Sometimes, I’m
real thankful that I have an unlisted phone number.
You see, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens (see, someone
did pull this before Prince) would probably not mind finding
out where I live and chop off my hands after I write this review of
his 1970 release
Teaser And The Firecat. Never mind the fact that this album
features three of Stevens’s best-known and most enjoyable hits –
the remainder of the album is rather flat and forgettable.
Stevens (who has been known as Yusef Islam since his conversion
to the Muslim religion) showed how talented of a folk musician he
was with the hits “Peace Train” (which 10,000 Maniacs covered, but
pulled off their
In My Tribe album after Stevens/Islam called for the death
of author Salman Rushdie) and “Moonshadow”. The latter track has
always been a favorite of mine; the guitar work on this one alone
is astounding. Lyrically, it is also very strong – and though it
may make me look like a fuddy-duddy, I love this song.
The other well-known track off this album is “Morning Has
Broken,” a song which still gets regular play in some churches.
It’s not really a religious song per se – God is only mentioned
once in the lyrics – so I’m not really sure why the Catholic Church
picked up on this one so heavily. (Anyone who can enlighten me on
this, feel free to e-mail me.)
If only the remainder of the material on
Teaser And The Firecat were able to live up to the
excellence of these three songs, this would be an album that stands
out bar none. But the remainder of the material is subpar in
comparison – not a grand thing for an album that barely clocks in
at over a half-hour. “Rubylove” even features a verse in Greek – if
you understand Greek (and can read it in the liner notes), I guess
you’d enjoy it more.
But for each hit, there’s two weaker songs like “If I Laugh”
(which could have been a great song – maybe in a different context
on a different album) and “Bitterblue”. The mediocrity of the
material is the biggest letdown on the whole album – I expected so
much more when I dug this one out of the Pierce Archives (where
we’re betting on
Titanic winning the Best Picture award Monday night).
Stevens put out some great music before he turned his back on
the industry that made him famous – and the three hits on
Teaser And The Firecat have lost little of their shine over
the past 27 years. But it’s hard to say if it’s worth suffering
through the remainder of the album to get to the cream of the crop
– isn’t that what “greatest hits” collections were invented
for?
