Al Stewart was born in Glasgow on 5 September 1945. Stewart began playing guitar at the age of thirteen. He appeared in Tony Blackburn's band The Sabres, from where, as a twenty-year-old, he progressed to the London R&B scene and swapped his acoustic guitar for an electric one. He changed guitar type again when he moved to London in 1965.
There he came into contact with Paul Simon, Bob Dylan and Bert Jansch, and this trio made him realise he had to 'belong' to something that, in his own words, was "The birth of something gigantic, something revolutionary". Stewart lived in the same house with Simon and Garfunkel, Jackson C. Franks and Sandy Dennu, and reaped the benefits of a thriving folk scene.
After his first released single 'The Elf', an unsuccessful single featuring Jimmy Page on guitar, Stewart eventually signed a record deal with CBS, where he released several albums mainly consisting of self-reflective love songs. The album 'The Year Of The Cat' (1976) was a direct hit, selling over a million copies.
‘On The Border’ is ranked #1942 in the Top 2000 list 2020.
Sunday Morning Classic: Year of the Cat
On 9 May 2021, Al was our guest as Sunday Morning Classic with the album Year of the Cat.
It took Al Stewart more than ten years and seven studio albums before he finally achieved a degree of mainstream success with the release of Year of the Cat in 1976. Here Stewart fully realised his own style of composing about historical and exotic situations through an English folk rock style seamlessly incorporating elements of jazz, roots and reggae.
For a hit album, Year of the Cat contains a unique collection of songs, starting with a sad folk tune and ending with his top hit. The album opens abruptly with the sad folk, hauntingly beautiful song "Lord Grenville". It features a very rich arrangement and orchestration with elegant guitar motifs from White and heart-wrenching lyrics about accepting one's ultimate fate. "On the Border" combines exotic stories, flamenco guitars in Spanish style and a quasi-disco rhythm and beat. The lyrics are about smugglers during the guerrilla war in Rhodesia, earlier in the seventies. "Midas Shadow" features a prominent electric piano along with a moderate jazz/rock feel, while the bright and cheerful "Sand in Your Shoes" combines Caribbean rhythms with a Hammond organ and accordion.
The middle section of the album contains a group of well-produced songs. "If it Doesn't Come Naturally, Leave It" is a solid rocker in the style of the E Street Band and a very entertaining arrangement. "Flying Sorcery" begins with a fingerpicked acoustic intro, but soon many styles come in with harmonica and slide guitar shining through and lyrics about the heroic British pilot Amy Johnson, who died while transporting supplies during the Second World War. "Broadway Hotel" has a darker feel as an acoustic waltz with some dramatic violin leads from Bobby Bruce, while "One Stage Before" is another dramatic, acoustic-based ballad that picks up the mood a bit during the chorus.
All this leads to the closing title track, “Year of the Cat”. The song features a long instrumental middle section where it abruptly but skillfully shifts into different styles and motifs, alternating orchestration, a sizzling guitar lead and a smooth saxophone.
Year of the Cat reached the Top 10 as an album in the United States and Australia and went platinum within a year of its release as a million-seller.
source Jan Liebregts and NPO photo: Vandonovan (2010)
