Catch Bull at Four
Encyclopedia
Catch Bull at Four is an album by Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....

. It was Stevens' most successful album in the United States, holding the top spot on Billboards chart for three consecutive weeks. The title is taken from one of the Ten Bulls of Zen
Ten Bulls
Ten Bulls or Ten Ox Herding Pictures is, in the tradition of Zen Buddhism, a series of short poems and accompanying pictures that are intended to illustrate the stages of a Mahāyāna Buddhist practitioner's progression towards enlightenment, as well as his or her subsequent perfection of wisdom...

.

Side one

  1. "Sitting" – 3:14
  2. "The Boy with a Moon & Star on His Head" – 5:57
  3. "Angelsea" – 4:30
  4. "Silent Sunlight" – 3:00
  5. "Can't Keep It In" – 2:59

Side two

  1. "18th Avenue (Kansas City Nightmare)" – 4:21
  2. "Freezing Steel" – 3:40
  3. "O' Caritas" (Andreas Toumazis, Jeremy Taylor
    Jeremy Taylor (singer)
    Jeremy Taylor is an English folk singer and songwriter who has spent much of his life in South Africa, originally as a teacher of English in southern Johannesburg, but since 1994 has lived in Wales and in France. Part stand-up comedian, part singer, Taylor has used his talents to confront the...

    , Stevens) – 3:41
  4. "Sweet Scarlet" – 3:49
  5. "Ruins" – 4:24

Personnel

  • Cat Stevens
    Cat Stevens
    Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....

     – double bass
    Double bass
    The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

    , bass, spanish guitar
    Classical guitar
    The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...

    , acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electric mandolin
    Electric mandolin
    The electric mandolin is an instrument tuned and played as the mandolin and amplified in similar fashion to an electric guitar.As with electric guitars, electric mandolins take many forms:...

    , piano, electric piano
    Electric piano
    An electric piano is an electric musical instrument.Electric pianos produce sounds mechanically and the sounds are turned into electrical signals by pickups. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument, but electro-mechanical. The earliest electric pianos were invented...

    , Böhm Diamond organ
    Electronic organ
    An electronic organ is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally, it was designed to imitate the sound of pipe organs, theatre organs, band sounds, or orchestral sounds....

    , RMI keyboard
    Rocky Mount Instruments
    Rocky Mount Instruments or RMI was a subsidiary of the Allen Organ Company, established in about 1966. It was based in Rocky Mount, North Carolina...

    , synthesizer, penny whistle, drums, percussion, vocals, backing vocals
  • Alun Davies
    Alun Davies (guitarist)
    Alun Davies is a Welsh guitarist, studio musician, recording artist, and composer who rose to fame primarily with his supporting guitar work and backing vocals as accompanist for English musician Cat Stevens, from early 1970 to 1977...

     – acoustic guitar
    Acoustic guitar
    An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

    , spanish guitar, backing vocals
  • Alan James – double bass
    Double bass
    The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

    , bass, backing vocals
  • Jean Roussel – piano, organ
    Organ (music)
    The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

  • Gerry Conway
    Gerry Conway (musician)
    Gerald Conway is an English folk and rock drummer/percussionist, best known for having performed with the backing band for Cat Stevens in the 1970s, Jethro Tull during the 1980s, and currently a member of Fairport Convention as well as his side projects...

     – drums, percussion, backing vocals
  • Andreas Toumazis – bouzouki
    Bouzouki
    The bouzouki , is a musical instrument with Greek origin in the lute family. A mainstay of modern Greek music, the front of the body is flat and is usually heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The instrument is played with a plectrum and has a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but...

     on "O Caritas"
  • C.S. Choir – backing vocals on "Freezing Steel" and "O Caritas"
  • Linda Lewis
    Linda Lewis
    Linda Lewis is an English vocalist, songwriter and Guitarist. Lewis is the oldest of six children two of whom also had singing careers...

     – backing vocals on "Angelesea"
  • Lauren Cooper
    Lauren Cooper
    Dame Lauren Alesha Masheka Tanesha Felicia Jane Cooper is a fictional character in The Catherine Tate Show. Lauren is one of the show's main characters and is played by Catherine Tate...

     - backing vocals on "Angelesea"
  • Del Newman – string
    String instrument
    A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...

     arrangements
  • Jeremy Taylor
    Jeremy Taylor (singer)
    Jeremy Taylor is an English folk singer and songwriter who has spent much of his life in South Africa, originally as a teacher of English in southern Johannesburg, but since 1994 has lived in Wales and in France. Part stand-up comedian, part singer, Taylor has used his talents to confront the...

     - spanish guitar
    Classical guitar
    The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...

    , who assisted in translating "O' Caritas" into the Latin language
    Latin
    Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

     used in the song.

Reviews

Catch Bull at Four was well received both commercially and critically. Rolling Stone Magazine was satisfied with the "gorgeous melody and orchestration", while simultaneously disappointed by the lack of a single track comparable to "Morning Has Broken
Morning Has Broken
"Morning Has Broken" is a popular and well-known Christian hymn first published in 1931. It has words by English author Eleanor Farjeon and is set to a traditional Gaelic tune known as "Bunessan" . It is often sung in children's services...

" from Teaser and the Firecat
Teaser and the Firecat
Teaser and the Firecat is an album released by Cat Stevens in 1971. It contains 10 songs including hits such as "Morning Has Broken," "Moonshadow," and "Peace Train." It is also the title of a children's book written and illustrated by Stevens...

.

Charts

Album
Year Chart Position
1972 Billboard Pop Albums
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

1
1972 UK Charts Position 2
1972 Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart
Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998...

1

Single
Year Single Chart Position
1973 "Sitting" Billboard Pop Singles 16

Certifications

Organization Level Date
RIAA – USA Gold 12 November 1972
RIAA – USA Platinum 20 January 2001


External links

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