Yusuf/Cat Stevens announces new recording of Tea For The Tillerman to mark original’s 50th anniversary

Nostalgia is big business and the record industry loves a good anniversary reissue. Once or twice a decade, why not repackage an old album? Maybe remaster it. Maybe add a big pile of extra tracks no one thought it worth inflicting on the public before. For the 50th anniversary of his ‘Tea For The Tillerman’ album, Yusuf/Cat Stevens has done something different, though. He’s re-recorded the whole album anew, calling it ‘Tea For The Tillerman²’ or just ‘T4TT²’.

Back when he first wrote and recorded the original album, he was a young man in his early 20s. It was, nonetheless, his fourth studio record. And also his first big success.

Its influence was strong back in the early 70s and has continued through the decades. But now Stevens is a different man. He doesn’t really go by the name Stevens anymore, for one thing. Which means that when he sings “we’ve come a long way” on opening track ‘Where Do The Children Play?’, the lyric carries a different weight.

“Though my songwriting adventures were never limited to ‘Tillerman’, the songs on that album certainly defined me and pointed the way for my mysterious life’s journey”, he says.

He goes on: “Since those originative sessions in Morgan Studios, Willesden, in 1970, ‘Tillerman’ has grown and developed its own gravitas and influence on music history and as the soundtrack to so many people’s lives. Like it was destiny waiting to happen, ‘T4TT²’ feels like the timing of its message has arrived again”.

The new version of the record will be released on 18 Sep. Listen to the new version of ‘Where Do The Children Play?’ here:

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