There is excellent news on the upcoming Cat Stevens albums that we had previously announced (Tea for the Tillerman, and Teaser and the Firecat). Instead of being eco-packs that have been pouring out the door of these labels, these are actually expanded 2CD Deluxe Edition packages. Each set will add in a 2nd disc of bonus tracks, etc. Tea for the Tillerman will add 11 tracks:



Wild World (Demo)
Longer Boats (Live at The Troubadour)
Into White (Live at the Troubadour)
Miles From Nowhere (Demo)
Hard Headed Woman (Live in Japan)
Where do the Children Play? (from The Majikat Earth Tour – 1976)
Sad Lisa (from The Majikat Earth Tour – 1976)
On the Road to Find Out (Live at KCET-TV LA)
Father and Son (Yusuf’s Café)
Wild World (Yusuf’s Café)
Tea for the Tillerman (Live at the BBC)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001G9LV9S/?tag=imwan-20

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Teaser and the Firecat will add 10 tracks to their bonus 2nd disc:



Moonshadow (Recorded at the Troubadour)
Rubylove (Demo)
If I Laugh (Demo)
Changes IV (Demo)
How Can I Tell You (Demo)
Morning Has Broken (Demo)
Bitterblue (Recorded at The Royal Albert Hall)
Tuesday’s Dead (from The Majikat Earth Tour – 1976)
Peace Train (South African Mix)
The Wind (Yusuf’s Café)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001G9LVA2/?tag=imwan-20

Both albums are newly re-mastered and, in addition to the rarities 2nd disc, will contain extensive booklets with complete original artwork, new liner notes from Paul Samwell-Smith, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), and his longtime guitarist, Alun Davies. Both of these Deluxe Edition sets will be released by A&M Records on November 04. Must haves!!

Great news! Thanks!

Are they UK-only releases or also to be released in the U.S.A.?

This is really great news. Thanks for posting this. My November is shaping up as being a wallet killer as well.

Bump: added cover art and pre-order links to the first post. (These are showing as domestic releases, not imports.)

$30 each. They're crazy.

CD Universe has them for $23.95, but I think I'll wait until we get closer to the release date. Amazon.com will come to their senses........eventually.

Amazon has posted this offer:


(See Amazon ordering links for both deluxe editions in the first post.)

These prices are similar to the U2 deluxes - out of their minds. You can pick up the single remaster for War, Boy, October for 11.99 @ BB, but they add an additional disc and they are $29.99. I think a basic doubling of the price would be too much, but at least there's a logical argument there. Particularly when the bonus discs are of various interest (October's live material Yes! War's various remixes ofr the same track(s) - no.)

I have gotten around the overpriced U2 deluxes by using a combination of cashback (I have a Borders credit card) and Borders coupons. The most I paid was $16.99 last week for October. I'm not bothering with Under A Blood Red Sky because I already have the original CD and I'm not that big a U2 fan that I need the DVD. I'm surprised they didn't expand the CD to full length. And no B-sides or remixes, either? Kind of disappointing DE, IMO.

Several of the bonus tracks are already available on the live Majicat cd and Yusuf's Cafe dvd!!! You're basically paying close to $25 for several tracks as any real CS fan already has Tea and Teaser!! I'll pass on this.

These are supposed to be newly remastered. But the CD Universe description for Tillerman states "Digitally remastered by Bill Levenson (December 1999, Sterling Sound, New York, New York)." That could simply be an error on CDU's part, or it means that these editions use the same mastering as the 2000 releases and just add the bonus tracks.

On a side note, several months ago I picked up a Cat Stevens boot called 9 Lives. It contains demo versions of Tillerman and Teaser songs, plus several others. Great sound, really enjoyable. Looks like some of those songs are appearing on the new editions. Wild World, if the same as on the boot, has slightly varied lyrics. Cat fans will love them, but can't say it is worth the extra money for these pricy "deluxe" editions.

Still waiting for a legit reissue of the Japanese-only live album Saturnight. A couple of the tracks showed up on the box set, but reportedly Stevens isn't fond of it and is blocking its release.

I had both of these on vinyl and I don't remember them being particularly lengthy albums. Unless he really stretches things out on those demos/live versions, I would imagine the bonus material and original album could have fit on one disc.

I added the times up listed on AMG and both of the deluxe versions could have fit on a single disc. I don't know if this is a new remastering, but I can't imagine either sounding any better than the previous remasters.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... 1&v=111081

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... 2&v=111081

Re: Jimbo's post, bummer. I was hoping that Saturnight might turn up as THE bonus disc on one of these deluxe reissues. As it is, the vinyl is kinda pricey, and as such, is missing from my collection...

CDU has a long history of putting previous mastering information on things which are going to be new reissue releases.

I'm boycotting these two titles for the simple fact that they're NOT CD/SACD hybrids.
The record companies really need to get their heads out of their asses. Just maybe
these are avail as such at Amazon UK......will go there after here and look. Got my
deluxe Brain Salad Surgery from Amazon UK for a lot less than the domestic release
and the service wasn't all that bad either. Still awaiting the Paranoid release date
which seems to be still up in the air. Maybe the delay is due to Universal's grammat-
ical errors on the Brain Salad Surgery layout with them tryin' to get the Black Sabbath
titles right....

sk

Picked upthe Tea For The Tillerman deluxe at my local indie store and love it. Great sound, packaging, and am very happy with the bonus tracks. No complaints from me here.

I'd love SACDs for just about any release, new or old, but it seems that in America, that ship has sailed...maybe if the industry can settle on a standard once Blu-Ray becomes more mainstream (perhaps I should say "IF Blu-Ray becomes more mainstream"...), we'll once again have frequent hi-rez, 5.1 releases. Here's hoping!!! In the meantime, let's keep supporting whatever SACDs and DVD-As we can find!

Same thing with the New Order Deluxe Editions, basically each whole re-issue would have fit on a single disc instead of the two-disc "deluxe" packages. Each original album easily fit on one side of a C-90 cassette tape back in the day, with a remix or three added as filler. I can somewhat understand wanting to keep the album on a separate disc from the bonus material, but when the second disc barely fills half of the 80-minute capacity as well, the economics of the release as two discs is questionable.

The economics for the consumer may be questionable, but they sure make sense for the label!