VIA PRESS RELEASE | Yusuf / Cat Stevens’ little known 1974 concert album, Saturnight: Live from Tokyo, is scheduled for release in the U.S. for the first time ever, 50 years after it was released only in Japan, due to contractual restrictions.
Remastered from the original production master for the first time since its original release, the record will go on sale exclusively as part of Record Store Day’s Black Friday annual event on November 29th. It will be available as an “RSD First” release on 180-gram Orange Splatter color vinyl. The LP has been cut at the world-famous Abbey Road Studios and will be packaged for the first time in a gatefold sleeve that includes lyrics and new liner notes from the band’s 1974 tour manager, Carl Miller, and bassist Bruce Lynch.
Saturnight was recorded on June 22nd, 1974, at Sun Plaza Hall in Nakano, Tokyo, Japan on the Japanese leg of Cat’s 1974 “Bamboozle World Tour.” The tour comprised 50 shows across North America, Europe, Australia and Japan to support the release of Buddha and the Chocolate Box. Cat had long felt an affinity with the aesthetic elegance and spiritual depth of Japanese culture, especially the principles of meditation and reflection upon which their traditions of poetry, design and craftsmanship are founded.
Saturnight features Cat at his peak, performing an incredible concert of songs from his then-newest release, Buddha and the Chocolate Box (“Oh Very Young,” “King of Trees,” “A Bad Penny”) alongside some of his greatest hits which dominated the charts in the early ‘70s. These include the classics “Lady D’Arbanville” (Mona Bone Jakon – 1970); “Wild World,” “Where Do The Children Play?” “Hard Headed Woman,” “Father & Son” (Tea for the Tillerman – 1970); “Peace Train,” “Bitterblue” (Teaser and the Firecat – 1971); and “Sitting” (Catch Bull at Four – 1972).
Also included is a soulful cover of Sam Cooke’s “Another Saturday Night.” Cat and his band were fresh from recording the song at a studio in Tokyo using a Japanese brass section—the very same version that would go on to become a hit single later that year. The performance on Saturnight captures the first time they ever played “Another Saturday Night” live.
Although Saturnight never received a full global release—due to contractual reasons between A&M and Island Records—Cat arranged for the proceeds to be donated to UNICEF. He had recently become a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and with their help, had visited Ethiopia and Kenya earlier in 1974. There, he saw firsthand some of the utter devastation caused by drought and famine, but also witnessed the remarkable resilience and nobility of the human spirit. The experience moved him profoundly and had a truly lasting impact on his life and career, so that his humanitarian efforts would soon overtake his personal musical ambitions.
As Cat redirected more of his individual success towards helping those in need, he would eventually leave the music industry altogether. Dedicating himself to charity and advocacy work, he would use the status and rewards that music had brought him in the service of equality and a just world. In many ways Saturnight represents a significant early step on that incredible journey.
