. Eight Miles High
16. Man Of Constant Sorrow
17. Feed The People
18. Old Man Trouble
19. Half Your Angels
20. Chat mix

For the freeload, if you could have dinner with three other people (dead or alive), who would they be?