Post by paulo on Sept 8, 2010 22:55:34 GMT -5
Now we've all heard Yusuf describe this song as being about his early career in Music circa mid to late 60s which ended abruptly with his bout of tuberculosis, but I was thinking the other day, when listening to it again, that the song can easily be a metaphor for his whole career in music, particularly how it ended.
The lyrics throughout the song speak of how Cat felt rejected after giving so much, and he appeared to be getting very little back in terms of spiritual nourishment, what he was doing was the most important thing in the world to him and at that time before he discovered Islam was his spiritual calling:
"You once held me in your arms
You made me feel so right
I was flying but for you
it was just Another Night"
I think this song may have something to do with how dramatically the music business changed from the innocence of the early 1970s compared with the late 1970s, and what music meant to Cat at the time.
There's a marked change in Cat's sound in this period too, from producing insightful and almost innocent folk-pop songs to a far more more over-produced and synthesized sound (Numbers, Izitso and even Budha)
Another Night sounds to me like a return to that earlier sound, but it's almost a statement of longing for that sound and the way music used to be (even today Yusuf speaks fondly of making music with Island back then, but never about the late 70s)
It seems to me that the satisfaction that Cat had received from producing music with a simple message of peace, as well as painting images and telling stories (so evident in Mona Bone Jakon, Tillerman, Firecat and Catchbull) was lost from the mid 70s onwards, with a more commercial sound taking over (take 'Bonfire' for instance') In a sense a repeat of what happened in the 60s when Cat's sound was overproduced.
So I think that in this song Cat is moreorless coming to terms with that and submitting that whilst he did find an inner peace from Islam, it wasn't just him leaving music, but perhaps music leaving him. When he sings:
"But everybody needs a little help
Whether or not you think you really do
Everybody needs a little help
Now the time has come for you..."
I find this particular line to be a clear statement about the music business and Cat's opinion of it at that time, as potentially even being helpless.
But the line that I find particularly relevant given everything Yusuf has said about his decision to return to music, as not just being a personal choice to return, but a feeling that the world needs his music now more than ever before- in a sense Yusuf feels that the music has found him again, not just the other way round:
"But don't you worry it's alright
If you should come around
Any night or any day
I won't ever let you down..."
So basically I think that Cat left us a message all those years ago by saying that if we should "come around" he would be there for us. It took close to thirty years but I think we did eventually come around and Yusuf certainly hasn't let us down- whilst the music business has progressively got worse, there's a real appetite in the world today for a message of hope in the face of adversity, which more then anything else is what Yusuf's music represents.
Many artists who were so important to that 1970s period of music attempted to make it big in the 80s and have flopped- they still have their fans but the music they've produced is almost an embarrassment to be put up against some of their earlier work (yes I am talking about the likes of James Taylor, Bob Dylan and especially Elton John) whereas the Cat Stevens music we all know and love is there for all time as a kind of time capsule.
I think that the trend which was appearing in some of the tracks off of Izitso and Numbers (an overproduced sound) would have got worse in the 80s. I'm always proud of the fact that Yusuf never sold out for commercial success and his sound has stayed moreorless true (albeit it wavered slightly from 77-79) and Just Another Night could be a statement about this? What do you think?
The lyrics throughout the song speak of how Cat felt rejected after giving so much, and he appeared to be getting very little back in terms of spiritual nourishment, what he was doing was the most important thing in the world to him and at that time before he discovered Islam was his spiritual calling:
"You once held me in your arms
You made me feel so right
I was flying but for you
it was just Another Night"
I think this song may have something to do with how dramatically the music business changed from the innocence of the early 1970s compared with the late 1970s, and what music meant to Cat at the time.
There's a marked change in Cat's sound in this period too, from producing insightful and almost innocent folk-pop songs to a far more more over-produced and synthesized sound (Numbers, Izitso and even Budha)
Another Night sounds to me like a return to that earlier sound, but it's almost a statement of longing for that sound and the way music used to be (even today Yusuf speaks fondly of making music with Island back then, but never about the late 70s)
It seems to me that the satisfaction that Cat had received from producing music with a simple message of peace, as well as painting images and telling stories (so evident in Mona Bone Jakon, Tillerman, Firecat and Catchbull) was lost from the mid 70s onwards, with a more commercial sound taking over (take 'Bonfire' for instance') In a sense a repeat of what happened in the 60s when Cat's sound was overproduced.
So I think that in this song Cat is moreorless coming to terms with that and submitting that whilst he did find an inner peace from Islam, it wasn't just him leaving music, but perhaps music leaving him. When he sings:
"But everybody needs a little help
Whether or not you think you really do
Everybody needs a little help
Now the time has come for you..."
I find this particular line to be a clear statement about the music business and Cat's opinion of it at that time, as potentially even being helpless.
But the line that I find particularly relevant given everything Yusuf has said about his decision to return to music, as not just being a personal choice to return, but a feeling that the world needs his music now more than ever before- in a sense Yusuf feels that the music has found him again, not just the other way round:
"But don't you worry it's alright
If you should come around
Any night or any day
I won't ever let you down..."
So basically I think that Cat left us a message all those years ago by saying that if we should "come around" he would be there for us. It took close to thirty years but I think we did eventually come around and Yusuf certainly hasn't let us down- whilst the music business has progressively got worse, there's a real appetite in the world today for a message of hope in the face of adversity, which more then anything else is what Yusuf's music represents.
Many artists who were so important to that 1970s period of music attempted to make it big in the 80s and have flopped- they still have their fans but the music they've produced is almost an embarrassment to be put up against some of their earlier work (yes I am talking about the likes of James Taylor, Bob Dylan and especially Elton John) whereas the Cat Stevens music we all know and love is there for all time as a kind of time capsule.
I think that the trend which was appearing in some of the tracks off of Izitso and Numbers (an overproduced sound) would have got worse in the 80s. I'm always proud of the fact that Yusuf never sold out for commercial success and his sound has stayed moreorless true (albeit it wavered slightly from 77-79) and Just Another Night could be a statement about this? What do you think?
