I wasn’t really aware of Cat Stevens’ music until I hit my teen years in the mid ’80s. My best friends were hippies who followed the Grateful Dead, wore paisley kaftan dresses to school and quoted Allen Ginsberg. Cat Stevens was one of their favorite singer-songwriters and I listened to Teaser and the Firecat on repeat, but it was Stevens’ fourth studio album that put him on the international stage.
Tea for the Tillerman debuted in 1970 and had sold over a half million copies within six months of its release, attaining gold record status in the U.S. and U.K. Rolling Stone magazine even listed the album in its 2013 list of “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”
Covering themes from urban development, relationships, poverty, war and environmental peril, Stevens’ spiritual enlightenment from a 1969 bout of tuberculosis which almost killed him, helped shape this album and others to come. Stevens began to question his mortality and life’s purpose by taking up meditation, yoga and religious studies. His lyrics reflected the issues and worries that burdened most people and Stevens quickly garnered a following of fans who felt as if he was speaking to them.
Four tracks from the album were featured in the 1971 black comedy Harold and Maude, including my favorite, “On The Road To Find Out” in which the narrator goes on a journey, meeting various people along the way, each with a story to tell, but he doesn’t find what he’s searching for until he realizes that “the answer lies within” himself. It’s a beautiful, poignant song of self-discovery.
Besides the hit track “Wild World”, which was inspired by Stevens breakup with actress Patti D’Arbanville, “Father and Son”, is to me, absolute perfection and extraordinarily powerful.
“All the times that I’ve cried, keeping all the things I knew inside, it’s hard, but it’s harder to ignore it. If they were right I’d agree, but it’s them they know not me…”
This song actually started out to be included in a musical called “Revolussia” set during the Russian Revolution. If the production had come to fruition, it was meant to be sung by a boy who wants to join the fight, but is discouraged by his father-it’s a timeless song that continues to speak to this generation and beyond.
