Cat Stevens - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-25-2023

In June 2023, Cat Stevens (a.k.a. Yusuf, or Yusuf Islam) released a new studio album, "King of a Land." It amazes me that he still sounds so good, since his heyday was about 50 years ago, and he spent a couple of decades since then not even playing music at all. But even though he's 74 years old as I write this in 2023, his voice sounds as good as ever. And I like his new album. His first couple of comeback albums didn't do much for me, but in my opinion, his recent albums are better than anything he did since the early 1970s.

There's only been one official Stevens live album, recorded in 1976, which was not the best time period for him. Since his musical comeback began in 2006 he hasn't toured much, and bootleg recordings have been few and far between. So the fact that he headlined one of the nights at the 2023 Glastonbury Festival was great news, because most everything from that festival gets professionally recorded and broadcast by the BBC. Indeed, I was able to find a high quality video of his set, and converted it to mp3s. The sound quality is excellent.

The set list is about what you'd expect. He mostly played his classics from the late 1960s and early 1970s. He only did three songs from his new album ("Take the World Apart," "Highness," and "Pagan Run"). He also did two cover versions, "Here Comes the Sun" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." Most importantly, he sounds great. Some other legends his age have been losing their voices in recent years, like Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, and Neil Young. But Stevens' voice still sounds so good that it's almost uncanny.

This album is an hour and 15 minutes long.

01 talk (Cat Stevens)
02 The Wind (Cat Stevens)
03 Moonshadow (Cat Stevens)
04 talk (Cat Stevens)
05 Here Comes My Baby (Cat Stevens)
06 The First Cut Is the Deepest (Cat Stevens)
07 talk (Cat Stevens)
08 Matthew and Son (Cat Stevens)
09 talk (Cat Stevens)
10 Where Do the Children Play (Cat Stevens)
11 Oh Very Young (Cat Stevens)
12 talk (Cat Stevens)
13 Hard Headed Woman (Cat Stevens)
14 talk (Cat Stevens)
15 Sitting (Cat Stevens)
16 talk (Cat Stevens)
17 Tea for the Tillerman (Cat Stevens)
18 talk (Cat Stevens)
19 [Remember the Days of The] Old Schoolyard (Cat Stevens)
20 talk (Cat Stevens)
21 If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out (Cat Stevens)
22 talk (Cat Stevens)
23 Morning Has Broken (Cat Stevens)
24 talk (Cat Stevens)
25 Take the World Apart (Cat Stevens)
26 talk (Cat Stevens)
27 Here Comes the Sun (Cat Stevens)
28 talk (Cat Stevens)
29 Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (Cat Stevens)
30 talk (Cat Stevens)
31 Highness (Cat Stevens)
32 talk (Cat Stevens)
33 Peace Train (Cat Stevens)
34 talk (Cat Stevens)
35 Pagan Run (Cat Stevens)
36 Wild World (Cat Stevens)
37 Father and Son (Cat Stevens)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15433367/CatSvns_2023b_BBSessionsVolum5GlastonbryFestivlWrthyFrmPiltnBritain__6-25-2023_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken at the concert featured here.