I just found this, I was going to submit this as my one hit wonder piece, oh well it’s written to here it goes:
From when I was 12 until the age of 18 I rode three buses for two hours to get to school. This was before the days of walkmen, C.D. players and definitely pre stereo earbuds with mp3 players. Instead we had portable transistor radios that had one little earbud that would give you a crackly connection to the music/football game you were listening to. Music was not an easily portable experience, in fact it was often for the teenager who lived several hours from school a lonely silent experience until the evening or weekend.
I had so few records that I had managed somehow to commit most of the lyrics involved in them to memory. The more lyrics the better was my general thought, the denser and more poetic the better. I would sit replaying entire albums in my mind on my way home as I stared out of the misted windows of the number 10 Bus on rainy days or watched my fellow passengers and created entire life stories for them. Often this would involve some sort of romantic involvement as I was whisked away from my existence in an all male school. How I regretted passing the entrance exam as I watched the comprehensive school kids talk to members of the opposite sex so easily and skillfully. Of course this is probably the majority of the idle thoughts of the adolescent male.
On the rare occasions you could get a station on the ancient battery operated transistor radio with it’s one strange dangling earbud it was seldom playing a song you would like to hear. Into this strange world one song strikes me as standing out. Al Stewart’s Year of the Cat. A long song with a few powerful words.
Of course the lyrics would catch the imagination of the adolescent male. A film noire setting, a strange beautiful woman met in an exotic location who sweeps our protagonist off his feet and makes him leave his humdrum life behind for awhile. The lyrics are full of longing and sorrow as we realize this is a transient relationship destined to end.
For years I searched for that exotic smell of incense and patchouli. It’s a heady scent that takes you to strange places not all of them very clean.
I have always thought the lush late seventies production of the original track kind of spoilt it a little, a case of Alan Parson’s having too much control. Al after the success of this went on a quest for another hit. He started wearing disturbingly slick suits in various powdered colors instead of the hippy garb that had adorned other albums. His songs for awhile became a little less personal and confessional and to be honest less interesting. The song itself when you listen to the album stands out as somewhat separate from the rest of the songs which have a sympathetic folk-rock production. The song then comes as something of a shock after the fiddles and guitars of the other tracks.
So here’s a live version:
Luckily after the eighties Mr. Stewart found his sea legs again and went back to what he does best. Intensely personal songs, interspersed with historical epics sprinkled with gentle humor. Of course he still plays the hit and everyone loves it and he seems to have become resigned to the sax solo which he has described as sounding like a honking goose.
Here we have before and after pics, Al the hippy and Al the suave dapper man about town.
I always wondered how Peter Criss felt about the front album cover. There are certainly some similarities to his cat makeup.
I doubt Al Stewart ever made enough money for Peter or more likely Gene to sue him.
I would say for a time in 1976 or 1977 he was living better than some.
I still see his albums in most thrift stores and record shops. That tells me he sold a ton.
However, his record company probably pocketed most of it.
As for Gene, if he thought Al Stewart owed him, he would probably sue Al, Al’s entire family, and Al’s uncle’s butcher just to get a buck.
Cool story about the bus ride by the way.
Probably true.
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I’ve added this post to the One-Hit Wonder event page. 🙂
You know, your bus rides may have contributed to your writing style (which I happen to really enjoy).
I’m thinking I must have heard this song before but it’s out of reach. What a phrase, though. A poem in the image and a song in the sensation. The patchouli, ‘not always clean’ made me laugh. I have an aversion to the smell… perhaps I should have had a proper exotic introduction.
Patchouli can seldom be forgiven.
Haha 🙂 I’d have to agree.
Though never being completely convinced by Al’s rather fey voice, like you I loved the sense of intrigue and sensuality that pervades ‘Year of the Cat’. Didn’t we all want to be languishing with an exotic beauty when the buses and the tourists were gone?
Thanks for the misty memories.
You are not the first to describe his voice as fey, he was a stalwart of Les Cousins though so deserves a modicum of respect, there that’s enough.
Agreed. I like (or at least acknowledge) the introspective early folk stuff – remember that immensely long song about his sexual travails? – there’s something courageous about baring your soul (and whatever else).
I don’t think I know this one at all. I remember those cheap-o earpieces for the radio back in the day though. So glad for my Sony Sports Walkman when I got it in the 90s, made walking bearable.
Evocative piece. Never a big fan though prefer him to Nick Drake (Who?) …
Oh you mean the darling of the singer songwriter fraternity.
Thanks
Contrary to popular belief, we weren’t all walking around with Nick Drake albums under our arms … bit too gloomy for those essentially more optimistic times, I think.
I have never come to terms with Nick Drake, some good songs though, couldn’t play a whole album though
Not so hot on the tune, but I do love that cover art.