Customer Reviews

Buddha And The Chocolate Box

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Cat Stevens had two absolutely great albums -- _Tea for the Tillerman_ and _Teaser and the Firecat_ -- and _Mona Bone Jakon_ was mighty close. If you have those three, you have most of the "very best of" Cat Stevens already, never mind those other "best of" collections.

_Buddha and the Chocolate Box_, which was something of a return to his earlier style after the ill-advised _Foreigner_, is notable primarily for "Sun/C79" and "Oh, Very Young." There are other good songs on here too ("A Bad Penny," "Music") but nothing that approaches the stratospheric quality of _Tea_ and _Teaser_.

And (in my own opinion, anyway) he never reached even this level again. Not that his later stuff isn't good at all, mind you, but it's just not the same. If you're not a Cat Stevens completist but you want more than just his "very best," I recommend that you get _Mona_, _Tea_, and _Teaser_, and then get this one and _Catch Bull At Four_. And buy _Footsteps in the Dark_ if it's ever re-released. (For some reason _nothing_ from this album showed up on _Footsteps_.)

Now here's a little history for the uninitiated:

"Cat Stevens" was the stage name of Steven Georgiou, who was born in the U.K. in 1949 of a Cypriot father and a Swedish mother. Something of a musical prodigy, he released his first two albums well before he was twenty years old and was on his way to becoming a "pop star." He then fell victim to a terrible case of tuberculosis. When he returned to singing and songwriting, he had taken a decidedly more reflective turn and found himself delivering absolutely beautiful stuff with no apparent commercial potential. That was fine with him; he was no longer particularly interested in commercial success. But, perhaps ironically, his delicate confessional songs and his deliberate avoidance of "commercial-ness" turned him into a huge international star.

Well, he eventually (1977) became a Muslim and adopted the name "Yusuf Islam" (after the biblical dream-interpreter Joseph). At about that time he also left the music industry. He has since recorded a couple of albums about Islam, but his last collection of commercial music was _Footsteps In The Dark_ (ostensibly a second volume of his "greatest hits," but in fact a set of lesser-known favorites and a handful of tunes not available elsewhere).

You can feel safe in ignoring the comments from people who think he has become "rigid" and/or "intolerant." The simple fact is that nearly every Cat Stevens album (the exceptions being his first two) is filled with "spiritual seeking," and he eventually found what he was looking for in Islam. His "recent" (actually, 1989-90) remarks on Salman Rushdie were not what you probably think they were (and in particular he didn't call for Rushdie's death). He's no more "rigid" or "intolerant" than the rest of us; he's simply a religiously observant Muslim, that's all. There's a problem here only for people who think seekers should never get around to finding, or that traditional religion is more "dogmatic" than irreligion.

His songs don't need to "transcend" their creator in order to be great; there's no need to run down Yusuf in order to elevate Cat. And since they _were_ written during his "seeker" stage, they're suitable for everybody -- future Muslims or not.

After the critcally dissed "Foreigner", Cat returned to the basic formula he was continuing with Catch Bull At Four on Buddha and The Chocolate Box.

Many consider this album his last great album...but I feel his later work is good as well.

Anyways, the album contains some great tunes including the single Oh Very Young, Music, Sun/C79, A Bad Penny, and my personal favorite King of Trees.

IMO it is better than Catch Bull At Four as far as songs go, but as I've heard from other people, the songs do not flow well with each other, but it's still a great album.

This is a great album. I think it's a transition between Foreigner and the upcoming albums. Awesome songs such as "A Bad Penny", "Home in the sky" & "King of trees", which are the best tracks in the album. Then the well-known "Oh Very Young", beautiful. "Sun/C79" & "Jesus", great tracks. The songs here are more elaborated and more produced. It's Cat with a band. He keeps moving forward experimenting since Catch Bull at Four.
... tnahpelle from Australia likes this album which is great, but mentions that doesn't like "Home in the sky" 'cos of being a depressing tune :-S well, depressing or not, MUSIC transmites feelings, which are not always HAPPY ones. So learn to accept a person's feelings, good or bad, happy or sad. If you are only looking for fun, go to the circus instead of listen to music. So I guess you are the kind of person that walks away from people when having a hard time ;-)

Bought the Buddah CD to add to my Cat Stevens collection. Good Music for nostalgia and general upbeat listening.

So Cat Stevens was never quite the same after Foreigner, but this was an attempt to return to the old-school styles that he started with. It is still good as are all of his albums, but not the greatest.

I recommend this to Cat (Yusef) fans, but also if you just like some easy-listening folk music.

The CD was very good from a 70's song writer that has been away too long. It brought back good memories of the time. This icon in the music industry had such an impression on the years prior to now.

His search has ended. If you have listened to Cat Stevens and realized his quest, this cd is the holy grail. He is so peaceful and energized. He emminates it thru his voice....

Buddha and the Chocolate Box has always been my favorite Cat Stevens album. I was delighted to find it on CD. The delivery date was faster than promised.

It is hard to believe that one would not think this is Cat Stevens' best album. It is his finest. (tea for the tillerman is close) Inspirationally it is Stevens at his apex. Mr. Stevens understood here that brevity and succinctness was or is the better part of valor in recording. Nine luscious and ravishing songs to lift the spirit. I think Mr. Stevens also understood that a discerning combination of upbeat tunes (especially "Ready" and "C/79") along with his more calm characteristic melodic ones can be vital to an album's power. Listen to this album for the first time and you will not be able to let it rest for a long while. It is that affecting. Stevens' album teaser and the firecat, for example, has more "hits": Ironically, that is exactly why it does not stand the test of time as well as "Buddha" does. It is incomprehensible how underrated this album is. If one believes in a more cooperative human purpose; if ones loves pop music's art at its highest exhilarating level; and if one wishes to dance even, "Buddha and the Chocolate Box" is irresistible.

----------Michael Haley

With the release of CATCH BULL AT FOUR in '72, Cat Stevens had begun a trend in experimenting more with music outside the confines of "folk" that so many were familiar with through MONA BONE JACKSON, TEA FOR THE TILLERMAN, and TEASER & THE FIRECAT, and the '72 release performed outstandingly well in sales and reviews. Cat's '73 release of FOREIGNER was a huge surprise for everyone. He abandoned the "folk" aspect of his music, and his guitar in favor of playing piano and keys for the entire album. He also abandoned his band, including best friend Alun Davies, and brought in jazz and R&B electric guitarist phenom Phil Upchurch, known for his works with Curtis Mayfield, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Donny Hathaway, and even Michael Jackson! Yes indeed, one look at the album credits before you listen and you will know absolutely that Cat Stevens recorded a Soul Rhythm & Blues album. He even used the Tower Of Power horn section and Patti Austin! FOREIGNER was a great departure, not a bad album, it sold quite well (#3) but received some scathing reviews. After that it seems Cat Stevens had gotten the "fever" out of his system and he returned to using Alun Davies and his band, but the experimentation was not over.

Songwriting through the four "folk rock" albums was a wide range from whimsical to philosophical introspection. Musically, CATCH BULL AT FOUR began some melodious notation experiments, especially in the use of piano, synths, and electric keys, so by and large the new album BUDDHA & THE CHOCOLATE BOX returned slightly to this genre where the keyboards took center stage. However, it is easily notable that lyrically, BUDDHA & THE CHOCOLATE BOX is heavily influenced by Beat Poetry in style. Oh Very Young, the single release from the album is the only real pop song in both melody and lyrics which approaches his previous songwriting. Also, the beautiful Sun/C79 has the characteristics of previous folk songwriting with splashes of new synthesizer fills. For the most part, all the rest of the songs are quite complex both in lyrics and music, especially in that Cat Stevens seems to have acquired some of the classical-influenced chord progressions, key changes, and melody notation experiments being used by Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, and other progressive rock groups who were flirting with neo-classical music derivations in rock music. Though this was mainly concentrated on the keyboard driven parts of the songs, even the choral vocals and bass/rhythm lines were demonstrating some of this methodology. BUDDHA & THE CHOCOLATE BOX had the largest personnel line-up of any previous Cat Stevens effort and the layers applied to this album were impressive. In 1974 the variety of progressive rock experimentation in album-oriented sales was as diversified as it could get so the album buying public was quite fond of this album and the critics not nearly as harsh as they had been with FOREIGNER. BUDDHA & THE CHOCOLATE BOX fared better by easily climbing up the charts to #2 and selling platinum. Today's ears might find this album less easy to listen to than the four folk-rock albums, it might require you to be "in the mood" and I might be judgmental but it is my least favorite of the 6 album run beginning with MONA BONE JACKSON. I do have to caveat that statement by saying that would be like trying to rate my Compleat Beatles collection and come up with a "loser". When a body of work is simply stupendous, calling one effort weak is weak in itself!

So the story goes that Cat Stevens was sitting in his seat on an airplane and holding a box of chocolates in one hand and a figurine of the Buddha in the other and he thought suddenly that if the plane crashed and he died there like that, these two objects would be the last things in his life he was holding onto. Would he be trapped between the spiritual and material worlds? It seems that Cat Stevens would make up his mind about that within three years.

[Schrödinger's cat is a paradoxical thought experiment]

[Occam's razor: when faced with competing hypotheses that are equal in other respects, select the one that makes the fewest new assumptions]