Cat Stevens’ “Teaser and the Firecat” is one of those jewels of a record that has foolishly escaped my attention despite my utter love and adoration for the man and his music. I suppose I’ve never approached his work with the appropriate degree of systematic effort to dig through his entire catalogue, being content to listen to the few classics he’s most known for (”Peace Train”, “Where Do the Children Play?”, “Moonshadow” etc).

Happily, one of the finest and shortest tracks of the record, - hell, one of the finest to make it out of the 1970s alive - “The Wind”, also found its way into the rock/gonzo journalism lover staple film “Almost Famous” in a beautiful scene with the even more beautiful Kate Hudson. It’s hard to distinguish between which came first when seeing that scene roll by on the screen - the scene itself or the music to breathe life into it. Really, “The Wind” is enough to make me get out of bed in the morning, hearing those words, “I listen to the wind/to the wind of my soul”, sung in sincerity and without a trace of pretensiousness by a man so obviously in love with the clarity with which he sees the world. Seeing that film just kind of sparked a whistful longing for “The Wind”, moving the needle back to start when the few minutes of song was played through over and over and over again.

Anyway, I always thought Stevens was at his best when it was just a simple guitar strumming/fingerpicking backdrop to his sweetly tormented voice - the very reason for why I don’t think “Buddha and the Chocolate Box” is much of a record, with the exception of, perhaps, the heartbreaking ode to pained rock stardom in the face of harsh realities “Sun/C79″ - and “Teaser and the Firecat” maintains enough of Stevens’ magic formula of simplicity to make it one of his most memorable moments on vinyl.

What’s great about Cat Stevens is that he can just as easily do a quiet ballad (ugh, I really should be more sceptical to use that word because it always, ALWAYS recalls in my mind terribly artificial pop songs from the early 90s, the stuff they’d play at school dances when they wanted us to “pucker up” and do a slow one… - sadly, I am not a child of the time when “ballad” actually meant something memorable or meaningful) as launch into a railing one-man carnival of great gusto and enthusiasm. Example: “Change IV” and the end of “Peace Train”. One moment it’s just a man and his guitar, singing about the beauty of life in quiet ways, the next it’s a full-blown storm, a formidable hailstorm of passionate yet still measured words. There really is nothing that’s false about Cat Stevens the Great Musician, and nothing that is wrong with the near-mythic “Teaser and the Firecat”. It’s an album that captures the spirit of existence, that leaves a mark on the world for ever after its release, that expresses so much in such an understated way - like Penny Valentine of Sounds wrote in 1971, “Teaser and the Firecat” is “a happy album, reflecting the happiness of an artist who has found a truth in his work.”

Looking back at that comment, I can’t help but see the irony in her words. Cat Stevens abandoned his life of poetry and pop music 7 years later to become a converted Muslim. “Perhaps, in my ignorance, I was pretending to be happy,” he said in one interview, “but I wasn�t really happy. Happiness is something which is very elusive in the world. It means a balance in your mind, your body, and your spirit.” Whatever his point about happiness in art or art in happiness was, “Teaser and the Firecat” is a record I find so sacred that it can’t have all been posturing - it’s just too real, too sincere.

Year Released: 1971
Label: A&M
Related Link: Cat Stevens Official Site
Date Reviewed: 2005-01-10
Author: Andreas