In 1970, Lee Hulko at Sterling Sound cut Tea For The Tillerman for A&M Records in the U.S. and Island Records in the UK using a Telefunken M10 tape machine and a Neumann VMS 66 lathe with a Neumann SX68 cutterhead. Hulko started Sterling in 1968 and was its original mastering engineer. He's considered among the first engineers to advance mastering from just transferring music from tape to lacquer to an art where attention is paid to all the details that result in better sound. We actually found Hulko's original mastering notes from more than 40 years ago. It's incredible, but Sterling still has all of their notes filed away.

 

So, it was originally cut at Sterling - as were all of the early original Cat Stevens albums - and the tapes were last used at Sterling. How appropriate then that we should go back to Sterling for this monumental reissue. Using the original tapes, George Marino handled the mastering this time. He used an Ampex ATR-102 tape machine, another significant point of interest. While Ampex has long been revered for their sound, they had never made a preview version so that a mastering engineer could cut a lacquer from an Ampex machine. Mike Spitz at ATR Services made a unique preview modification for Sterling so that they could cut this record using an Ampex. Marino then used a Neumann VMS 80 lathe with a Neumann SX 74 cutterhead.

Musicians:

Cat Stevens, guitar, keyboards, vocals

Alun Davies, 2nd guitar

John Ryan, bass

Harvey Burns, drums

Jack Rostein, solo violin

Del Newman, string arrangement

 

Selections: 

1. Where Do the Children Play? 

2. Hard Headed Woman 

3. Wild World 

4. Sad Lisa 

5. Miles From Nowhere 

6. But I Might Die Tonight 

7. Longer Boats 

8. Into White 

9. On The Road To Find Out 

10. Father And Son 

11. Tea For The Tillerman