Cat Stevens with Dr. John and Linda Ronstadt - Moon and Star: ABC In Concert, Aquarius Theater, Hollywood, CA, 11-9-1973

Here's a really nice Cat Stevens concert bootleg. I've known about it for a long time, but I avoided posting it because the sound quality was just okay. However, I found a better version, good enough to share.

Stevens did very little touring or promotion in 1972 or 1973 after doing a lot in 1970 and 1971. That was so much the case that there was a rumor he'd been stricken with tuberculosis again, like he'd been back in 1969. That wasn't the case. He probably was just tired of the star making merry-go-round. 

But in late 1973, he put out a new studio album, "Foreigner," with a single song, "Foreigner Suite," that was 18 minutes long and took up half of the album. That was new musical territory for him, and he wanted people to hear it. He basically put all of his promotional eggs in this one basket. ABC already had a music show called "In Concert" that was an hour long, and usually featured different hit performers. But this was an hour and a half long special episode that was devoted just to Stevens. Well, almost, probably to broaden the appeal, Dr. John sang one song and Linda Ronstadt sang two. But in a nice twist, the songs they sang were written by Stevens and had never been recorded by them before (or since). 

This episode was called "Moon and Star," not "Moon and Stars." (I found some ads for the show, so I'm sure.) That no doubt named after his song, "The Boy with the Moon and Star on His Head."

I've read a review or two of this concert, thanks to a Cat Stevens fan site. Clearly, there were bits that are missing from this recording, because there's no banter at all between songs. However, there was very little of that. The reviews noted that Stevens basically did no talking. In the 1970s, it was very popular of TV shows like this to have a monologue with jokes, or skirts, etc... It's very cheesy in retrospect. But Stevens avoided all that and just played his songs. It was basically a normal concert in a normal club in the Los Angeles area, but with a film crew there.

The recording of this concert I found did have a few words of a DJ talking. But I cut that out since it was literally only a few words at the tail end of sentence. Getting the songs to flow was a problem, because typically one track would end with lots of applause suddenly cut off, and then the next track would begin with relative silence. So I usually patched in more applause from elsewhere in the concert, then had that trail off or fade out, so it would fit with how the next song started. Hopefully, the concert show flow well now.

This concert is an hour and ten minutes long. The only twenty minutes for the hour and a half show were for brief introductions plus commercials.

01 Father and Son (Cat Stevens)
02 Wild World (Cat Stevens)
03 Morning Has Broken (Cat Stevens)
04 18th Avenue (Cat Stevens)
05 talk - Moonshadow Prologue (Cat Stevens)
06 Moonshadow (Cat Stevens)
07 talk - Moonshadow Epilogue (Cat Stevens)
08 Pop Star (Dr. John)
09 King of Trees (Cat Stevens)
10 A Bad Penny (Cat Stevens)
11 Fill My Eyes (Linda Ronstadt)
12 The First Cut Is the Deepest (Linda Ronstadt)
13 The Boy with the Moon and Star on His Head (Cat Stevens)
14 The Hurt (Cat Stevens)
15 Foreigner Suite (Cat Stevens)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15998470/CatSvns_1973_MoonnStarABCInConcrtAquariusTheatrHllywoodCA__11-9-1973_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.