The folk singer who put history lessons into pop songs

Al Stewart was born in Greenock, Scotland, in 1945, six months after his father, a Royal Air Force flight lieutenant, was killed in a plane crash during a training mission. He grew up in Wimborne, Dorset, and in a stretch of lucky coincidences he lived down the street from Robert Fripp, from whom he took ten guitar lessons. Stewart says Fripp taught him jazz chords he never used again.

In 1963 he played in local beat groups, and he and a friend famously talked their way into the Beatles' dressing room in Bournemouth by posing as representatives of Rickenbacker. John Lennon chatted with him and let him play his black Rickenbacker. A few years later Stewart came to London, started as a master of ceremonies at the Les Cousins folk club on Greek Street, and shared a flat with Paul Simon, playing alongside Cat Stevens, Bert Jansch, Van Morrison and others. His first single, “The Elf”, in 1966, featured Jimmy Page on guitar.

What set Stewart apart was his subject matter. He built a style that combined folk rock with tales of characters and events from history, a style best heard on Past, Present and Future in 1973. His commercial peak came with the 1976 album Year of the Cat, whose title song was a hit, and its follow-up Time Passages in 1978. Both went platinum. “On the Border” belongs to the same period.

Since his 1967 debut Bed-Sitter Images he has released sixteen studio and four live albums, and he still tours in the US, Canada, Europe and the UK. His 2009 release Uncorked came on his own label, Wallaby Trails Recordings. He played at the first Glastonbury Festival in 1970, and in later years has worked with musicians such as Alan Parsons, Richard Thompson and Tori Amos. History became his main subject, and a pop song his way of telling it.