Album:
The Boy with a Moon and Star on His Head is on Catch Bull at Four which entered the Australian albums chart* on 2 October 1972. It reached #1 on 23 October 1972 and remained there for 7 weeks.
Songwriter:
Cat Stevens
Producer:
Paul Samwell-Smith
Record label of Australian release:
Island
*Kent Music Report / Australian Chart Book. See About.
Wikipedia:
Catch Bull at Four is the sixth studio album by Cat Stevens, the title taken from one of the Ten Bulls of Zen. The song Sitting was the only single released from the album.
Catch Bull at Four was well received both commercially and critically. Rolling Stone was satisfied with the “gorgeous melody and orchestration”, but disappointed by the lack of a single track comparable to Morning Has Broken from Teaser and the Firecat.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_Bull_at_Four
The Delete Bin:
[In the 1970s, Cat would] forge his musical path, with a sort of baroque-flavoured folk style infused with a sense of the spiritual.
This tune is certainly one of those, starting off with a scene of ’60s free-love, and eventually turning to a less carnal, and more mystically informed theme of spiritual wisdom, with a prescription for love and connectedness as a pay-off.
A key thread to be found in Stevens’ music from 1970 onward is all about a man being pestered by the bigger questions in life, after playing the role of self-indulgent pop star.
The Boy With The Moon & Star On His Head, among other songs recorded around the same time, reflected his own eventual chosen path and identity, or at least the one he was aiming for while his audience got bigger and bigger.
Read more: thedeletebin.com/2012/02/13/cat-stevens-sings-the-boy-with-the-moon-star-on-his-head/
Lyrics:
A gardener’s daughter stopped me on my way, on the day I was to wed
It is you who I wish to share my body with she said
We’ll find a dry place under the sky with a flower for a bed
And for my joy I will give you a boy with a moon and star on his head
Click for full lyrics
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 70s
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