Numbers (Cat Stevens album)

The idea for Numbers, subtitled "A Pythagorean Theory Tale," came from the teachings of Pythagoras, which were revealed to Stevens by a woman named Hestia Lovejoy. The album is dedicated to her.^[2][3]

Stevens spent three months in Brazil writing Numbers, then searched for writers, who he found in Chris Bryant and Allan Scott. The story was mostly finished by mid-1975, which was when Stevens flew to Paris to begin drawing. He studied Disney's work and borrowed his use of shadows, and a month later returned to the United States with 50 pen-and-ink illustrations in hand. The full book was trimmed to excerpts, which were included in the album's booklet.^[2][3]

The concept was a fantastic spiritual musical which is set on the fictional planet Polygor. In the story there is a castle with a number machine, which exists to fulfill the sole purpose of the planet – dispersing numbers to the rest of the universe: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 (but notably not 0). The nine inhabitants of Polygor, the Polygons, are Monad, Dupey, Trezlar, Cubis, Qizlo, Hexidor, Septo, Octav, and Novim. As the first lines of the book say, they "followed a life of routine that had existed for as long as any could remember. ... It was, therefore, all the more shocking when on an ordinary day things first started to go wrong." The change takes the form of Jzero, who comes from nowhere as a slave and eventually confuses everybody with his simple truth.^[2][3]

Upon its initial release in late 1975 both fans and critics were confused by the concept and the lack of the sort of 'catchy' music that they had been used to from Stevens, and although the album eventually achieved gold status, it sold far less than his previous four albums and was considered a critical failure. Numbers did not chart in the UK.^[4]

In a 1976 review for Rolling Stone, Paul Nelson described the album as "Stevens minus the common sense and considerable technical skills of his regular producer, Paul Samwell-Smith" and "breathtakingly stupid."^[5]

William Ruhlmann of AllMusic said listening to the album was "like hearing a Broadway cast album without having seen the show- something seemed to be going on, but it was hard to tell what."^[6]

In 1994, Numbers was released as a limited edition along with the albums Izitso and Back to Earth in a box set called Three from the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab label.^[7] This box is no longer available and is thus highly prized among collectors.

All the tracks were written by Cat Stevens. The original LP broke with tradition and called the second side "Side 0", a reference to Jzero.^{[original research?]}

• Cat Stevens – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, twelve string guitar, piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano, ARP 2600, ARP 2500, vocals
• Jean Roussel – piano, Yamaha organ, Wurlitzer electric piano, synthesizer, harpsichord, Hammond organ, string synthesizer, vocals, vibraphone
• Alun Davies – acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, vocals
• Gerry Conway – drums, vocals
• Bruce Lynch – bass, double bass

One year after the release of Numbers, Stevens went swimming off the coast of Malibu, California. The harsh waves swept him out out to sea, despite his attempts to fight them. In desperation, Stevens cried out: "Oh God, if You save me, I’ll work for You!" The plea appeared to work for Stevens, as right after a wave carried him back to land. Not long after that, he received a copy of the Quran from his brother.^[20][21]

1977 provided the album Izitso, as well as its lead single "(Remember the Days of the) Old Schoolyard", which would reach no. 7 on the US Billboard 200, and no. 33 on the US Billboard Hot 100, respectively.^[22][23]

Also in 1977, he embraced Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. Back to Earth was released in 1978 and was his final secular album for nearly 3 decades, until 2006, with the release of An Other Cup.^[20]