Mona Bone Jakon

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Mona Bone Jakon
Studio album by Cat Stevens (now Yusuf)

Publication
(s)

1970

Label (s) Island Records - A&M Records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

Folk rock

Title (number)

11

running time

36:08

occupation
  • Cat Stevens - guitar, keyboard, vocals
  • Alun Davies - guitar
  • John Ryan - bass
  • Harvey Burns - percussion

production

Paul Samwell-Smith

Studio (s)

Olympic Studios, London;
Abbey Road Studios, London

chronology
New Masters
(1967) 		Mona Bone Jakon Tea for the Tillerman
(1970)

Mona Bone Jakon is the third studio album by folk rock singer and songwriter Cat Stevens and was released in 1970.

history

Cat Stevens (now Yusuf) wrote his first songs in the late 1960s and toured with mediocre success. In 1968, at the age of 20, he fell ill with tuberculosis and had to be hospitalized for a long time. He withdrew completely from the music business and spent a few months in a sanatorium. There he wrote the first new songs, which appeared on Mona Bone Jakon in April 1970 . Paul Samwell-Smith was hired as the new producer, who in turn brought in Alun Davies as a studio musician, who complemented himself so well with Cat Stevens that he remained an integral part of the music until 1978 and took this role again in 2006.

Cat Stevens' style had completely changed and the multitude of newly created songs meant that he released his next album Tea for the Tillerman in the same year , which was an even greater success. The original title of the album was The Dustbin Cried the Day the Dustman Died ; But this seemed too long for Stevens, so he decided on the name Mona Bone Jakon , who, according to his own statement, is a pseudonym for his penis in an interview with the French magazine Pop Musique . The album only reached number 63 in the British charts, in the US charts number 164. The single Lady d'Arbanville , however, placed in the British top ten at number 8.

The songs from both albums, Mona Bone Jakon and Tea for the Tillerman , form the basis for the score for Hal Ashby's cult film Harold and Maude from 1971. Peter Gabriel , who was also under contract with Genesis with A&M Records , played the flute the song 'Katmandu'. The album was re-released in 2000 in a version remastered by Ted Jensen.

Track list

All titles are written by Cat Stevens.

  1. Lady d'Arbanville - 3:45
  2. Maybe You're Right - 3:25
  3. Pop Star - 4:13
  4. I Think I See The Light - 3:55
  5. Trouble - 2:49
  6. Mona Bone Jakon - 1:42
  7. I Wish, I Wish - 3:50
  8. Kathmandu - 3:22
  9. Time - 1:26
  10. Fill My Eyes - 3:00
  11. Lilywhite - 3:41

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ^ US catalog number: A&M 4260. Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Albums 1955-1996 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1996, p. 744
  3. ↑ GB catalog number: Island WIP 6086. Rice, Jo / Rice, Tim / Gambacini, Paul / Read, Mike: The Guinness Book Of The Hits Of The 70s . London: Guinness Superlatives Ltd., 1980, p. 160

Web links