Roadsinger

[Juniper]

Anybody listen to the new-ish collection from Yusuf a/k/a Cat Stevens a/k/a "Steve"?

It's good. It's really good, for a sixty-ish guy who hasn't done music for thirty years.

Now, I was born a bit too late for the whole Cat Stevens phenomenon. I'm about a decade too young. But, even as an eighties kid, I always admired the earlier stuff more -- Zeppelin, Neil Young, etc. and Cat was part of it. At the time though I thought: what a wimp. Sensitive folk singers just weren't my thing.

But I'm old now, ha ha. And for some reason I just started listening to Stevens' old stuff and damn, it's awesome.

Have you ever fallen in love with someone who doesn't even exist anymore? I suppose it's the same as falling for a fictional character, and I've been known to do that too. Hello, Jamie Fraser and Heathcliff.

But the whole Yusuf/Cat thing just speaks to me. I'm so tired of the screwy politics going on now--tea party, blah, whatever. It makes me yawn. It's all overblown rhetoric, to the point where neither side knows the truth and it all becomes ignorant ranting.

I am married to an avowed conservative republican, who is addicted to Hannity and Beck and Fox News. It makes me crazy. Can't he see that he's not getting the whole story? No spin zone, my ass. I agree with a lot of the concepts, but the facts? Nope.

I don't want high-minded concepts, I want facts. And those are sadly hard to come by anymore, despite our "free" press.

So, maybe Muslims aren't the American-hating, Christian-hating, woman-hating, violent people we believe them to be? Maybe they are ordinary people who love their children and devote their lives to a higher power who is, coincidentally, the same higher power that many other religions seek as well.

All I know is this--we need facts, not rhetoric.

I also know that good music is good music, no matter who makes it.

[casimendocina]

Cat Stevens/Yusuf was in town about a month ago and I am/was really,really sorry that I missed him. I was all set to buy tickets thinking that it was sometime in the distant future (Leonard Cohen and Cat Empire will also be here a bit later this year...I'm mentioning this as the idea for buying tickets for all three shows came up in the same conversation) then heard someone talking about having been to the gig. Damn! I love the 70s (except the songs that they turned in Muzak to be sung in singing lessons at primary school).

I'm reading Nomad at the moment by Ayaan Hirsi Ali which seems to be at odds with "non American hating, Christian-hating,woman-hating, violent" image that you're putting forward...but then the Indonesian students that I taught a couple of years ago are very devout Muslims and co-existed quite peacefully with their non-Muslim classmates. I'm guess what I'm wondering is where the tipping point is in terms of severe disagreement between non-fundamentalists. Is it fairly close to the surface as Ayaan Hirsi Ali claims or much further buried/non-existent as Yusuf/Steven's songs suggest?

[Clodfobble]

I was too young for him to be popular for me, but my mom used to play his stuff for us all the time. I have several of his old songs on my iPod.

I think the songs themselves are beautiful, but I still cringe a little at the dirty-hippiness of the message if I think about the lyrics too much. But that's true of a lot of the songs I like, I tend to ignore the lyrics in favor of the whole sound picture in general.

[Undertoad]

This is not a liberal/conservative thing. Yusuf Islam wanted Salman Rushdie to be killed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Ste...Salman_Rushdie

[Griff]

Hmmm... That seems to go well beyond dirty hippie.

[Juniper]

Writing from the road right now -- in Atlanta on the way to Orlando! Yay for hotel wi-fi.

Actually I have given this a lot of thought. Why? I hate that I like his music so much but there's that Muslim thing - both the Rushdie fatwa and just the general idea that Muslims hate everyone else and want to take over the world but lie about being a religion of peace.

His official word is that his statement was taken out of context and though he supports the Muslim policy, he would agree with the law of the land. Good enough? Well, I dunno - it's not right, but there are a lot of people who support policies endorsed by their churches despite a nagging feeling it's ethically wrong, because their church gives them something they think they need.

It can't help that, according to the Wiki page, he thought Rushdie's book was about *him* - I suppose that kind of pissed him off!

I feel kinda sorry for the guy. I think he, like a lot of other converts were brainwashed -- like a cult does -- during a time he was vulnerable and probably drug-addled.

Also though he is a brilliant songwriter/performer he has never been very good at PR. Not exactly a smooth talker, which is why unfortunately most celebs shouldn't be valued for their intellectual wisdom.

Since he's back I kind of wonder if he's sort of moving away from the strict Muslim thing and will one day reinvent himself again. In
"Boots and Sand" (which you all should appreciate because he makes fun of Bush) he refers to himself as "Joe" -- which is what Yusuf comes from, Joseph. He's also dropped the "Islam" as a stage name and is now one of those single-name celebs like Madonna and Prince.

Oh well. Maybe I need a hobby. ;-)

[Juniper]

Oh, one more thing. I should explain the reason this intrigues me so much - besides the fact I am a raging romantic and music lover - is that I've always been interested in comparative religions. Would study it in college if I thought it would do me any practical good.

[Spexxvet]

Religion does strange things to people.

Between July of 1970 and Sept of 1972, Cat Stevens released Mona Bone Jakon, Tea for the Tillerman, Teaser and the Firecat, and Catch Bull at Four. I can't think of another artist creating that much outstanding work in such a short timespan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens_discography

[xoxoxoBruce]

Maybe it's wealth, that does strange things to people.