🎵 AotW AOTW: Cat Stevens CATCH BULL AT FOUR (SP 4365)

[LPJim]

Cat Stevens
CATCH BULL AT FOUR
A&M SP4365

CATCH BULL AT FOUR was Cat Stevens' sole # 1 album, holding that position for 3 weeks and remaining in the Billboard Top 200 for 48 weeks. It entered the charts on 10-14-72, according to Whitburn's "Top Pop Albums" guidebook.

SIDE ONE: Sitting/ Boy With a Moon & Star on his Head/ Angel Sea/ Silent Sunlight/ Can't Keep it In.

SIDE TWO: 18th Avenue/ Freezing Steel/ O Caritas/ Sweet Scarlett/ Ruins.

Additional personnel include Gerry Conway (drums), Alun Davies (acoustic guitar), Jean Roussel (piano), Alan James (bass), Del Newman (strings), C.S. Choir (vocals), Linda Lewis (vocals - courtesy of Warner-Reprise).

All compositions by Cat Stevens except "O Caritas" by Toumazis-Taylor-Stevens.
Published by Ackee Music Inc. ASCAP/ Cover design by C.S. Realisation; Cat Stevens photography by Homer Sykes.
Produced by Paul Samwell-Smith for Silven Productions.

Readily available on CD.
Note: track lengths were not listed either on the LP or the cover.
Possibly the 1st A&M album to have a custom label.

JB

 

[Dave]

Cat's sidemen (and women) have had jobs on other artists' recordings, like keyboardist, Jean Roussel, who played with Elkie Brooks (also on A&M), and Linda Lewis, who is a singer, and a solo artist, recording albums and singles on her own...


Columbia House, a/k/a/ THE COLUMBIA RECORD & TAPE-CLUB used Cat Steven's Catch Bull AT Four in one of its ads, showing the album in form of LP, 8-Track, Cassette and Reel-To-Reel; citing its availability through the club...

...with my ONE PENNEY, online...


Dave

 

[LPJim]

Don't forget that Gerry Conway was in Fairport Convention & the Bunch. He also was on Jethro Tull's BROADSWORD & THE BEAST album.
JB

 

[Captain Bacardi]

A #1 album and I don't recognize any songs at all. This slipped underneath my musical radar.



Capt. Bacardi
...sulking from another Bears loss, online...

 

[Harry]

A #1 album and I don't recognize any songs at all. This slipped underneath my musical radar.

I think this one hit #1 on the strength of the prior Cat Stevens albums. TEASER AND THE FIRECAT and TEA FOR THE TILLERMAN were both so well-received and got lots of radio airplay on all kinds of formats.

As I recall, it was a highly-anticipated album, perhaps not quite living up to those expectations. I like "Sitting" and "Can't Keep It In" - a lot of the rest I probably haven't heard in 30 years or so.

I did like the nifty custom label though...

Harry
..."sitting" at his computer, online...

(Sorry, I just "can't keep it in.")

 

[LPJim]

CATCH BULL also benefited from a major U.S. tour Stevens did in the fall of '72. I saw him in concert in Nov. of that year. The audience was much more enthusiastic about the TEASER and TILERMAN material than the then-new songs, as I recall.
But hey, that was 32 years ago.
JB

 

[Steven J. Gross]

One of my favorite Cat Stevens albums, the song "Sitting" is perhaps my favorite Cat single ever.

 

[AM Matt]

Actress Kari Wuhrer is a big fan of Cat Stevens. Kari was in the TV game show "Remote Control" on MTV from 1987-1988. She also made some porn low budget movies . For more on Kari, go to: www.kariwuhrer.net I heard on a TV show at one time that one of her favorite albums was "Catch Bull At Four". Kari was born on April 28, 1967 in Connecticut. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Mike Blakesley]

An OK album, but like Harry said it rode on the coattails of the previous albums. My favorite song on it is "Angelsea," which was not a hit but is one of those that won't get out of your head after it's in there.

 

[Steven J. Gross]

Actress Kari Wuhrer is a big fan of Cat Stevens. Kari was in the TV game show "Remote Control" on MTV from 1987-1988. She also made some porn low budget movies . For more on Kari, go to: www.kariwuhrer.net I heard on a TV show at one time that one of her favorite albums was "Catch Bull At Four". Kari was born on April 28, 1967 in Connecticut. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

She looks a lot different than she did just 10 years ago- I hate this plastic surgery stuff!

 

[Harry]

An OK album, but like Harry said it rode on the coattails of the previous albums. My favorite song on it is "Angelsea," which was not a hit but is one of those that won't get out of your head after it's in there.

Quoting an eighteen year old post from Mike B., I've been listening to "Angelsea" from CATCH BULL AT FOUR lately. It's one that sort-of eluded me over the years, but something steered me to it in the past few days, and I've been listening on repeat. Good track.

 

[rockdoctor]

CATCH BULL also benefited from a major U.S. tour Stevens did in the fall of '72. I saw him in concert in Nov. of that year. The audience was much more enthusiastic about the TEASER and TILERMAN material than the then-new songs, as I recall.
But hey, that was 32 years ago.
JB

Gerry Conway was also once a member of the group Eclection. They had one album on Elektra and shortly after disbanded. Trevor Lucas was also in that group so Gerry might have had something to do with getting him and Sandy Denny onto the A&M label as part of Fairport Convention.

For this particular Cat Stevens Album, I have not heard any of these songs so I am not familiar with it. I lost interest after Teaser And The Firecat which I did like but I do not have the lp anymore.

 

[JOv2]

Gerry Conway was also once a member of the group Eclection. They had one album on Elektra and shortly after disbanded. Trevor Lucas was also in that group so Gerry might have had something to do with getting him and Sandy Denny onto the A&M label as part of Fairport Convention.

I picked up that Eclecton album (1968) last year (Esoteric-UK issue). I like it -- though the drummer is noticeably weak.

As for Catch Bull At Four -- to my ears it's the last great Cat Stevens LP.