| Mona Bone Jakon | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 24 April 1970 | |||
| Recorded | January–February 1970 | |||
| Studio |
| |||
| Genre | Folk rock | |||
| Length | 35:15 | |||
| Label | Island (UK/Europe) A&M (US/Canada) | |||
| Producer | Paul Samwell-Smith | |||
| Cat Stevens chronology | ||||
| ||||
Mona Bone Jakon is the third studio album by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, released in April 1970 on the Island Records label in the United Kingdom and on A&M in the United States and Canada.
After a meteoric start to his career, surprising even his original producer at Deram Records with the hit singles "I Love My Dog", "Matthew and Son", and "I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun", Stevens' debut album, Matthew and Son , began charting. However, after the pressure for a repeat album of the same calibre, Stevens, considered a young teen sensation, was overwhelmed by a new lifestyle as well as the demands of writing, recording, performing, publicity appearances, and touring. His second album was a commercial failure and in the autumn of 1968, he was hospitalized, with a diagnosis of tuberculosis and a collapsed lung. For over a year, while recovering, Stevens virtually disappeared from the British pop scene. Mona Bone Jakon is notable not only for his return but for the emergence of a very different artist. The album sold slowly (at first) but over time has been certified Gold for sales/shipments of more than 500,000 copies in the United States.[ citation needed ]
During his hospital-dictated year of bedrest, Stevens began writing a catalogue of songs to fill far more than his next album. After his recovery, he negotiated out of his contract with Deram Records and worked with former Yardbirds bassist Paul Samwell-Smith on a stripped-down sound. In contrast to his first two albums, these new songs were sparse arrangements. They were played on acoustic guitars and keyboards and accompanied by a smaller backing band, consisting of three other performers: second guitarist Alun Davies, bassist John Ryan, and drummer Harvey Burns—and on one song, "Katmandu", Peter Gabriel on the flute. Samwell-Smith also produced the album and brought Stevens a high-fidelity sound that was not as present on his previous releases. Samwell-Smith was one of the early producers in rock to push the lower bass frequencies more prominently into the mix in an attempt to keep up with the new audiophile generation, which was embracing larger home speakers and high-end phonographic cartridges.[ citation needed ] Stevens began to make the transition from pop musician to a folk-rock performer when the term "singer-songwriter" was just being coined.[ citation needed ]
The songs themselves were darker in tone: the madrigal-inspired ballad "Lady D'Arbanville" elevated the tragedy of a lost lover (in this case, Stevens' former girlfriend Patti D'Arbanville) to that of a deceased one and "Trouble" was a plea to stave off death. There were also lighter songs: "Pop Star" showcased Stevens' dramatic change in voice by satirising the triviality of celebrity.
Though "Lady D'Arbanville" would reach No. 8 on the British charts, Mona Bone Jakon was only a modest success upon its initial release. The album attracted attention, however, in the wake of the commercial breakthrough of its follow-up, Tea for the Tillerman , and with the inclusion of three of its songs ("Trouble", "I Wish, I Wish", and "I Think I See the Light") in Hal Ashby and Colin Higgins's 1971 black comedy, Harold and Maude .
According to a 1972 interview with Stevens, the inspiration for the title was a name he created to describe his penis: "'Mona Bone Jakon' is another name for my penis. It's the name I give it. It's not some sort of secret vocabulary, it's just something I made up." [1]
Journalist Robert Chalmers reiterated this point for a 2003 interview with Yusuf Islam for The Independent on Sunday when he wrote: "When [Stevens] re-emerged in 1969, he had more than 40 new songs and released three triumphant albums in 15 months on Chris Blackwell's Island label: Mona Bone Jakon (his pet word for penis), Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat." [2]
The symbolism of the cover artwork was related to Stevens' original intended title for the album, The Dustbin Cried the Day the Dustman Died. [3]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Christgau's Record Guide | B− [4] |
In a contemporary review for The Village Voice , music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a B+, noting that "this one has a nice post-creative trauma feel, intimate and sensitive. Recommended to singer/songwriter specialists." [5] Later, he revised his review to a B− and expressed a newfound dislike for the songs "Lady D'Arbanville", "Trouble", and "I Wish, I Wish". [4]
In a retrospective review, Allmusic's William Ruhlmann gave it four out of five stars and called it "a group of simple, heartfelt songs played in spare arrangements on acoustic guitars and keyboards and driven by a restrained rhythm section". He added that "Stevens' craggy voice, with its odd breaks of tone and occasional huskiness, lent these sometimes sketchy songs depth". [6]
All tracks are written by Cat Stevens
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Mona Bone Jakon" | 1:42 |
| 2. | "I Wish, I Wish" | 3:50 |
| 3. | "Katmandu" | 3:22 |
| 4. | "Time" | 1:26 |
| 5. | "Fill My Eyes" | 3:00 |
| 6. | "Lilywhite" | 3:41 |
| Chart (1970/71) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report) [7] | 25 |
| United Kingdom (Official Charts Company) | 63 |
| United States (Billboard 200) | 164 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| France (SNEP) [8] | Gold | 100,000* |
| Germany (BVMI) [9] | Platinum | 500,000^ |
| United States (RIAA) [10] | Gold | 500,000^ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: others (link){{citation}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)| Studio pop albums |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live albums | |||||||
| Spiritual albums | |||||||
| Compilations | |||||||
| Singles | |||||||
| Other songs | |||||||
| Categories | |||||||
| Related topics | |||||||
Yusuf Islam, commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and musician. He has sold more than 100 million records and has more than two billion streams. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and, later in his career, Islamic music. Following two decades in which he performed only music which met strict religious standards, he returned to making secular music in 2006. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
Tea for the Tillerman is the fourth studio album by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, released in November 1970.
Teaser and the Firecat is the fifth studio album by Cat Stevens, released in October 1971.
Buddha and the Chocolate Box is the eighth studio album by Cat Stevens. The title came to Stevens when he was travelling to a gig on a plane with a Buddha in one hand and a box of chocolates in the other. He pondered that if he were to die in the plane, these would be the last objects with him, and he would be caught between the spiritual and the material worlds. The album leans towards the spiritual path and is an indication of the direction his life would follow.
Catch Bull at Four is the sixth studio album by Cat Stevens. The title is taken from one of the Ten Bulls of Zen.
Paul Granville Samwell-Smith is an English musician and record producer. He was a founding member and the bassist of the 1960s English rock band the Yardbirds, which launched leading guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page to fame.
Foreigner is the seventh studio album released by British-Emirati singer-songwriter Cat Stevens in July 1973. In addition to the minor hit "The Hurt", which received a moderate amount of airplay, Foreigner also included such songs as "100 I Dream" and the 18-minute-long "Foreigner Suite", which took up the entirety of side one.
Izitso is the tenth studio album released by the British singer-songwriter Cat Stevens in April 1977. After the lacklustre Numbers, the album proved to be his comeback. The album updated the rhythmic folk rock and pop rock style of his earlier albums with the extensive use of synthesizers and other electronic music instruments, giving the album a more electronic rock and synthpop style, and anticipating elements of electro.
"Wild World" is a song written and recorded by English singer-songwriter Cat Stevens. It first appeared on his fourth album, Tea for the Tillerman, recorded and released in 1970. As a single, "Wild World" saw significant commercial success, garnering attention for its themes of love and heartbreak, and has been covered numerous times since its release.
Saturnight is the first live album by Cat Stevens, released only in Japan. Proceeds from the album went to support UNICEF.
Back to Earth is the eleventh studio album released by the British singer/songwriter Cat Stevens. It is the only album he recorded using the name Cat Stevens after his conversion to Islam until the release in September 2017 of The Laughing Apple, his fifteenth studio album. It was also the last album of contemporary Western music that he recorded until An Other Cup, 28 years later.
Majikat is a CD and DVD live album by British singer-songwriter Cat Stevens. It was recorded during the US leg of Stevens' Earth Tour 1976, but was not released until 2004, by which time the artist was known as Yusuf Islam.
An Other Cup is the twelfth studio album by Yusuf, released on 10 November 2006 in Germany, 13 November in the UK and the US and worldwide on 14 November. It is Yusuf's first Western pop album since Back to Earth, which was released in 1978 under the name Cat Stevens. An Other Cup is the artist's first studio album under the name Yusuf. It heralded his return to Western pop music.
"Trouble" is a song written by the English singer-songwriter and musician, Cat Stevens, during a period from 1969 to 1970.
Say It Ain't So is the second studio album by Murray Head. It was released in 1975 on A&M Records. The album was produced by Paul Samwell-Smith, and the album features sleeve photography by Gered Mankowitz.
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.
"Lady D'Arbanville" is a song written and recorded by Cat Stevens and released in April 1970. It subsequently appeared on his third album, Mona Bone Jakon, released later that year. It was his first single released after signing a contract with Island Records, with the encouragement of his new producer, Paul Samwell-Smith, fostering a folk rock direction. "Lady D'Arbanville" has a madrigal sound, and was written about Stevens' former girlfriend, Patti D'Arbanville, metaphorically laying her to rest.
Tea for the Tillerman 2 is the sixteenth studio album by singer-songwriter Yusuf / Cat Stevens, released on 18 September 2020 by Cat-O-Log Records through Island. It is a re-imagining of his hit 1970 album Tea for the Tillerman.
King of a Land is the seventeenth studio album from British singer-songwriter Yusuf / Cat Stevens, released on 16 June 2023 by BMG Rights Management / Dark Horse Records. The recording featured children's music and religious music influences, and received positive reviews from critics.
Cat Stevens is a four-disc box set by British singer-songwriter Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam. Released on October 30th, 2001, it features 79 tracks—hits, B-sides, live tracks and previously unreleased material from his tenures on Deram and Island/A&M Records—spanning his career from 1965 to 1978, plus one track from 1997 recorded as 'Yusuf'.
