Cat Stevens - Tea for the Tillerman

Cat Stevens tends to be lumped in with the early-'70s singer-songwriter school led by James Taylor and Carole King, but he actually fits in rather neatly with such wistful English contemporaries as Nick Drake, Syd Barrett, and Donovan. Tea for the Tillerman's "Wild World," "Into White," and "Longer Boats" indicate that he may have been a more gifted tunesmith than the lot of them. As with the best of the Brit folk-rockers, Stevens mixed melancholy with whimsy. Yes, he was prone to airy platitudes, but when he harnessed his eccentricities, as he did throughout this 1970 masterwork, you had something truly distinctive. A natural cult artist, à la Tim Buckley and Leonard Cohen, Stevens connected with record-buyers to the tune of 25 million units sold before he changed his name to Yusuf Islam, established an Islamic school, and raised a ruckus by supporting Ayatollah Khomeini's death decree against author Salman Rushdie. This remastered 2000 version of the 1970 recording, which was overseen by the artist, is a vast improvement over the earlier CD reissue. --Steve Stolder Amazon.com essential recording

Tea for the Tillerman

I was so excited when my CD arrived. I used to listen to this album with my mother,(she is no longer with us now) boy how it brought back special memories. I smile every time I listen to it.
Thank you, September 28, 2008

RFID ruins album art

The music is Cat Stevens. It's as always great.
The RFID tag that is stuck to the album art will ruin it when removed.
Bad Move whomever had the idea of putting RFID tags on album artwork. June 9, 2008

Tea for the Tillerman- trip down memory lane

I have been searching for this particular Cat Stevens album for years. The CD is vibrant and memory filled. I love the relaxing music. Takes me back to my youth. April 5, 2008

Classic Cat Stevens

For lots of people listening to popular music several decades ago, one of the most enchanting albums of all was Cat Stevens' "Tea for the Tillerman." The eponymous song closed out a musical treasure of reflective, thoughtful, and insightful songs. Song after song lures the listener in, trying to make out the lyrics as the stories spin out.

The CD starts off with the wonderful "Where Do All the Children Play." Key lines that typify this song:

"I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day by day.
But tell me, where do the children play?"

These innocent lines are juxtaposed with signs of progress, such as jumbo jets, "roads over fresh green grass," skyscrapers filling the air. Simple instrumentation that supports the words and singing.

Then, the marvelous "Hard Headed Woman." The opening lines:

"I'm looking for a hard headed woman,
One who will take me for myself.
And if I find my hard headed woman
I will need nobody else."

This kind of partner Stevens longs for, as opposed to "I know many fine feathered friends, but their friendliness depends on how you do."
Again, rather spare instrumentation, with Stevens himself on guitar and keyboard. A marvel of a song.

Perhaps my favorite cut on the CD--"Longer Boats." There is the hypnotic recurring line:

"Longer boats are coming to win us,
Coming to win us, they're coming to win us."

This is a song that stays in your mind, reverberating, long after you have heard it.

And so many other fine songs, such as "Wild World," "Sad Lisa," "Miles from Nowhere," "But I Might Die Tonight," "Father and son," and so on.

One of the finest albums of its time--and it still wears well, sounding fresh after all these years.
April 5, 2008

CAT STEVENS' TEA FOR THE TILLERMAN IS A FINE ALBUM, BUT A LITTLE SAD, TOO (sad because spiritual enthusiasm is out of style)

Cat Stevens' Tea For The Tillerman (1970) is Cat's best album, and it's also an album that I like quite a bit. I didn't care much for Cat's music when this, and his other most popular albums, came out. I was into other types of rock music at the time. But since then, I've checked out some Cat Stevens music here and there, and I can relate now and then. I like to listen to Tea For The Tillerman when I'm the mood for his mature, spiritual and somewhat somber sound. Most of the songs are built around Cat's mellow acoustic guitar, but some are piano-based and orchestrated.

The album opens with Where Do The Children Play, and this is one of the album's most popular songs. It's a great one, too, and very thought provoking, but as I listen to it today it's hard to believe that back in 1970, we actually thought that the world's movers and shakers would actually stop to consider Cat's question.

I know we've come a long way
We're changing day to day
But tell me, where do the children play?

Wild World is probably Cat's most enduring and popular song. It's the only one I've heard on the radio in the last decade, anyway. It's a lonely and resigned song, sung by someone who's being left by a lover and even though he is heartbroken, he does his best to give friendly advice to the one who's leaving him behind. I like the somber and sacred Sad Lisa, too. It's a minor-key piano and chamber orchestra dirge about a friend who is trapped in her own sadness. Longer Boats is a hopeful chant-like song that has a catchy melody, and Hard Headed Woman is Stevens' search for a woman who will "make me do my best". I Might Die Tonight is reflective and spiritually themed.

Tea For The Tillerman is an album that's best listened to when you're in a solemn mood or you just feel like hearing something thoughtful and mellow. It's a top-notch production by a talented and spiritually minded artist. It'll brighten your spirits if you're feeling down, but it might also make you wonder what ever happened to all the optimistic spiritual enthusiasm that used to be in America. March 20, 2008

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