Cat Stevens

"Cat Stevens has neither rocked nor rolled," read one comment on a web news item that announced that the British singer-songwriter had been elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That is true; his songs are the kind of music that has been classified, to many rock snob's horror, as soft rock, or the stuff of "Lite FM." But he did have some monster hits in the early '70s, before he gave up music for Islam.

Stevens, of Greek heritage but British birth, came out of the British folk movement of the late '60s. His first hit, "Matthew and Son," has a kind of groovy British spy movie sound. But his later hits are the kind of song usually accompanied by acoustic guitar, with his distinctive angelic growl of a voice, designed to make the girls swoon. Many of his songs today are sung in liberal church services, perhaps none so much as "Morning Has Broken," or the eternally optimistic "Peace Train."

But I do like his stuff, even if it doesn't rock nor roll. He had a couple of albums that generated songs that almost every sentient person of the right age knows, like "Wild World," "Father and Son," "Moonshadow," and "Oh Very Young." I had no idea that he wrote "The First Cut Is the Deepest," which has been covered by so many others.

"Father and Son" is about the generation gap, with Stevens singing the parts of both father and son, the former giving advice, while the son sings,

"How can I try to explain, when I do he turns away again.
It's always been the same, same old story.
From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen.
Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away.
I know I have to go."

My favorite of his songs is "Moonshadow," which is even now running through my head. I have no idea what it's about, though. The verses are about losing abilities and the positive (I guess) repercussions:

"And if I ever lose my hands, lose my plough, lose my land,
Oh if I ever lose my hands, Oh if... I won't have to work no more.
And if I ever lose my eyes, if my colors all run dry,
Yes if I ever lose my eyes, Oh if... I won't have to cry no more."


Stevens stopped recording after conversion to Islam. He is now known as Yusuf Islam, and has began performing again. But for years he worked on humanitarian causes. For some time he was regarded as some kind of black sheep, but I think that was Islamophobia as much as anything else, as he strenuously and forthrightly condemned the attacks on September 11th. Some how he got lumped with American-hating extremists.

Cat Stevens may not be a rocker, but listening to his music is uplifting and pleasant.