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Cat Stevens - First Cut Is The Deepest + The Moody Blues - Tuesday Afternoon, Peak Hour (Bouton Rouge 1.6.68)

 

Cat Stevens - First Cut Is The Deepest + The Moody Blues - Tuesday Afternoon, Peak Hour (Bouton Rouge 1.6.68)

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Deram DM 140 - Cat Stevens - "A Bad Night"

Four months after releasing "I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun", Deram was ready to put out another release from one of their biggest stars, Cat Stevens. Released in July of '67, "A Bad Night" starts quietly, just Cat and a guitar, but then the bass comes in, the drums stumble in and Cat's delivery is suddenly much more urgent. This song seems to be about a relationship that just went south. It gets the full out production treatment, including some tasteful flanging, until the end when it seemingly pauses for a second, and then blasts back with Arthur Greenslade's full orchestral might. It headed up the chart, and hit number 20. It stayed in the UK charts for an 8 week run. Cat was working on his 2nd long player at this point, which was released before Christmas, called "New Masters" and he is pictured on the album cover as if he was some new classical master. Perhaps he was. Another 4 months would pass before his next single. Cat's star continued to rise. I've included his lip synched performance from Beat Club, Sept 23rd, 1967, which has the beginning clipped off and then the full 45 version

 

 

Deram DM 118 - Cat Stevens - "I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun"

Deram DM 118 was Cat Steven's follow up to his huge hit "Mathew and Son" and it was a step backwards, frankly. "I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun". Not sure what he was thinking with these lyrics in the UK in 1967. I love early Cat so he gets a bye for this atrocious record (sorta). Released in March of 67, it did spend 5 weeks in the charts. Has the typical Mike Hurst production that Deram used for all of Cat's early records. This is taken from the June 24th airing of the German show "Beat Club". He's introduced by Dave Lee Travis, a English presenter who could jump from German to English. I always had a crush on his co-presenter, Ushci Nerke!

 

Deram DM 115 - Double Feature - "Baby Get Your Head Screwed On"

Deram knew that they had a hot song writer in Cat Stevens, so they brought in producer Mike Hurst to record The Double Feature do a pretty straightforward cover of "Baby Get Your Head Screwed On" for DM 115. I have always loved a chugging cello, and this song delivers! The Brum duo turn it into a bit more of a soul experience than Cat. Nice use of a fuzzed up guitar. "Your paper daddy is in the house." Released March of 67

 

Deram DM 110 - Cat Stevens - "Matthew And Son"

Next up on the Deram release calendar was DM 110, "Matthew and Son", by Cat Stevens, his second release on Deram. Now Deram was on their way. They had 2 releases that were charting, "Night of Fear" and "Matthew". To me, this song showed an amazing maturity for an 18 year old. Shot to number 2 in the charts, and Cat's album release of the same name headed up the album charts.