Cat Stevens - Mona Bone Jakon

50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Vinyl 2LP + 4CD + Blu-ray Box Set

Featuring new 2020 album remix and remaster

2020 mix in HD Audio!

Plus unreleased demos and 1970-1971 live performances

Celebrate the albums that helped establish Yusuf/Cat Stevens as his generation's premier acoustic troubadour, and propelled him to international superstardom!

Tea For The Tillerman confirmed Cat Stevens as a spiritual seeker capable of drawing from a seemingly bottomless well of imaginative inspiration. His new-found gentle and folk-oriented style was artfully weaved with urgent, morally demanding questions beneath bewitching melodies. This soul-searching masterpiece felt simultaneously like a deliberate reaction to what Cat saw in the world as well as his own struggle for answers, and would continue to resonate through countless generations to come.

Both Tillerman and Mona Bone Jakon were issued in 1970, as Cat Stevens started the second phase of his career. He was shedding his pop star image from his days signed to Deram, and songs like ‘Mathew and Son', and turning into a more serious folk-rock performer.

Newly signed to Island Records, Stevens' Mona Bone Jakon album (released in April 1970) wasn't a really a hit at all, but it did deliver a top ten U.K. single in "Lady D'Arbanville" and its standing grew when Tea for the Tillerman was a major success — driven by the single "Wild World" — when released only seven months later, in November of that same year.

Inspired by a near-fatal battle with tuberculosis and extended period of convalescence during which he studied classical music, metaphysical literature and meditative self-reflection, Mona Bone Jakon is equal parts painful torment, self-referential humor and spiritual awakening. It is deeply revealing of the man he was becoming and the journey he was embarking on that would last a lifetime. The album has a deeply personal, almost vulnerable quality that, arguably, makes it the most compelling and human of all of Yusuf / Cat Stevens' work. Marking the start of a long-running creative partnership with producer (and former Yardbird) Paul Samwell-Smith, the album includes the deeply Romantic "Lady D'Arbanville," the spiritually uplifting "I Think I See The Light," the tongue-in-cheek "Pop Star" and the heart-rendering "Trouble."

50 years on, the songs on Mona Bone Jakon still sound as fresh as the day they were recorded. Presented here in a new 2020 remastered version on CD, and a new 2020 Mix by David Hefti on CD and LP, the Super Deluxe Edition also includes an exclusive third CD of previously unreleased demos, and a fourth CD featuring 18 live performances from 1970/71. The 2020 remaster was completed at Abbey Road Studios, and was overseen by original album producer, Paul Samwell-Smith. This 50th anniversary set is completed with a live 12" etched vinyl EP of the rare audience recording of "Live At Plumpton Jazz & Blues Festival" from August, 1970, and with a Blu-ray disc featuring the original promo video of "Lady D'Arbanville," plus eight live TV performances, and the HD audio of the new Mona Bone Jakon 2020 Mix. There's also a selection of memorabilia including the Island Records press kit, two Island press photos, a replica 1970 Plumpton Jazz and Blues flyer, a Cat Stevens tour sticker and "dustbin" greetings card and pop art print in a card envelope.

Features:
• 50th anniversary Super Deluxe Collector's Edition vinyl 2LP + 4CD + Blu-ray box set
• Featuring 24 previously unreleased songs
• New 2020 remastered version on CD (completed at Abbey Road Studios overseen by original album producer, Paul Samwell-Smith)
• New 2020 Mix by David Hefti on CD and LP
• Exclusive third CD of previously unreleased demos
• Fourth CD featuring 18 live performances from 1970/71
• Live 12" etched vinyl EP of the rare audience recording of "Live At Plumpton Jazz & Blues Festival" from August, 1970
• Blu-ray disc featuring the original promo video of "Lady D'Arbanville," plus eight live TV performances, and the HD audio of the new Mona Bone Jakon 2020 Mix
• Selection of memorabilia including the Island Records press kit, two Island press photos, a replica 1970 Plumpton Jazz and Blues flyer, tour sticker and "dustbin" greetings card and pop art print in a card envelope