Cat Stevens has a silky voice that oozes through his compositions, a singing voice that you really want to listen to. On ’’Tea for the Tillerman’’ this is used to great effect in songs such as ’’Father and Son’’ and ’’Where do the children play?’’ both classics in their own right.
On ’’Father and Son’’ his voice is quiet and restrained when dad is speaking, giving advice to his son who is approaching manhood and then finds a whole new level every time the rebellious son replies.
On ’’Where do the children play?’’ Cat accepts that progress is inevitable, that we will build airliners, space ships and lay out roads to the farthest corners of our land but in a voice rich in anguish he also asks us to accept the implications of this, i.e. where will the children play?
’’Tea for the Tillerman’’ brings together so many different styles and invokes in the listener a corresponding number of moods; there is something for everyone and something for every feeling.
Sad Lisa - Dreamy, melancholic at times
Longer Boats - Hypnotic, rhythmic and intriguing
Wild World - Easy listening with an insistent catchy chorus
Into white - Mystical, whimsical, drifting
On the road to find out - Driving, energetic, youthful
Of all of his early albums ’’Tea for the Tillerman’’ is the stand-out. It is something, that once heard, you will want to play again and again.