Vinyl Record

Cat Stevens - Matthew & Son

Cat Stevens - Matthew & Son on LP vinyl. A 1967 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.

LP · 1967

Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.

Buyer notes: 1967 LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.

Matthew & Son is the debut Cat Stevens album, released in 1967, and it belongs to the vivid pre-Tillerman version of his story. Before the bearded 1970s songwriter image became definitive, Stevens was a young London pop writer with a flair for baroque arrangements, melodic snap, and sharply observed characters. The title track turns office drudgery into bright social satire, I Love My Dog gives early proof of his emotional directness, Here Comes My Baby shows the strength of his songwriting beyond his own performances, and Portobello Road places him inside the city color of mid-1960s Britain. The album is ornate compared with his later stripped-down work, but the melodic instinct is already unmistakable. You can hear the future songwriter inside the pop machinery.

The album matters because it documents Cat Stevens before the great acoustic reinvention. It shows him emerging from the 1960s pop world with enough craft to score hits and enough individuality to outgrow the setting quickly. The later classics make more sense when this early, colorful, ambitious beginning is in view.

For collectors, Matthew & Son is the origin chapter. It is not the same listening mood as Mona Bone Jakon or Tea for the Tillerman, which is exactly why it matters. A Cat Stevens shelf with only the 1970s folk-rock albums misses the young writer learning how to compress character, wit, and melody into sharp pop forms.

Bright 1960s baroque pop with folk-rock songwriting, orchestral flourishes, crisp hooks, youthful vocal urgency, and London pop color around compact character songs.

Recommended for: Collectors tracing Cat Stevens from the beginning; Fans of 1960s British baroque pop and folk-pop; Listeners curious about the pre-Tillerman songwriter.

When was Matthew & Son released? The official Cat Stevens discography lists March 10, 1967. Is Matthew & Son Cat Stevens' debut album? Yes. It is his first studio album. Does it sound like his 1970s albums? Not exactly. It is more arranged and 1960s pop-oriented, though the melodic songwriting voice is already clear.