Cat Stevens - Tea for the Tillerman
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Free Music Notes for Tea for the Tillerman
Free Music Review: Sweet "Tea"
Hit: 5 Stars
Stately but gentle piano and guitar runs lead into Cat's exquisite and very unique baritone lamenting mans' destruction of our planet build to a lovely climax on album opener "Where Do The Children Play". This is some fine folk rock pop music, folks. The entire album is filled with gorgeous, catchy melodies and smart, spiritual, generous lyrics. Other highlights include the tender "Hard-Headed Woman"; lone radio hit and sweet/acidic "Wild World"; the delicate, gentle "Sad Lisa"; the gospel-infused stomper "Miles From Nowhere"; "Longer Boats"; the impossibly beautiful "Into White" which is one of my favorite songs by any artist and one of a very few songs I've done covers of. The soul-searching rocker "On The Road To Findout" and the inspired dialogue of "Father And Son" are good examples of the themes he was exploring on this disc. Released in 1970, "Tea For The Tillerman" was one of the best of the many excellent albums heralding the advent of the singer-songwriter era. Yusuf/Cat Stevens went on to greater success and popularity with his next album "Teaser and the Firecat" which featured the hits "Moonshadow", "Peace Train" and "Morning Has Broken" but "Tillerman" remains the essential and most consistent Cat Stevens album for me.Free Music Review: Taking a Ride on The Cosmic Train
Hit: 5 Stars
I've tended to think of "Tea For The Tillerman" as Cat Stevens' most thoughtful album. It came before the more spiritually minded Teaser and the Firecat, and contained more personal songs. Be it the sorrowful goodbye of "Wild World" or the fractured conversation between "Father and Son," Stevens was trying to find answers in song to questions that tend to confound we mere mortals. While Stevens may not have known the answers, he was writing gorgeous songs about the quest.
To that end, there's a great deal of sadness across "Tea for The Tillerman." A somber Cat looks at the pain of "Sad Lisa," wondering what he can do to heal her. He frets about the bleakness of his future on "I Might Die Tonight." Bookending the CD are calls to save the future of our children. There's also joy in the songs "On The Road to Find Out" and the chanting "Longer Boats." His music was approaching the spiritual nature of his later work, but nonetheless, "Tea For The Tillerman" is British folk-rock at its finest and rates with Cat Stevens' best albums.
Free Music Review: This is the one you need
Hit: 5 Stars
Tea for the Tillerman is the must have cat stevens. Once you get it and get a taste of his music you will want to get some others as well. I own only Tea for the Tillerman,Best of and Greatest Hits and I feel like that is about all the Cat Stevens that is strictly neccesary. If you have cash to sling around then pick up Mona Bone Jacon and Teaser and the Firecat and you will really be in Cat Stevens heaven. Bhudda and the Chocolate Box and some of his releases as Yusuf Islam are also OK, but I would deem them unneccesary if you own the above three albums. They will provide tons of listening pleasure and are an essential addition to a varied collecion of Pop music. Stevens was unique but not in an annoying enya/bjork kind of way. Any music fan will be able to appreciate Cat Stevens, and in my opinion he is more essential to a music collection than even, say, a Bob Dylan, if not even the Beatles. Ok, so maybe not the Beatles, but he is a somewhat overlooked hit machine who never sold out and has produced some of the sweetest music of the last three decades or so.Free Music Review: Classic Cat
Hit: 5 Stars
In the early 70's Cat Stevens was recognized as a major talent by the likes of Time magazine, and his records sold very well. This was before he turned his back on Billboard, top 40 radio and the material world, and embraced the Islam religion. The album starts with "Where Do The Children Play?", which was very politically correct, but soon turns to more timeless folk songs like "Hard Headed Woman", which every single guy should listen to before deciding to tie the knot. "Wild World", his top 40 hit, is followed by the slower ballads "Sad Lisa" and "Miles From Nowhere", two of my favorite tracks. "But I Might Die Tonight" returns to the Philosophy 101 brooding themes, with the calipso "Longer Boats" breaking the ice. "Into White" and "On The Road To Find Out" are breathtakingly georgeous.
The album closes off with the ode to generation gap angst "Father And Son", which reminds me of Lennon/McCartney's She's Leaving Home from Sgt. Pepper, and the brief ditty of "Tea For The Tillerman".
A toure d'force, an album for the ages. Long live the cat man.
Free Music Review: A Definite Classic
Hit: 5 Stars
Cat Stevens' "Tea For The Tillerman" is truly a classic album, and classic albums don't get any classier than this. "Tillerman" boasts three well-known classic tunes: "Where Do The Children Play", "Wild World" and "Father And Son"(probably one of the smartest songs you'll ever hear on radio), but the fun doesn't end there, as every other song on the album has the makings of a classic. Here are a few standouts: "Sad Lisa" with its string arrangment is one of the album's best songs. "Miles From Nowhere" and "But I Might Die Tonight" are terrific rockers, the latter being my favourite song on the album - a brief tune about the monotony of the working day. "Into White" has a more traditional folk sound.With these songs in mind, its not hard to understand why "Tea For The Tillerman" has been a staple in folk and classic rock record collections since the day it was released. It is my favourite Cat Stevens album, and a wonderful album at that.