Cat Stevens aka Yusuf turns 75

One man, two lives

He's arguably one of the greatest singer-songwriters in the history of rock and pop. Yet that was something he himself chose to ignore for the longest time. At the age of 75, Cat Stevens, who for years went by the name Yusuf Islam, is at peace with himself and the world. By Christoph Meyer

Dinner jacket, frilly shirt and a Beatles haircut: when the singer-songwriter Yusuf, who has begun calling himself Cat Stevens again, thinks back to his appearance on the German TV music programme "Beat-Club" in 1967, he confesses to being amazed by the "unbelievable" self-confidence of his younger self. Live on camera, he belted out his hit song "Matthew and Son" from among the audience without the slightest hint of nervousness.

"I was almost a completely different person," says the Brit, who turned 75 on 21 July, in an interview with the Deutsche Presse-Agentur about his younger self.

"Cat", as he would later call himself, was born Steven Demetre Georgiou in London in 1948 and grew up in the West End. His parents, a Greek Cypriot and a Swede, ran a restaurant in the nightlife district of the British capital. He taught himself to play the guitar. His first success came in 1966 with "I Love My Dog". But his real breakthrough was "Matthew and Son", which reached number two in the British charts and catapulted him into pop star Olympus.

He also found success writing songs for other artists. U.S. soul singer P.P. Arnold landed a hit with "The First Cut Is The Deepest", while the Tremeloes had their international breakthrough with his song "Here Comes My Baby".

Seventies pop legend: Cat Stevens' soft voice and gentle songs captivated the flower power peace movement right up to the 1980s. Songs like "Peace Train" fitted right into the era. "My Lady D'Arbanville" and "Father and Son" became legendary. Cat Stevens' songs for the soundtrack of the cult film "Harold and Maude" were also unforgettable

The pop star's existential crisis

Cat Stevens was forced to interrupt his career at the end of the 1960s owing to a near-fatal bout of tuberculosis. The time spent in hospital, he later recalled, triggered a process of reflection on the meaning of life. What followed was an extraordinarily creative period, from which songs like "Father and Son", "Peace Train", "If You Want To Sing Out", "Moonshadow" and "Morning Has Broken" emerged.

Stevens was now an international superstar. Yet the search for meaning continued: like George Harrison and other contemporaries, he hoped for spiritual inspiration in the East. But while the ex-Beatle, who died in 2001, found his salvation in Hinduism, Stevens would eventually find it in Islam.

After another near-death experience – almost drowning while swimming in Malibu, California – Stevens turned his back on the glittering world of rock and pop stardom at the end of the 1970s. The smiling, handsome boy with the black curls was replaced by a serious-looking man with a long beard, who sometimes appeared in a turban and other traditional Islamic garments during interviews, now a rarity.

From now on, his name would be Yusuf Islam. It seemed that the singer Cat Stevens, whom millions had learned to love through his music and his light-hearted appearance, no longer existed.

Retreat from show business: following his existential crisis and conversion to Islam, Yusuf Islam dedicated his time to studying the Koran. He married within the Islamic community and became a family man. In London, he founded an Islamic school and various aid projects, aimed principally at trying to solve the problem of world hunger. He gave the impression that his pop music days were well and truly over

Yusuf Islam dedicated his time to studying the Koran. He married within the Islamic community and became a family man. In London, he founded an Islamic school and various aid projects, aimed principally at trying to solve the problem of world hunger. He gave the impression that his pop music days were well and truly over.

Controversial statements

Many fans were stunned, hoping he would have a change of heart, but he persisted along his chosen path. He took the name Yusuf, the Arabic version of Joseph, claiming he often felt misunderstood, like the figure from the Koran and the Old Testament who is thrown into a well by his jealous brothers and sold into slavery in Egypt. He has promised to reveal more about this in his autobiography, due to be published next year.

Retreating into the piety of Islam also impacted his musical legacy. When, at the end of the 1980s, he got carried away into making controversial statements during the dispute over the book "The Satanic Verses", seemingly approving the fatwa imposed on British-Indian author Salman Rushdie by the Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini, he was boycotted by U.S. radio stations.

In 2004, he was even refused entry to the USA. A plane in which he was travelling from London to Washington D.C. was initially diverted. Islam had to return to Great Britain. Following the attacks of 11 September 2001, the U.S. authorities had grown suspicious.

 

Another turnaround came in 2006. For the first time in 25 years, he released a pop album, following a slow return to music – albeit in adherence with strict Islamic rules – since the 1990s. Yusuf Islam was once again seeking the limelight.

But the resurrection of Cat Stevens still took time. In 2014, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "It took a long time for them to remember me," he says in retrospect, not without a hint of bitterness. In 2017, he released another record, this time under the name of Cat Stevens. The surname Islam was no longer in evidence. Now he's just Yusuf/Cat Stevens.

He freely admits that it has taken until his most recently released album, "King of a Land", to achieve the perfect harmony between pious elderly gent and singer-songwriter, as attractive as he is brilliant. "This record is the epitome of the fusion between Yusuf and Cat Stevens," he adds.

At the legendary Glastonbury Festival this July, he played to a crowd of 100,000 in the English county of Somerset wearing a white T-shirt, trainers and tinted glasses. Even the youngest were able to sing along word for word to many of his songs. "Thank you for this beautiful moment," he called to the crowd.

He is clearly enjoying being Cat Stevens again – at least for the time being.

© dpa 2023