Cat Stevens - Teaser & The Firecat
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Cat StevensEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2000-05-23
Music Label: A&M
Soundtracks:
- The Wind
- Rubylove
- If I Laugh
- Changes IV
- How Can I Tell You
- Tuesday's Dead
- Morning Has Broken
- Bitterblue
- Moonshadow
- Peace Train
Free Music Notes for Teaser & The Firecat
Free Music Review: With ease one of the great albums in rock history
Hit: 5 Stars
As a young and extremely timid person I once did something incredibly bold. Living in Little Rock, Arkansas I learned that Cat Stevens, who had recorded albums that I loved as deeply as TEA FOR THE TILLERMAN and TEASER AND THE FIRECAT, was going to be coming to Memphis, Tennessee for a concert. Though I was terrified, I made a call to get tickets for the concert and recruited some friends - who could conveniently provide transportation - to go with me. I still remember the terror I had to overcome to make those phone calls, but because I just had to hear my idol life I forced myself to do so. And I did! Tragically, however, Stevens was in a car wreck in which he lacerated his hand so that he was unable to play guitar, and the concert tour was cancelled. It would have been my first rock concert. But it shows just how much I love the man's music. And I have to confess that I still do.
By changing his name from Cat Stevens to Yusuf Islam and leaving the world of popular music for private religious devotion, Cat Stevens did more harm to his long-term reputation than any critic could have done. The brute truth is that in the early seventies Cat Stevens was the greatest popular perform in all of music. It isn't merely that he sold a lot of records; he produced a string of stunningly brilliant albums. Has there ever been a greater popular album than TEA FOR THE TILLERMAN or TEASER AND THE FIRECAT? Perhaps, but once we exclude those released by the Beatles I'd bet we could count them on the fingers of one hand with more than one finger left over. Anyone doubting how much Stevens's embrace of Islam has hurt him need only ponder this: he is not a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Probably two-thirds of the people in the Hall are less deserving than Cat Stevens.
Frankly, his conversion to Islam bothers me as much as most. He didn't even go the sane route. Richard Thompson is also a Muslim, but a Sufi, a branch of Islam that almost anyone can find acceptable. But Stevens not only became a Muslim, but also made some disturbing public statements when some idiotic Muslim sage declared a fatwa on Salman Rushdie. In recent years Stevens/Islam seems to have moderated somewhat, but there is no question that there is one and only one reason he is not in the HOF while Cleveland continues to induct queues of less qualified individuals: he became a devout Muslim.
But lets put that aside for a second. The fact is that TEASER AND THE FIRECAT is almost impossibly perfect. Every song on the album is a gem, most are classics, most continue to be played on various radio stations over thirty-five years since their release. We have an ambivalent social reaction to the album. On the one hand we won't put Cat Stevens into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame where he, if anyone, belongs, but we continue to luxuriate in the absolute brilliance of his music.
TEASER AND THE FIRECAT is an embarrassment of riches. In the early seventies Cat Stevens reeled out a string of albums, all of which had some or several great songs. But he released two that were extraordinary masterpieces. TEA FOR THE TILLERMAN and TEASER AND THE FIRECAT string together one exquisite song after another. People listening to them for the first time in the new century are just as astonished by their beauty as those who heard them when they first came out. What is more, either children or adults reaction in much the same way; musicians as much as non-musicians. These may be the most accessible truly great songs released by any artist not named The Beatles.
Ever since I heard these two albums, they have been among my favorite ever. I will admit that I was unable to listen to them for quite some time. I found it painful when Cat embraced Islam, with its incredibly regressive attitudes toward women (my main complaint toward Islam, since the terrorism many associate with it today truly is not a part of historical or even most contemporary Islam). I couldn't listen to his music without a sense of betrayal. There were great values in many of the songs! Yet he had embraced religious belief that devalued women!
Eventually, however, I started listening to the albums again. How perfect these two albums are! It is almost ludicrous how many great songs are on each of them. TEA FOR THE TILLERMAN is amazing and perhaps the most consistently brilliant, but TEASER AND THE FIRECAT has more amazingly highlights. The only way to hate this album is either to blindly hate anything connected to Islam that you are cut off from the album's beauties or to have utterly no appreciation for music. The songs on TEA FOR THE TILLERMAN were for the most part more delicate than of those on TEASER AND THE FIRECAT. The latter's songs are for the most part more muscular and have more developed arrangements, but there are exceptions. The most delicate song on either album is the gorgeous "How Can I Tell You?" Much of the album is haunted by an almost religious atmosphere in songs like "Morning Has Broken" (which has become a staple in progressive church services) and "Peace Train." Given Stevens's subsequent religious interests it is easy to see how much concern there was in these songs for essentially religious issues. The problem is that in the songs there is a show of concern for issues that would unite all of humanity while Stevens in his personal life embraced a religious belief that made universalism impossible unless everyone in the West were to convert to Islam, which as the pundit said: "Ain't gonna happen." Still, it is amazing how many astonishing songs are contained on this album. TEASER AND THE FIRECAT was released in 1971 and I can think of only two albums in the history of music since then that have had as many major hits on them as it. One was Michael Jackson's THRILLER (which I personally consider overrated, since the title track truly was an amazingly bland single, however interesting the video was) and the other Cyndi Lauper's SHE'S SO UNUSUAL. Now I'm going to state something semi-controversial. I think both TEA FOR THE TILLERMAN and TEASER AND THE FIRECAT blow the socks off either the Michael Jackson or Cyndi Lauper albums.
The thing is, Stevens recorded more than just these two brilliant albums. MONA BONE JAKON, CATCH BULL AT FOUR, FOREIGNER, and BUDDHA AND THE CHOCOLATE BOX all contains great songs. Together, his musical output surpasses all but a few of the people already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His exclusion is hands down the most ludicrous of all eligible candidates. I'm sure he isn't included because the Hall is afraid that he'd say something embarrassing at the induction ceremonies. As if Gene Simmons has always been a model citizen (and for the record Kiss is vastly less qualified for induction than Cat Stevens). My fear is that they are going to wait until the year after Cat Stevens dies, so that they won't be embarrassed by potential praises to Allah.
These are both albums anyone who loves music has to not only love but also completely ingest. Yeah, I don't like the fact that he became a Muslim either. But we really are at a point where we need to get past that and confess that there hasn't been a greater popular album released by anyone since Stevens released TEA FOR THE TILLERMAN and TEASER AND THE FIRECAT. And for Allah's sake, induct the man into the Hall of Fame!
Teaser & The Firecat Poster
Remasters; Tracks: The Wind 1:42 / Rubylove 2:37 / If I Laugh 3:20 / Changes IV 3:32 / How Can I Tell You 4:27 / Tuesday's Dead 3:36 / Morning Has Broken 3:20 / Bitterblue 3:12 / Moonshadow 2:52 / Peace Train 4:11Classic Rock Music CDs
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