Catch Bull at Four is the sixth studio album by Cat Stevens. In the United States it spent three weeks at number one on Billboard’s album chart. The title is taken from one of the Ten Bulls of Zen.
The song “Sitting” was released as a single in 1973, reaching 16 on the Hot 100 Charts. It’s a song about meditation, and the apprehensions that may result from the experiences involving self-realization.
Catch Bull at Four was well received both commercially and critically. Rolling Stone was satisfied with the “gorgeous melody and orchestration”, while simultaneously disappointed by the lack of a single track comparable to “Morning Has Broken” from Teaser and the Firecat. (by wikipedia)
Catch Bull at Four began with a statement of purpose, “Sitting,” in which Cat Stevens tried to talk himself into believing that he hadn’t stalled, beginning to worry that he might be falling behind schedule or even going in circles. It may be that Stevens’ recent experiences had contributed to his sense that he was running out of time. Though he was 
never a directly confessional writer, one got the sense that his disaffection with the life of a pop star was reasserting itself. And while he was touring unhappily around the world, the world was still going to hell in a handbasket. Yet Stevens was still motivated by his urge to help mankind mend its ways. Love provided some comfort, but for the most part, the singer who had seemed so excited on his last album now sounded apprehensive. Stevens set his reflections to a mixture of musical styles that included traces of old English folk songs, madrigals, and Greek folk music along with more typical rock stylings, all performed with the stop-and-start rhythms that added drama to his performances. Nevertheless, Catch Bull at Four was a more difficult listen than its three predecessors. Coming off the momentum of Teaser and the Firecat, it roared up the charts to number one, but stayed in the Top Ten fewer weeks than its predecessor. Fans who had been stirred by Stevens’ rhythmic tunes and charmed by his thoughtful lyrics were starting to lose interest in his quasi-religious yearnings, busy arrangements, and self-absorbed, melodramatic singing. His career still had a ways to go, but as of Catch Bull at Four, he had passed his peak. (by William Ruhlmann)
Personnel:
Gerry Conway (drums, percussion, background vocals)
Alun Davies (guitar, background vocals)
Alan James (bass, background vocals)
Jean Roussel (keyboards)
Cat Stevens (vocals, guitar, keyboards, mandolin, synthesizer, pennywhistle, drums, percussion)
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C.S. Choir (background vocals on 06. + 07.)
Lauren Cooper (backgound vocals on 03.)
Linda Lewis (backgound vocals on 03.)
Jeremy Taylor (guitar on 07.)
Andreas Toumazis – bouzouki on 07.)
Tracklist:
01. Sitting (Stevens) 3.16
02. Boy with A Moon & Star On His Head (Stevens) 5.58
03. Angelsea (Stevens) 4.31
04. Silent Sunlight (Stevens) 3.01
04. Can’t Keep It In (Stevens) 3.00
05. 18th Avenue (Kansas City Nightmare) (Stevens) 4.24
06. Freezing Steel (Stevens) 3.39
07. O Caritas (Toumazis/Taylor/Stevens)
08. Sweet Scarlet (Stevens) 3.47
09. Ruins (Stevens) 4.17
More Cat Stevens:
And here you´ll find a rare Cat Stevens songbook from 1971
Steely Dan is an American rock band founded by core members Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals) in 1972. Blending elements of jazz, traditional pop, R&B, and sophisticated studio production with cryptic and ironic lyrics, the band enjoyed critical and commercial success starting from the early 1970s until breaking up in 1981. Throughout their career, the duo recorded with a revolving cast of session musicians, and in 1974 retired from live performances to become a studio-only band. Rolling Stone has called them “the perfect musical antiheroes for the Seventies”.
Thanks to countless TV ads hawking collections of his music, Zamfir is almost universally recognized as the “Master of the Pan Flute.” While that title may be cause for smirking in some quarters — whether because of its overexposure or a general distaste for easy listening music — it’s true that Gheorghe Zamfir was single-handedly responsible for popularizing an ancient, traditional Eastern European instrument that was in danger of dying out for lack of interest. Made of bamboo, reeds, or wood, the pan flute (also known as the pan pipes or the nai) consists of a series of tubes, each of which sounds one individual note, and are fastened together side by side. It produces an ethereal, haunting sound, and since its construction makes the execution of up-tempo passages nearly impossible, it’s ideal for the sort of slow, tranquil mood music that constituted Zamfir’s stock in trade. At first focusing on Romanian folk melodies, classical material, and original compositions, Zamfir’s popularity in Europe and America led him to cover pop songs, soundtrack themes, and the like, all supported by soft, lush orchestral arrangements.
Roll with It is the fifth solo studio album by English blue-eyed soul artist Steve Winwood, released on 21 June 1988. It topped the album charts in the United States, and has sold over three million copies. The title cut topped the pop and rock singles charts. The success led the subsequent songs to serve as singles, “Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do?” and “Holding On”.
Blood Sweat & Tears has set the high water mark for the worlds greatest musicians which is still true in the latest version of BS&T. It has now been 50 years since founding member (drummer) Bobby Colomby with an amazing Jazz background had a vision of fusing Jazz, Rock and Blues into one band. Over the years more than 175 musicians have flowed through the ranks of the various iterations of the BS&T. The most commercially successful version of the band was in fact, our second line-up. The current line up with Bo Bice at the helm on vocals is the most popular in recent years. As many promoters have said “it’s a show not to me missed.”
70 albums, 3000 songs, 25 million records sold, an Oscar from the Academy of the disc in 1981 … Georges Jouvin, nicknamed “the man with the golden trumpet” , was a huge international success, Japan to America.
Jonkheer Jacob van Eyck (c. 1590 – 26 March 1657) was a Dutch nobleman and musician. He was one of the best-known musicians in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century as a carillon player, organist, recorder virtuoso, and composer.
Jacob van Eyck composed the Der Fluyten Lust-hof (The Flute’s Garden of Delights, or The Flute’s Pleasure Garden). Editions of this work appeared in 1644, 1646, 1649, 1654, and 1656. Der Fluyten Lust-hof is a very extensive collection of about 140 melodies, each with a number of diminutions or variations, for solo soprano recorder. The themes include folk songs, dance tunes, church works, Psalms, and songs of the day. Some of the variations are considered challenging even for an experienced recorder player. Der Fluyten Lust-hof remains the largest work for a solo wind instrument in European history; it is also the only work of this magnitude to have been dictated rather than written down by the composer.(by wikipedia)
Bosgraaf was born in Drachten, Netherlands. He received his Master of Arts in musicology from Utrecht University in 2006. In 2007 Bosgraaf, under the supervision of musicologist Thiemo Wind, released a 3-CD-box with compositions of the Dutch composer Jacob van Eyck (1589–1657), a collection which attained unexpected commercial success and sold more than 25,000 copies. In the 2011–12 season he was nominated by Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, on behalf of the German ECHO music award organisation, to take part in the Rising Stars series for a tour of the most important concert halls in Europe.
In 1962, The Ventures made the first of what would be many tours of Japan and the Far East. While the shows attracted very little media attention, many had already been exposed to this new reverb-drenched instrumental music through imported records and overseas radio broadcasts, and some of these fans formed their own bands that would become the genesis for a new trend in music. Progenitors of this new sound were tossing out their acoustic guitars in favor of more powerful electric ones, which prompted the name “eleki”, taken from the Japanese for “electric guitar”.
A Long Time Comin’ is the first album by American rock band the Electric Flag, released in 1968. The album has a mix of musical styles, including soul along with blues and rock, with a horn section.
Putumayo World Music is a New York City-based record label, now specializing in compilations of music from various nations, regions, or musical styles which may be classified as world music.
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