Details
Track Listing
DISC 1: THE CITY:
1. Back to the Good Old Times - (previously unreleased)
2. I Love My Dog
3. Portobello Road
4. Here Comes My Baby
5. Matthew & Son
6. Tramp, The
7. I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun
8. School Is Out
9. Bad Night, A
10. Laughing Apple, The
11. Kitty
12. Blackness of Night
13. First Cut Is the Deepest, The
14. Northern Wind
15. Moonstone
16. Come on Baby (Shift That Log)
17. Lovely City (When Do You Laugh?)
18. Here Comes My Wife
19. View From the Top, The
20. Where Are You
21. If Only Mother Could See Me Now - (previously unreleased, demo)
22. Honey Man - (previously unreleased, with Elton John)
23. Joke, The - (previously unreleased)
DISC 2: THE SEARCH:
1. Time / Fill My Eyes - (previously unreleased, demo)
2. Lady D'Arbanville
3. Trouble
4. Pop Star
5. Katmandu
6. Lilywhite
7. I've Got a Thing About Seeing My Grandson Grow Old - (previously unreleased)
8. Where Do the Children Play?
9. Wild World
10. Sad Lisa
11. On the Road to Find Out
12. Father and Son
13. Love Lives in the Sky - (previously unreleased)
14. Don't Be Shy
15. If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out
16. Day They Make Me Tsar, The - (previously unreleased, demo)
17. Wind, The
18. Moonshadow
19. Morning Has Broken
20. How Can I Tell You
21. Peace Train
22. I Want to Live in a Wigwam
DISC 3: THE HURT:
1. Crab Dance
2. Sitting
3. Silent Sunlight
4. Angelsea
5. Can't Keep It In
6. 18th Avenue (Kansas City Nightmare)
7. Hurt, The
8. Foreigner Suite
9. Oh Very Young
10. Music
11. Sun/C79
12. King of Trees
13. Bad Penny, A
14. Lady D'Arbanville
15. Another Saturday Night
DISC 4: THE LAST:
1. Whistlestar
2. Novin's Nightmare
3. Majik of Majik's
4. Banapple Gas
5. Blue Monday - (previously unreleased)
6. Doves (Majikat Earth Tour Theme Song)
7. Hard Headed Woman - (previously unreleased)
8. Tuesday's Dead - (previously unreleased)
9. Ruins - (previously unreleased)
10. Old Schoolyard, (Remember the Days of the)
11. Life
12. To Be a Star, (I Never Wanted)
13. Child For a Day
14. Just Another Night
15. Daytime
16. Last Love Song
17. Never
18. Father and Son - (previously unreleased)
19. God Is the Light - (with Yusuf/Raihan)
Album Notes
This deluxe 4-CD box includes a 96-page booklet with photo collages and lyrics as well as an autobiogaphical essay and song-by-song commentary by
Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam).
Personnel includes: Cat Stevens (a.k.a. Yusuf Islam) (vocals, guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, percussion); Elton John, Raihan (vocals); Larry Steele (guitar, bass, congas, percussion); Alun Davies; Phil Upchurch, Jim Ryan, Mark Warner, Simon Nichol (guitar); Roland Harker (banjo); John Rostein (violin): Andreas, Toumazis, Angelos Hatzipavli (bouzouki); Peter Gabriel (flute); Gordie Fleming (accordion); David Sanborn (alto saxophone); Rick Wakeman, Chick Corea (piano); Jean Roussel, Barry Beckett (keyboards); John Ryan, Alan James, Paul Martinez, Herbie Flowers, Bruce Lynch (bass); Harvey Burns, Gerry Conway (drums, percussion); Bernard Purdie, Andy Newmark (drums); Chico Batera (percussion); Linda Lewis, Patti Austin, Lewis Furey, Tasha Thomas, Art Garfunkel, Luther Vandross (background vocals).
Producers: Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), Mike Hurst, Paul Samwell-Smith,
David Kershenbaum, Farihin Abdul Fattah.
Compilation producers: Bill Levenson, Daniel Gordon.
Recorded between 1965 and 1997. Includes liner notes and song commentary by Bill DeYoung and Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam).
Digitally remastered by Ted Jensen (Sterling Sound, New York, New York) & Suha Gur (Universal Mastering Studios-East).
Cat Stevens was a cultural force in the 1970s, and anybody growing up around that time was fed a steady diet of Stevens hits. This box set--Stevens's first--aspires to be the definitive Cat Stevens collection, and for the most part it is, covering his career highlights ("Peace Train," "Moonshadow," "Wild World," and "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out," among many others) over four discs.
While Stevens's simplistic imagery, tailor made for sing-alongs around a camp fire, may not have aged particularly well, his knack for a catchy melody and indelible lyrical conceit are hard to deny. There is a restless longing and pained soul-searching at the heart of even his most popular work, and the collection's sequencing and the titles of each disc-- "The Search," "The Hurt"--reflect this intensity, as does his Stevens's eventual conversion to Islam.
Note: The one glaring oversight here is the omission of "Trouble," one of the Cat man's best songs and the aural centerpiece of his stellar soundtrack for the 1972 movie HAROLD AND MAUDE. It's an essential tune for Stevens fans both old and new.
Industry Reviews
...His best moments have grown in stately beauty and clarity... - Rating: B-
Entertainment Weekly (11/16/2001)
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