DJ,
who is responsible for most of the guitar tabs on Majicat, painted this illustration for
the front cover of the tribute CD he is making of Cat Stevens songs, entitled 'Jam with
the Cat'.
This is an
excellent depiction into the imagination of Cat Stevens artistry. If you take a few
minutes to thoroughly examine this painting, you will recognise many Cat related details
throughout, which most fans will be able to recognise. There are many different items here
with a connection to either songs or aspects of Cat's life and career. How many items can
you identify?
‘Jam
with the Cat’ Connections Revealed
Before we
start this, let's first reveal... the odd one out … the single oak leaf on the
tree is a personal reference to Oakwood Studios where I create all my artistic and musical
projects.
~~~~~~~~~~
The snowman
…. is wearing Teasers blue top hat from the ‘Teaser & the
firecat’ front cover, and wearing a scarf with the polar bear image from the
‘Foreigner’ album sleevework.
There is
…" a black spider dancing on top of his eye"…( from ‘Into
white’ )
The spider is the
one featured on the artwork for ‘Buddha & the chocolate box’, and the
snowman’s nose is the bamboo flute the spider plays , I wonder if it tickles!
Do you remember
that…"’snowmen sleep in the sea"….? (from ‘Two fine
people’.)
Well, the melting
flow of snow will eventually reach the sea, just like the stream on the cover of
‘Back to earth’, and floating down the stream is the lily featured inside the CD
sleeve for the ‘Mona Bone Jakon’ album ( it is also ‘Lily-white’ ).
The sky … on
the back of the ‘Numbers’ album has these same stars, seen in the castle
illustration, and, if you count them, they are …" seven evening
stars"… (from ‘Angelsea ).
The spaceship has a
sticker on the side that says that it is 'VENUS BOUND' ( from ‘Freezing steel’ )
in the ship is Trezlar off on another adventure, no doubt, ( I think that fellow Polygon
Qizlo must have lent him it ), in his hand he is holding a key ( ..they’ll be taking
the key from the door".. (from ‘Longer boats’, which is another song, like
‘Freezing steel’, about aliens and flying saucers.)
The lightning flash
is from the ‘Tea for the Tillerman’ cover, and the ‘Home in the sky’
that you can see is the Polygon castle from ‘Numbers’.
Flying around the
castle are a circle of birds, based on one of Cat’s own drawings, that also gave
it’s name to the Cat Stevens fanzine ‘Fantasy Ring’.
The fence …
has on top of it a European robin, .." listen to the robin’s
song…" ( from ‘On the road to find out").
Below the robin
there is a piece of broken fence warning BEWARE ( .."beware, beware.." from
‘Wild world’ ).
On the original
‘Teaser & the firecat’ illustration the graffiti says BROKEN FENCE , so here
someone’s written BAD BRAKE(S) instead .
Through the gap in
the fencing you can see a real fancy dancer ( from ‘Hard headed woman’ ) with
.." a feathered hat an’ all, wearing a warm wool shawl wrapped around her
shoulders"…and dressed in scarlet red, (from ‘Sweet scarlet’)
Could it be Carly
Simon, Steve’s one time girlfriend?,… but this is certainly the
…"woman who made the rain come…" ( from the track ‘Tea for the
Tillerman’ ) , and she is even casting a ‘Moonshadow’.
Just behind
Cat’s shoulder is the logo from his soundtrack film ‘Harold and Maude’, and
above that is the oriental writing from the ‘Catch bull at four’ album cover.
Further along is a
poster for a live concert, is it just another ‘Saturday night’? , because
he’s had enough of those! The poster shows the stage set from Cat’s
‘Saturnight’ album cover.
The initials D.J (
David John ) appear where S.G (Steven Georgiou, Cat’s original name ) was on the
‘Teaser & the firecat’ cover, also where Cat disguised the year of his
painting, ‘69, as knots of wood, here there is ‘02’ for 2002.
Moving along, there
is Cat Stevens own self portrait cartoon that he must have sneakily drawn on there
earlier, he’s shown wearing the logo of the amplifier company ‘WEM’ on his
T-shirt.
The useful sign
further along the road points ‘TO FIND OUT’ (from ‘On the road to find
out’ ), I’m sure it won’t be long before Cat’s on his way,.. I know he
will….
Peeping out from
behind the fence is the dog from the promotional photos for the single
‘I love my
dog’ . I wonder…..‘Was dog’… wearing… ‘a
doughnut’… then too?
Sat on top of the
dog’s head , what else could it be, but a ‘Brown haired dogmouse’ ( from
‘Into white’ )
The tree … on
the right has a ‘Hummingbird’ , but ,oh, alas, it’s puncturing a peculiar
fruit and leaking out all the ‘Banapple gas’.
Sat in the tree is
one of the five red owls from the ‘Teaser & the firecat’ story book and
animated film, he has a red yo-yo ( from the ‘Izitso’ cover ) dangling from his
wing to amuse him until the next full moon drops from the sky.
Below the owl is a
‘Laughing apple’, obviously amused by the yo-yo.
There are two
carvings on the tree trunk, one says that this is ..." old Satan’s
tree…" ( from ‘Katmandu’ ) and the other proclaims it as the
‘King of trees’.
Hung from the
branches is a hammock from the ‘Foreigner’ album back cover, but don’t have
a lie down just yet, we’ve nearly done….
The
pavement… has on it a framed photograph of Stavros Georgiou , Steve’s
‘Father’ as he appeared on the front cover of the menus in his restaurant, with
Cat ‘Sitting’ on his own, but not by himself, there’s the photo to bring
back memories of ‘Father & son’.
Next to this is a
hot cup of tea ( from the ‘Tea for the Tillerman’ front cover) , and a jar full
of something to sweeten it with … Cat must be a ‘Honey man’.
Having the best jam
ever, and teasing out the musical notes is Kabuki, Steve’s own pet cat , and also the
name given to the brand on the jam jar label.
The dustbin is no
longer crying ( from the ‘Mona Bone Jakon’ front cover ), but instead has the
Firecat’s fishbone poking out from under it’s lid. Kabuki is much more
interested in the sweet jamming that his master produces though.
Something else that
got thrown out is the ticket stub on the ground, a third row seat for Cat’s never
realised musical - ‘Revolussia’, in row ‘C’ seat No.’79’ (
from Sun/C79 ).
Next someone has
left a very precious gift for him in a basket, the fairest little baby, ‘The boy with
the moon and star on his head’. Don’t wake him or he’ll start crying to be
fed…
The road … here
lies the chocolate box , I can only guess that it’s contents must have been eaten
already, and the box just discarded material now, there must be other things to discover
…( from the ‘Buddha & the chocolate box’ sleeve artwork) .
The wine bottle is
empty, except for the last ‘Sweet scarlet’ drop , this label reveals itself to
be a fine vintage red, the label reads MOULIN vin ROUGE , another reference to the
‘Moulin Rouge’ restaurant Steve’s father owned .
Lastly the Rolling
Stone magazine has Cat Stevens at the height of his popularity posing as Teaser on
it’s front cover, the pinnacle achievement of Pop stardom that "somebody left
behind.."
Well, he
"never wanted to be a star" anyway, he just "wanted to put a little love in
your heart"…. and he definitely succeeded.
- Love,
- David John
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