🎵 AotW AOTW: Cat Stevens TEASER & THE FIRECAT (A&M SP 4313)

[LPJim]

CAT STEVENS
Teaser & the Firecat
A&M SP 4313

The third A&M album from Cat Stevens and the first post-holiday AOTW for the year featured some highly popular singles.

Side One: The Wind 1:40/ Rubylove 2:35/ If I Laugh 3:20/ Changes IV 3:27/ How Can I Tell You 4:25.

Side Two: Tuesday's Dead 3:34/ Morning Has Broken (# 6) 3:15/ Bitterblue 3:07/ Moonshadow (# 30) 2:37/ Peace Train (# 7) 4:10.

All songs written by Cat Stevens, except "Morning Has Broken" - words by E. Farjeon -, and published by Irving Music Inc. (BMI).
Produced by Paul Samwell-Smith; licensed by Island Records, Ltd., London

Guitar & Keyboards - Cat Stevens/ Alun Davies - guitar/ Larry Steele - bass & congas/ Gerry Conway & Harvey Burns - drums/ Andreas Toumazis & Angelos Hatzipavli - bouzoukia/ Del Newman - strings/ David Bailey - photograph/ "Teaser & the Firecat" (cover art) by Cat Stevens.

Reissued at least twice on CD.

SP 4313 entered the Billboard Top 200 on October 9, 1971, peaked at # 2 for two weeks and remained on the charts 67 weeks, according to Joel Whitburn's "Top Pop Albums."

JB

 

[Mike Blakesley]

A terrific album, the one to start with for new Cat Stevens fans. It has the introspective balladry from his first two albums, and shows his crossing over into the rock territory he'd explore later.

To me this plays better than a Greatest Hits because there's really not a bad track on it. Why "Bitterblue" wasn't a hit single will always be a mystery to me.

I have the newest remaster. It sounds great and contains all the original album art, lyrics, etc.

 

[jfiedler17]

"Teaser and the Firecat"'s easily my favorite Stevens LP 'cause I love the "filler" even better than the singles. Every time I reach for "Teaser and the Firecat," it's almost always to listen to either one of three songs: "Changes IV," "Tuesday's Dead" or "Bitterblue." I agree, Mike, "Bitterblue" should have been a smash single! "Bitterblue" has to be one of my top three favorite Cat Stevens songs. ("Can't Keep It In" and "Ready" would probably be the other two.) Was "Bitterblue" ever even so much as RELEASED as a single or included on a compilation?

 

[Harry]

My first Cat Stevens LP, way back when. I remember hearing the hits appearing on my soft rock radio station back in the early '70s - "Morning Has Broken", "Peace Train", and "Moonshadow". Those songs were everywhere else as well, including the Top 40 stations of the day, and I had no clue that the album was released by A&M. I think once I found that out - as well as having heard some of the other album tracks featured (yes, radio used to actually play album tracks once in awhile back then!) - that I finally purchased the LP. As Mike said, it plays like a greatest hits album.

The album amazed me with how well it was recorded. Cat's guitar always sounded like it was right in front of me. My CD copy of this one is the earlier release (CD 4313) with the AM+ logo on it.

Looking through my compilations, I don't see "Bitterblue" on any of them. Too bad - it really IS a great track and would have been a terrific single release.

Harry
NP: Cat Stevens' TEASER AND THE FIRECAT

 

[Dave]

Just saw the top left-hand corner of Cat Stevens' TEASER AND THE FIRECAT appear in today's comics section--A&M Logo, too!!--in one of the comics--CRANKSHAFT, actually.

Dave

 

[martin]

"Teaser And The Firecat" is definitely my favourite Cat Stevens album. And I agree with Harry that it sounds great and stands the test of time remarkably well. Back in my teens when I got to know the album,however, I never considered it an A & M album. In Europe it came out on the Island label and I believe Island made a licensing agreement with A & M for the US. For quite personal reasons one of the lesser known songs on the album "How can I tell you", has been one of my favourites since the mid seventies, and it was not until quite recently that I made the pleasant discovery that Lani Hall had covered it.

- greetings from the snowy north -
Martin

 

[W.B.]

Moonshadow (# 30) 2:37

That's funny -- the song was listed as "2:45" on the 45 release. And it must be a typo on the LP, because listening to the song all the way through (the same mix as on the original 45 issue) it timed at 2:48. Should it have read "2:47" on the LP?

For those who may have missed it the first time, click here.

 

[W.B.]

And one other thing: Even before I got my copy of the LP (and the two copies of the "Moon Shadow" 45), I had copies of the other 45's from the album ("Peace Train" and "Morning Has Broken") in my collection. Listening to the lyrics for "Peace Train" (which is among my favorite Stevens songs), I have to wonder if it provoked (at least in part) the late 1972 hit "Love Train" by the O'Jays.