# The music of Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [December 11, 2022, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343 "2022-12-11T17:53:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/21 "2022-12-11T23:51:12Z")
“Wild World” may have its issues, but they’re nothing compared to the Lucio Fulci-level gorefest that is “Moonshadow”. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/22 "2022-12-12T00:08:35Z")
I used to sing that song to my grandkids. Might explain some things. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/23 "2022-12-12T00:12:17Z")
what? what’s wrong with Moonshadow? ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/24 "2022-12-12T00:17:57Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Far as I’m concerned he has nothing to apologize for in this or any other world. Agreed - always thought he was letting her go with a perfectly reasonable warning that there are indeed nice things out there that can turn bad, however, he _does_ need to apologize for aping around with that Ozzy thing at that Rally to Restore Sanity (and or) Fear. Surpised when [SNFU covered “Wild World” back in the day,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUxLr_dbcEA) and not too badly. I thought the highlight of “Harold and Maude” was one of CS’s contributions, “Trouble”, at the end, which I still find one of the most powerful emotional masterstrokes of editing and soundtrack awesomeness. Heh, gets me a little throat lumpy, this one. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/bEbSkybMuqs/hqdefault.jpg ""Trouble" sequence from Harold & Maude") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEbSkybMuqs) ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/25 "2022-12-12T00:22:31Z")
I never could figure out if Wild World was meant to be endearing well-wishing, or bitter spitefulness. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/26 "2022-12-12T00:43:26Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > I thought the highlight of “Harold and Maude” was one of CS’s contributions… The movie also featured his “If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out.” Such a wonderfully upbeat tune, and a rallying cry for Individualism. (The video is full of Harold’s ‘acting out’, so, trigger warning for someone, I guess.) ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/RG67TrUjJUY/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/RG67TrUjJUY?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&start=28 ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/27 "2022-12-12T00:49:20Z")
I saw that movie when it first came out in theaters and man, this scene just gutted me. Still kinda does, really. > [@GargoyleWB](#): > > I never could figure out if Wild World was meant to be endearing well-wishing, or bitter spitefulness. Pretty sure you’d have to really hunt high and low and bring a lot of your own viewpoint to the search to find bitter spitefulness anywhere in Cat Stevens’ work. Even “My Lady D’Arbanville,” singing about his breakup with the eponymous Patty, is much more wistful than bitter. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/28 "2022-12-12T00:52:13Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Way back when my sister wore the groove smooth on her “Tea For the Tillerman” album, I concluded he had a creepy old man voice. I figure he’s probably aged into it. Yeah, I always felt his singing voice was 10 miles of really bad road. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/29 "2022-12-12T01:24:53Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > From [here](https://genius.com/Cat-stevens-wild-world-lyrics): > > > Stevens [explained](https://www.songfacts.com/facts/cat-stevens/wild-world) on _The Chris Isaak Hour_ in 2009 that the actual inspiration for the song was his return to a career in music after nearly dying from a collapsed lung due to tuberculosis in 1969: Interesting. He’s addressing himself as “girl”? > [@SmartAleq](#): > > (and stop to think that it could just as easily been told from the POV of a parent seeing his daughter–who he would OF COURSE always think of as a child–leaving home) he’s quite respectful of her choices and autonomy and is being wistful that she might be heading into danger that he won’t be around to protect her from but that nevertheless he acknowledges her right as a sovereign person to make her own choices even if they don’t turn out well for her. I thought of the possibility that he was addressing a daughter. Doesn’t, for me, help much. > Oh baby baby it’s a wild world > It’s hard to get by just upon a smile > Oh baby baby it’s a wild world > I’ll always remember you like a child girl Doesn’t read to me that he thinks she’s an adult who has genuine capabilitites. Reads to me that he thinks she’s got nothing going for her but a smile. If he wants a lover to stay, then he wants a childlike lover who he thinks isn’t capable of anything but smiling at him. (And, possibly, dressing up in “nice clothes to wear”.) If he’s raised a daughter old enough to leave home who’s wound up with no capabilities but the ability to seem pleasing, something has gone seriously wrong there. If he’s writing about himself, I think he should be prepared for people to think otherwise, considering that all the wording is about somebody female who is leaving the singer. While some people identifying as male might sing about themselves as if female for purposes of the song, combining that with the singer saying the “girl” is breaking the singer’s heart by leaving seems to me to make that a pretty unlikely interpretation; if it is what was meant I don’t think the communication skills are great. > [@GargoyleWB](#): > > I never could figure out if Wild World was meant to be endearing well-wishing, or bitter spitefulness Yeah, there’s a tinge of that to me, too. ‘I can’t stop you from leaving but everybody else is going to treat you mean! So you ought to stay, because under my “protection” is the only place where you’re safe!’ ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/30 "2022-12-12T01:37:16Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Interesting. He’s addressing himself as “girl”? If you read a bit up from that quote block in the link I posted, you’ll see that he also wrote “Sad Lisa” about himself too. I mean, do you think that Joan Baez is really a man on account of her singing the first person song “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down?” And that her name is really Virgil Kane? I think you’re putting a lot of your own viewpoint onto his music. ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/31 "2022-12-12T01:54:29Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > _I mean, do you think that Joan Baez is really a man on account of her singing the first person song “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down?” And that her name is really Virgil Kane?_ Joan Baez never could convince me she was a virgil. ---
**Author:** ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/32 "2022-12-12T02:01:17Z")
To me Wild World is referring to a daughter because of “hard to get by on a smile girl” and “I’ll always remember you like a child girl”. When you are a child a smile is all you need. Childhood is innocence. Mom and dad are there. You lose that innocence as an adult when responsibilities kick in and with them consequences. The voice of the song (the father) is still protective but all he can do now is hope his warnings that life is not easy are not taken for granted because if you think otherwise the pain of a wild world will be so much harder. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/33 "2022-12-12T08:29:15Z")
> [@JackieLikesVariety](#): > > what? what’s wrong with Moonshadow? _And if I ever lose my hands…_ _And if I ever lose my eyes…_ _And if I ever lose my legs…_ _And if I ever lose my mouth_ _All my teeth, north and south…_ To me, it always brings this to mind: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/wUJccK4lV74/maxresdefault.jpg "The Princess Bride (12/12) Movie CLIP - To the Pain! (1987) HD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUJccK4lV74) ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/34 "2022-12-12T10:46:00Z")
I was born in 1960. So his music was played a lot on the radio during my salad years. I don’t care about his religion, politics, or sexual preferences. I just don’t like his music either way. Always changed the station when any of his songs came on, ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/35 "2022-12-12T11:52:52Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > > [@california\_jobcase](#): > > > > Way back when my sister wore the groove smooth on her “Tea For the Tillerman” album, I concluded he had a creepy old man voice. I figure he’s probably aged into it. > > Yeah, I always felt his singing voice was 10 miles of really bad road. Another opinion I cannot get behind. I’ve always thought the opposite. 10 miles of newly paved concrete, I guess you could call it. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/36 "2022-12-12T13:29:26Z")
For those of you who have no problem with his politics, let me remind you of them: On 21 February 1989, Yusuf Islam addressed students at Kingston Polytechnic (now Kingston University) in London about his conversion to Islam and was asked about the controversy in the Muslim world and the fatwa calling for Salman Rushdie’s execution. He replied, “He must be killed. The Qur’an makes it clear – if someone defames the prophet then he must die.” Asked about burning Rushdie in effigy: Robertson: Would you be part of that protest, Yusuf Islam, would you go to a demonstration where you knew that an effigy was going to be burned? Y. Islam: I would have hoped that it’d be the real thing. This isn’t “politics”, like he voted for Brexit, or “religion”, like he’s a scientologist. He went full-terrorist. He later backpedaled, claimed it was the fervor of the newly converted. I’m not willing to forgive. Not especially after Rushdie was viciously attacked recently. Did Yusuf’s comments on Islam have any affect on the attacker? Who knows, but I won’t give him a pass. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/37 "2022-12-12T15:47:52Z")
+1, down the line. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/38 "2022-12-12T16:22:41Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > For those of you who have no problem with his politics, let me remind you of them: > > On 21 February 1989, Yusuf Islam addressed students at Kingston Polytechnic (now Kingston University) in London about his conversion to Islam and was asked about the controversy in the Muslim world and the fatwa calling for Salman Rushdie’s execution. He replied, “He must be killed. The Qur’an makes it clear – if someone defames the prophet then he must die.” > > Asked about burning Rushdie in effigy: > > Robertson: Would you be part of that protest, Yusuf Islam, would you go to a demonstration where you knew that an effigy was going to be burned? > Y. Islam: I would have hoped that it’d be the real thing. > > This isn’t “politics”, like he voted for Brexit, or “religion”, like he’s a scientologist. He went full-terrorist. > > He later backpedaled, claimed it was the fervor of the newly converted. I’m not willing to forgive. Not especially after Rushdie was viciously attacked recently. Did Yusuf’s comments on Islam have any affect on the attacker? Who knows, but I won’t give him a pass. You’re missing my point. IMHO his music sucks. Even if I agreed with his politics or religion I don’t like his songs. I don’t consider his politics or religion because upfront I don’t like his music. If I liked his music I may then start to to consider his politics and religion but I don’t need to as his product sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/39 "2022-12-12T18:04:32Z")
I wonder how many Dopers who excoriate Donald Trump for inciting violence are willing to give Yusuf Islam a pass? Hey, Charles Manson had a recording career too, you know. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343/40 "2022-12-12T18:13:00Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > 10 miles of newly paved concrete, I guess you could call it. I dunno about 10 miles of bad road but it seemed a little rough around the edges to me compared to say, Harry Chapin. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-of-yusuf-islam-aka-cat-stevens/976343.md?page=3)