{"id":16772,"date":"2012-12-01T18:55:24","date_gmt":"2012-12-01T23:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=16772"},"modified":"2012-12-01T19:01:47","modified_gmt":"2012-12-02T00:01:47","slug":"does-al-stewart-regret-year-of-the-cat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/does-al-stewart-regret-year-of-the-cat\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Al Stewart Regret \u201cYear of the Cat\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early ’70s folk is one of my biggest \u201crock blind spots.\u201d Hoping to better understand the movement I did a little reading and Googling. I was prepared to come across the usual suspects (Fairport, Pentangle<\/strong>, etc); however, while researching into the British side of the scene I learned that Al Stewart<\/strong> was a significant player of the times. Was this the same Al Stewart<\/strong> who I only knew through the plushy lite-rock hit \u201c<\/em>Year of the Cat\u201d<\/em>? A little more digging revealed that Stewart tried to distance himself from the success of the song as well as the Alan Parsons<\/strong> produced albums of the late ’70s .<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rueful??<\/p><\/div>\n

His return to a purer folk style<\/a>\u00a0later in his career would find little favor with record buyers but for his die-hard fans. For his live shows he would either drop it from the set list or open the show with the song.<\/p>\n

He isn\u2019t the first artist to find success with a song they would rather forget<\/a> or was not representative<\/a> of their \u201ctrue\u201d sound. Yet, I feel he shouldn\u2019t have to disown something that certainly pays the bills or brought attention to his other albums. On that note the stuff on Time Passages<\/a><\/em>, despite its execution and decent melodies, sounds horribly dated.<\/p>\n

If it was your song could you live with \u201cYear of the Cat\u201d?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>