Personally, the song I always associate with him is “Morning has Broken”. Which makes it into Christian hymnals, but I think it would be just as appropriate in a Muslim context.
Googling “Cat Stevens Nick Drake” reveals that a lot of people have considered this contrast/comparison.
Thanks for the recommendation. It’s on my list of movies to watch if I happen to catch it.
It was a hymn long before Cat Stevens had anything to do with it.
I remember my parents passing on one of Sinatra’s last tours, because he was so far past his prime. After, they repeatedly mentioned they regretted not having seen him - even if not at his best.
My experience is a little different. I’ve seen several performed well past their primes. I’m not sure I can think of a single experience that just wasn’t mostly sad. They are generally backed by a fabulous band, but I just keep thinking, “Yeah - this guy USED to be great!” And seeing them as far less than they used to be somewhat tarnishes my mental image of them and thei music.
JMO.
FWIW my GF and I would see Tony Bennett every year till he stopped. He was always great. Maybe not in his prime great but still a good concert.
Some can seemingly sing forever. Some can’t. Bennett was going right till the end:
If “lovely” means “cringeworthy”, then yes, Harold and Maude was a lovely film.
I’m about as likely to watch it again (it blessedly never seems to turn up on TV) as to pay to see Cat Islam in concert (not a fan of his music or views).
Rushdie has a lot of real enemies. I doubt he thinks much about Cat Stevens. It’s not as if Cat Stevens was especially influential amongst the population likely to seriously consider killing Rushdie or anything.
Anyway, i believe in the possibility of growth and redemption. If he’s moved away from those beliefs, and he’s playing stuff that is not problematic, i would not boycott him.
I think you should go.
You love his music. Why would you not go?
Most of the people I know who rant on about killing blasphemers and apostates (my classmates from Pakistan, mostly living and thriving in “Western” countries) are huge fans of Cat Stevens. He’s at least a minor hero among Islamic fundamentalist keyboard warriors in my experience. At least those of my age (born in 1960s).
Younger people probably haven’t heard of him.
Anyone converting to Islam and then trashing secular western values is a hero to these folks. The more famous the better. There aren’t too many cases, so they get blown up beyond what we imagine.
Well, that’s depressing. How do they feel about his later disavowal of the fatwa?
That’s not true, Rushdie has said a lot about Steven’s, I’m just not aware of Rushdie forgiving him.
“ It may be that he once sang Peace Train. There was a point when I was a college student when I had a copy of [the album] Tea For The Tillerman. But he hasn’t been Cat Stevens for a long time.“
Ok, but the I think that one has to drop any pretense that freedom of thought and speech matter. If one cant take a stand when it is inconsequentially inconvenient then one cannot complain when some right wing nut calls for violence against someone for speaking their mind. Freedom of speech is under attack from religious fanatics and fascists; for me, it comes down to what side do I want to be on.
Okay, I’m clearly wrong on this one. Still, that was 14 years ago. Yusaf changed before, he may have changed again.
I guess the question you need to ask is to what extent buying a ticket might support the fatwa, and how much you care.
Personally, I’m waiting for Mark Chapman to go on tour.
A counterpoint to this is Richard Thompson, who converted to Islam (more specifically a Sufi sect) in the mid 1970’s. While he did face pressure to stop performing, at least with electrified instruments, he never became militant or fanatical and still practices his faith.
As for Cat Stephens/Yusuf Islam, I didn’t know about his endorsing the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. While I still love most of the songs from Moonshadow and Tea For the Tillerman, I don’t think that I could pay to see him perform now that I do know, even if he apologized for his comments and condemned the knife attack.
He’s not a hero to any Islamic nutcases that I know, in fact I’ve never heard of him. Is he famous? I’m not a big music person. I’d never have known who Cat Stevens was if it wasn’t for his lionization by some odious people.
You’re kidding, right? These are not people good at processing information that is inconvenient to the narrative.
Thompson has been recording since the late 1960s, and while I’ve heard of him (dating back to when I was in college in the 1980s, and got my first exposure to music beyond what was being played on the mainstream radio), my understanding is that he’s a musician who’s well-known and well-respected among serious music fans, but at least in the U.S., he’s never broken through as an artist with any real visibility to the broader public. He may be better-known in the UK, but I’m not certain of that.
You may be younger than his core audience. I loved his music in the 70s
I can tell you what I think of his disavowal of the fatwa.
I think he wants to continue to perform and not be a pariah.
I have gone back and read all the statements of “clarification” he has made in the decades since and I’m thoroughly unconvinced that he doesn’t believe that SOMEONE should kill Rushdie, but British law prevents him from doing it and possibly also from openly advocating that someone do it.
When someone actually tried to do it, he felt the need to backtrack some more.
I guess I have a different standard of proof having so many acquaintances who will call me “brother” in the morning and then with no sense of irony, in the afternoon say that if someone (not themselves mind you, heaven forefend!) were to kill me for my crimes against Islam, you couldn’t really blame them. People who publicly say that 9/11 was a crime, but perfectly understandable action in light of blah, blah, blah.