As an artist whose songs are crammed with myriad figures throughout centuries of human historical past, it’s becoming that Al Stewart’s most interesting achievement – his 1976 album 12 months of the Cat – receives a retrospective celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Stewart is usually credited with taking part in a job within the delivery of a brand-new type of people music, dubbed “historic people,” which melds the favored people rock and people music revival kinds from the late Nineteen Sixties with fabled figures from historical past.
On 12 months of the Cat alone, Stewart explores topics starting from former British Royal Navy Vice Admiral Sir Richard Grenville (on unimaginable album opener “Lord Grenville”) to ill-fated aviator Amelia Earhart (“Flying Sorcery”), in addition to notable actors Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre (in title observe “12 months of the Cat”).
Al Stewart: A Lyrical Genius
Lyrically, Stewart is a dynamo. He started his profession as a extra “guitar and vocals” people artist, wherein performers needed to be sharp songwriters – when it comes to each musical and lyrical prowess.
50 years on, 12 months of the Cat options among the most beautiful lyrical imagery ever discovered on vinyl. A number of of the best examples from Stewart’s pen discovered inside YotC:
- “Conquistador searching for gold; for all of the jackdaw causes” – from “Midas Shadow”, observe 3
- “And also you lay there by the ‘Do Not’ indicators, and shamed them together with your spark” – from “Sand In Your Sneakers”, observe 4
- “No schoolroom stored you grounded; whereas your ideas might get away; you have been taking off in Tiger Moths, your wings in opposition to the brushstrokes of the day” – from “Flying Sorcery”, observe 6
- “Love was a rollaway, only a cajole away; mist on a summer season’s day, nothing was clear; love was a smile away, only a defile away; I sought it each approach, nobody got here close to” – from “Broadway Resort”, observe 7
- “She comes out of the solar in a silk costume working like a watercolor within the rain” – from “12 months of the Cat”, observe 9 (one of many most interesting, most poetic couplets in pop music historical past)
An Album Filled with Unforgettable Musical Passages
After all, whereas these lyrics are actually superb, the album wouldn’t have stood the check of time a half-century later with out some spectacular music. 12 months of the Cat delivers on that entrance as nicely.
Whereas this album is simply 9 songs lengthy, every of them takes the listener on a captivating journey: from America’s misplaced “Roanoke” colony through Sir Richard Grenville’s ships to the skies above Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to a lodge on Broadway, all the best way to watching a “play in Paris or Madrid.”
With wealthy, detailed manufacturing courtesy of Alan Parsons (of The Alan Parsons Venture fame) and an unimaginable solid of studio musicians and collaborators headlined by the epic, totally scintillating guitar work of Tim Renwick (with secondary notable guitar prospers offered by Peter White), the music on 12 months of the Cat is really with out flaw.
Each tune is totally evocative of its topic, as they effortlessly transport the listener precisely the place Stewart desires them to go. A part of that’s Stewart’s songwriting mastery, however a lot of it may be linked to the large instrumental segments, which Stewart’s collaborators and his studio visitor stars deserve immense credit score for.
Tune Highlights
Ranging from observe one, “Lord Grenville,” Renwick’s astoundingly melodic guitar work undergirds the whole thing of the album. As robust because the melodies on this album are, a few of Renwick’s guitar figures are simply as memorable – and generally extra so.
The album flits from driving, flamenco-style tracks comparable to “On the Border” to pure, sun-bleached tropical pop like “Sand In Your Sneakers,” which options an absolute earworm of a double-tracked, harmonized guitar solo from Renwick.
Renwick’s most interesting solo on the album may belong to trace eight, “One Stage Earlier than” – whereby a skyscraping, cascading volley of gilded guitar distortion closes out the tune in the identical eerie but seductive approach wherein your complete tune wraps itself round your mind with out you even realizing it.
After all, the large hit on the album is its title observe, and Stewart correctly knew to sequence the album with “12 months of the Cat” serving because the album’s capstone… as there’s no approach any tune might observe it.
Eminently cathartic, stunningly stunning, and instantly recognizable, “12 months of the Cat” takes listeners on a mini-journey of its personal over its almost seven-minute run time, with putting string sections, a memorable repeated piano motif, unimaginable dueling acoustic and electrical guitar solos (each performed by Renwick) and supremely lush, velvety manufacturing courtesy of Parsons.
One of many most interesting songs of the Nineteen Seventies, “12 months of the Cat” deserves its place as Stewart’s best-known and most beloved tune, although the album on which it lives is way over only a place the place that hit single lives.
12 months of the Cat: An Album Price Treasuring
Seeing as Al Stewart writes about notable historic figures, it is sensible that 12 months of the Cat stands as the top of his inventive achievements. Every of the album’s 9 songs sounds as if it have been expertly chiseled from a shocking block of milky white marble, the best way Michelangelo or Bernini formed their timeless sculptures. Stewart isn’t working with bodily instruments, after all, however as a substitute with a profound understanding of melody, concord, and association mixed along with his distinctive lyrical wizardry.
That craft is elevated even additional by the album’s star-studded solid of collaborators. Tim Renwick, specifically, deserves the lion’s share of the reward, because of his sterling guitar work all through.
On its 50th anniversary, 12 months of the Cat sounds simply as contemporary because it certainly did when it first launched in 1976. For the album’s 45th anniversary in 2021, a remastered model of the album was launched in numerous codecs, so should you’ve by no means given this album a spin, now’s the right time to discover it (see the Spotify hyperlink beneath for straightforward entry).
Listening to 12 months of the Cat will certainly take you on an unforgettable journey. And even when “ someday you’re certain to depart her, for now you’re going to remain…”
Header Picture Courtesy Philip Halling/Wikimedia Commons
