Added: 4 years ago
From: m15r4m
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  • yep - top notch music. I listen from Steely Dan, to Waylon and Willie to Motley Crue. This music is tops, real good.

  • Extraordinary sound for an old video. I absolutely love it. Thank you for sharing such a precious treasure 

  • Aucario the pianist is Peter Wood

  • Never got to see it before youtube, ironic. could of used it back in the day.

  • Al's guitar solo is great !!!

  • This and EVERY performance on the Old Grey Whistle Test was always 100% Live... Bob Harris & his programme lead the field and if you couldn't play/perform Live then no way did you get on the show. In the 70s bands played live. Period. If you like, it was the Jools Holland Show of the 70s.

  • i like the way the guitar lead switches bck and forth

  • there are not many good songs that mention Peter Lorrie or Bogart (without mentioning joints)

  • Yes my friend I agree.It's so rare to hear any music live today...Even when they're on stage! With auto tune and lip syncing I believe there are "singers" today who really can't sing. Brittney Spears and Ashley Simpson and most of the singers on BTV come to mind.

  • ITS LIVE IDIOTS.ALWAYS LIVE ON GREY WHISTLE

  • @marcmgm The current generations have no clue what REAL LIVE TV is about. No Editing, no post production, nothing but pure live music. Current mainstream bands couldnt pull this off without sounding like garbage

  • O youth! Study and saturate yourself with the diverse talents of the 60's and 70's. Imitate it until you play the music that's coursing nobly in your own blood. We old farts beg you to do this before we lay upon the final silk, wetted by an old girl's kiss. Please. I am asking.

  • ahhh here it is, Brighten up my flu-ridden afternoon on the reception desk :)

  • This is a live recording

  • Just saw Al Stewart in calif. Good show small club. I had this album two years later the tape and many years latter the CD and then I tunes really like the whole recording.

  • @kja427 You want the Vietnamese zodiac for the Year of the Cat, which matches Chinese Year of the Rabbit, so 1975. I love this track... so much so that I once looked up that fact ha ha

  • This tune would've been more appropriate in 1974, NOT 1977. In the eyes of The Chinese, 1974 was the year of The Tiger; 1977 was The year of The Snake. Other than that, it's not a bad tune.

  • I was brought up on Old Grey Whistles! love this song :)

  • which is the name of playing the piano, please

  • @Acuario280 - I believe that's Peter White, who's gone on to be a huge 'Smooth Jazz' artist. I know he was with the band when this recording was done.

  • I LOVE IT... THAT SIMPLE

  • Ah the 70's, I was a freshman in HS when this came out, what great memories. This played on every AM/FM radio station for months. My daughter just started college, man time goes so fast.......

  • This is a big favorite of mine...I have some Al Stewart in my collection, and this is live. On the studio version there are real strings. Here you can hear the mellotron covering the string section, still a great song! I wish radio was still as good as it was back then!

  • I love patchouli

  • "your bound to stay" the Year Of The Cat...PRICELESS & FOREVER A PLEASURE TO LISTEN TO

  • who is the piano player here? The keyboardist later -are they brothers?

  • Eric- this is the song- isn't it cool? Loved it for soooo long.

  • Oh Al, weren't you just georgeous in those days! I remember seeing you when I was with Sam Mitchell backstage at a Kevin Ayres' concert in Hyde Park. The last time I saw you (and you didn't remember me at all, was at The Stables in Milton Keynes), although you were kind enough to pretend you did. Thanks for that.. Anyway, here's to The Cousins, The Troubadour, Bunjies, and London in the sixties, Irish Stew at Luke's flat and a really great kiss, even though you scared me half to death!

  • Oh Al, weren't you just georgeous in those days! I remember seeing you when I was with Sam Mitchell backstage at a Kevin Ayres' concert in Hyde Park. The last time I saw you (and you didn't remember me at all, was at The Stables in Milton Keynes), although you were kind enough to pretend you did. Thanks for that.. Anyway, here's to The Cousins, The Troubadour, Bunjies, and London in the sixties, Irish Stew at Luke's flat and a really great kiss, even though you scared me half to death!

  • Don't forget smooth jazz superstar Peter White, whose playing keyboards in this classic. Fortunately, Peter and Al have been teaming up on some concerts recently re-introducing this great music to a new generation.

  • I liked this song from the second I first heard it. Great to hear it again. Thanks for posting this.

  • Wow, this really takes me back. Happy Birthday Al!

  • one of the favourites on a pirate radio station I worked on ... half a lifetime ago ... believe it or not you couldn't hear this stuff on mainstream uk radio 30 years ago ...

  • MY YOUTH! THIS MUSIC DRIVEN IN MY FIRST CAR - IT WAS SO GREAT.

    Es war genial! Super - super

  • great performance

  • It may be a little harder to find but there is some really good music now. John Mayer, Maroon 5, etc.

  • it's just sublime - let it wash over you -

  • same here..born in the late 60's..the 70's were awesome..please let me go back for a minute..lived outside boston my whole life and this song is summer of 77 all over again

  • timeless....al stewart=genius

  • LOL - The talent pool dried up probably more than a decade ago, probably even two decades ago.

  • @steelerdave2000 NO LO CREO POR DIFICIL Q PAREZCA AUN EXISTE MUCHO TALENTO;CON TODO RESZPETO YO CREO Q TE EQUIVOCAS UN POCO.

  • How come artists today, don't spend any time actually writing lyrics ?  There are exceptions, but the talent-pool has dried up, musically. : (

  • I love this song......takes me back to high school....when I was a freshman.......I love it....! Thank you for posting this!!!!!

  • Al Stewart wrote a story of mystery and romance, put it to music and gave it to the world!

  • When this song/record starts...YOU AIN'T SWITCHING STATIONS

    till that last note is played...!!!! Guaranteed...this song is musical manna...

    A beauty that beyond even the best literatists ability to come close to capturing in a thousand words or less (in my opinion)

    the list of superlatives just goes on and on...

  • I was just checking out random stuff from Old Grey Whistle Test. Found this and my fucking god do I love the piano in this. If I could marry a woman as beautiful as the piano part I'd die happy.

  • i have a cat, my daugheter went to college, the cat is now thirteen, it's not a bad cat, it's a good cat, i never really liked cats, i kind of think they are cool now, a lot more respect, for our furry friends.

    Eric.

  • They don't make songs like this anymore.

  • this isn't just music...this is a timemachine..this brings me back in time ...i miss those day's..and the music..this is one of the best songs ever...

  • n8tureboy,

    Very well said and you obviously have a highly developed

    appreciation for music.

  • i just can't stop playing this song. It puts me right back to the 70's in my clubbing days when we were spoilt rotten with this type of music. Ah for those brilliant brilliant days no world worries and the trade towers were still standing what a brilliant world it was back then.. I really miss those days and so do my peers. God i would hate to be growing up now and have missed all that.

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  • Real musicians playing real music. What the hell happened to the music industry?

  • classic masterpiece!!!!

  • sublime ...

  • kemp3L, Guitar is a fender thinline telecaster which had a chamber(f hole) cut out to give it a slight semi acoustic feel and improved sustain.The most famous model is probably the 1972  which they hava reissued.I would guess that this is a1972 model.but do not know for certain.The guitar also had humbuckers ,a radical shift from fenders single coil tele,s at the time.

  • Maybe a guitarist can help me with this. Look at Al's guitar. It looks like a solid-body electric guitar. Why then does it have an f-hole (but just one)? Is this just for show?

  • Around 5th grade, and right up to my junior year of high-school, my father took it upon himself to educate me in the music of his college-years. Whenever he took me to school or to the library we'd pop in a cassette or CD and he would just, start talking about the music. How the groups or artists got started and just everything. I may be 21 now but whenever I pop in my cassette of 'Year of the Cat' I always think of my Dad and those days when we would nerd out over music.

    Thank you Dad.

  • i heard this when I was a kid when this was a hit on FM radio. I had just gotten a cool white digital radio alarm clock from my grandparents and I tuned in to what was happening in the 70's. This one brings me back Space 1999 was also big on tv at the time growing up in Brooklyn. Ah the 70's

  • @tele757 i was 7 when this came out! 42 now glad i found this vid, audio is real good! thanx 69 vader.

  • @tele757 Wow! I don't know how you did it. A supreme case of irony...but you just described my exact experience with this song. I had a white digital clock radio and the local LA station would play this song over & over again. It was my fave as a kid! Yes....those were indeed the days!

  • I love this intro..

  • Dá joinha quem acha os 12 gay's

  • Dá joinha quem acha os 13 gay's

  • That's without question one of the best live performances I've seen.

    

  • AN EXCELLENT LIVE PERFORMANCE...NOTHING..BUT NOTHING BEATS THIS, NOT EVEN TODAY!!!!!!!!

  • FABULOUSLY SUNG AND PLAYED MELODY, BEAUTIFULLY HARMONIZED AND RHYTHMICALLY CORRECT - EXCELLENT LIVE PERFORMANCE - THANKS!

  • Awesome< I use to play this record non-stop,lol

  • love the solid piano piece especially but whole song is beautiful!

  • best first line of ANY song EVER!!!

  • better today than ever!

  • At least he can play his instruments and sing too! Not like the singers these days (I am sounding like my parents... ooops)

  • Strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre, contemplating a crime.....

    man, that has got to be one of the most descriptive lyrics ever written, Al rules...

  • one of the best tunes ...ever....

  • "On a morning from a Bogart movie, in a country where they turn back time

    You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre contemplating a crime

    She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running like a watercolor in the rain.

    This song feels like a dream, a haunting memory from the past, when to be madly in love was all the world, all of life...it has an eery quality of fond memory, with it's bittersweet tone and poetry.

  • This is simply a timeless classic,Al was so under rated in the UK

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  • Awesome LIVE!

  • Good art doesn't gets older. I live in Brazil.

  • I just love it, .... so many memories come to my mind !!!  time has gone, I am still here, quite, and happy ...

    Thank you m15r4m for sharing this beautiful song and this lovely video

  • Lovely

  • only just after all this time realised ..

    its obvious freudian aspects...

  • My cat loves this song almost as much as I do!

    The Beeb were way ahead of their time with Old Grey Whistle Test, perhaps

    they should bring whispering Bob back in a Retro version? I'd watch it.

  • Timeless.............

  • wow...that man is playing one of the greatest piano parts ever, and he just doesnt care...

  • pass the DOOB... on a rainy Day with a Fireplace on!!!

  • EL AÑOS DE ESTHER.......

    

  • Sheer class - the whole band

  • a rare beauty!i love this song brings back good memories of my childhood!

  • I've Always Love This - Thankyou Gary...Anita..:)

  • Love this song thanks for the share Gary

  • I LOVE you Al Stewart!

  • Fabulous ... just watched it again! I think I can remember the night this was actually showed on the Old Grey Whistle Test - but we were so spoilt for music in those days!

  • I hate this track with a passion.

  • @ray123ification haha. imagine if someone actually did!

  • just good stuff...nuff said!

  • I just love this, and love this, and love it again! Probably one of my favourite pieces of music ever!

  • How did seven people miss the like button?

  • You can get the audio-mp3 of this vid at grabaudionow doht cohm.

  • I remember My Mom listening to this song when I was around nine years old. This is a great song

  • Misterhorsey, You can disagree until your blue in the face and it always boils down to personal taste. You have yours and I have mine. I checked youtube for the artists you suggested. Sufjen sounds like he listens to a lot of Owl City.. As for the rest, not at all impressed... Not at all!

  • No artists anymore now, just performers.

  • Dreamy shit

  • @oliverwolfson pack a bong an daydream nout the 70's wow

  • el problema es que ahora la música, la que esta de moda, ya no tiene melodía ...

    no como esta joya que se vuleve parte de tu genética de solo escucharla !

  • true klassik 70's magic.....!!!!!

  • when i watch stuff like this from the 70's etc i realize how truly shallow and awful progs like the x factor are. the old bands etc had to work their way up to achieve rewards whereas x factor (Now Factor i call it!) encourages instant results and wealth without putting years of hard work in. no wonder the older stuff is so great. not nostalgia..just better composed.

  • This is music- something to have in school for the children of today!

  • una de las cintas de mi vida!!

  • Me fascinaaaaaaa!!!!!

  • This song is loaded with memories for me...

    XX

  • I wish I was born then but sadly I was born in the 90's and more sad is that almost all the things suck today and especially music!That years people knew what music means!!!

  • @thekillingjimmy

    Although this is indeed a great song, your frame of mind is just sad and pathetic. All that nostalgia for a time you didn't witness first hand. The seventies were tough times for a lot of people and there was a lot of very shitty music around, too. The seventies weren't the "golden age" of whatever. They just were. And there's plenty of good music around today - though not on the radio anymore. You just have to look a little harder and dig a little deeper. Start living, man!

  • @LucaEisenstein Chill Man!

    The Kid was merely commenting on HIS observations. Nothing sad or pathetic about his "frame of mind".

    Sheesh!

  • And I'm stating MY observations. There's a bigger diversity of quality music out there today than ever before. You just have to look! Kids today have liberties, opportunities and means (technological and otherwise) at their disposal we didn't even dream of in the 60 / 70ies. Nostalgia is for old farts like me - not teenagers like him. It's not healthy...

  • @LucaEisenstein Hmmm..."old fart" indeed. *laughing!*

    ~Tamara~

    XX

  • @LucaEisenstein I think the point people are making is that this is you might agree, a fairly complex melody, with a well thought out story and well crafted lyrics. Odds are this is a 100% live performance though I'm not sure, and Stewart and his band almost flawlessly and rather effortlesly create the sound and style of the recording with their playing and his vocal. Tell us how often that would happen today, and take your time.

  • Performances at the Old Whistle were live... however this might be overdub . Great cool song

  • @17865329 The Old Grey Whistle Test is a little weird... they're either live or miming to a previously-recorded live version from the day before (the most common scenario). The studio track here would have real strings instead of a mellotron.

  • @thekillingjimmy Great comment, Kiddo! I personally LOVED music from the 90's.

    ~Tamara~

    XX

  • @RockyWhyNott That's what you like ....

  • Me Jody Parker and Al Stewart!

  • A previous post mentioned that crap on the radio is not worth a second listen. I'll do you one better - it's not even worth listening to this crap the first time. Music in the 70's and 80's was the last of good music. Even the 50's and 60's - the groups / artists had talent.

  • Love this song. I must say The Old Grey Whistle Test was a really good showcase for artists. I a, just discovering it now on Youtube.

  • this sounded great

  • Ohhhh----just incredibly lovely. Makes my heart ache now just as much as it ever did on hearing this for the very first time. If anyone is reading this comment & viewing the video here for their first ever time---let me tell you,this is so gorgeous,I know. However,his wonderful musical expression did not stop here,believe me---get to hear "Roads to Moscow", "Nostradamus", "World goes to Riyadh", "Time Passages", "Place of Versailles"-----you have senses yet to dream of, I promise you.

  • The music on this song is brilliant, Love it!!!

  • Craftmanship from a very tight band. Excellent thank you

  • the oval office dark horse records george harrison~+~+~*

  • Wow. This was talent. Music today simply can't compare in quality, just like women!

  • Stood the test of time as one of the best songs ever.

  • coldpay eat your heart out

  • People what your experiencing here are fine musicians, songwriters, and performers demonstrating their craft. This is more than music, this is a sensory overload, a feast for the ears, and the art of fine musicianship.....sadly 95% of today's music isn't fit to listen too. But thankfully we've got YouTube to take us back to the time when music was music!

  • @n8tureboy -perfectly said.

    Today there is no art in producing, engineering, and playing.

    The time and skill required to to produce something great like this is not being put in. We now have people who think they can produce and engineer the whole thing by themselves. And players of this caliber are not being made anymore. Muisc is dead, basically.

  • @n8tureboy

    This is the 5 percent from the old timers, There was a lot of dross back in the day as well. Dont be a music snob, there is good and bad music from all era's. Different strokes for different folks etc.

  • This is music!!!

  • first time ive seen this live, good musos tight band, very good song, cheers.

  • I love the change from acoustic guitar to electrid guitar which doesn't happen on this video, but if it did it would be at about 4:00. :-).

    This is one of those "Classic 80's" songs that everyone raves about but most of the ravers have only just heard it in the past 5 years. John Martin's "May You Never" is another example of this... BUT!

    It's all MEGA ZARJAZ STUFF and we love it don't we... hey..

  • @DrKincade Of course I meant Classical 70's Songs and not 80's... D'OH!

  • I just heard this song and remembered how much I like it :) Great video!

  • unbelieveable. nice! Al Stewart and band sound pretty close to the original recording. I saw them in Honolulu back in the late 70s and they sounded shite. Too much Maui Wowie, or Puna Butter.

  • How did we ever devolve from music of this calibre to what we've got now? (Boyzone,Dizzy Rascal,Simon Cowell, et al)

  • God, I love this song. Could listen to it for days.

  • what a timeless classic

  • Love this song! Im Gen Y and still wish todays music was like this

  • @SuperScottyBhoy

    Even though it's the same pattern of "the new generation music is weird and stupid" that we've seen before, y'gotta admit that everything from late 90's on is significantly cheaper and more repetitive. Maybe in 10 years we'll have forgotten about all the rubbish, and the few gems will be remembered.

  • As Nick Lowe said, "they don't write 'em like that anymore.". Brilliant blend of melody, musicianship and metaphor. Maybe the artists of today will be exposed to classics like Al Stewart and put forth some modern classics of their own. One can hope.

  • Masterpiece!

    Flawless live pefrormance and without the sound technology that we have today. This was achieved by pure excellence of musicianship.

  • @AKAKArnott Hell Yeah! we were lucky to grow up with true musicanship, not this processed stuff now.

  • baby you're gonna miss your plane

  • Holy Shit! Pet Shop Boys were most certainly influenced by this.

  • great stuff!

  • This whole album is really good. I'm going to look for the "Broadway Hotel". I like those lyrics too. Peace.

  • ringrazio il mio amico enzo, che mi ha fatto conoscere questo artista!

  • ok! very good

  • Song like this are a totally lost art..intelligent lyrics,strong musicianship.sad to say, this would never fly in todays market of rap garbage and the whole britney Squad.

  • Agreed! I met Tim Renwick the guitarist who played on the original album while in England. He doesn't do sessions anymore and says he can no longer relate to popular music.

  • Beautiful song.

  • This Song just changed my life after four years of madness.

  • I'm with you on the "madness" part. It's important to reconnect with what matters most, and ELIMINATE that which doesn't. Good luck to you...brings back some really good high school memories for me...

  • very detailed and descriptive poetry like a modern-day Shakespeare, Stewart paints a moving picture in his words

  • very nice

  • Suberb

  • Beautiful song cricket cricket. Thanks so much!

  • No 1 on my list for the desert island! The PERFECT song! Just love it.

  • great memories, whatta story teller.... I close my eyes... and can see this song like it was a movie.

  • Totally Sublime, Nuff said Thanks

  • A truly beautiful song.

  • smoking weed, drinking wine and listening to Al Stewart circa 1978

  • I remember the 70's well. Then, the music was real, there were just we people with our "primitive" electronics. But then we also got high, no big deal, G. Ford was the president, I lived in his hometown, Grand Rapids, Mi, many good times then.

  • My memories of this song bring nothing but smiles... Love this so much

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  • Like when the world was young.

  • Le top !! vraiment execllent, touchant et c est du vrai ! ca nous change et ça fait vraiment du bien

    Axles1

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  • Alacebuchal, there is no passion on todays musicians. A lot of the junk today is computerized. My sister always bugs me because I only have classic rock and the reason is that there is no good mucsic coming out today. Today's music simply sucks.