You're trapped in an elevator. Assaulting your ears with merciless blandness is a song, a soulless, treacly instrumental version of "Year of the Cat." This canned performance, cruel and sinister by virtue of its very existence, bears little resemblance to Al Stewart's moody and literate 1976 original, but your impulse is to curse the songwriter and, after spending a day with those horrid Muzak-ish strains holding your brain hostage, to blame him for all of popular music's sins. I quite understand. But you would be wrong.
For one thing, once the companies have paid royalties for their use, artists have no control over what elevator-music miscreants do to their songs. Don't hate the players, hate the game - carry an iPod or a Walkman and provide your own soundtrack.
More importantly, though, there is another thing to consider. Over the past 40-plus years, singer-songwriter-guitarist Al Stewart has created and continues to make sonic art that showcases what's best about popular music: stellar musicianship; evocativeness; intelligence; relatability and relevance; uncompromising vision that encompasses past, present, and future. Stewart's music propels both body and brain into motion. Whether his song exposes a young man's romantic (or not-so-romantic) longings during the swinging '60s; laments the fate of a strung-out, washed-up, never-was '70s girl singer; presents the love of a couple nearly a century ago against a backdrop of impending world war; notes the steel-gray loneliness of present-day political candidates, it kick-starts one's senses.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, chart-following Americans had their first introduction to Scotland-born Stewart's work, a rich, innovative blend of fact-based history; fully drawn characters; realistic and real-life situations (and equally plausible reactions); a smattering of sex or politics or war; the artist's own genuine empathy for the all-too-human foibles and follies of people powerful and ordinary, celebrated and unnoticed; and gorgeous music performed by musicians committed to their craft. Through the 1960s and early 70s, Stewart achieved success as a recording artist and performer in the UK folk-pop scene, but his respective 1974 and 1975 LPs Past, Present and Future and Modern Times grabbed the interest of stateside listeners. By 1976, Stewart was living in sunny California and the US was enthralled by the intoxicating musical strains and sensuous lyrical lines that brought the "Year of the Cat"—and its felinelike femme fatale—to life:
Oh, she looks at you so coolly
And her eyes shine like the moon and the sea.
She comes in incense and patchouli,
So you take her to find what's waiting inside
The year of the cat...
"Year of the Cat," Year of the Cat, 1976
Are you enticed by the intrigue and romance, drawn in by the woman's eyes and her luxuriant aromas and by the sense that something sure to be life-changing and memorable is about to occur? Millions around the world were, and they made and kept Stewart a celebrated artist, something more than a mere pop star, through the mid-1980s, when legal matters put the kibosh on his major-label recording career for a number of years. At that point, for too many, hearing an Al Stewart song became a painful event that happened in an elevator or in the waiting room of a doctor's office.
![Al Stewart - The Best of MusikLaden Live [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21PXE1CZMXL._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - Connie Phillips
This is a wonderful lead in article to your coverage of Al Stewart. I learned a lot about a man whose music I have really enjoyed over the years.
I can't wait to read the rest of your coverage.
2 - NR Davis
Thanks.
3 - Glen Boyd
Al Stewart. Now there's a name I haven't heard in a while.
I loved Al Stewart's music in the seventies...in particular the album's "Past Present & Future", "Modern Times", and the overlooked "Love Chronicles" which features Jimmy Page and Rick Wakeman among others making contributions.
One thing your article missed though...a lot of that beautiful guitar playing was actually done by Stewart's longtime cohort Tim Renwick, a great guitarist in his own right.
What I used to love about Stewart was the way his lyrics intertwined the romantic, the historical, and the literate. I do have a true story about Stewart though that soured me on his music for many years.
I took a date to a concert of his in 1976 back when I worked at a record store and had backstage passes...a sure fire way to impress your date right?
Think again.
My date actually decided to go back to Al Stewart's hotel with him rather than home with me. Stewart even had the gall to ask me if he could have the "Jimmy Carter for President" button I wore that night.
I was like "geez buddy, you've already got my date...isn't that enough"?
His music just never sounded quite the same to me after that night.
I do still own "Modern Times" though...
Nothing, not even the fact that Stewart was pretty much your basic prick the night I met him, can dilute the beauty (and literacy) of tracks like "The Dark and Rolling Sea" and "Modern Times".
I guess I'll have to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he has grown up since the days when he was a rock star of sorts and acted every bit the loutish role of same.
I'll definitely look into what he's up to these days based on Natalie's recommendation.
4 - NR Davis
Oh, Mr. Boyd, I have heard things like that before, with Al and tons of other artists. Witnessed some of it myself, though not with Al. Yes, he has admitted to bad behavior in the past, and this probably comes from those wicked days of about 30 years ago. (What's the use of being a rock star if you can't be an asshole on occasion?) But as far as I have experienced, he's grown up quite a lot. Quite a lot. Sure, he has his moments (don't we all?), but most times I've seen him in action offstage (sometimes professionally, sometimes not), he has been a total peach. Polite, thoughtful, empathetic (he shows lots of concern for the feelings of others), very warm and engrossing conversationalist, and a wee bit mischievous, that's Al. I happen to like the person a great deal, but again, I met him only eight years ago.
As far as women, he has a longstanding spouse to whom he is devoted and two young daughters. I bet that if you sat down with him over a decent bottle of wine, you would get along splendidly.
As for Tim Renwick, no, I didn't miss him. I chose not to mention him. Renwick (whose work I adore), Peter White and Laurence Juber, among others, will get their mentions later this month. I mentioned Al's guitar because his playing is impressive too and it was Mr. Stewart who was mentioned to me as being an influence, not the certainly inspirational Tim Renwick. Have you seen Al work up close? He's flippin' amazing. He won't accept that praise, but too bad.
5 - Jet in Columbus
Natalie, that was truly a work of art. I have one complaint though, you didn't mention who guided him, produced him and nurtured him through the early and most successful years of his career.
Alan Parsons! A true legend and great musician in his own right! He was also the one who guided the Beatles, and did The Dark Side of The Moon with Pink Floyd.
Please don't neglect that in your follow up!
I'm ashamed of you.
6 - NR Davis
Mr. Jet, I will try to do better in future.
Seriously, we get to projectmeister Alan Parsons later in the month.
7 - Jet in Columbus
Great, with luck, by then I'll be one of you, as I've just started my URL/ blog/ or whatever you call it going, and I'd love to help. I'm a big fan of both Alan Parsons and Al Stewart. In fact I only had my blog going for 3 hours and Chantal responded because I made a vague mention in passing in my side profile that I liked Alan Parson!!!
8 - Glen Boyd
Natalie,
I'm sure if Al and I ever do meet again, we will get on like old chums over that bottle of wine...right after I give him the punch in the nose he's been owed for the past thirty years that is. LOL...
Just kidding of course.
For one thing I am grateful for sure. That experience did give me a great story that I never tire of telling. To this day, I get the "hey Glen, tell the story about the time Al Stewart stole your girlfriend" over beers with my pals.
It's a guaranteed crack up every single time.
Glen
9 - Jewels
Great article, Ms. Davis! Thank you for rekindling an interest in a musician of profound interest in years past. Here is a site with
lyrics that some readers of your story may want to review.
Looking forward to more of your coverage on Stewart.
10 - NR Davis
Thanks, Ms. Richardson.
Mr. Boyd, seems to me that, over the long haul, Al did you a favor. :)
11 - Michael J. West
Ms. Davis, would you believe that I grew up on Al Stewart? My mother was/is a diehard fan of the highest order, and in fact before I could talk I could sing the melody of "The Running Man" from 24 Carrots.
I know, intellectually, that Al is a criminally arcane and overlooked musician, but I've been hearing Past, Present and Future and Modern Times and Russians and Americans over and over again for my entire life, so in my gut it's hard to imagine him as anything but a ubiquitous force.
But that doesn't really matter. I genuinely look forward to reading your explorations of him, Ms. Davis. I hope it inspires people to look into his music!
12 - NR Davis
Sure, I would believe that, Mr. West. I discovered his music while perusing record shops in London in the early '70s and loved his stuff at once. Since then, though my musical knowledge and tastes have expanded and deepened, his music has been ubiquitous - fortuitously for me - for decades.
13 - NR Davis
Mr. Boyd, I just heard that folks on the Al Stewart mailing list enjoyed reading about your, um, adventure with Al.
14 - Jet in Columbus
"Life in Dark Water" is one of the songs that I love secretly, but don't tell my friends.
Now every time I see this post it gets stuck in my head!
15 - Mark Saleski
you know, i grew up right in the middle of the Year Of The Cat era...but can't recall a single tune beyond that and "Time Passages".
hmmm, maybe i should check out something else. anything, actually...since i own nothing by him.
16 - Jet in Columbus
Now how on earth did you miss "You're on my mind like a song on the radio??????
17 - NR Davis
Let me help: "They'll never know, never, no, never, how strange life in dark water can be..."
Love that song! It's uncanny how it actually makes one feel trapped underwater.
18 - Jet in Columbus
Oh thanks a lot!
19 - NR Davis
Again, just because something isn't here doesn't mean I missed it. In the case of "Song on the Radio," I specifically and purposely avoided employing it.
20 - Jet in Columbus
NR, I was answering the first paragraph of comment 15, Not critisizeing you.
I'm a big fan!
21 - NR Davis
My bad! Thanks.
22 - Jet in Columbus
You're welcome, just don't forget the contributions that Alan Parson made to his success in your article.
I did love our article, it brought back some good memories
23 - NR Davis
THIS JUST IN:
Al Stewart's music will be featured TONIGHT - 17 April - on Brunswick, NJ's WRSU-FM, which will be livestreamed over the 'Net.
Details:
Scott Einhorn Radio Show
Monday, 4/17, 8-10 p.m. (ET)
WRSU, 88.7FM
New Brunswick, NJ
24 - Somvipis
what is the real meaning of
"Year of the Cat" in this song
-Year of the Cat of Al Stewart?
Who can explain?