Tea For The Tillerman Songs Ranked
Tea for the Tillerman is the fourth studio album by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, released in November 1970. Stevens’ second album released during the year 1970, Tea for the Tillerman includes many of his best-known songs such as “Where Do the Children Play?”, “Hard Headed Woman”, “Wild World”, “Sad Lisa”, “Into White”, and “Father and Son”. Stevens, a former art student, created the artwork featured on the record’s cover. With “Wild World” as an advance single, this was the album that brought Stevens worldwide fame. The album itself charted into the top 10 in the United States. In November 2008, a “Deluxe Edition” was released featuring a second disc of demos and live recordings. In January 2012, a hi-res 24/192 kHz version was remastered using an Ampex ATR100 and a MSB Technology Studio ADC and released on HDtracks.com. Fifty years later, in September 2020, Stevens remade the album as Tea for the Tillerman, including new lyrics and new instrumentation, and he sings along with his 22-year-old self in “Father and Son”.
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11. Where Do the Children Play?
“The first song of this breakthrough album (in the US) is the More-than-Environmentally-Minded “Where Do the Children Play?” From its beautifully tender opening guitar work to its last resonant chords, “Where?” hits on so many cylinders: environment, big government, bureaucracy…it questions what choices we’re making as we advance:”
10. Wild World
“There is “Wild World,” his plaintive ballad of love lost. Patti D’Arbanville — for whom he had already written “Lady D’Arbanville” — was a noteworthy Flower Child of the 60’s who captured more than one heart. But this song is a plea that only those who have experienced being let go can truly understand. Here he does not just lament her passing; he begs her to understand what the world will do to her without him, hoping against hope she will return.”
9. Miles From Nowhere
“Stevens sang the beautiful “Miles from Nowhere,” expressing perhaps even more clearly than his opening song the singer’s quest for some kind of spiritual truth: “Lord, my body/Has been a good friend,/But I won’t need it/When I reach the end.” As said earlier, he’d been reassessing his life following a bout of tuberculosis, and this song was one of those which marked his journey.”
See more: Cat Stevens Albums Ranked
8. Longer Boats
“Longer Boats” is a calypso with a Caribbean-sounding sound, with soft bongos and beautiful vocal harmonies. Here, I must be frank and say I’ve always been puzzled by its lyrics – in a good way: “I don’t want no God on my lawn/Just a flower I can help along;/’Cause the soul of no body knows/How a flower grows, oh how a flower grows.” I believe it to be a song about false icons and the danger of equating increased material goods with true progress, though I am not sure.”
7. On the Road to Find Out
“On the Road to Find Out,” a song that probably sums the entire album up on six words. It’s a sweetly sung passage song that tells the story of the singer’s “hit(ting) the rowdy road” only to find out “the answer lies within.” And to his credit Stevens does not tell us which religion is “best,” but only to “Kick out the devil’s sin and pick up a Good Book.”
6. Tea for the Tillerman
“And then, closing the album is the truly dazzling title song, and a mere minute at that. Like the Beatles’ “Her Majesty” (at the end of Abbey Road ) each is a short counterpart to an absolute masterwork, but unlike Her Majesty,” “Tea for the Tillerman” is no mere castoff tacked onto the end as a counterpoint. “Tea” seems to be a quiet little doggerel that lures you into thinking just that until it SNAPS you to attention with an astoundingly brief but powerfully sung choral ending of — get this — THREE SHORT SYLLABLES.”
5. Father and Son
“There are simply no words that can express how wonderful this song is, how beautifully it captures the eternal struggle between generations, the need of the elder to impart wisdom and the need of the younger to ignore it and strike out on their own…the 60s in a nutshell.”
See more: Cat Stevens Songs Ranked
4. Into White
“Into White” has a more traditional folk sound. Its psychedelic lyrical content reminds me alot of the Beatles’ “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”. I don’t believe any of his other albums include the song “Into White” – a truly inspired song to me that isn’t included on his recently released boxed set or his other two “Greatest Hits” albums.”
3. But I Might Die Tonight
“But I Might Die Tonight” is short though anything but diminutive. It too does a lot with a little, and is once more a testament of spiritual essence and anti-conformity, as always expressed well through his powerfully deep voice. The harmony line is a good indicator of his upper range as well.”
2. Sad Lisa
“The clarity of the vocals is astonishing and is coupled with incredible detail revealed on the guitar… I swear you can hear the plectrum rub against the strings on “Sad Lisa”. Bass lines are solid and decay perfectly.”
1. Hard Headed Woman
“”Hard Headed Woman” is a visceral appeal for love in this world, for genuine, meaningful romantic love, a love that is pure and lacks the self-conscious love of love that is championed by lesser popular music artists. This is a track about the human need for human contact, about the intense need that each of us has to be connected with another person. This is a song about symbiosis, and how the world has inexplicably commercialised love.”
