Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is going on a very rare tour of North America, and he’s playing near me in October.
I love his music from the 70s, and I never imagined that he’d be in my area.
I know he’s a very weird person, and kind of went off the deep end in the 80s. But he seems to have mellowed a lot in recent years, apologizing for his earlier behavior.
So I’m definitely tempted to see him.
Do it!
My sister saw him in New Zealand a few years ago and said his voice still sounded great, but that won’t last forever. This may well be your last chance!
I thought he renounced his music when he became a Muslim.
Either I am wrong (very likely) or he has changed his mind.
I loved him as Cat Stevens and would like to see him in concert playing that music.
ETA: It seems he did formally renounce his music but there are nuances to it.
Then, in 1978, Stevens suddenly renounced his music career, changed his name to Yusuf Islam, auctioned off his instruments and rededicated his life to being a family man and a devout Muslim.
But he didn’t entirely disappear. His new religious beliefs led him in a number of directions. On the one hand, he donated time and money to education and charity — and, while his interpretation of the religion he’d embraced suggested that playing musical instruments was forbidden, he lent his well-known voice to spoken word and children’s albums that remain big sellers in the Muslim world. On the other hand, he became embroiled in the controversy surrounding Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s fatwa against the writer Salman Rushdie, leading many to dissociate themselves from his music. - SOURCE
If I was in your situation, I would go.
In high school history, we did presentations of music through history. I borrowed some records from friends of my parents, and that’s how I learned about Cat Stevens, specifically Moonshadow.
I can’t read his name without getting Moonshadow as an earworm. I should listen to some more Cat Stevens.
Considering that I was listening to Cat Stevens back in my college days, I figured he must be about 100 years old by now. In fact he’s “only” 76.
I would recommend watching the movie “Harold and Maude” It is a lovely movie. The movie is wonderful and it is made better by a Cat Stevens soundtrack.
NOTE: Trigger alert…depicts suicide…a lot.
I don’t see any reason not to see him, I know I would if he was near me. I don’t care about his religious beliefs, I appreciate him for the music he wrote, and continues to write to this day.
I mean, let’s not gloss over his comments about Salman Rushdie. He tried to walk them back, but go to the concert with both eyes open (which is more than Rushdie can do).
Iirc, Elton John was first tapped to do the soundtrack but turned it down and suggested Cat Stevens
You’re the first person I’ve ever heard refer to H&M as “lovely.” I’ve always felt the same way about it. Funny, dark, off the wall, and yes, lovely.
Yes, I know. But later in the same article it says:
“In August 2022, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times and suffered serious injury during a public appearance. In response, Stevens released a statement on his social media accounts condemning the attack and wishing Rushdie a full recovery.”
That’s what I meant when I said in my OP that he seems to have mellowed in recent years.
Yeah, I acknowledged that he had walked back his statements. For me, once someone is talking about killing people who have offended the invisible man in the sky, the only way they can redeem themselves is to completely denounce their previous statements, apologize and try to make amends.
Taking five minutes to review a tweet written by your publicist doesn’t cut it for me.
You’re not wrong, and he did change his mind later on.
When he first converted to Islam, AIUI, he received guidance from some Muslim scholars that performing secular music was prohibited for Muslims; I get the sense that he was also burned out on the demands of stardom at that point, which probably made it easier for him to walk away from music.
However, he started back up in music in the 1990s, when he began recording religious music. He returned to writing and recording popular/secular music around 20 years ago.
To @suranyi : My wife, who is a big fan of Yusuf/Cat’s 1970s music, got to see him when he did a short tour in the U.S. in 2014. She had a great time (and, yes, he did play a lot of his old music), so I’d say, if you’re a fan, and have the opportunity to see him live, do it.
I saw it explained somewhere as a young man who doesn’t like life meets a much older woman who loves life.
A little simplistic but I think it’ll do for a one sentence summary.
One of my all-time favorite movies.
I never knew that. And, while I LOVE Elton John, I can’t imagine that movie using anything but Cat Stevens music.
I also thought the same, so we can count that as two that may be wrong,
In agreement here. I’m not going to give any money or even one iota of attention to his tour. There ain’t no coming back from that.
For me, one thing I’d want to know is if Stevens’ victim has forgiven him. I looked, but didn’t see anything from Rushdie saying he forgave him.
Tickets for his Boston show start at $113 and go up to $941 (!) That’s a lot to pay to see someone who could be charged as accessory before the fact for attempted murder.
He was good at Glastonbury last year or the one before. ISTR he got stronger cheers for his “Harold & Maude” songs than stuff like “Moonshadow” yet that might have just been me. Also think he paused singing in the “Wanna sing out, sing out” for a verse and the audience filled in.
Couldn’t find him letting the audience sing. But how about Eddie Vedder accompanied on a banjo: