every word, that I've said, that you have heard

Although there are those unfortunate souls who aren't familiar with a single one of my top five artists, it seems like Al Stewart is the most unknown of them. This strikes me as particularly tragic, since he's also my probably my single favorite songwriter and recording artist out there. Now, maybe I'm just the kind of guy who can't develop that kind of attachment to anybody that's a household name, but I've found that there really is no other songwriter whose body of work I find as reliably resonant and enchanting as Mr. Stewart's.

On my last birthday I completed my collection of what I saw as Al's complete discography. He's released 17 albums, from his 1967 debut to 2005's A Beach Full of Shells, with a new one on the way quite soon. I include in my count his two live albums (one of which was released with a handful of then-new studio tracks as well) but don't include any of the various compilation albums that have been released under his name. It was the culmination of 11 years of fandom, beginning with my theft of his most famous record, Year of the Cat (1976) from my dad's collection in 1996.

Al's fans in general have a love/hate relationship with Year of the Cat. On the one hand, the radio hits that resulted from Al's collaboration with Alan Parson's tend to obscure the bulk of Al's prolific catalogue. Year of the Cat itself and Time Passages probably aren't the first songs I would play anybody to try and show them who Al Stewart is as an artist. On the other hand, they're both very good albums. Every single track on Year of the Cat and almost every track from its follow-up, Time Passages, is a success both sonically and artistically. It would be impossible for me, and I suspect many other fans to deny that these two albums are what got us hooked on this artist.

But they don't necessarily give the right impression of what the bulk of Al's catalogue is all about. Sure, he's had his weak moments, and the least of his albums are dotted with poppy, trendy sounding attempts at rejuvenated radio success. But Al Stewart himself is at the core a songwriter, one who has shown himself to be continually capable of exceptional insight and poetic achievement. Personally, I find myself returning most frequently to Al's earliest work, his days of twentysomething student obscurity in the coffee shops of London, writing insecure romantic epics like the 18-minute Love Chronicles, or Night of the 4th of May. But there are other flavors to his work that are equally valid. In particular, Al has a preoccupation with historical subject matter that has been the inspiration for a number of great ballads. He has the ability to put himself into a convincing reproduction of what might have been a historical figure's mind, and the listener into their world. There's a quality of idealism in these songs that isn't tarnished by their lack of naivety.

I could write much more about Al, and likely will as this blog continues. But for now let me bring this somewhat rambling argument to a close with some examples of where I think one should begin to enjoy this phenomenal singer-songwriter:

• The debut album Bedsitter Images, particularly the title track and Cleave to Me, a successful attempt at a bit of Elizabethan style poetry. The entire album has a great college town coffeehouse feel to it.
• Manuscript, from Zero She Flies, his first attempt at historical songwriting. Also Electric Los Angeles Sunset from the same album, which is the song where he first discovers an electric rock sound.
• The Night of the 4th of May, from Orange.
• The album Past, Present and Future, on which Al tells a story from a different decade of the 20th century on every track.
• The non-album track In The Dark, recently released as a bonus to the newest edition of Famous Last Words, in which he gives a fictionalized account of the Charles/Diana divorce before it ever happened.
• The latest album, A Beach Full of Shells. These days Mr. Stewart has found renewed confidence, knowing he'll never be a full fledged rock legend, he's more comfortable being himself.
• Year of the Cat and Time Passages, of course.

Expect my thoughts on the new record as soon as it comes out.

Here's a link to an entry from another blog with much the same thrust as this one. Though I don't agree with all of its analysis, it is much more in depth than what I've written here.