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Cat Stevens: Teaser and the Firecat

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Island Records
Released: 1971.10.01
Time:
 32:49
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): Paul Samwell-Smith
Rating: *******... (7/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.catstevens.com and www.yusufislam.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2004.09.10
Price in €: 9,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] The Wind (C.Stevens) - 1:42
[2] Rubylove (C.Stevens) - 2:37
[3] If I Laugh (C.Stevens) - 3:20
[4] Changes IV (C.Stevens) - 3:32
[5] How Can I Tell You (C.Stevens) - 4:27
[6] Tuesday's Dead (C.Stevens) - 3:36
[7] Morning Has Broken (E.Farjeon/C.Stevens) - 3:20
[8] Bitterblue (C.Stevens) - 3:12
[9] Moonshadow (C.Stevens) - 2:52
[10] Peace Train (C.Stevens) - 4:11

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


CAT STEVENS - Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals, Arrangements

LARRY STEELE - Bass, Conga
ANGELOS HATZIPAVLI - Bouzouki
ANDREAS TOUMAZIS - Bouzouki
HARVEY BURNS - Drums
GERRY CONWAY - Drums, Voices
ALUN DAVIES - Guitar
RICK WAKEMAN - Piano
DEL NEWMAN - Strings

DAVID BAILEY - Photography
TED JENSEN - Mastering

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1971 LP A&M 75021-4313-1
1974 LP A&M QU-54313
1995 CD A&M 75021-4313-2
1995 LP Mobile Fidelity 244
1995 CD Mobile Fidelity 649
1995 CS A&M 75021-4313-4
2000 CD A&M 490674
2000 CD A&M 546885



I get the tune and then I just keep on singing the tune until the words come out from the tune. It's kind of a hypnotic state that you reach after a while when you keep on playing it where words just evolve from it. So you take those words and just let them go whichever way they want.... "Moonshadow"? Funny, that was in Spain, I went there alone, completely alone, to get away from a few things. And I was dancin' on the rocks there ... right on the rocks where the waves were like blowin' and splashin'. Really, it was so fantastic. And the moon was bright, ya know, and I started dancin' and singin' and I sang that song and it stayed. It's just the kind of moment that you want to find when you're writin' songs.

Cat Stevens to a Boston DJ



Even as a serious-minded singer/songwriter, Cat Stevens never stopped being a pop singer at heart, and with Teaser and the Firecat he reconciled his philosophical interests with his pop instincts. Basically, Teaser's songs came in two modes: gentle ballads that usually found Stevens and second guitarist Alun Davies playing delicate lines over sensitive love lyrics, and up-tempo numbers on which the guitarists strummed away and thundering drums played in stop-start rhythms. There were also more exotic styles, such as the Greek-styled "Rubylove," with its twin bouzoukis and a verse sung in Greek, and "Tuesday's Dead," with its Caribbean feel. Stevens seemed to have worked out some of his big questions, to the point of wanting to proselytize on songs like "Changes IV" and "Peace Train," both stirring tunes in which he urged social and spiritual improvement. Meanwhile, his love songs had become simpler and more plaintive. And while there had always been a charming, childlike quality to some of his lyrics, there were songs here that worked as nursery rhymes, and these were among the album's most memorable tracks and its biggest hits: "Moonshadow" and "Morning Has Broken," the latter adapted from a hymn. The overall result was an album that was musically more interesting than ever, but lyrically dumbed-down. Stevens continued to look for satisfaction in romance, despite its disappointment, but he found more fulfillment in a still-unspecified religious pursuit that he was ready to tout to others. And they were at least nominally ready to listen: the album produced three hit singles and just missed topping the charts. Tea for the Tillerman may have been the more impressive effort, but Teaser and the Firecat was the Cat Stevens album that gave more surface pleasures to more people, which in pop music is the name of the game.

William Ruhlmann - All Music Guide



Though his career spanned a little over a decade, Cat Stevens has provided immeasurable influence and inspiration for nearly three generations of aspiring singer-songwriters. In celebration of the 30th anniversary of his commercial breakthrough in America, the artist currently known as Yusuf Islam is enjoying an extensive reissue series of his classic folk-pop, kicking off the proceedings with the re-release of three of his most renowned works to date. Mona Bone Jakon and Tea For The Tillerman, both from 1970, and 1972's brilliant Teaser And The Firecat have been gorgeously remastered, and the effort breathes new life into tunes like "Father And Son" and "Moonshadow," while remaining faithful to the albums' original majesty by preserving the artwork, packaging and song tracks in their original form.

Ron Hart
© 2004 CMJ Network, Inc.



'Teaser and the Firecat' continued working this vein, yielding two more U. S. hits: the chug-chug-chugging "Peace Train" and the pretty-verging-on-precious "Morning Has Broken".

ROLLING STONE ALBUM GUIDE ***



"Die von Ted Jensen ganz formidabel neuerlich überspielten Remaster unterstreichen beiläufig einmal mehr, wie hervorragend diese Platten produziert wurden. Nie klangen diese Klassiker der Analog-Ära besser als hier."

F. Schöler in Rolling Stone 8 / 00



The third album Cat Stevens put out in a 15-month burst that began in the summer of 1970 with Mona Bone Jakon, Teaser and the Firecat is where the enigmatic folk-pop idol crested commercially, if not artistically. Its immediate predecessor, Tea for the Tillerman, possesses an air of mystery and unforced whimsy that proved impossible for Stevens to replicate. That said, the singer-songwriter had it in him to pull together a captivating collection that boasted two of the biggest hits of his meteoric, if self-inhibited, career - "Peace Train" and the sublime hymn "Morning Has Broken." "The Wind," "If I Laugh," and "Moonshadow" are every bit as tuneful and appealing as the hits, while "Rubylove," "How Can I Tell You," and "Bitterblue" would be standouts on Stevens's less accomplished later albums. In fact, only the bellicose social statements "Changes IV" and "Tuesday's Dead" ring hollow.

Steven Stolder - Amazon.com essential recording



The immediate virtues of Teaser and the Firecat (A&M SP4313) have become pretty self-evident: it has already yielded three hit singles. Two of these hits are infectious but basically dreck, and I think their success can be attributed mainly to production coups. "Rubylove" has a pleasant enough tune, but it's the novelty of those two Zorbas on the bouzoukis that makes the song. "Peace Train" has a healthy dose of Cat's characteristic calypso funk, but what puts you through the windshield those first few times is all that hand-clapping and bass drum pedal.

Then there is "Moonshadow," a simple, unadorned song whose beauty lies in its mystery. I think that Cat could be dismissed as an ingenious and reliable composer of lightweight hits were it not for this rare strain of mystery, or puzzlement, that touches most of his finest songs. "Katmandu," "Longer Boats," and "Into White" are very vague songs, unfixed in time or space, offering no story line, giving us no handle on the singer's personality or his emotions. But like Zen riddles, the vivid, exotic images tease the imagination. This is not the painfully contrived exoticism of most pseudo-folk-songs. Nor should the provocative ambiguity of Cat's best lyrics be confused with the mangled English of his worst, "I'm being followed by a moonshadow." The phrase is as catchy as "somewhere over the rainbow," yet somehow it doesn't sound "thought-up," it sounds too original and natural for that.

In one of his new songs, Cat defines his songwriting method in highly romantic but entirely plausible terms: "I listen to the wind of my soul." Many of his lyrics seem to go straight from his subconscious and into the listener's completely by-passing the intellect. Even in his early pop star days, many of Cat's short, crude hit songs had the sound of weather reports from his subconscious. Not having developed much artistry or control, he sometimes let his thoughts escape in raw pathological form, set to absurdly inappropriate little pop melodies. For instance, "I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun," with its never-to-be-sufficient refrain of "I'm gonna get me a gun,/And all those people who put me down, better get ready to run."

Then came his TB cure and two years of searching for satori. By the time he wrote Mona Bone Jakon, he was capable of achieving a synthesis of self-consciousness and sub-consciousness.

When his girlfriend, who happened to be named D'Arbanville, left him for Mick Jagger, he wrote "Lady D'Arbanville." The melody (consciously or not) was very similar to Jagger's "Lady Jane." In the lyrics, Cat effectively laid Miss D'Arbanville to rest: "Tho' in your grave you lie, I'll always be with you," etc., etc. Cat had transmuted his unseemly feelings into a courtly and mysterious ballad that was a hit in six countries. Courtly and mysterious and so gentle-sounding it makes your flesh creep.

Most of Cat's songs about women have a weird edge to them, a fact not lost on Women's Liberation. Ellen Willis, the rock critic of the New Yorker, thinks that " 'Wild World' betrays a condescending, sexist viewpoint." Reverse the roles, she says, and "It's hard to imagine a woman sadly warning her ex-lover that he's too innocent for the big bad world out there." True, and that goes for "Sad Lisa," too. If in these two songs Cat expressed a rather suspect concern for the ladies who were leaving him, in his new songs ("If I Laugh," "How Can I Tell You" and "Bitterblue") he yearns for ladies who are achingly inaccessible from the outset. All three songs are lovely, the first two being quiet ballads, the last one a heavily syncopated wail. Taken as a whole, they express Cat's awe at the power of women, an awe that is old-fashioned and perhaps tainted with sexism, but which has always been the stock in trade of troubadours. Once again, the lyrics have a subliminal intensity, as if Cat were putting his obsessions to music.

At any rate, I prefer those of Cat's songs that sound as if they had bubbled up from the back of his mind. The more thought-out ones tend to reveal the workings of a staggeringly banal intellect. Cat's political visions indicate a less than nodding acquaintance with current events. "Peace Train" at least delivers its simple-minded message in an appropriately childish tone. "I've been happy lately" thinking about the possibilities of the future; "I've been crying lately thinking about the world as it is." That simple. In "Changes IV" however, Cat attempts a full-blown statement of his world view and succeeds in sounding like the Knute Rockne of the Age of Acquarius: "And we all know it's better/Yesterday has past/Now let's all start living/For the one that's going to last." Musically, the song is almost a parody of Cat's flashiest and cheapest tricks, of his tendency to overdramatize a tune with rubato and heavy dynamics. An absurd flamenco guitar flourish keeps popping up as Cat heralds the new day when "the people of the world/Can all live in one room." I know he means something nice by that, but taken at face value it sounds like a proposal for universal genocide.

The only lyric on the album that makes a really sophisticated, coherent statement about the world is "Morning Has Broken." As Cat announces at his concerts, "Morning Has Broken" was a "hit hymn" of the Victorian Age. It is a gorgeous hymn, offering God respect and gratitude in suitably sentimental formal language. It has a grandeur of diction which no contemporary song can match. The hymn is absolutely right for Cat; it expresses his optimism, his reverence, his sentimentality more fluently than he himself can. He sings it about as well as it can be sung and gives it a dignified piano/guitar/muted chorus arrangement that is perfect.

Cat's finest songs seem to spring from self-examination, from his search for a personal ethic; his inner voice speaks with a complexity and a conviction that his strictly self-conscious efforts lack. The three most interesting songs on Teaser–"Tuesday's Dead," the most spectacular number on the record, consists of a manic tumble of words ending with the chorus: "Whoa, where do you go when you don't want no one to know/Who-oo told tomorrow Tuesday's dead?" I have no idea what the chorus means and neither, as far as I know, does Cat. On stage, he prefaces the song with some mumbled remarks about New York hotels being weird and having to tip people and getting caught up in life's trivia. As a whole, however, the song manages to convey Cat's determination to hammer out a working set of values–the same idea expressed in "On the Road to Find Out." The language of the chorus–that combination of words–is gripping, no matter what it means. The music–the irresistible calypso tune, the delayed entrance of the second guitar, the exclamatory punch of the bass pedal, the classic Jamaican choral work–is Cat at his flamboyant best.

The other two songs are quiet and peaceful. Both songs use bizarre and Zen-like images to express a resignation to fate and a simple faith in the future–very different from the mindless, cheer-leading optimism of "Peace Train." The moonshadow is a purifying light that will comfort Cat even in the most terrifying physical trials he can imagine–blindness, dumbness and mutilation. Patient meditation has finally brought him peace, hopefully a lasting peace: "Did it take long to find me/ I ask the faithful light/Did it take long to find me/And are you going to stay the night?" That is a very satisfying lyric, one that works perfectly on both the real and metaphysical levels. The child-like, traditional-sounding tune fits the words to a T. The guitar duet accompaniment by Cat and Alun Davies, and the hint of tambourine, are just right.

"The Wind" is a model of economical songwriting, a far cry from the early pop songs in which Cat endlessly repeated the same trivial verse, padding it out with meaningless breaks. In less than two minutes, "The Wind" compresses Cat's philosophy and a description of his working methods into a few mysterious images. The language is beautifully controlled, the melody is exquisite, the vocal is soulfully phrased, and the two guitars play in elegant counterpoint. A gem.

Cat has become a dependable artist, a good artist, but he appears to be one of those composers who does not develop, who holds no surprises. Given his three albums to listen to for the first time, one would be hard put to place them in chronological order. They all contain the same themes, same instrumental texture, and the same sensibility. He has an unmistakable style, a unique ability to combine sophisticated, commercial melodies with personal, almost primitive lyrics. As that style is currently big on the market, there is no urgent pressure for him to change it. One would like to see him develop the polished lyrics of a James Taylor or the deep resonance of a Van Morrison ... But enough carping. His songs, though they may be small pleasures when they come on the FM radio, are cause for celebration when they come on the AM. That's enough to ask of Cat for now.

TIM CROUSE
Rolling Stones 97
 

 L y r i c s


The Wind

I listen to the wind
to the wind of my soul
Where I'll end up well I think,
only God really knows
I've sat upon the setting sun
But never, never never never
I never wanted water once
No, never, never, never

I listen to my words but
they fall far below
I let my music take me where
my heart wants to go
I swam upon the devil's lake
But never, never never never
I'll never make the same mistake
No, never, never, never


Rubylove

Who'll be my love
You'll be my love
You'll be my sky above
Who'll be my light
You'll be my light
You'll be my day and night
You'll be mine tonight


- Phonetic Greek-

Ruby glikya.
Ela xana, ela xana konda mou
Ela proyi, me tin Avgi
Hrisi san iliahtitha
Ruby mou mikri

Ruby my love
You'll be my love
You'll be my sky above
Ruby my light
You'll be my light
You'll be my day and night
You'll be mine tonight


If I Laugh

If I laugh just a little bit
maybe I can forget the chance
that I didn't have to know you
and live in peace, in peace

If I laugh just a little bit
maybe I can forget the plans that
I didn't use to get you
at home - with me - alone

If I laugh just a little bit
maybe I can recall the way
that I used to be, before you
and sleep at night - and dream
If I laugh, baby if I laugh
just a little bit -


Changes IV

Don't you feel a change a coming
from another side of time
breaking down the walls of silence
lifting shadows from your mind
Placing back the missing mirrors
that before you couldn't find
filling mysteries of emptiness
that yesterday left behind

And we all know it's better
Yesterday has past
now let's all start the living
for the one that's going to last
Yes we all know it's better
Yesterday has past
now let's all start the living
for the one that's going to last

Don't you feel the day is coming
that will stay and remain
when your children see the answers
that you saw the same
when the clouds have all gone
there will be no more rain
and the beauty of all things
is uncovered again

Don't you feel the day is coming
and it won't be too soon
when the people of the world
can all live in one room
when we shake off the ancient
shake off the ancient chains of our tomb
we will all be born again
of the eternal womb


How Can I Tell You

How can I tell you that I love you, I love you
but I can't think of right words to say
I long to tell you that I'm always thinking of you
I'm always thinking of you, but my words
just blow away, just blow away
It always ends up to one thing, honey
and I can't think of right words to say
Wherever I am girl, I'm always walking with you
I'm always walking with you, but I look and you're not there
Whoever I'm with, I'm always, always talking to you
I'm always talking to you, and I'm sad that
you can't hear, sad that you can't hear
It always ends up to one thing, honey,
when I look and you're not there
I need to know you, need to feel my arms around you
feel my arms surround you, like a sea around a shore
and - each night and day I pray, in hope
that I might find you, in hope that I might
find you, because heart's can do no more
It always ends up to one thing honey, still I kneel upon the floor
How can I tell you that I love you, I love you
but I can't think of right words to say
I long to tell you that I'm always thinking of you
I'm always thinking of you....
It always ends up to one thing honey
and I can't think of right words to say


Tuesday's Dead

If I make a mark in time, I can't say the mark is mine.
I'm only the underline of the Word.
Yes, I'm like him, just like you, I can't tell you what to do.
Like everybody else I'm searching thru what I've heard.

Chorus:
Whoa, Where do you go? When you don't want no one to know?
Who told tomorrow Tuesday's dead

Oh preacher won't you paint my dream, won't you show me where you've been
Show me what I haven't seen to ease my mind.
Cause I will learn to understand, if I have a helping hand.
I wouldn't make another demand all my life.

Chorus:
Whoa, Where do you go? When you don't want no one to know?
Who told tomorrow Tuesday's dead

What's my sex, what's my name, all in all it's all the same.
Everybody plays a different game, that is all.
Now, man may live, man may die searching for the question why.
But if he tries to rule the sky he must fall.

Chorus:
Whoa, Where do you go? When you don't want no one to know?
Who told tomorrow Tuesday's dead

Now every second on the nose, the humdrum of the city grows.
reaching out beyond the throes of our time.
We must try to shake it down. Do our best to break the ground.
Try to turn the world around one more time.
Yeah, we must try to shake it down do our best to break the ground
Try to turn the world around one more time

Chorus:
Whoa, Where do you go? When you don't want no one to know?
Who told tomorrow Tuesday's dead


Morning Has Broken

Morning has broken, like the first morning.
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning,
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word.

Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven.
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass.
Praise for the sweetnes of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness where His feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning.
Born of the one light Eden saw play.
Praise with elation, praise every morning;
God's recreation of the new day.

Morning has broken, like the first morning.
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning,
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word.


Bitterblue

I gave my last chance to you
Don't hand it back to me bitterblue
No bitterblue
Yes, I've done all one man can do
Don't pass me up oh bitterblue
My bitterblue
Yes, I've been running a long time
On this travelling ground
Wishing hard to be free
Of going round and round
Yes I've been moving a long time
But only up and down
I gave my last hope to you
Don't hand it back to me bitterblue
My bitterblue
I've done all one man can do
Please help me lose this bitterblue
My bitterblue
Cause I've been waiting a long time
Aeons been and gone -
looking at the horizon
For my light to dawn
Oh yes I've been living a long time
Looking on and on
I've been running a long time
Summers come and gone -
Drifting under the dream clouds
Past the broken sun -
Yes I've been living a long time
To be back beyond
I gave my lst chance to you
Don't hand it back bitterblue
My bitterblue
I've done all one man can do
Don't pass me up oh bitterblue
My bitterblue, bitterblue
I gave my last chance to you
Don't hand it back to me bitterblue


Moonshadow

I'm being followed by a moon shadow
moon shadow-moon shadow
leaping and hopping on a moon shadow
moon shadow-moon shadow
and if I ever lose my hands
lose my plough, lose my land
oh, if I ever lose my hands
oh, if...
I won’t have to work no more
and if I ever lose my eyes
If my colours all run dry
yes, if I ever lose my eyes
oh if …
I won't have to cry no more.
yes, I'm being followed by a moon shadow
moon shadow - moon shadow
leaping and hopping on a moon shadow
moon shadow - moon shadow
and if I ever lose my legs
I won't moan and I won't beg
of (oh)* if I ever lose my legs
oh if...
I won't have to walk no more
And if I ever lose my mouth
all my teeth, north and south
yes, if I ever lose my mouth
oh if...
I won't have to talk...
Did it take long to find me
I ask the faithful light
Ooh did it take long to find me
And are you going to stay the night
I'm being followed by a moon shadow
moon shadow - moon shadow
leaping and hopping on a moon shadow
moon shadow - moon shadow
moon shadow - moon shadow
moon shadow - moon shadow


Peace Train

Now I've been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun

Oh I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be, some day it's going to come

Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again

Now I've been smiling lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun

Oh peace train sounding louder
Glide on the peace train
Come on now peace train
Yes, peace train holy roller

Everyone jump upon the peace train
Come on now peace train

Get your bags together, go bring your good friends too
Cause it's getting nearer, it soon will be with you

Now come and join the living, it's not so far from you
And it's getting nearer, soon it will all be true

Oh peace train sounding louder
Glide on the peace train
Come on now peace train

Now I've been crying lately, thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating, why can't we live in bliss

Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again

Oh peace train sounding louder
Glide on the peace train
Come on now peace train
Yes, peace train holy roller

Everyone jump upon the peace train
Come on peace train
Yes, it's the peace train
 

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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