Majicat Earth Tour questions

[kristensteps]

So I am Kristen. I wasn't alive for any of the "Cat Stevens" era. I have seen Yusuf twice now both times in Chicago. I have been a fan since 1995. I was 15 and kinda took my dad's Tea For the Tillerman cd. I never listened to anything current and trendy in my teen years. I fell in love with Miles from Nowhere and Father and Son. I was contemplating suicide and his music just helped me quite a bit. Through this I discovered more such as Harry Chapin, John Denver, and Paul Simon. I would consider myself a huge fan of both Yusuf and Harry. I obviously will never see Harry. So different, yet people always confuse them.
Anyway... the question. I saw the set list for the Majicat Earth Tour show in Williamsburg, Va. There are several songs missing from the cd, and I think in the DVD the songs are out of order as well as missing Jzero. Why? Does the recording exist? I have recently fell in love with Numbers and Jzero. Also sitting and Miles from Nowhere are amazing and don't see why missing from cd.
I have a few non official recorded concerts, but no Jzero anywhere live!

[Deleted]

Hi Kristen. Thanks for telling your story. I think it's very cool that you didn't listen to the trendy music expected of your age group at the time, and followed your own instincts. I am glad you are here with us and very happy that you have been able to see Yusuf in concert on his most recent tours. I am older, was in high school and college during the 70's but was only a casual fan. I wish so much that I had seen Cat in concert back in the day, but have been fortunate to see him on tour in 2014 and 2016. It has been wonderful to hear him bring songs from his entire catalogue back into his concerts.

It was a real surprise to hear Novim's Nightmare at the Boston show. Kind of funny that with all the youtube videos that appeared after all theses shows, no one captured Novim's Nightmare. One thing to keep in mind is that back in the 70's there were no cell phones with which a concertgoer could take a video. It was very difficult to even sneak a good camera into a concert and get a picture let alone a recording of any sort. So unless an official filming or recording was being done, I doubt we will have much luck finding live versions of these songs anywhere. Probably when they put the DVD and CD together someone made the decision which songs to cut for one reason or another. They most likely do exist but got edited out. (This is just my opinion, maybe someone else know more.)

I suppose at the time of the Majikat tour, maybe the songs from "Numbers" were not yet as popular or well known as a lot of his other songs, being that it was a relatively new record at the time.
It could be that because Numbers was a concept album and the songs followed a certain sequence, that hearing any one of the songs as a stand-alone was more difficult to make sense of the lyrics to a casual fan. As with any concert, often the artist only plays a few of the "new" songs in a set that otherwise features the more well-known "hits" that preceeded them.

[Leonard]

The set list here for the Majikat concert in Williamsburg, Virgina (1976) does indeed include "Sitting" and "Jzero." That it's neither included on the CD nor DVD is a sign for me that the quality of the recorded material wasn't up to the desired standard, which is why they were left on the cutting floor eventually. Also note that "How Can I Tell You" isn't even featured on the DVD (only the CD), and Ruins while on the DVD is missing from the CD version, and so on.

Be it as it may, there are, however, many bootlegs of live concerts out there with all those songs present and in great quality. For instance, the 1976 Seattle concert, likewise part of the Majicat Earth Tour, has both "Jzero" and "Sitting" in all their glory.

[kristensteps]

I have a recording of Paris 1975, Boston unknown but feature boy with a moon and star, and a great recording of Chicago 2014. The Chicago one was sent to me by a friend. Where does one go seek recordings? I think I got the Paris one from someone on this board years ago. I may have had a copy of Saturn Night at one time, but no clue where it is now.

[Leonard]

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