DC Share Revival: Review: Cat Stevens - Mona Bone Jakon (1970)

Rating: 100/100 - Genrés: Songwriter, Folk Pop.

Cat Stevens’s third studio album, Mona Bone Jakon, released on 24 April 1970, represents one of the most profound artistic rebirths in modern popular music history. At just twenty-one years old, Stevens—born Steven Demetre Georgiou on 21 July 1948 in London to a Greek Cypriot father and English mother—had already endured a harrowing brush with death. In September 1968, Stevens was hospitalized with tuberculosis and a collapsed lung, conditions that required months of sanatorium rest and nearly cost him his life. In a 2004 interview with Mojo magazine, he reflected: “I was so ill I thought I was going to die. It was the most humbling experience of my life.” This enforced convalescence, lasting over six months, was pivotal, forcing him to reevaluate not only his music career but his personal philosophy and identity.

Before his illness, Stevens had enjoyed some commercial success with the 1967 debut Matthew and Son and the 1968 album New Masters, both released under the Decca label. Yet, despite moderate chart performances, he was deeply dissatisfied with the pop star image cultivated by the music industry. After recovering, he parted ways with Decca and signed with Chris Blackwell’s Island Records, a move that proved transformative. Blackwell, known for his work with Bob Marley and Traffic, granted Stevens unprecedented creative freedom. Stevens later described this period as “the first time I was trusted with my own vision,” an opportunity he seized with total seriousness.

The production of Mona Bone Jakon began in early 1970, with sessions held at the iconic Olympic Studios and Abbey Road Studios in London. Paul Samwell-Smith, former bassist and founding member of the Yardbirds, was enlisted as producer. Samwell-Smith’s transition from performer to producer had been marked by a keen ear for folk-rock intimacy and minimalist production, as demonstrated in his earlier work with Renaissance and Nick Drake. His guidance was instrumental in shaping the album’s stripped-down aesthetic, emphasizing emotional immediacy over studio polish.

A significant addition to Stevens’s new sound was guitarist and vocalist Alun Davies, whose gentle fingerpicking and harmony vocals became integral to the album’s texture. Davies, who would remain a close collaborator for decades, was discovered by Stevens through a mutual acquaintance, and his debut on Mona Bone Jakon established a musical rapport often compared to Simon & Garfunkel in subtlety and cohesion. Supporting musicians included John Ryan on double bass and Harvey Burns on drums, while Del Newman arranged strings on select tracks, lending depth without distraction. Newman, an arranger also known for his work with Elton John and Cat Stevens on subsequent albums, was careful to augment rather than overshadow Stevens’s vocals and guitar, often using sparse cello and violin lines that underscored the melancholic atmosphere.

The album’s title itself is a play on Stevens’s own humor and self-awareness. Mona Bone Jakon was a pseudonym he invented for his penis, a sardonic rejection of the mysticism and spiritual pretensions that would later characterize some of his work. This wry humor threads throughout the album, juxtaposed with earnest reflections on fame, mortality, and love.

Musically, Mona Bone Jakon marked a sharp departure from the polished pop of Stevens’s early career. The arrangements are stark yet textured, focusing on acoustic guitar, piano, and sparse rhythm sections. Stevens’s voice—deepened and roughened by illness and introspection—traverses a remarkable emotional range, from the soft fragility of I Wish, I Wish to the near-biblical fervor of I Think I See the Light. That song, built around a gentle piano motif and swelling gospel-inspired harmonies, climaxes in a vocal explosion rarely heard in folk-pop. It’s a sonic metaphor for Stevens’s own resurrection from near-death, his vocal delivery raw with spiritual urgency.

Lady D’Arbanville, the album’s lead single, embodies the blend of medieval melodic influences with modern pop sensibilities. Written for Stevens’s then-girlfriend Patti D’Arbanville, the song metaphorically mourns a lost love as if she were dead, an allegory that reportedly ended their relationship upon release. The song’s fusion of Balkan rhythm and madrigal-style melody captivated UK audiences, propelling it to number eight on the UK Singles Chart in June 1970, Stevens’s highest chart position to that date. The arrangement, featuring handclaps and finger snaps, defied contemporary folk trends and hinted at Stevens’s increasingly eclectic stylistic palette.

The lyrical content of Mona Bone Jakon is deeply autobiographical. Songs like Trouble and Pop Star are direct confrontations with his illness and the trappings of fame. Trouble, with its haunting refrain “I can see death’s disguise hanging on me,” references Stevens’s own near-fatal tuberculosis episode. The song’s subdued instrumentation and breathy harmonies create an atmosphere of vulnerability that resonated enough to be featured in Hal Ashby’s cult classic Harold & Maude in 1971. Pop Star is a biting critique of the music industry’s superficiality, sung with ragged defiance: “I’m a pop star / they say I’m strange” is both self-aware and accusatory, a song that laid bare Stevens’s frustration with his former image.

The album’s second side feels like an interconnected suite. Katmandu features a rare guest appearance by Peter Gabriel, who contributed flute—an early example of Gabriel’s post-Genesis session work. The song conveys Stevens’s yearning for spiritual and physical escape, blending Eastern mysticism with Western folk traditions. The lyrics, “Not in Katmandu but in my room”, point to the imaginative and interior nature of this journey, rather than literal travel.

The closing tracks Time, Fill My Eyes, and Lilywhite are notable for their atmospheric minimalism. The final song, Lilywhite, with bowed bass and subtle strings, fades out as a meditation on transformation and renewal rather than resolution. This coda perfectly encapsulates the album’s ethos of emergence from darkness into light, mirroring Stevens’s own life trajectory.

Commercially, Mona Bone Jakon initially peaked at a modest No. 63 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 164 on the Billboard 200 in the US, but its influence proved enduring. It was certified Gold in the US and eventually sold over a million copies worldwide. The album is widely regarded as foundational in the singer-songwriter canon, influencing contemporaries such as James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young, all of whom similarly balanced personal introspection with accessible melodies.

Critical reaction was mixed but respectful. The New Musical Express praised Stevens’s “gritty and aching voice” while Rolling Stone highlighted the album’s “emotional honesty.”

Over the years, Mona Bone Jakon has been lauded by audiophiles for its remarkable sonic clarity and dynamic range. Early pressings were said to lack the punch and intimacy Stevens desired, a deficiency partially corrected in the 2020 Super Deluxe Edition reissue. This edition included unreleased demos, alternative takes, and live recordings, remastered under the supervision of Samwell-Smith and mastering engineer Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road. Fans and critics praised the new mixes for restoring the warmth and immediacy of Stevens’s voice and acoustic instrumentation, emphasizing transient attacks, punchy bass, and vocal proximity that bring the listener inside the studio experience.

Stevens himself has described his songwriting process during this era as intuitive and demanding: “I can’t write a song by setting out to write a song. It’s the feeling, the emotion, that compels me to write.” He often worked late into the night, obsessing over phrasing and arrangement, yet resisted formula, believing each song “wants to grow by itself”.

Mona Bone Jakon stands today not simply as a collection of songs but as a testament of resilience and artistic integrity. It marks the emergence of Cat Stevens from the chrysalis of commercial pop into a songwriter whose emotional transparency, lyrical depth, and musical restraint helped define an entire generation of folk-pop.

You might also be interested in other reviews I wrote:
   Bob Dylan - Historical Archives Volume 1 (1961-62)
   Donovan - Fairytale (1965)
   Debby Kerner - Come Walk With Me (1972)
   Donovan - What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid (1965)

Thursday, July 17, 2025

Review: Cat Stevens - Mona Bone Jakon (1970)

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