When I was a young or preteen I loved to gaze into the pastel artwork on the album cover and imagine myself in the picture. Although these were my older sisters albums I would listen to them over and over.
You hit the keyword for this song… Epic. The first time I heard this song I was also overwhelmed by the beautiful piano playing, the chord progression, and especially the modulations…
Rick tells the story of years later, Cat brought him to perform with him at a show. Cat now wanted it played in a different key. Rick wasn’t pleased about not getting a heads up.
Our High School Acapella class featured this piece in 1975, it was my introduction to Cat Stevens. So happy our teacher chose this piece. Thank you for the great context and your investment to your listeners. Thanks for resonating my joyful memories of those moments. Gratefully.
We used to sing this at my Church of England primary school. I was the only one saying it was a Scottish tune, because no-one else could hear it! Never looked into it, so glad you did! Also the first time I've heard more than three seconds of the Cat Stevens version...! Edit: talking of Rick Wakeman, Hunky Dory has some lovely sequences.
Everything remarkable about this song was essentially written by Rick Wakeman. He noted in interviews that when he began work on the song, Steven's had about 1 minute of material, all original folk song, not written by Stevens. Everything remarkable is the piano part, which was all Rick Wakeman. He was paid $12, and I believe he originally had no album credit.
I had to google what „really out of leftfield“ means. 🤗 (germany) Thanks for vid - I used to feel the same about the song, back then. Today I learned a lot. 🙏🏽🧔🏼👍🏽
I never made the connection to the Rick Wakeman song, Catherine Howard I believe on The 6 Wives of Henry the Eighth, but now that you point it out I can definitely hear its influence.
New to Channel and enjoying every moment! Guitarist / Singer turning to keyboard late in life… Thank You! Please keep em coming! ☮️ + ❤ Cheers! Michael - Santa Rosa CA
Nice succinct analysis (as always) of a famous and lovely arrangement, the intro of which I'm also going to have a play around with too now but that A7 over D is surprising too. Rick Wakeman was a huge keyboard figure in that era, including his paino part for Life on Mars by D. Bowie. From the same era there are some other great piano based pop songs like Bridge over Troubled Water and Harry Nilsson's Without You which many might appreciate your take on if you think they are musically interesting enough.
Hi, I just stumbled across this analysis of Morning Has Broken. You did a great job. Rick’s version of this song is why I started playing 20 years ago. It is on my desert island list. Did you know that Rick never got paid for his work at the time? Thanks.
