Al Stewart
Year Of The Cat

THE REVIEW

Go and tell Lord Grenville that the tide is on the turn/ It's time to haul the anchor up and leave the land astern/ We'll be gone before the dawn returns/ Like voices on the wind.

Just a handful of verses from the opening track of this album is enough to be catapulted into the musical universe of Al Stewart, a universe expressed through refined, metaphorical lyrics, sometimes even a bit prolix, finding their roots in the great poet-singers of the 60s (Bob Dylan above all). A musical universe that arises from Anglo-Saxon folk rock and characterized by essentially simple melodic lines, but not for this reason trivial. A universe made of History as well as stories (there was even talk of "historical folk rock" referring to the music of the Scottish singer-guitarist), populated by more or less famous characters against the backdrop of great historical events like the French Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, or the German invasion of the Soviet Union. And Lord Grenville is one of these characters, an English navy commander of the 16th century, trapped by the Spanish fleet and killed after a long fight, an emblematic figure of many soldiers on the eve of hopeless battles, from which they know there will be no chance of return.

The album "Year Of The Cat" began to take shape in 1975 (the cat's year in Vietnamese astrology), two years after Past, Present and Future, which had unexpected, albeit limited, success in the USA, and as Stewart transitioned from CBS to RCA. There was certainly a desire to "make a splash" with this album, considering that the production involved Alan Parsons (along with Stuart Elliot on drums and Phil Kenzie on sax, who would later accompany him on his Project albums), the recording took place at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London, and the album cover was entrusted to the renowned artistic agency Hipgnosis (the one, to be clear, responsible for almost every Pink Floyd album cover).

Compared to previous works, it is not surprising to see greater attention to immediacy, with musical solutions that wink at pop (yet without giving too much away, as in the subsequent "Time Passages"), but still maintaining high the lyricism of the texts. Besides the already mentioned "Lord Grenville", deserve a mention (and a listen): the captivating "On The Border", with notable inserts of Spanish guitar and an introduction where piano, keyboards, strings, bass, and castanets create a musical gear moving with the perfection of a Swiss watch; the acerbic "Midas Shadow", a modern re-imagining of the curse inflicted on the mythical Greek king, a melancholy portrait of the cult of success and money, made of overnight suitcases, sterile hotel rooms, and airplane seats turned into traveling offices; the airy "Flying Sorcery", light and carefree, dedicated to Amy Johnson, the first woman to solo fly from England to Australia; the mysterious "Broadway Hotel", where on the obsessively repeated theme of the song, the digressions of violin and mandolin chase and intertwine admirably;

On a morning from a Bogart movie/ in a country where they turn back time/ you go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre/ contemplating a crime

Remarkable songs, in line with his previous productions, but to make a splash something more and different was needed and Al Stewart worked long on what would become the title track of the album. Initially, the song was supposed to be called "At The Foot Of The Stage" and narrate the tragic decline of comedian Tony Hancock, but it's not hard to imagine that an old fox like Parsons had much to object to on the subject... Thus began the long and arduous birth, lasting about ten months, of the single Year Of The Cat: from the very first verses, a more enticing setting was chosen (the references to Bogart and Lorre evidently evoke the film Casablanca), some vague references to the east (the year of the cat, indeed, but also the mysterious female figure who runs wrapped in a "silk dress like a watercolor in the rain") up to the fragrant echoes of hippy culture (the incense and the essence of patchouli). It also seems certain that Parsons strongly wanted the inclusion of Phil Kenzie's sax in the central section, a kind of relay solo, articulating like a perfectly oiled mechanism, alternating on the scene the acoustic guitar, the electric one, and finally the sax.

The slow and captivating melody, as well as the exotic setting as a backdrop to the romantic story between a tourist and a charming local girl, made this track one of the most famous love songs in musical history. However, I would like to point out a curiosity, a sort of small inconsistency, I'm not sure how much wanted by the author (perhaps to "take revenge" for that rejection of the initial idea?): the verse on "Peter Lorre contemplating a crime" does indeed evoke to the more discerning cinephiles the unforgettable "M - Il Mostro Di Dusseldorf" by Fritz Lang, and Lorre's gaze in that film evokes anything but easy romanticism, casting a very different and much darker light on the supposed "love story"... In any case, beyond any possible hidden meanings, the release in 1976 saw a clamorous success of the single and, subsequently, of the entire album, which over the years sold over a million copies.

In conclusion, a particular album, to be listened to but also to be read (and possibly with a good dictionary at hand), which for those of my generation will not fail to evoke distant memories (and not only musical ones!). Perhaps the best compromise that this modern troubadour has managed to express between music and words.