Al Stewart Totally Explained

Everything about Al Stewart totally explained

Al Stewart (born Alastair Ian Stewart on 5 September 1945), is a British singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known for his 1976 single "Year of the Cat" and its 1978 follow-up "Time Passages" (both of which were produced by Alan Parsons). Stewart grew up in the coastal resort town of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. He moved to the United States in 1977 and recorded/produced most of his work in Los Angeles during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.
While studio albums are now few and far between, he still tours extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Recordings of concerts are often made available through his fan clubs. Stewart's career in music has spanned over 40 years.

Recording career

Stewart's first record was the single "The Elf", which was released in 1966 on Decca Records, and included a pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page (the first of many leading guitarists Stewart worked with, including Richard Thompson, Tim Renwick and Peter White). Stewart then signed to Columbia Records (CBS in the UK), for whom he released six albums. The first four of these attracted relatively little commercial interest, although they contain some of Stewart's most incisive and introspective songwriting, and he became popular on the university circuit. Stewart's debut album Bed-Sitter Images was released on LP in 1967; a revised version appeared in 1970 as The First Album (Bed-Sitter Images) with a few tracks changed. Its dramatic string orchestrations by Alexander Faris arguably stifled the songs somewhat (Stewart premiered the album with a full orchestra at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London). The album was reissued on CD in 2007 by Collectors' Choice Music with all the songs from both versions. Love Chronicles (1969) was notable for the 18-minute title track, an anguished autobiographical tale of sexual encounters which was the first mainstream record release ever to include the word "fucking". It was voted "Folk Album of the Year" by the UK music weekly Melody Maker. It also features Jimmy Page on guitar.
   His third album, Zero She Flies followed in 1970 - this time with a larger number of shorter songs which ranged from purely acoustic ballads and virtuoso instrumentals, to a couple of rockier songs with snarly electric lead guitar. This time, the various guitar virtuosos prominently featured Australian Trevor Lucas, later to marry Sandy Denny and join Fairport Convention.
   A crucial song in Stewart's career was the acoustic ballad 'Manuscript'. Here we see Stewart's muse flirting with European History, which would soon blossom to become virtually a personal genre: one which persists to this day.
   These first three albums (including 'The Elf') were released as the two CD set To Whom it May Concern: 1966-70. Orange (1972) was very much a transitional album, combining songs in Stewart's confessional style with more intimations of the historical themes that he'd increasingly adopt (for example 'The News From Spain', with its prog-rock overtones, including dramatic piano by Rick Wakeman). Perhaps the most prophetic song is the ballad Songs out of Clay, which combines his powerful melodic instinct, emotional flair, and subtle prog-rock nuances.
   The fifth release, Past, Present and Future (1973), was Stewart's first album to receive a proper release in the US, via Janus Records. It echoed a traditional historical storytelling style and contained the song "Nostradamus," a long (9:43) track in which Stewart tied into the re-discovery of the claimed seer's writings by referring to selected possible predictions about twentieth century people and events. While too long for mainstream radio airplay at that time, the song became a hit on many US college/university radio stations, which were flexible about running times. Nevertheless, Past, Present and Future is the album where Stewart's 'history genre' intimations reached full bloom, with songs about American President Warren Harding. World War II, Ernst Röhm, Christine Keeler, Louis Mountbatten, and Stalin's purges.
   Stewart followed Past, Present and Future with Modern Times (1975), in which the songs were lighter on historical references and more of a return to the theme of short stories set to music. Significantly though, it was the first of his albums to be produced by Alan Parsons, and All Music Guide regard it as his best.
   Stewart's contract with CBS Records expired at this point and he signed to RCA Records for the world outside North America. His first two albums for RCA, Year of the Cat (released on Janus in the US, then reissued by Arista Records after Janus folded in 1977) and Time Passages (released in the US on Arista), set the style for his later work, which many feel is less incisive than his early 1970s releases on CBS, although Cat and Passages are generally agreed upon to be his best work. Stewart, however, reported hearing 'Time Passages' in an elevator, and being disgusted with it - especially when he realised that it was himself.
   The overwhelming success of the songs "Year Of The Cat" and "Time Passages"—both of which still receive substantial radio airplay on classic-rock/pop format stations—overshadows the depth and range of Stewart's body of songwriting. Stewart managed to adopt the traditional folk idiom of documenting real events to produce contemporary songs.
   Stewart then released 24 Carrots (1980) and his first live album Live/Indian Summer (1981), with both featuring backing band Shot in the Dark. They both reached the Billboard Charts, but failed to match the success of Year of the Cat and Time Passages, arguably because of the advent of the new wave and pop movements in the early 1980s.
   After those releases Stewart was dropped by Arista and his fame started to dry up soon after. Still, despite his lower profile and waning commercial success he'd continue to make solid albums and develop as a songwriter. There was a four year gap between his next two albums Russians and Americans (1984) (which was highly political) and the upbeat pop-orientated Last Days of the Century (1988), which appeared on smaller labels and had lower sales. Stewart followed up with his second live album, the acoustic Rhymes in Rooms (1992), which featured only himself and Peter White, and Famous Last Words (1993), which was dedicated to the memory of the late Peter Wood (famous for co-writing "Year of the Cat", born Egham Surrey and lived Hythe Field Avenue as a child), who died the year of that release. Stewart followed these up with concept albums, with Between the Wars (1995), covering major historical and cultural events from 1918 to 1939, such as the Versailles Treaty, Prohibition, the Spanish Civil War, and the Great Depression and Down in the Cellar (2000), covering the aspects of wine, one of Stewart's areas of enthusiasm and expertise. In 2005, he released A Beach Full of Shells. He still tours around the United States and Europe, along with guitarists such as Laurence Juber, while devoting time to his hobby of wine collecting.
   Stewart's historical work includes songs such as:

"Fields of France", from the album Last Days of the Century, about World War I pilots
"Old Admirals", from Past, Present, and Future, inspired by Admiral Sir John Fisher of the World War I Royal Navy
"Roads To Moscow", from Past, Present, and Future, about the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II
"In Red Square", from Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, about the Soviet Union
"Sirens of Titan", from Modern Times, a musical precis of Kurt Vonnegut's novel of the same title
"Lord Grenville", from Year of the Cat, about Sir Richard Grenville
"The Palace of Versailles", from Time Passages, about the French Revolution
"Charlotte Corday", from Famous Last Words, about the assassin of Jean-Paul Marat.

On occasions Stewart has set poems to music, such as "My Enemies Have Sweet Voices" (lyrics by the poet Pete Morgan) on the 1970 album Zero She Flies. During his 1999 UK tour, Stewart invited Morgan to read the lyrics as he performed this song in the Leeds City Varieties Theatre show of 7 November 1999.

Discography

Bed-Sitter Images (1967)

Love Chronicles (1969)

Zero She Flies (1970)

Orange (1972)

Past, Present and Future (1973) #133 US

Modern Times (1975) #30 US

Year of the Cat (1976) #5 US

Time Passages (1978) #10 US

24 Carrots (1980) (with Shot In The Dark) #37 US

Live/Indian Summer (1981) (with Shot In The Dark) #110 US

Russians and Americans (1984)

Last Days of the Century (1988)

Rhymes in Rooms (1992)

Famous Last Words (1993)

Between the Wars (1995) (with Laurence Juber)

Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (1996) (limited distribution) (External Link

)

Down in the Cellar (2000)

A Beach Full of Shells (2005) Stewart has also released many compilations, which mainly feature his radio hits and some of his more unknown songs. Stewart has also announced that he's working on a new album with Laurence Juber, to be released in 'late spring or early summer of 2008'

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