I knew that Stevens performed for the BBC a lot in the 1960s, but I'd assumed most or all of that material had been lost. For instance, there's no videos of that on YouTube, nor can bootlegs of it be found. Until now, that is. Although he played on lots of BBC radio shows, it seems that just his performances from the show "Top of the Pops" have emerged in recent years. (Note that's not to be confused with a BBC TV show of the same name.) So it's pretty remarkable to have this material at all.
But what's even better is that the sound is fantastic. You'd be forgiven if you thought at first that these were simply the studio album versions, especially because they all have the same full production as those versions, often with horns and/or orchestra. But if you listen carefully you'll notice they're all completely different performances, both vocally and instrumentally. There's even a song here that has never been officially released in any form, as far as I can tell: "(You and Your) Shiny Golden Hair."
What's also nice is that even though we only get a sampling of all of his BBC performances, this is a great selection of his 1960s material, and includes his hits from that era. Actually, one of his best known songs from the time, "The First Cut Is the Deepest," wasn't included with the Top of the Pops material. But I found a live version from 1967. It's the one and only fully live version of any song I could find from that era. (There are a few videos of him lip-syncing, or singing new vocals to a backing track, but those aren't worthy of inclusion here.) Its sound quality is a bit rougher than the rest, but I included it since it's possibly the only chance to get a hint of what he sounded like on stage in those early years.
As for the rest of the songs, there was one significant sound problem, which is something that often bedevils me with BBC recordings. Namely, the annoying DJs who talk over the music. Ugh! That happened several times here, always to the starts of the songs. (I've marked those by adding "Edit" to the song titles.) However, I fixed them using the audio editing program X-Minus.
The songs total up to 44 minutes, which makes for a nice album length. This also serves as a de facto greatest hits for his 1960s material, which was made up of two studio albums plus a few singles. The source material lacked any detail about when the songs were recorded, but I did some deep Internet research and managed to figure it all out. But in some cases I may be using the dates the songs were recorded, and in others the dates they were broadcast. The information I found was sometimes vague about that.
UPDATE: On February 14, 2022, I updated the mp3 download file. No songs were added or removed. But because I made a later BBC sessions album by this one, I added "Volume 1" to the title. I changed the cover art to match. More importantly, I fixed the BBC DJ talking over the music problem better than I did originally, thanks to my discovery of programs like X-Minus.
01 I Love My Dog (Cat Stevens)
02 [You and Your] Shiny Golden Hair [Edit] (Cat Stevens)
03 The Tramp [Edit] (Cat Stevens)
04 Matthew and Son (Cat Stevens)
05 Granny [Edit] (Cat Stevens)
06 Portabello Road (Cat Stevens)
07 School Is Out (Cat Stevens)
08 I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun (Cat Stevens)
09 Hummingbird (Cat Stevens)
10 Lady [Edit] (Cat Stevens)
11 I Found a Love [Edit] (Cat Stevens)
12 The Laughing Apple (Cat Stevens)
13 A Bad Night (Cat Stevens)
14 Moonstone (Cat Stevens)
15 Kitty (Cat Stevens)
16 Blackness of the Night [Edit] (Cat Stevens)
17 I Love Them All [Edit] (Cat Stevens)
18 The First Cut Is the Deepest (Cat Stevens)
https://www.upload.ee/files/15430731/CatSvns_1966-1967_BBSessionsVolum1_atse.zip.html
For the cover art, I used a photo that is said to be of Stevens "circa 1967."
Thank you. I had a vinyl comp of his early work a long time ago and loved his early work ever since. His later work got a bit over produced at times but the songs were always there. Even though Rod Stewert's version of First Cut was bigger here in the states I could only listen to Cat's original version because Rod dropped a line in the chorus and it always hit me wrong. Since then everyone who's covered it follows Rod's version which means I can't listen to those either (sorry Sheryl). One of these days I'll record my own cover and do it right.
ReplyDeleteHi - many thanks for this material. The music world in 1966 was in a turbulent period, and Cat was a part of that change, along with The Move, The Beatles et al.....
ReplyDeleteThis stuff is great - but I wonder if you can tell me which BBC show and the year each song comes rom - or are they all from the TOTP Radio show? That is, if you have that info?
Thanx
Mike
Rather late to this - just these last few weeks having a bit of a revival of early Cat Stevens sides on 'head radio', especially 'Matthew and Son' still one of the best singles of its period and favourite with me for over fifty years (you have to be British and worked in an office in those days to know how true to life the lyric is!). I never took to his singer/songwriter material, perhaps because I once lived in a bedsit next to a guy who play Stevens first three s/s lps frequently, at annoying high volume. To be honest I always think I like the other early CatS records a lot more than I do when I hear them, but whatever, 'Matthew and Son' is an absolute star for me. Anyway, we'll see how this set goes, just downloaded it, so many thanks!
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