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Mona Bone Jakon |
Produced by Paul Samwell-Smith | |
Released on June 1970 | |
UK CHART POSITION #63 . . . US CHART POSITION #164 . . . GOLD RECORD | |
Find it at GEMM | |
SP 4260 cover [high resolution scan] |
M ona Bone Jakon is the genesis of Cat Stevens the folk/pop star: the warm baritone, stop-and-start rhythms, toy piano tinkling and playful spirit leaping. As such, it marks the beginning of Cat’s classic phase, a period that produced such hits as “Peace Train,” “Wild World” and you don’t really think I’m going to type all of them, do you? Yet, like so many early classic albums, it reveals an artist still in transition, one foot in a past that history would just as quickly forget. The opening “Lady d’Arbanville,” for example, is not a song that Cat Stevens will be remembered for at the end of days. It’s serious beyond its years, clearly the product of a clever mind but also the product of a lost age when free love and madrigals from the Middle Ages wafted in the conjoined air. The future yet to come is heard on unfamiliar-to-many album cuts like “Trouble,” “I Wish, I Wish” and “I Think I See The Light.” You get an inkling of that on the second track, which see-saw shuffles like an old friend ambling towards you. So, in summing up Mona Bone Jakon, a very good half of it could be interwoven into the filler of his next two albums (e.g., “On The Road To Find Out”) without anyone being the wiser, the other half is an important young artist finding his voice. It’s precocious and immodest (the title track is written about his penis), but even this provides an historical context for the far superior serving of Tea to come. [And a fair warning to prog fans: If you bought this to hear Peter Gabriel, you were flaut out robbed. He pipes up in “Katmandu,” barely, thanks for noting.]
TRACK LISTING
CREDITS
CAT STEVENS -- front cover illustration
HARVEY BURNS -- percussion
ALUN DAVIES -- additional guitar
Peter Gabriel -- flute
Del Newman -- additional arrangements
Richard Stirling -- photography
REGION | RELEASE DATE | LABEL | MEDIA | ID NUMBER | FEATURES |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK | June 1970 | Island | LP | ILPS-9118 | |
US/CAN | June 1970 | A&M | LP | SP 4260 | |
AUSL | 1970 | Island | LP | SFL-933865 | |
NET | 1970 | Ariola/Island | LP | 88165 XAT | |
BRA | 1973 | Island | LP | 410020 | |
US | 1974 | A&M | LP | SP 4260 | silver label |
US | A&M | LP | SP 3160 | ||
UK | Island | CD | IMCD-267 | digital remaster | |
FRA | Island | CD | 842 351 | ||
US | May 23, 2000 | A&M | CD | 546 883 | digital remaster |
US | January 31, 2006 | A&M | 3CD | 50280 | re-packaged as CHRONICLES w. TEA, TEASER |
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