A masterful album that seems to transcend all personal tastes - Al Stewart's 1976 masterpiece Year of the Cat is universally loved by all.
1. Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Soul For Rock 'n' Roll cd 2
2. Richard Hawley - True Love's Gutter
3. Al Stewart - Year Of The Cat
4. Roni Size and Reprazent - New Forms
5. Other Lives - Tamer Animals
6. Bonnie Prince Billy - Lie Down In The Light
Just the one Black Sabbath CD retains its place this week - the second half of We Sold Our Soul... this covers tracks from all of their first six albums (strangely the first half of the partly chronological double album only covers their first two albums). Enough said on Black Sabbath for now pending release of my album ranking shortly for which this compilation has been good research
I recently read a review on Guardian Music for a Belle and Sebastian album. It was in a series on favourite albums from staff writers and possibly the public too at the time (the article seemed to suggest that, but on visiting the links the opportunity to write your own reviews had long disappeared - I think this review was posted in 2011). I did however discover Readers Recommend where readers can recommend tracks on a particular subject for potential inclusion on a playlist. This week's subject was "Obsolete Items". I nominated Triumph '73 by The Felice Brothers and Highwayman by Jimmy Reed but actually covered spectacularly by US grunge rockers Arbouretum. I also nominated (Straight to Your Heart) Like a Cannonball by Van Morrison but that offer was removed for some reason. I doubt either remaining nomination will make the shortlist. All 3 tracks are contained in this embedded mini playlist below. By the way most the obvious ones have gone before and you can't renominate any song that has appeared already in the series - this is known as a "zedded" song. What fun these private members' clubs have.
Anyway from that site I also discovered a parallel project at www.song-bar.com. Over there they were inviting nominations for songs of "Remaining or Staying". I nominated Stayin' Power by Neil Young and Soldier On by Richard Hawley. And that's how, to cut a long story a bit shorter, I came to have True Love's Gutter in the series this week. It's a beautiful record - possibly Hawley's most intense and atmospheric (this clip of the epic Soldier On also features a beautiful video):
On a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they turn back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime
She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolor in the rain
Don't bother asking for explanations
She'll just tell you that she came
In the year of the cat
And that's how Al Stewart's great Year of the Cat track begins. This album was doing the rounds when I was a young student and was one of those soft pop records that seemed to transcend all personal tastes being universally loved by all.
It is simply a masterful collection of great songs - lovely melodies and excellent musicianship. But playing this again this week what struck me most were the lyrics. Each song tells an evocative story that takes you to a place and time.
Great lyrics of exotic escapism run like a thread through this album.
Lord Grenville:
Go and tell Lord Grenville that the tide is on the turn
It's time to haul the anchor up and leave the land astern
We'll be gone before the dawn returns
Like voices on the wind
On The Border:
The fishing boats go out across the evening water
Smuggling guns and arms across the Spanish border
The wind whips up the waves so loud
The ghost moon sails among the clouds
Turns the rifles into silver on the border
If It Doesn't Come Naturally Leave It:
Well I'm up to my neck in the crumbling wreckage
Of all that I wanted from life
When I looked for respect all I got was neglect
Though I swallowed the line as a sign of the times
But dealing a jack from the back of the pack
They said - You lose again
Flying Sorcery:
With your photographs of Kitty Hawk
And the biplanes on your wall
You were always Amy Johnson
From the time that you were small
Broadway Hotel:
You told the man in the Broadway Hotel
Nothing was stranger than being yourself
And he replied, with a tear in his eye
Love was a rollaway
Just a cajole away
This album came out in 1976 and became Al Stewart's go to record. I don't know if he had much success elsewhere but is still touring today playing to dedicated fans in small venues. I saw an amusing clip of him at a backstage signing where a fan said he was surprised he was still going and doing "this". He quite rightly said, "Of course, what else would I be doing?". When you think about it that makes complete sense. It's not like he would decide to give up and become a plumber or school teacher.
One minor gripe on my CD reissue. It has a couple of live tracks, fine, but also an interview. This just disrupts the flow of the music and doesn't have a place here.