Sold Date: June 13, 2017
Start Date: June 6, 2017
Final Price: £545.99 (GBP)
Bid Count: 15
Seller Feedback: 4446
Buyer Feedback: 77

Now, I've been crying lately,
Thinking about the world as it is,
Why must we go on hating?
Why can't we live in bliss?

'Cause out on the edge of darkness,
There rides a peace train,
Oh, peace train, take this country,
Come take me home again.
I try not to bring current events into my descriptions, but the horrific murders of the innocent in Manchester and London cannot
be ignored, bombing children and their parents waiting to pick them up at a concert, is beyond belief.  All in the name of religion?
No, peace loving Muslims are just as shocked as everyone else,Cat Stevens converted to the Muslim religion when he left the music
business in 1978, back in 1971, Cat Stevens wrote a song with lyrics just as relevant today, as 46 years ago.  Way before he was
re-named Usuf, he wrote an anthem to Peace, those who are carrying out such atrocities, in particular, those recruiting and
brain washing them into becoming killers without any conscious, have their own Karma to face.  They want to create fear, hate,
anger and ultimately start a war, which would only escalate the death of the innocent, instead take a seat on the "Peace Train."
"PEACE TRAIN" (Cat Stevens, 1971)

Now, I've been happy lately,
Thinking about the good things to come,
And I believe it could be,
Something good has begun.

Oh, I've been smiling lately,
Dreaming about the world as one,
And I believe it could be,
Someday it's going to come.

'Cause out on the edge of darkness,
There rides a peace train,
Oh, peace train, take this country,
Come take me home again.

Now, I've been smiling lately,
Thinking about the good things to come,
And I believe it could be,
Something good has begun.

Oh, peace train sounding louder,
Glide on the peace train,
Come on the peace train.

Yes, peace train holy roller,
Everyone jump upon the peace train,
Come on the peace train.

Get your bags together,
Go bring your good friends too,
Because it's getting nearer,
It soon will be with you.

Now, come and join the living,
It's not so far from you,
And it's getting nearer,
Soon it will all be true.

Oh, peace train sounding louder,
Glide on the peace train,
Come on the peace train, peace train.

Now, I've been crying lately,
Thinking about the world as it is,
Why must we go on hating?
Why can't we live in bliss?

'Cause out on the edge of darkness,
There rides a peace train,
Oh, peace train, take this country,
Come take me home again.

Oh, peace train sounding louder,
Glide on the peace train,
Come on the peace train.

Yes, peace train holy roller,
Everyone jump upon the peace train,
Come on, come on, come on,
Yes, come on the peace train,
Yes, it's the peace train.

Come on the peace train, oh, peace train.
CAT STEVENS: "Teaser And The Firecat" LP, RARE VERY FIRST UK PRESSING, ISSUED 26th SEPTEMBER, 1971.


  PINK RIM ISLAND LABEL:  ILPS 9154
Pressing details do seem secondary now, but  I must concentrate on them, "Teaser And The Firecat" was a huge selling album in
Britain and America.  Peaking at No.3 in the UK, with a chart residence of an astonishing consecutive 93 weeks, it had to be a
very special album to remain in the charts for nearly two years.  A massive amount of pressings were made in that period and like
all huge selling titles, you can trace the very first pressings and associated printed items. The first edition gatefold cover is
extremely rare in anything approaching presentable condition due to the outside being thickly textured with an embossed title
etc.   After the No.20 commercial success of the November, 1970, "Tea For The Tillerman," Island had a relatively few special
covers made exclusively by 'E J. Day,' Cat Stevens painting for the cover artwork looked incredible on the textured outside.
A light pastel green background was a recipe for excessive ageing and stains, then the problems of the embossed top surface
wearing and the loss of the printing.  Even the spine was embossed and the printed titles stood no chance, meanwhile, Island
contracted 'Howards Printers (Slough) Ltd.' printers to make another version without the texturing, with the smooth finish a thin
top sheen completely changed the appearance, even the pastel green was a totally different colour.   Due to the terrible wear
and heavy plays of the very first pressing records, in sixteen years on ebay, this is the first time I have been able offer the
textured gatefold cover.   This is an amazing Mint- condition 'E J. Day' printed textured cover, an unused Mint first issue blue
Island Records inner sleeve and an unplayed very first pressed record.

On that subject, the 'Discogs' website have given the incorrect maitrix for the very first pressing, the rest is accurate though.
They state, 'ILPS 9154  A - 5U /  ILPS 9454  B - 4U', but that was well into the pressing batches.   The record offered here has
two digits lower on Side 1 and one lower on Side 2.  Further into EMI's pressing, the info about a dual maitrix was right, with the
same  'ILPS 9154' prefix, but one machine stamped and one hand scribed, a common enough practice because the hand scribed
indexing was made at New York's "Sterling Sound.'   Obviously EMI in England, added the machine stamped version, this very
first pressing only has the hand scribed 'ILPS 9154' prefix and it simply had to predate the machine stamped addition.  For once
EMI's stamping codes must be taken in isolation because EMI pressed the records with all the initial mothers in operation, the
actual indexing is found in the maitrix itself.  Simply because the mastering took place in the USA, as the album was released near
the end of 1971, that can be verified by looking at the labels just past the 3 o'clock position.  Under '(P) 1971' in bold print,
is 'STEREO,' a remnant from the recently finished 1960's decade with Mono dominating, in 1972 Island removed 'STEREO' and
the later pressings will not have that text.


MAITRIX; ILPS 9154  A - 3 U /  ILPS 9154 B - 3 U

PRESSED BY EMI FOR ISLAND, THEIR STAMPING CODES; RA 2  /  RP 3
Anticipated big selling albums were always made with a mixture of the pre-prepared 'mothers' and there are many, many examples
where EMI indexing can only be accurately taken from the maitrix, the most obvious would be the 1970 "Let It Be" album.


THE RUN-OUT GROOVES OF THESE FIRST PRESSINGS HAVE "Sterling" STAMPED ON BOTH SIDES, TO THE
  RIGHT OF THE STAMPING'S 'LH' IS HAND WRITTEN.  THE ALBUM  WAS MASTERED BY Lee Hulko IN NEW YORK'S
  LEGENDARY 'STERLING SOUND' STUDIOS.
The pictures include the hand scribed initials 'LH', the logo of the current top sound engineer in Sterling Sound studios, so the
   the outstanding sound mastered in 1971 is attributed to a combination of Lee Hulko's mastering and EMI's immaculate pressing.


UNUSED ORIGINAL 1971 BLUE POLY-LINED ISLAND INNER SLEEVE, UNWORN & UNSPLIT, WITH ONLY A
RECORD IMPRESSION AND A FEW RELATED LIGHT CREASES,  TOO MINOR TO TAKE SERIOUSLY!  I OFTEN
FIND TRUE MINT ISLAND RECORDS WITH THESE  BLUE ISLAND SLEEVES DID AGE WITHOUT USE, BUT NOT
HERE.   IT WOULD EASIER FOR ME TO SAY THIS HAS 'AGEING' BUT ACTUAL AGEING FOR 46 YEARS OF AGE
VIRTUALLY DOES NOT EXIST.  THE GLUE USED TO STICK THE POLY-LINING TO THE MATT, ABSORBENT PAPER
IS NOT 'AGEING'.
The exceptional cover's condition establishes the long term storage had to be as caring as possible for a 46 year old, easily
yellowed inner sleeve, an unplayed record also added to the sleeve's condition.
THE INNER SLEEVE IS IN MINT CONDITION.


UNUSED ORIGINAL 1971 BLUE POLY-LINED ISLAND INNER SLEEVE, UNWORN & UNSPLIT, WITH ONLY A
RECORD IMPRESSION AND A FEW RELATED LIGHT CREASES,  TOO MINOR TO TAKE SERIOUSLY!  I OFTEN
FIND TRUE MINT ISLAND RECORDS WITH THESE  BLUE ISLAND SLEEVES DID AGE WITHOUT USE, BUT NOT
HERE.   IT WOULD EASIER FOR ME TO SAY THIS HAS 'AGEING' BUT ACTUAL AGEING FOR 46 YEARS OF AGE
VIRTUALLY DOES NOT EXIST.  THE GLUE USED TO STICK THE POLY-LINING TO THE MATT, ABSORBENT PAPER
IS NOT 'AGEING'.
The exceptional cover's condition establishes the long term storage had to be as caring as possible for a 46 year old, easily
yellowed inner sleeve, an unplayed record also added to the sleeve's condition.
THE INNER SLEEVE IS IN MINT CONDITION.


SUPERB DELUXE SOFTLY TEXTURED MATT COVER, THE BACK AND NOT THE FRONT HAS THE ALBUM TITLE EMBOSSED
IN BLACK LETTERING.   THE COVER IS OUTSTANDING, THERE IS NO  WEAR AT ALL TO THE TEXTURED TOP SURFACE ON
THE FRONT AND BACK, POSITIVELY NO RING WEAR, WHICH IS A MINOR MIRACLE!
This was standing in storage in a plastic outer sleeve, so no fading or scuffing and positively none of the very common severe
ring wear. The slightest possible standing pressure simply had to be there after 46 years but as an unplayed record, there was
no handling at all.  My pictures say all that is  needed, any fractional standing is incorporated into a minus, hardly anything to
justify that for a really beautiful rare textured "Teaser And The Firecat"cover.  

The top of the spine is often mistakenly as wear, especially for the textured covers, the back artwork had a expanded section
of Cat Steven's front cover lovely artwork. All you see is the boy's legs in boots, the triangular section at the top of the back
spine is lighter because it's the tip of the fish skeleton head he's holding in his hand.  I included a picture of that painting
and other key positions painting to show the texturing and also, the incredible condition.  The inside panels contain the full
lyrics on the left and a David Bailey photo of Cat on the right, the inside is not textured.
THE VERY RARE  'E J. Day' PRINTED TEXTURED COVER IS IN MINT- CONDITION.


THE LABELS ARE IMMACULATE AND HAVE NEVER BEEN ON A SPINDLE, THERE ARE NO MARKS ON THE VINYL AND
  IF THE EXTRAORDINARY CONDITION OF THE TEXTURED COVER AND THE BLUE 'ISLAND RECORDS' INNER SLEEVE
DOES NOT SCREAM, 'UNPLAYED MINT RECORD,' I STILL FEEL OBLIGED TO STATE THE OBVIOUS.  1971 OR 2017,
RECORDS LEFT THE PRESSING PLANTS WITH ULTRA FAINT HANDLING TRACES OR THE IMPRINT OF THE METAL
STAMPING DISCS AS THEY LEFT THE MOLTEN VINYL.   FACTORY SEALED RECORDS PROVE THAT WAS A COMMON
  OCCURRENCE IN EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, VINYL HAS DEEP GROOVES FOR THE METAL DISCS TO STAMP
DEEPLY INTO RECORDS.  THEY ARE NOTHING LIKE CD'S, BUT EVEN THEY HAVE THE SAME FEATHER LIGHT TO
NEAR INVISIBLE TRACES.
I AM NOT IN THE HABIT OF LOOKING FOR EXCUSES, YOU CAN SEE HOW THIS RECORD HAS NEVER BEEN ON A
SPINDLE BY LOOKING AT MY PICTURE THE TEXTURED SIDE 1 LABEL. SUBSTANTIAL FLAKES OF VINYL ARE STILL
INSIDE THE SPINDLE HOLE, THE RECORD IS IN UNPLAYED, MINT CONDITION.
SIDE 1
"The Wind"
"Rubylove"
"If I Laugh"
"Changes IV"
"How Can I Tell You"

SIDE 2
"Tuesday's Dead"
"Morning Has Broken" (Traditional, arranged & adapted by Cat Stevens)  
"Bitterblue"
"Moonshadow"
"Peace Train"


Cat Stevens - vocals, acoustic guitar & keyboards,
Alun Davies - acoustic guitar & backing vocals
Larry Steele - bass guitar, congas Gerry Conway - drums & percussion

Harvey Burns - drums & percussion
Jean Roussel - Hammond organ on "Peace Train"
Linda Lewis - backing vocals
Andy Roberts  - Kriwaczek string organ
Rick Wakeman - piano on "Morning Has Broken"
Andreas Toumazis - bouzouki
Angelos Harzipavli - bouzouki
 
Cover Artwork - Cat Stevens
Photographer - David Bailey
All tracks written by Cat Stevens, except where credited.
Recorded July, 1970-  March,1971, at Morgan Studios, Willesden, London & Paramount Studios, Los Angeles.
Produced by Paul Samwell-Smith
I will of course keep the record unplayed, the rarity has been fully detailed and I sincerely think the track listing alone is
all that is needed for "Teaser And The Firecat."  A masterpiece of an album, with every song crafted by a gifted artist arriving
  at his peak of artistic inspiration.  The previous pair of Cat's Island albums featured folk music, now he expanded the music
without losing the beautiful melodies, poetic lyrics and a deep sensitivity rarely found in any decade.  "Moonshadow" is such
a beautiful song sung with an intensity both genuine and genius, I have written many, many descriptions with full biographies,
but this is not the time or place, after just hearing there was another terrorist incident in Paris.  The last track on the album is
"Peace Train," the track is as important as John Lennon's "Imagine" and "Give Peace A Chance",  I think enough has been said
said about "Teaser And The Firecat."  Should for any reason you have yet to hear the album, I cannot recommend it highly enough,
especially to see and hear the fantastic presentation of this ultimate, rare very first pressing.
{Roy}
  R & M RECORDS.

My lifetime's love of music and records began at a very young age, the arrival of the Beatles and the 1960's decade
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