PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE - Al Stewart

YEAR: 1973

LABEL: CBS/Janus

TRACK LISTING: Old Admirals, Warren Harding, Soho (Needless To Say), The Last Day of June 1934, Post World War Two Blues, Roads To Moscow, Terminal Eyes, Nostradamus

IMPRESSIONS: This is another of those albums I seem to have been listening to since I was knee high to a grasshopper. It is also another of those albums which I only listening to one side of because of my father's strange practice of listening to only one side of a new album. The album side, however, is a great one consisting of "Roads To Moscow", "Terminal Eyes" and the epic "Nostradamus"; all of which had that nicely mystical quality which went down very well with me as a kid growing up in the early 70s. PP&F is a concept album with each song representing a decade in the 20th century culminating in the song about the seer Nostradamus.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Old Admirals, Roads To Moscow, Terminal Eyes, Nostradamus

GUEST ARTISTS: Rick Wakeman (keyboards), Dave Swarbrick (mandolin), Roger Taylor (percussion)

FACT SHEET: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE is Al Stewart's fifth album. This is considered his first "major" or "mature" album work. In the concert programme for his U.K. tour at the time, Stewart states: "My first four albums have been, for me, an apprenticeship. The new album...is my thesis". Stewart moved from the prog-rock sound of his previous albums to a new more folk-based sound which indulged his interest in history. The album cover actually depicts Marvel Comics' character Doctor Strange using his cloak of levitation to travel through into another dimension.