The Greatest Oldies Music

Oldies Musics

Cat Stevens – “Morning Has Broken”

The Tragic Story Of Cat Stevens

About the Song

Cat Stevens, a singer-songwriter whose career traversed folk, rock, and spiritual exploration, gifted the world with “Morning Has Broken” in 1971. This song, originally a hymn with lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon, became a cornerstone of Stevens’ album “Teaser and the Firecat” thanks to his beautiful arrangement and heartfelt performance. “Morning Has Broken” transcends its religious roots to become a universal meditation on the wonder and gratitude for a new day.

The song opens with a simple yet evocative statement: “Morning has broken, like the first morning.” These words paint a picture of a pristine, untouched dawn, a moment of pure creation. Cat Stevens’ gentle vocals, accompanied by the now-iconic piano melody by Rick Wakeman, create a sense of awe and reverence.

“Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.” The lyrics shift focus to the natural world, highlighting the simple act of a bird’s song as a sign of life awakening. Each element – the morning light, the bird’s song – is celebrated for its inherent beauty.

The chorus, delivered with a soft sincerity, expresses the core sentiment of the song: “Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning! Praise for the springing fresh from the earth!” It’s a call to appreciate the everyday miracles that surround us, the gift of a new day, and the constant renewal of life on Earth.

There’s a sense of childlike wonder woven into the lyrics. The world seems fresh and new, full of possibility. Lines like “Light in the tree-top, leaves in the breeze” capture the simple joys of nature’s beauty.

While the song originated as a hymn, “Morning Has Broken” doesn’t preach or proselytize. The message is universal – a call to appreciate the beauty and wonder that surrounds us each day. It’s a reminder to slow down, to take a breath, and to find gratitude in the simple things.

“Morning Has Broken” has become a beloved classic, covered by countless artists and featured in countless films and television shows. Its enduring appeal lies in its ability to capture the quiet joy of a new day and the sense of renewal it brings. It’s a song that leaves you feeling peaceful, hopeful, and ready to embrace the possibilities that lie ahead.Cat Stevens' 10 greatest songs, ranked - Smooth

Video 

Lyrics: Morning Has Broken

Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the WorldSweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from Heaven
Like the first dew fall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where His feet passMine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the One Light Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God’s re-creation of the new dayMorning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the World

Related Post

Elvis Presley’s greatest musical gift was not putting words onto paper. It was hearing something inside a song that other people sometimes could not hear yet. Give him someone else’s melody and lyrics, and he could reshape the emotion through his phrasing, timing and voice until the recording felt intensely personal.

The musicians at RCA Studio B were ready to make records. They were not ready for the way Elvis Presley entered the room. During his celebrated Nashville sessions in 1970, bassist Norbert Putnam remembered Elvis appearing in dramatic fashion—wearing a flowing black cape and carrying an ornate cane. Putnam later recalled the impression that it was almost as though “a prince had walked into the room.”

STONEWALL JACKSON ASKED TOM T. HALL TO WRITE A PRISON SONG, BUT HALL COULD NOT DO IT BECAUSE HE HAD NEVER ACTUALLY BEEN TO PRISON. Tom T. Hall spent his early career turning out the kind of polished, commercial hits that Nashville publishers lived for. He could write what people expected, but he always felt like a fraud. When Stonewall Jackson approached him requesting a prison song—hoping to capture that rugged, authentic aura Johnny Cash was building—Hall hit a wall. He stared at his notepad, realized he had no genuine experience with a cell, and flatly refused to fake it. He was a songwriter, not an actor, and his pride kept him from writing about a world he didn’t know. His wife, Dixie, cut through the tension with a simple reminder: he had indeed spent a week in a county jail in Kentucky after a traffic violation. That memory was not cinematic or heroic. It was just mundane, quiet, and uncomfortable. It involved bad food, the sound of iron bars, and the slow, agonizing crawl of days where the jailer’s wife suddenly started looking like the most beautiful woman on earth. He stopped writing songs that invented generic situations and started reporting the people and places he actually encountered. The result was his first number one hit, written like a man telling a story across a kitchen table. Stonewall Jackson never got his song, but Hall finally found his own voice in the silence of that jail cell.

You Missed

Oldies Musics

Elvis Presley’s greatest musical gift was not putting words onto paper. It was hearing something inside a song that other people sometimes could not hear yet. Give him someone else’s melody and lyrics, and he could reshape the emotion through his phrasing, timing and voice until the recording felt intensely personal.

Oldies Musics

The musicians at RCA Studio B were ready to make records. They were not ready for the way Elvis Presley entered the room. During his celebrated Nashville sessions in 1970, bassist Norbert Putnam remembered Elvis appearing in dramatic fashion—wearing a flowing black cape and carrying an ornate cane. Putnam later recalled the impression that it was almost as though “a prince had walked into the room.”

Country

Lisa Marie Presley grew up in a house visited by some of the most famous people in the world, yet the person who mattered most to her was the man everyone else called the King. To millions, Elvis Presley was an untouchable superstar. To Lisa, he was the father who loved to spoil her, make her laugh and turn ordinary moments at Graceland into childhood adventures.

Country

BOB DYLAN AND JOHNNY CASH SHATTERED THE WALLS OF NASHVILLE WITHOUT FIRING A SINGLE SHOT. Columbia Studio A sat thick with the smell of stale coffee and cigarette smoke on a February morning in 1969. While the rock world was chasing ghosts in psychedelic haze, Bob Dylan stepped into the epicenter of American country music with a voice that sounded like it had been dragged across gravel. He wasn’t there to challenge the gatekeepers at the Opry; he was there to find the heartbeat of a sound he had loved from afar. Johnny Cash walked through the heavy studio doors, guitar in hand, and for two days, the rigid borders of genre simply dissolved into the air. They didn’t record some grand manifesto to change the industry. Instead, they sat on stools and tore through old folk standards and each other’s deep cuts, letting the microphones capture the loose, unvarnished truth of a collaboration that felt more like a porch gathering than a major label session. Carl Perkins added his own licks to the mix, blending the percussive snap of rock and roll with the lonesome ache of a country ballad. It was a deliberate, quiet rebellion that treated the traditions of both worlds as neighbors rather than strangers. When the tape stopped rolling, they walked away having proved that the lines drawn by radio programmers were mostly make-believe. The Ryman Auditorium stage eventually welcomed a new kind of guest, and the air in Nashville felt lighter, forever changed by two men who knew that music didn’t need permission to belong everywhere at once.