Teachers can change your life and never was that more true than with a Miss Wagner, my long ago English teacher who looked so fine in her mini-skirts and frosted hair. When the schoolboy jungle telegraph somehow sussed out the fact that her first name was Julie, a collective shiver ran through the male animals in the class. Lust, which we mistook for love, was in the air.
While the mass ogling was in full swing and the sickly sweet aroma of jittery, prepubescent testosterone hung heavy in the classroom, I was equally interested in Miss Wagner’s musical selections. Seems she was a bit of a hippy who partook of the wild weed and spun records. Lots of records. What really sealed my affections for her was when she brought in Tommy and later, Who’s Next. Like a lot of poetesses of her generation, oh yes, she was one of those as well, she loved Cat Stevens and so I was first introduced to his two year run of masterpieces that began with Tea For the Tillerman (1970) and ended the next year with Teaser and the Firecat (1971). Now the first installment of that duo has been reissued on LP in improved sound and an impressive high quality 45 RPM, 200 gram pressing by Chad Kassem and Analogue Productions. While the two CD 2008 Deluxe Editions from Universal Music, each with an extra disc of live and demo tracks, is the digital go-to set for these titles, this new LP of Tea is a doozy. I hesitate to use the term “last word” on anything, particularly records these days which can be remastered and even remixed (though very rarely), but this may well be the last LP pressing of this title that anyone will ever need. The dynamic scale, level of detail and the overall atmosphere of this pressing is superb. The warmth and suppleness of the sound is without equal. Yet another unqualified triumph from Kassem’s sonic wonderland out on the Great Plains!
The aesthetic question that hangs over these two records, both produced by Paul Samwell-Smith of the Yardbirds and recorded in London and Los Angeles, and both, I suspect, the product of one very productive burst of songwriting, is which of the two is the better overall collection? Which resonates longer? If they are both five star records, which they are, does one pull ahead by a nose? Cat, now Yusuf, has said this about them: “Like Yin and Yang: Teaser and The Firecat was the night, as…Tillerman was the day.” Miss Wagner memories aside, after several listens to each, the closing duo of “Moonshadow” and “Peace Train” on Teaser is hard to beat. “Bitterblue” rocks and “Morning Has Broken” (an old Gaelic tune turned Christian hymn turned pop hit thanks to Rick Wakemans piano part!) is gorgeous. On both, Stevens, who illustrated both covers, is in such fine voice. And his songwriting was on a level almost unseen since then. This potent pair of records gave new weight and meaning to the term singer/songwriter. Thanks Julie!
