Today It’s Genesis Madness, Plus: When The Cat Was King!

Today you got a couple of terrific 1970's albums you ought to check out again with fresh ears, and a Happy Birthday for an almost criminally-neglected Brit singer-songwriter -- Welcome to your Wednesday Nov. 18th Coffee Break Calendar...

11/18/1972 (48 years ago today) - Cat Stevens starts a three-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with his sixth studio LP "Catch Bull At Four" -- The title was taken from one of the Ten Bulls Of Zen, a series of short poems and pictures intended to illustrate the stages of a Buddhist practitioner's "progression toward enlightenment" -- If you've forgotten the hot streak Cat was on in the early part of the decade, how 'bout this: between 1970 and '74, he recorded and released five albums, now regarded as singer/songwriter classics -- In addition to "Catch Bull...", there was "Tea For The Tillerman" (1970), "Teaser And The Firecat" (1971), "Foreigner" (1973) and "Buddha And The Chocolate Box" (1974), all of which charted in the Top Five and (except for "Foreigner") sold over 3 million copies each. Fantastic talent, really, it's unbelievable how his body of work has been taken for granted.

11/18/1974 (46 years ago today) - Genesis released their sixth studio album, the magnum-opus double-LP set titled "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" -- It was a high-brow concept piece indeed, the story of a New York street kid named Rael and his quest for spiritual self-discovery. The band followed up its release with an amazing six-month tour that the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame has since described as a "spectacle on par with anything attempted in the world of rock up to that point" -- It was also the last-go-round for Peter Gabriel as a member of the band. Heavy stuff. Headphones required.

11/18/1950 - Born on this date, one of England's most under-appreciated singer-songwriters, Happy Birthday to Graham Parker, 70 years old today -- Despite what can best be called moderate commercial success, his early live shows with notorious cracker-jack backing band The Rumour were the stuff of U.K. legend in the late Seventies; Graham's combination of dry-wit, class-conscious spirit and quirky blue-collar image was in the forefront of the emerging punk-rock/new-wave scene -- A major influence on British artists like Elvis Costello, Paul Weller and Joe Jackson, his LPs "Heat Treatment" (1976) and "Squeezing Out Sparks" (1980) will not disappoint (Springsteen fans should definitely check those records out.)

Share your wit and wisdom with the Calendar here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"Don't bother with it/It don't bother me...", xoxo!