Happy Birthday Cat Stevens

Today is the 60th birthday of Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam. His beautiful music was part of my youth, resulting in fond, fond memories. Back then I didn’t notice that his lyrics were often about serious stuff, moral stuff.

From But I might Die Tonight:

I don’t want to work away
Doing just what they all say
Work hard boy and you’ll find
One day you’ll have a job like mine, job like mine, a job like mine

Be wise, look ahead
Use your eyes he said
Be straight, think right
But I might die tonight!

From Longer Boats:

I don’t want no god on my lawn
Just a flower I can help along
‘Cause the soul of no body knows
how a flower grows… Oh how a flower grows.

Mary dropped her pants by the sand
And let a parson come and take her hand
But the soul of no body knows
Where the parson goes, where does the parson go?

I always thought of his conversion to Islam was a natural evolution of his thought process. It seems to me that a major religious conversion was frequently foreshadowed in his lyrics. If he’d become a Rabbi or Budhist Monk, I’d feel the same way.

Here’s what one of my favorite blogs, Seizing the Day, had to say about the Cat recently.

Explore posts in the same categories: american culture, good old days, music

Tags: cat stevens, music of the 70s, yusuf islam

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