Cat Stevens - Morgan Studios Demos 1970

As I mentioned previously, I have a particular love for when songs are stripped down to their acoustic basics, and here's one of my favorites when it comes to that. The songs on Cat Stevens' early 1970s albums were already lightly produced, but this is usually just him on guitar (or sometimes piano), plus he's typically accompanied by second guitarist Alun Davies.

This is based on a bootleg that came out a few years ago. The sound quality and performance is so superb that they really need to be officially released. I split the bootleg into two albums, because some songs were recorded in 1970 and some in 1971. Here's the first.

When I first posted this album in 2019, the vast majority of the versions were officially unreleased. But since then, super deluxe editions of the albums "Mona Bone Jakon" and "Tea for the Tillerman" were released. Both of them included some, but not all, of these acoustic demos. I think the record company missed a golden opportunity - an album of just acoustic demos would have done well. But at least some released are better than none. Only three remain officially unreleased: "I've Got a Thing about Seeing My Grandson Grow Old," "Lady D'Arbanville," and "Tea for the Tillerman."

Some of the official versions were previously unbootlegged, so that's nice. One of those, the demo for "Mona Bone Jakon," sounds rougher than the rest, but it's still acceptable. Frankly, the sound quality of the bootleg and released versions were nearly identical, overall.

Note that the last song, "Hard Headed Woman," isn't actually a studio demo. Instead, it comes from a performance on the German TV show "Beat Club." But it's done in a solo acoustic style, and fits in well with the others, so I couldn't resist adding it in.

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 I've Got a Thing about Seeing My Grandson Grow Old (Cat Stevens)
02 Katmandu (Cat Stevens)
03 Time (Cat Stevens)
04 Fill My Eyes (Cat Stevens)
05 Lady D'Arbanville (Cat Stevens)
06 Tea for the Tillerman (Cat Stevens)
07 Trouble (Cat Stevens)
08 Maybe You're Right (Cat Stevens)
09 I Think I See the Light (Cat Stevens)
10 Mona Bone Jakon (Cat Stevens)
11 I Wish, I Wish (Cat Stevens)
12 If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out (Cat Stevens)
13 Miles from Nowhere (Cat Stevens)
14 Wild World (Cat Stevens)
15 Hard Headed Woman (Cat Stevens)

https://www.imagenetz.de/ffCoU

I made the cover using an early 1970s photo by George Wilke.