Customer Reviews

Catch Bull at Four

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you like Cat Stevens, you can't NOT like this album. If you liked his "Tea for the Tillerman" (TFTT) and/or the "Buddha and the Chocolate Box" (BATCB) albums, then you will be pleasantly blown away by "Catch Bull at Four". The first song, "Sitting", is one of those introspective raw human feeling and interaction songs. You will like it if you liked songs of a similar vein, such as "Father & Son" (from TFTT) or "Oh Very Young" (from BATCB). "Angelsea" has that same light hearted charm tempo as "Longer Boats" (TFTT). "Can't Keep It In", which I feel is the best and most musically powerful song on the album, has the strong, positive, up tempo, thigh slapping and toe tapping beats of "Music" and "Sun 79", both from BATCB. I especially enjoy "The Boy With Moon & Stars On His Head". The Buddhist imagery in the lyrics is superb and the storyline is very "spiritual free love" oriented. If you like songs that sort of tell a story, this is a good one. I could go on and on, as every song on this album is fantastic. It's classic Cat. "Catch Bull at Four" is a fantastic choice for any Cat fan, or even for any fan of the general era. Cat is in a class by himself.

It is unfortunate that many reviewers of `Catch bull at four' have tended to regard it as a poorer quality album than its two predecessors `Tea for the tillerman' and `Teaser and the Firecat'. I feel that this does the album a great injustice; no artist should be expected to remain unchanging in style, and if he had simply stayed with a winning formula after the success of `Teaser' Cat Stevens could rightly have been criticized. However, Stevens demonstrated integrity and vision throughout the early years of the 1970s, with each of his first five Island Records albums showing a clear progression and artistic development, even if on occasions (perhaps most notably `Foreigner') this was not always commercially successful.

After achieving a very focused and concise style on `Teaser', Cat Stevens understandably wanted to experiment with more unusual song structures and ambitious arrangements, and the result is a somewhat more stylistically diverse album than its predecessors. As a result it is, if anything, a stronger, more musically satisfying album, and includes new elements such as electric guitar, synthesizer, female backing vocalists and the accomplished keyboard work of Jean Roussel. At the same time, the album retains much of what made Cat's earlier work appealing, and also includes the welcome re-appearance of the bouzouki to add its distinctive sound to `O Caritas'.

The mood of the album is at times somber, reflecting Stevens' continuing spiritual pilgrimage at this time, and his deep feelings perhaps show through most in the opening track `Sitting' and the bleak closing song `Ruins'. Though there are a couple of weaker tracks (such as `Boy...' which has a pleasant arrangements but a rather tedious, over-long lyric, and `Angelsea' which is perhaps too dominated by synthesizer sounds), these can be appreciated as valid musical experiments, and are more than compensated for by other very appealing up-tempo tracks (such as `Sitting', `Can't keep it in' and `O Caritas'). The album contains several lovely ballads, such as `Sweet scarlet' and the madrigal-like `Silent sunlight', whilst the more complex song structure of `18th avenue', with its orchestral interlude and changing rhythms, hints at the direction Cat would take with his next album `Foreigner'. The whole package is enhanced by the crystal clear remastering, and restoration of the stylish original album artwork. Altogether, `Catch bull at four' can be regarded as a very satisfying album which, along with `Tillerman' and `Teaser' ranks among Cat Stevens' best work.

This is my favorite Cat Stevens album, and in many ways his best. Fresh on the heels of Tea for the Tillerman (1970) and Teaser and the Firecat (1971), Catch Bull at Four was Stevens' first No. 1 album--although it produced only two hit singles: "Sitting" (No. 16) in the U.S. and "Can't Keep It In" (No. 13) in the U.K. [Both of these songs and 18 others are included on the recent The Very Best of Cat Stevens.]

Stevens was still writing lovely melodies, but unlike the preceeding albums his vocals would at times take on a rougher edge, especially on "Can't Keep It In." He was also broadening his musical palette by playing mandolin and keyboards as well as guitar. In addition, he recorded the album with the help of Alun Davies (guitar), Jean Roussel (piano, organ), Alan James (bass) and Gerry Conway (drums). Other standout tracks include "18th Avenue" and the mystical "Boy with a Moon and Star on His Head."

This album contains all the elements that made his previous two albums so successful--good songwriting and the ability to connect personally with his fans through his music. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

When I was 13 my Dad's friend Terry Crenshaw hired me to work on his gillnetter in Alaska. We would pick up groceries then go out fishing in remote areas, just the two of us, for 3 day stretches every week, working 'round the clock. The boat had an 8 track player with speakers in the cabin and on deck, but Terry had only two cassettes -- one I don't remember a thing about -- and "Catch Bull at 4." They got equal time, but I swear that one or the other was almost always playing. I learned all the words to Catch Bull at 4, and Terry and I used to sing along to our favorite parts. Then he would laugh and say "we need some new tapes on this boat." The other tape was filler in between each two or three cycle session of Catch bull at 4.
The thing is, if you just listen to it, and don't analyze it or compare it to "Teaser and the firecat" or whatever (give me a break) it will move you. If you listen to it a few hundred times you will find that first one song, then another, then another, is your favorite -- until they are all good. This album is on my all time top ten list. It can be appreciated as a period piece, 70's fluff, or as a collection of ballads that mean whatever you want them to mean. In 1973 I wanted them to mean that Terry and I were pals and always would be, and that someday I would be as cool as he was. None of those wishes came true, but whenever I hear a song from this album I can see us on the boat, having fun not catching any fish.

Originally released in 1972, this was Cat Stevens' sixth album and it was his most commercially successful. It's a very good CD and it certainly deserved its success. That success came in part from the merits of this album but also because it followed on from Tea For the Tiller Man and Teaser and the Firecat which had both been very well received.

Fans can argue long and hard over the merits of the three albums but the truth is that, whichever is the best, they are all very fine indeed and together they represent the peak of the artist's output. Catch Bull at Four has a harder edge than the other two. It is most noticable in the vocals and lyrics but the music too is a little heavier.

The best known song on the album is "Can't Keep It In" but that is mostly because it is the easiest one to play on the radio as it is catchy and sticks in the mind. For me, the highlight of the CD is "The Boy With The Moon And Star On His Head" a lyrical and romantic fantasy that is as good as anything else that Cat Stevens has ever recorded. It deserves a place alongside the finest English folk ballads from the days of "Greensleeves" and John Dowland.

Highlighting any of the songs on this CD means not mentioning others and that is sure to do an injustice to many songs. Everything here is memorable and distinctive and the only answer is to buy the CD, concentrate on the songs and appreciate one of the true highlights of seventies music.

I don't think _Catch Bull At Four_ quite measures up to _Tea for the Tillerman_ and _Teaser and the Firecat_, nor even to the slightly less stellar _Mona Bone Jakon_. But it's still a good album.

The usual remarks about the change in Cat Stevens's vocal style strike me as overstated. Yes, he gets pretty growly on much of this album, but he got pretty growly on some of his earlier songs too (like "Changes IV"); we just didn't notice because the songs were played on acoustic guitar rather than electric keyboards.

The latter point _is_ a key difference between his earlier work and this. Both the heavier reliance on keyboards and the shift toward somewhat "darker" themes are part of Cat's attempt to move away from the acoustic-troubador stereotype and show a bit more of his range.

I think he mostly succeeds, although I'm never going to like this stuff as well as I like, say, "Into White." On some of his later albums there are lots of false steps -- but this album is a pretty even collection of his harder-edged material.

Personal favorites (as usual, not the hits): the nightmarish "Eighteenth Avenue" and the haunting "Sweet Scarlet." (Yes, I like "The Boy with the Moon and Star on His Head," but his older acoustic stuff was better.) Also of interest: "Freezing Steel" marks his first (and last? I think so) recorded performance on electric guitar. (It's also, for whatever it's worth, his second song about UFOs, "Longer Boats" being the first.)

And 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 as 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.

This is the first album I ever purchased in 1973 at the age of 10. It has always remained in my thoughts but haven't listened in quite a while. Based on the VH1 Behind the Music airing I picked it up again and was moved to tears listening to the incredible tracks. Maybe not as light as other recordings, but heart felt, real lyrics you just don't get anymore.

Although many fans are familiar with Cat Stevens' two blockbuster albums, Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat, CAt Stevens continued his evolutionary musical evolvement and wonderful uniqueness in "Catch Bull at 4". Totally different from his previous albums, but yet distinctively unique & creatively imaginative and musically reverbarative as his previous albums, it is an album that all true previously-enamored Cat Stevens fans, who are not familiar with this one, should run out & get. The melodies/tunes from this album/cd resonate just as memorably as the previous ones ... and, some of the absolutely most memorable (as from all of his albums) are on this package. My favorites are & were (30 years ago almost!!!!) "SiTTING" "ANGELSEA", "RUINS" "CANT KEEP IT IN"

The illustrations of the kid trying to catch the bull are a traditional Zen Buddhist teaching device, showing stages on the path of learning meditation and liberation. For a detailed explanation of this series of pictures, see Ralph Metzner's book The Unfolding Self, or the article "Taming the Wild Mind" in Yoga Journal #144 (January 1999).

One day, when I was a young man, I was tripping on LSD and I found Catch Bull at Four in my girlfriend's record collection and put it on.

Side A was full of the most joyous, ebullient, happy, ecstatic, cheerful songs you could ever wish to hear. Cat Stevens was working magic on the human soul with those songs. He really was a genius. When the side finished (this was back in the days of 12-inch vinyl phonograph records), I felt so wonderful, warm & fuzzy inside, just glowing all over with love and wellbeing, I had to hear some more. I turned over the record and played Side B.

The first two songs there were so miserable, downer, depressing, gloomy, and painful, I couldn't take it. I pulled the needle from the record before I sank into terminal despair. Then I understood the album's setup: he was exploiting the duality of the two-sidedness of the vinyl LP format. I felt that Cat Stevens had played a trick on the listener. I looked at the back of the album cover and there he was laughing, enjoying his joke on me. Way to go, Cat.

With Catch Bull at Four, Cat Stevens joins the tradition in English poetry found in John Milton's paired poems "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" as well as William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience "shewing the two contrary states of the human soul." If Milton and Blake could have made their poems into LP records of pop music, the result would be similar to CB@4.

A perfect quiet time of day album. Cat Stevens voice is a voice of a father or faviorte uncle who sang over your crib while you were a baby.The words to the songs seem both emotional and in some way, educational. This is a many layered album so Cat Stevens could play many different instruments and also add his own unique background vocals. His 12-string gutar playing seems unparalleled.My favorite song of Cat Stevens is 'Ruins',the last cut on the CD. A sarcastic song about might being right and what it could lead to. All in all a good solid album with good vocals, great song writing and just a cool album to listen to.