Bedsitter Images (CBS, 1967) - The next year, Stewart's manager/producer, folk-club impresario Roy Guest, negotiated a new deal for his client with CBS Records. The songwriter says the signing was less about his skills or marketability than it was about business: "I was only signed to CBS in 1967 because my manager had another band they wanted to sign called the Piccadilly Line," he told Record Collector magazine earlier this year. "CBS didn't want me, but I ended up making six albums for them." The first was Bedsitter Images, a collection of tunes that reflected on life in London for a struggling, young musician striking out to make his way in the world. The Sinfonia of London was hired to flesh out the accompaniment to Stewart's lyrics and guitar. Initially, the chamber orchestra was a great way to get attention: A live concert of BI's songs took place at London's in November, 1967, and brought the fledgling artist lots of media notice, along with the attention of young, university-age Londoners who could identify with the tales of Stewart's hardscrabble artist's life and his youthful reminiscences. Stewart eventually expressed discontent with the orchestral takeover of his debut album, which he came to consider woefully overproduced. The album was remixed without the Sinfonia and rereleased with some new tracks as The First Album (Bedsitter Images) in 1970. Neither version was released officially in the US, but as with all of Stewart's non-American releases (his first, third and fourth LPs), they can be found as imports or through collectors and in various compilations.

Tracks:

1. Bedsitter Images
   
2. Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres
   
3. The Carmichaels
   
4. Scandinavian Girl
   
5. Pretty Golden Hair
   
6. Denise At 16
   
7. Samuel, Oh How You've Changed!
   
8. Cleave To Me
   
9. A Long Way Down From Stephanie
   
10. Ivich
    
11. Beleeka Doodle Day

(In the remixed version, the gorgeous "Clifton in the Rain" and Mike Heron's "Lover Man" are swapped in for "Scandinavian Girl," "Cleave to Me" and "Pretty Golden Hair.")

Love Chronicles (CBS, 1969) - Stewart's second LP cemented his place in the hearts of London's folk- and college sets. UK music weekly Melody Maker's Folk Album of the Year offers listeners the sublime and the ridiculous. The confessional song style that populated Bedsitter Images is back: About half of the album focuses on Stewart's life, friends, and gossip. Sex too - "In Brooklyn" recounts Stewart's go-round with an American girl and, most notoriously, the title track covers every love connection the young musician had made to that point, starting with the ethereal Stephanie (whom we met on BI) and finishing with Mandi, the winsome lass snuggling with Al on LC's rear cover and who was to become Al's tragic love obsession for a while. The song is also notable for unleashing a controversy over its use of the phrase "getting laid" and the F word (Stewart contrasted "fucking" to the act of "making love," which, naturally, is quite a different thing). Under pressure from his record label, the artist refused to bow to censorship: "This was a personal song which was written for Mandi," he said in 1970, "and I'm not going to change the lyrics for anything in the world."