Mention Al Stewart in a word association game and it’s a fair bet that most responses would hit on ‘Year Of The Cat’. The song’s surprise success in the US was the catalyst for Stewart to up sticks from his London base and make California his home. After years of very modest success and recognition the song peaked at no 8 in the US in 1976 and earned the album of the same name a Platinum disc.
Originally titled ‘Foot Of The Stage’, Stewart’s original lyrics were all about Tony Hancock. Loving the music but hating the lyrics, Stewart’s record label asked him to rewrite it. Stewart stumbled upon a book on Vietnamese astrology left open by his girlfriend of the time, conveniently, as history now can inform us, on the page for 1975’s Year Of The Cat. Whilst playing with that as a title, Casablanca played on the TV and Stewart was away. “On a morning from a Bogart movie, in a country where they turn back time, you go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre, contemplating a crime.” Setting it in Morocco in 1975, Stewart felt it had little commercial appeal, and, deeming it too long and cumbersome, placed it, almost as an apology, last on the album.
The song’s subsequent success was a surprise to Stewart, especially as it never threatened to have the same impact back in the UK. Now, on the back of a farewell tour in the UK to mark his 80th birthday, Stewart is happy to liken it to a rich uncle who pays all the bills. This Old Grey Whistle Test clip features some very hairy 70s musicians including Peter Wood on keyboard who is credited with playing the riff that first wormed its way into Stewart’s head and who is credited as co-writer.
