CAT STEVENS – Mona Bone Jakon
Working backwards very slowly through Cat Stevens’ catalogue has finally brought me to his debut album for Island. Issued in 1970, the only track that I knew from it was the hit single ‘Lady D’Arbanville’, but it turns out that there are many other fine songs on here that I knew nothing about. Previously my earliest album by him had been ‘Tea For The Tillerman’, and yet I found that all of the elements which made that album so successful were already in place on this one. Following a serious illness when he contracted tuberculosis, he spent a year recovering and used the time to write these songs. Consequently this album heralded his change of style from the light pop of ‘Matthew And Son’ and ‘I Love My Dog’ to the more serious singer/songwriter that we know today. The album opens with ‘Lady D’Arbanville’ and it is as good as I remember it, but from ‘Maybe You’re Right’ onwards the pace increases and the folky overtones are drowned in heavily strummed guitar and impassioned vocals. ‘Pop Star’ is a bit of light relief, being an almost humourous take on the pop star lifestyle, but ‘I Think I See The Light’ is classic ‘Stevens with something to say’. I still cannot fathom out the title track, but it is a catchy little tune, while ‘Katmandu’ is mostly instrumental, and features flute by Peter Gabriel. The final three tracks ‘Time’, ‘Fill My Eyes’, and ‘Lillywhite’ all have that instantly recognizable Cat Stevens sound, with the last of these having that added bonus of a lovely orchestral arrangement. If, like me, you are a fan of his work but only have the mid 70’s albums then do backtrack and sample the earlier stuff - you might be as surprised as I was at just how good it is. Vinyl copies can still be picked up quite cheaply, as I did, and it was issued on CD six years ago, so no excuses for not trying it.