Cat Stevens - Don't Be Shy - Non-Album Tracks (1969-1972)

I like a lot of Cat Stevens' music, but my favorite era from him by far is 1970 to 1972, covering his "Mona Bone Jakon," "Tea for the Tillerman," "Teaser and the Firecat" and "Catch Bull at Four" albums. Those are the albums of his that have sold the most, by far. Sometimes a musician is in "the zone" when just about anything they did was excellent, and he was in the zone then.

This album covers pretty much that exact same time period, 1969 to 1972. The stray tracks here aren't quite as solid as the four albums mentioned above, but they're pretty darn close, and contain some of his best songs, like "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out," and "I've Got a Thing about Seeing My Grandson Grow Old." If you like classic Cat Stevens music, you should have the songs on this album.

Aside from the first two songs here, which were an obscure single, and the last two, which were B-sides, none of the songs on this album were released until many years after they were recorded. Two of the songs, "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" and "Don't Be Shy," were prominently featured in the movie "Harold and Maude," but there was no soundtrack released, and the songs didn't get an official release until they were included on a greatest hits album in 1984. Most of the rest didn't come out until a box set in 2001.

But even then, there still are three songs here that remain officially unreleased until this day. One, "But I Might Die Tonight," also appears on his 1971 "Tea for the Tillerman" album. However, this version was featured in a movie called "Deep End" the year before, and it's got a significantly different arrangement. I don't know why the other two unreleased songs ("Can This Be Love" and "The Fisherman" are still unreleased, because I think they're just as good as the others here.

There's one more original song from this time period that only shows up on bootleg which I have no included, called "It's So Good." Unfortunately, "It's So Bad" would be a better title. I think it's one of the worst songs he ever wrote, so I'm not even going to dignify it by including it as a bonus track.

By the way, if you enjoy this era of Stevens' music, definitely check out the other two albums by him that I've posted on this blog. They're excellent sounding acoustic demos.

Oh, also, I strongly recommend his 2017 album "The Laughing Apple." I'm not much of a fan of his music since his first retirement around 1979. He started putting out secular music again in 2006, but I don't think most of his new songs had that special something his songs from his peak era did. However, "The Laughing Apple" is a very big exception. It sounds exactly like it could have been released in 1972, which his songwriting and production just as good as it was back then, and his voice hasn't changed at all!  

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Where Are You (Cat Stevens)
02 The View from the Top (Cat Stevens)
03 If Only Mother Can See Me Now (Cat Stevens)
04 I've Got a Thing about Seeing My Grandson Grow Old (Cat Stevens)
05 Honey Man (Cat Stevens with Elton John)
06 Love Lives in the Sky [Land O' Freelove and Goodbye] (Cat Stevens)
07 I Want Some Sun (Cat Stevens)
08 The Joke (Cat Stevens)
09 But I Might Die Tonight [Deep End Version] (Cat Stevens)
10 Can This Be Love (Cat Stevens)
11 Fisherman Song (Cat Stevens)
12 Don't Be Shy (Cat Stevens)
13 If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out (Cat Stevens)
14 The Day They Make Me Tsar (Cat Stevens)
15 I Want to Live in a Wigwam (Cat Stevens)
16 Crab Dance [Instrumental] (Cat Stevens)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16687666/CATSTVNS1969-1972_DntBShy_atse.zip.html

I made the cover art based on a photo of Stevens around 1970.