We all take some things too seriously, Azizi... ;-) And thus are our various hangups...or our deepest loves and loyalties...revealed.

Al Stewart is a brilliant songwriter who hails from England. He began recording in the late 60's and is still performing. His songs are unlike anyone else's at all, and they reflect a very keen mind, combined with a very keen grasp of history and western culture. His early albums were all on the most personal of themes (his love life, mostly)...perhaps a bit too self-revealing...and they seem to have centered around his relationship with a young Englishwoman named Mandi. When he broke up with her, around 1969-70, he seems to have gone through a real personal crisis...which resulted in him virtually abandoning the personal revealing lyrics and themes altogether, and instead writing a series of remarkable songs on things like Nostradamus, the French Revolution, the history of England and much of Europe, the early days of aviation, and various philosophical takes on the decline of western civilization and the developing world crisis that accompanies it.

Heavy stuff, to be sure, and brilliantly written. In fact, you have to hear some of those songs to believe it. A couple of them are what I would call absolute masterpieces....particularly the incredible "Roads To Moscow", an epic about the Russian-German conflict in WWII that could well serve as a permanent Russian national anthem, if it translated well...and if they needed a new one (which they evidently don't).