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Teaser and the Firecat by Cat Stevens (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Teaser and the Firecat
  • Artist name: Cat Stevens
  • Year: 1971
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: A&M Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on top left of album, indicating that my father owned it
  • Buy it on Amazon: $22.99

Teaser and the Firecat by Cat Stevens

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t have a lot of familiarity with Cat Stevens, or Yusuf Islam, except that he made singer-songwriter type music in the 1970s.

(I actually first heard about him on cable news as a teenager, in the context of what he said about Salman Rushdie, germane today because Rushdie was just very nearly assassinated a couple of months ago.)

This is the first Cat Stevens record that I’ll be reviewing, though there are several others in the collection, including one that will be up in a week or so.

What I expected

Singer-songwriter.

What it was actually like

I actually recognized a bunch of these songs, which wasn’t all that surprising, since my parents were both very enthusiastic when I mentioned that I’d be listening to it.

The Wind was quite a good song and, while listening to it, I recalled that I did know it as a Cat Stevens song! It was very folky with great guitar, a great voice and great lyrics! But why was it so short?

Another that I recognized was Morning Has Broken, a traditional song, but I don’t know if I remembered it because of Cat Stevens or not. Its very simple guitar made me think of it as a campfire song, but not in a good way. On the other hand, I recognized Moonshadow as well, and it also had that simple guitar and made me think of it as a campfire song, but in a good way!

Both Changes IV and Bitterblue had more of a rock sound, which I would generally appreciate, but they were only ok. They sounded sort of choppy and staccato-like, as if Stevens just didn’t get that rock is supposed to be rhythmic too.

Peace Train, that I recalled as one of Stevens’ hits, was another that I recognized, and had the staccato effect that I didn’t like, as well as some deeply inane lyrics.

If I Laugh and How Can I Tell You were boring, and the two worst songs on the record. They were actually more like what I expected all of them to sound like.

Rubylove, which had a verse in Greek, also had some outstanding Greek (or at least Mediterranean) style guitar, and that guitar really stood out on the record. I don’t know that I would have wanted to listen to a whole record of it, but I wouldn’t have minded one more song with it, either.

Tuesday’s Dead kind of reminded me of Jimmy Buffett, which was so weird.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

The Best of Tim Hardin (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Best of Tim Hardin
  • Artist name: Tim Hardin
  • Year: 1969
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Verve Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $19.55

The Best of Tim Hardin

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard of Tim Hardin, but he’s clearly a folk artist, and I’m only familiar with one of the songs, If I Were A Carpenter.

What I expected

Mostly original folk-style songs.

Also, I note that Tim Hardin’s hair very slightly covers the top of his ears, unlike Tom Paxton’s on the cover of Ramblin’ Boy. That’s 1969 versus 1964 right there.

What it was actually like

It’s hard to choose a genre label for this record because it’s not really folk music, but also not really folk rock. “Folk style” is mostly right, but a few songs on it, like It’ll Never Happen Again and Misty Roses, were kind of easy listening crap, quite a surprise coming from a 1960s-era folk singer.

On the other hand, there were a bunch of songs like Don’t Make Promises that were nice and upbeat, and I enjoyed those a lot.

Black Sheep Boy was sad and moving, and I thought it was outstanding.

I was (maybe a bit embarrassingly) surprised to learn that Tim Hardin actually wrote If I Were A Carpenter. I had always thought that it was a “traditional” song, and figured that he had adapted it roughly around the same time as Johnny Cash et al. also did. The Johnny Cash and June Carter version was very true to Tim Hardin’s original, but I think I have to say that Cash/Carter did it way better, because this song actually begs to be a duet, and because Cash’s voice conveys so much emotion and struggle than Hardin’s, and because the plain old snare drum was far less distracting than the bizarre bongo drums in the original.

On that note, I also didn’t realize that Tim Hardin performed at Woodstock, though he didn’t make it onto the record.

Smugglin’ Man was the most different from the other songs on the record – a blues song in a very standard style, with some cute and topical lyrics and a great tempo. I thought it was the best track on the record.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Days of Future Passed by The Moody Blues (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Days of Future Passed
  • Group name: The Moody Blues
  • Year: 1967
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Deram Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written inside album, indicating that my father owned it
  • Buy it on Amazon: $19.98

Days of Future Passed by The Moody Blues

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve reviewed three Moody Blues records:

I’ve had mixed feelings about them, generally enjoying the musicality and overall sound of the songs, but disliking the attempts to show their audience just how weird they can be.

What I expected

Progressive rock… with an orchestra.

What it was actually like

The weird narrator from other Moody Blues records made an appearance on this one, but mercifully he didn’t stick around for long. Remind me why a prog rock record needs narration in the first place?

I had a hard time deciding whether or not I liked the overall use of the orchestral style instrumentation. For most of the record I leaned towards saying that it wasn’t good, but the last song was The Night (including Nights in White Satin), which did actually tie it together quite well, and that tipped me back towards saying that I liked the sound. But it did not work universally, and the awful narrator returned at the end, which was bad.

Besides that, there were parts that sounded like children’s music (a critique that I made yesterday about Ramblin’ Boy by Tom Paxton), and other parts (I think on Lunch Break: Peak Hour) sounded like musical theater. Musical theater! On a rock record!

Then immediately after that, it suddenly sounded like a pretty sweet mid 1960s rock song, sort of a British invasion answer to surf rock.

The more I listen to Nights in White Satin, the more I think it’s a masterpiece, and also that I just think it’s grand because it’s the best song that the Moody Blues ever recorded.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Ramblin’ Boy by Tom Paxton (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Ramblin’ Boy
  • Artist name: Tom Paxton
  • Year: 1964
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Elektra Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: could have been either of my parents, but I think my mother
  • Buy it on Amazon: $10.89

Ramblin' Boy by Tom Paxton

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t think I have any familiarity with this record or its creator.

What I expected

This looks very folky.

What it was actually like

Tom Paxton definitely has a better voice than Bob Dylan, but I’m not sure how much that says about either of them.

I liked the banjo in A Rumblin’ in the Land and in High Sheriff of Hazard.

Harper had that nice banjo and I thought it also had great energy and pacing.

Standing on the Edge of Town was also lively and relatively good.

The title track Ramblin’ Boy had an old timey, country and western type sound that was all right.

When Morning Breaks was mostly slower and more boring, but I liked the intensity at a few parts of it.

A lot of these songs sounded weirdly like children’s music, but Goin’ to the Zoo really stood out that way:

Mommy’s takin’ us to the zoo tomorrow
Zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow
Mommy’s takin’ us to the zoo tomorrow
We can stay all day
We’re goin’ to the zoo, zoo, zoo
How about you, you, you?
You can come too, too, too
We’re goin’ to the zoo, zoo, zoo
&c, &c.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Go For Baroque! Greatest Hits Of The 1700s by Various Artists (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Go For Baroque! Greatest Hits Of The 1700s
  • Artist name: Various Artists
  • Composers: Various, including Handel, Pachelbel, Bach, Vivaldi
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: RCA Victrola
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $24.55

Go For Baroque! Greatest Hits Of The 1700s

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m more or less familiar with some of these composers and would easily recognize Pachelbel’s Canon (and I used to work with a guy who played a very impressive version of it on the electric guitar).

What I expected

Baroque music.

What it was actually like

This was fine! It had quite a bit more harpsichord than I expected, and reminded me a bit of that time four months ago when I reviewed the Amadeus soundtrack.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me