Kevin's Watch

If it was moved then why is it still here?

edit: It's here too. The Cat Stevens Thread is taking over, one forum at a time.

I learned to play guitar by figuruing out a few chords and then playing along (forever) to Teaser and the Firecat.

Recently heard a story which prompts this question....who played the piano in Morning has Broken?

I had never throught to ask and slapped my forehead at how obvious it was!

Rick Wakeman

(is this also becoming the Cat Stevens Trivia thread?)

Well played Relayer (I'm assuming your name has nothing to do with Yes????? apart from which Patrick Moraz played on Relayer).

A close friend of mine was recently in East Anglia in the UK and happened upon a church and started chatting to the local clergyman. He wondered what the music was coming from the church and was told there was a concert that evening and the star performer was Rick W. Tickets were sold out but he'd got on with the verger and he said it was OK to check out the sound checks from the back.

My mate goes in and they promply finish soundchecking, Wakeman walks to the back of the church and casually says hello. My mate asks if that's it for the soundcheck and when told it is tells him the whole "I'm only here from Australia a few days, didn't know you were playng, lifelong fan" etc.

Wakeman arranges for him to get in that night and sits him just off stage.

Anyway Cat Stevens........

During their chat which according to my mate went on for ages, Rick tells him about playing churches and mentions Morning has Broken and how they tried to screw him out of his fee. Apparently he was to be paid 8 pounds (sterling) to write and record it and just whipped it off for them, but never wrote it down. They promply forgot to pay him once they had what they wanted, but when the song was to be played live on TV no-one knew what to do for the piano part so they contacted Rick and he told them naff off as no-one had discussed writing it down, or even acknowledgements on the sleeve, and they hadn't paid him what they HAD agreed!

Anyway 8 pounds quickly found its way to him and he scribbled it down for them.

finn wrote: "Winston, if you were my husband I'd give you poison"
"Madam, if you were my wife I would drink it!"

"Terrorism is war by the poor, and war is terrorism by the rich"

Hey, Finn, your first sig looks like a recycling of a Chesterton-Shaw exchange* (I know of at least two) - they were great friends, and GKC was remarkably fat, and Shaw remarkably thin:

Chesterton: I see there has been a famine in the land. Shaw: And I see the cause of it.

Shaw: If I were as fat as you, I would hang myself. Chesterton: If I were to hang myself, I would use you for the rope.

Oh yeah, Cat Stevens. His music is pleasant enough. I heard him because he made the pop charts when I actually listened to that stuff.

At the time I was completely indifferent to his conversion to Islam. Some of the things I have since learned (such as the Protestant-like myriad of interpretations of the Koran due to their own brands of "Sola Korana" (ref: Sola Scriptura of Christianity)) have left me considerably less impressed with his conversion. All religions contain truth, all mainline ones want to bring about peace. If he'd converted to Christianity or Judaism it would really have been downplayed. It's better than believing that there is no truth, I suppose...

*and they were probably recycled from somewhere else...

I like your second sig!

Well they did overlap as contemporaries though I think the only connection was betwween Lady Nancy Astor (Madam) and Shaw who were good friends.

Churchill was a mine of reparte, probably the last true survivor of that age. I've appended a link to some excellent quotes.


en.thinkexist.com/quotes/winston_churchill/

Back on topic did anyone hear the rumour that Stevens had some form of heart arythmia that created a slightly different rythmic pattern in his songs?

finn wrote:Well they did overlap as contemporaries though I think the only connection was betwween Lady Nancy Astor (Madam) and Shaw who were good friends.

Churchill was a mine of reparte, probably the last true survivor of that age. I've appended a link to some excellent quotes.


en.thinkexist.com/quotes/winston_churchill/

Hey, now there's a coincidence! (I didn't know that!)

Agree on Churchill, but Chesterton was the best.

Relayer wrote:...heck, all of Teaser, Tillerman, and Catch Bull at Four... Grreat Stuff.

Exactly!!!! Amazing albums!!! Mone Bone Jakon is also great.

finn wrote:Well played Relayer (I'm assuming your name has nothing to do with Yes????? apart from which Patrick Moraz played on Relayer).

Au contraire... my name has everything to do with Yes

My only Wakeman story concerns our discussing golf... and I don't even play! (it was backstage at a meet and greet a friend was able to get me into).

And back OT, I do remember hearing the thing about Cat Stevens' heart arrythmia. I also remember being suprised when I found out many years ago who played Morning Has Broken... and then listened to it again and thought, duh.

Okay, hands up...who came across Cat Stevens thanks to Harold and Maude? Or was it just me?

I didn't but the friends who turned me on to Cat did. It was in High School-way back when-and I think the first song I ever heard was either Longer Boats or Morning Has Broken probably Morning. Listened in this order:
Tea For the Tillerman
Teaser and the FireCat
Mona Bone Jakon
Catch Bull at Four
Buddah and the Chocolate Box
Foriegner

I was introduced to Cat by my stepfather. (Also Gordon Lightfoot and ELO. Out of the Blue is among my favorite albums of all.) Angelsea, from Catch Bull at Four, was the song that first blew me away. The rest of the album is also incredible, and still my favorite of his.

Cail!!! What?? You saw him last summer?????

Yeah, he sang at Wembley for the Diana Concert (it was simulcast on a couple of cable channels). His voice sounds exactly as it did 30 years ago. 'Twas incredibly moving.

so i saved my earlier cat stevens post for when it got moved to VESPERS.
heh.

Lucimay wrote:

Lord Foul wrote:

This thread is dedicated to all things Cat Stevens. Begin.

oh god yes! lets!!!!!

drew wrote:I hated Rod Stewarts cover of First cut is the Deepest.
Sheryl Crow did an okay job..but Cat did the best version.

i don't like many cat coverers. some have done decent jobs.
rod stewart makes me puke.
sheryl's is meh...grudgingly...a degree or so better cover.
no one "does" cat better than cat.
in other words, i've not heard someone take a cat song and
actually make it work for them the way they do it. ok i'm blathering.

he's distinctive, i guess is what i'm trying to say.
like or dislike him, i don't think you could effectively argue he's NOT
distinctive.


LF...cat is one of my favorites.

the grin by which all men i ever saw after him were judged. >serious bidness sigh<



the song my dad used to sing to me

Oh Very Young


the first time i made out this was playing...


She moves like and angel
And seven evening stars
Dance through the window
Of her universal house

He voice a crystal echo
Lies humming in your soul
So patiently awaiting
For your ears to behold

She ripples on the water
Leaves diamonds on the shore
And fish from every distance
Watch her ocean cellar door
Her breath a warm fire
In every lovers heart
A mistress to magicians
And a dancer to the gods
And a dancer to the gods

Her clothes are made of rainbows
And twenty thousand tears
Shine through the spaces
Of her golden ochre hair
Ooh my babe I want you
And on my life I swear
My conscience will I follow you forever
If you meet me everywhere
Yes if you if you meet me everywhere

or was it...?

Sitting





and a last bit of cat gospel...

Mile From Nowhere

Catch Bull at Four was not a critics favourite in the UK at least, but I thought it had some fantastic songs on it. Oh Caritas, The song Carries On (?) Boy with the Moon and Star was why I first attempted to finger-pick.

Maybe his move towards piano composition and performance on this album just pissed off the guitar players, who'd been getting layed pretty easily on the strength of some easy chord work from his earlier albums!

catch bull at four is my favorite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k6mQyu2GxM

[Cat Stevens: Wild World]