Mona Bone Jakon Songs Ranked
Mona Bone Jakon is the third studio album released by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, released in April 1970 on the Island Records label in the United Kingdom and on the A&M record label in the United States and Canada. After a meteoric start to his career, surprising even his original producer at Deram Records with the hit singles “I Love My Dog”, “Matthew and Son”, and “I’m Gonna Get Me a Gun”, Stevens’ debut album, Matthew and Son, began charting. However, after the pressure for a repeat album of the same calibre, Stevens, considered a young teen sensation, was overwhelmed by a new lifestyle, as well as the demands of writing, recording, performing, publicity appearances, and touring. His second album was a commercial failure and in the autumn of 1968, he collapsed, with the diagnosis of tuberculosis and a collapsed lung. For over a year, while recovering, Stevens virtually disappeared from the British pop scene. Mona Bone Jakon is notable not only for his return, but for the emergence of a very different artist. The album sold slowly (at first) but over time has been certified gold for sales/shipments of more than 500,000 copies in the United States. Here are all of Mona Bone Jakon songs ranked.
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11. Maybe You’re Right
“So the album for me starts with Maybe You’re Right, which might be my favorite of the album. I can’t explain what about the song I like so much; I just think it has a great tune.”
10. Lady D’Arbanville
“Lady D’Arbanville” is a great hit for the man-blending English folksy refrains with an upbeat,Brazilian percussive style chorus. All the music here is wonderful, and I can listen to the album without missing a lovely beat, from “Lady D’arbanville”
9. Pop Star
“My own personal favorites are “Pop Star” with its early indication all was not well in the world of super stardom that Cat suddenly found himself in (Stevens is an English-born son of Greek ethnic parents)”
8. Trouble
“Trouble is the only song I’d heard before buying the album. It’s a classic with a very nice, slow and easy tune. For me “Trouble” is worth the price of the album alone. Hey, I like Cat Stevens. It’s no crime.”
See more: Cat Stevens Albums Ranked
7. I Wish, I Wish
“I Wish, I Wish is a catchy song with an interesting beat that seems to keep building up; I really like it. “I Wish,I Wish” have an upbeat and rather more soulful oriented sound that rounds out the album.”
6. Time
“Time is a really short song which really is just the intro to Fill My Eyes, which is a very pretty song–one of my favorites. The arrangements are stripped down, no anonymous, electrified studio session musicians here, just acoustic instruments, intimately produced behind the singer’s close-miked voice.”
5. Lilywhite
“And the album ends with Lilywhite, a nice slow song that has some beautiful violin playing in it. Also, I noticed at the 2:10 mark of this song he starts strumming the chords to Don’t Be Shy, a song he did for the movie Harold & Maude.”
See more: Cat Stevens Songs Ranked
4. Fill My Eyes
“This is the album where Cat Stevens went from the brash, dandyish late 60’s pop star to the more reflective, introspective singer-songwriter of the early to mid 70’s, from writing light songs about dogs, cats and guns to altogether deeper intimations of life, death and love.”
3. Katmandu
“Katmandu is probably my all time favorite song, it that it just takes me away. No matter where I am or what I’m doing, I hear the first notes of that song and I imagine myself overlooking the Himalayas from a snowy Tibetan monastery.”
2. Mona Bone Jakon
“Mona Bone Jakon was first released in July 1970 with the title originally going to be The Dustbin Cried The Day The Dustman Died. It was decided that the title was too long and changed to Mona Bone Jakon. The album features Cat with Alun on guitar/backing vocals as well as John Ryan on bass and Harvey Burns on drums.”
1. I Think I See the Light
“Love this album. I love Harold and Maude and was looking for his album that would have the majority of the songs from the movie and this one does. It is really cool and I love singing with Cat Stevens especially when I feel sad and it is rainy, but also when is sunny.”