About: Yusuf Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou, 21 July 1948),
commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is a British
singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, humanitarian, and education
philanthropist. His 1967 debut album reached the top 10 in the UK, and the
album's title song "Matthew and Son" charted at number 2 on the UK
Singles Chart. His albums Tea for the Tillerman (1970) and Teaser and the
Firecat (1971) were both certified triple platinum in the US by the RIAA.
His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four spent three weeks at
number one on the Billboard 200, and fifteen weeks at number one in the
Australian ARIA Charts. He earned two ASCAP songwriting awards in 2005 and 2006
for "The First Cut Is the Deepest", and the song has been a hit for
four different artists. His other hit songs include "Father and Son",
"Wild World", "Peace Train", "Moonshadow", and
"Morning Has Broken". In 2007 he received the British Academy's Ivor
Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection.
In December 1977, Stevens converted to Islam and adopted the
name Yusuf Islam the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all his guitars for
charity and left his music career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic
causes in the Muslim community. He was embroiled in a long-running controversy
regarding comments he made in 1989 about the death fatwa on author Salman
Rushdie. He has received two honorary doctorates and awards for promoting peace
from two organisations founded by Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 2006, he returned to pop music – releasing his first
album of new pop songs in 28 years, titled “An Other Cup”. With that release
and for subsequent ones, he dropped the surname "Islam" from the
album cover art – using the stage name "Yusuf" as a mononym. In 2009,
he released the album “Roadsinger”, and in 2014, he released the album “Tell
'Em I'm Gone”, and began his first US tour since 1978. He was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
Early Life:
Steven Georgiou, born on 21 July 1948 in the Marylebone area
of London, was the third child of a Greek Cypriot father, Stavros Georgiou (b.
1900), and a Swedish mother, Ingrid Wickman (b. 1915). He had an older sister,
Anita, and a brother, David. The family lived above the Moulin Rouge, a
restaurant that his parents operated on the north end of Shaftesbury Avenue
which was a short walk from Piccadilly Circus in the Soho theatre district of
London. All family members worked in the restaurant. His parents divorced when
he was about eight years old, but they continued to maintain the family
restaurant and live above it.
Although his father was Greek Orthodox and his mother a
Swedish Baptist, Georgiou was sent to St. Joseph Roman Catholic Primary School,
Macklin Street, which was closer to his father's business on Drury Lane.
Georgiou developed an interest in piano at a fairly young age, eventually using
the family baby grand piano to work out the chords, since no one else there
played well enough to teach him. Inspired by the popularity of The Beatles, at
15 he extended his interest to the guitar, persuaded his father to pay £8 for
his first instrument, and began playing it and writing songs. He would escape
at times from his family responsibilities to the rooftop above their home, and
listen to the tunes of the musicals drifting from just around the corner from
Denmark Street, which was then the centre of the British music industry.
Stevens emphasised that the advent of West Side Story in particular affected
him, giving him a "different view of life". With interests in both
art and music, he and his mother moved to Gävle, Sweden, where he attended
primary school (Solängsskolan) and started developing his drawing skills after
being influenced by his uncle Hugo Wickman, a painter. They subsequently
returned to England.
He attended other local West End schools, where he says he
was constantly in trouble, and did poorly in everything but art. He was called
"the artist boy" and mentions that "I was beat up, but I was
noticed". He went on to take a one-year course of study at Hammersmith
School of Art, as he considered a career as a cartoonist. Though he enjoyed art
(his later record albums would feature his original artwork on his album
covers), he wanted to establish a musical career and began to perform
originally under the stage name "Steve Adams" in 1965 while at
Hammersmith. At that point, his goal was to become a songwriter. As well as the
Beatles, other musicians who influenced him were the Kinks, Bob Dylan, Nina
Simone, blues artists Lead Belly and Muddy Waters, Biff Rose (particularly
Rose's first album), Leo Kottke, and Paul Simon. He also wanted to emulate
composers who wrote musicals, like Ira Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. In 1965
he signed a publishing deal with Ardmore & Beechwood and recorded several
demos, including "The First Cut Is the Deepest".
Early Music Career: (1966 – 1970)
Georgiou began to perform his songs in London coffee houses
and pubs. At first he tried forming a band, but soon realised he preferred
performing solo. Thinking that his given name might not be memorable to
prospective fans, he chose a stage name Cat Stevens, in part because a
girlfriend said he had eyes like a cat, but mainly because he said, "I
couldn't imagine anyone going to the record store and asking for 'that Steven
Demetre Georgiou album'. And in England, and I was sure in America, they loved
animals."
In 1966, at age 18, he impressed manager/producer Mike
Hurst, formerly of British vocal group the Springfields, with his songs and
Hurst arranged for him to record a demo and then helped him get a record deal.
The first singles were hits. "I Love My Dog", charting on the UK
Singles Chart at number 28, and "Matthew and Son", the title song from
his debut album, went to number 2 in the UK. "I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun"
was his second UK top 10, reaching number 6, and the album Matthew and Son
reached number 7 on the UK Albums Chart. The original version of the Tremeloes'
hit "Here Comes My Baby" was written and recorded by Stevens.
Over the next two years, Stevens recorded and toured with an
eclectic group of artists ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Engelbert Humperdinck.
Stevens was considered a fresh-faced teen star, placing several single releases
in the British pop music charts. Some of that success was attributed to the
pirate radio station Wonderful Radio London, which gained him fans by playing
his records. In August 1967, he went on the air with other recording artists
who had benefited from the station to mourn its closure.
His December 1967 album New Masters failed to chart in the
United Kingdom. The album is now most notable for his song "The First Cut
Is the Deepest", a song he sold for £30 to P. P. Arnold that was to become
a massive hit for her, and an international hit for Keith Hampshire, Rod
Stewart, James Morrison, and Sheryl Crow. Forty years after he recorded the
first demo of the song, it earned him two back-to-back ASCAP "Songwriter
of the Year" awards, in 2005 and 2006.
Tuberculosis:
Stevens contracted tuberculosis in 1969 and was close to
death at the time of his admittance to the King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst,
West Sussex. He spent months recuperating in the hospital and a year of
convalescence. During this time Stevens began to question aspects of his life
and spirituality. He later said, "to go from the show business environment
and find you are in hospital, getting injections day in and day out, and people
around you are dying, it certainly changes your perspective. I got down to
thinking about myself. It seemed almost as if I had my eyes shut."
He took up meditation, yoga, and metaphysics; read about
other religions; and became a vegetarian. As a result of his serious illness
and long convalescence, and as a part of his spiritual awakening and
questioning, he wrote as many as forty songs, many of which would appear on his
albums in years to come.
Changes in Musical Sound After Illness:
The lack of success of Stevens' second album mirrored a
difference of personal tastes in musical direction, and a growing resentment at
producer Mike Hurst's attempts to re-create another album like that of his
debut, with heavy-handed orchestration, and over-production, rather than the
folk rock sound Stevens was attempting to produce. He admits having purposefully
sabotaged his own contract with Hurst, making outlandishly expensive orchestral
demands and threatening legal action, which resulted in his goal: release from
his contract with Deram Records, a sub-label of Decca Records. Upon regaining
his health at home after his release from the hospital, Stevens recorded some
of his newly written songs on his tape recorder, and played his changing sound
for a few new record executives. After hiring agent Barry Krost, who had
arranged for an audition with Chris Blackwell of Island Records, Blackwell
offered him a "chance to record [his songs] whenever and with whomever he
liked, and more importantly to Cat, however he liked". With Krost's
recommendation, Stevens signed with Paul Samwell-Smith, previously the bassist of
the Yardbirds, to be his new producer.
Music Career: (1970 – 1978)
Around this time, Stevens had a catalogue of new songs that
reflected his new perspective on what he wanted to bring to the world with his
music. His previous work had sold at home in the UK, but Stevens was still
relatively unknown by the public across the Atlantic. To rectify this, after
signing with Island Records in 1970, an American distribution deal was arranged
with A&M Records' Jerry Moss in North America. Stevens began work on Mona
Bone Jakon, a folk rock based album.
Producer Paul Samwell-Smith paired Stevens with guitarist
Alun Davies, who was at that time working as a session musician. Davies was the
more experienced veteran of two albums which already had begun to explore the
emerging genres of skiffle and folk rock music. Davies was also thought a
perfect fit with Stevens in particular for his "fingerwork" on the
guitar, harmonising and his backing vocals. They originally met just to record
Mona Bone Jakon,but developed a fast friendship. Davies, like Stevens, was a
perfectionist, appearing at all sound checks to be sure that all the equipment
and sound were prepared for each concert. He collaborated with Stevens on all
but two of the succeeding albums Stevens released, and performed and recorded
with him until Stevens' retirement. Their friendship continued, however, and
when Stevens re-emerged as Yusuf Islam after 27 years, Davies appeared again
performing at his side, and has remained there.
The first single released from Mona Bone Jakon was
"Lady D'Arbanville", which Stevens wrote about his young American
girlfriend Patti D'Arbanville. The record, with a madrigal sound unlike most
music played on pop radio, with sounds of djembes and bass in addition to
Stevens' and Davies' guitars, reached number 8 in the UK. It was the first of
his hits to get real airplay in the US. It sold over one million copies, and
was awarded a gold record in 1971. Other songs written for D'Arbanville
included "Maybe You're Right", and "Just Another Night". In
addition, the song "Pop Star", about his experience as a teen star,
and "Katmandu", featuring Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel playing
flute, were featured. Mona Bone Jakon was an early example of the solo
singer-songwriter album format that was becoming popular for other artists as
well. Rolling Stone magazine compared its popularity with that of Elton John's
Tumbleweed Connection, saying it was played "across the board, across
radio formats".
Mona Bone Jakon was the precursor for Stevens' international
breakthrough album, Tea for the Tillerman, which became a Top 10 Billboard hit.
Within six months of its release, it had sold over 500,000 copies, attaining
gold record status in the United Kingdom and the United States. The combination
of Stevens' new folk rock style and accessible lyrics which spoke of everyday
situations and problems, mixed with the beginning of spiritual questions about
life, would remain in his music from then on. The album features the Top 20
single "Wild World"; a parting song after D'Arbanville moved on.
"Wild World" has been credited as the song that gave Tea for the
Tillerman 'enough kick' to get it played on FM radio; and the head of Island
Records, Chris Blackwell, was quoted as calling it "the best album we've
ever released". Other album tracks include "Hard-Headed Woman",
and "Father and Son", a song sung both in baritone and tenor, about
the struggle between fathers and their sons who are faced with their own
personal choices in life. In 2001, this album was certified by the RIAA as a
Multi-Platinum record, having sold 3 million copies in the United States at
that time. It is ranked at No. 206 in the 2003 list of "Rolling
Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
After the end of his relationship with D'Arbanville, Stevens
noted the effect it had on writing his music, saying, "Everything I wrote
while I was away was in a transitional period and reflects that. Like Patti. A
year ago we split; I had been with her for two years. What I write about Patti
and my family ... when I sing the songs now, I learn strange things. I learn
the meanings of my songs late ..."
Having established a signature sound, Stevens enjoyed a
string of successes over the following years. 1971's Teaser and the Firecat
album reached number two and achieved gold record status within three weeks of
its release in the United States. It yielded several hits, including
"Peace Train", "Morning Has Broken", and
"Moonshadow". This album was also certified by the RIAA as a
Multi-Platinum record in 2001, with over three million sold in the United
States through that time. When interviewed on a Boston radio station, Stevens
said about Teaser and the Firecat:
I get the tune and then I just keep on singing the tune
until the words come out from the tune. It's kind of a hypnotic state that you
reach after a while when you keep on playing it where words just evolve from
it. So you take those words and just let them go whichever way they want
...'Moonshadow'? Funny, that was in Spain, I went there alone, completely
alone, to get away from a few things. And I was dancin' on the rocks there ...
right on the rocks where the waves were, like, blowin' and splashin'. Really,
it was so fantastic. And the moon was bright, ya know, and I started dancin'
and singin' and I sang that song and it stayed. It's just the kind of moment
that you want to find when you're writin' songs.
For seven months from 1971 to 1972 Stevens was romantically
linked to popular singer Carly Simon while both were produced by Samwell-Smith.
During that time both wrote songs for and about one another. Simon wrote and
recorded at least two Top 50 songs, "Legend in Your Own Time" and
"Anticipation" about Stevens. He reciprocated in his song to her,
after their romance, titled, "Sweet Scarlet".
His next album, Catch Bull at Four, released in 1972, was
his most rapidly successful album in the United States, reaching gold record
status in 15 days, and holding the number-one position on the Billboard charts
for three weeks. This album continued the introspective and spiritual lyrics
that he was known for, combined with a rougher-edged voice and a less acoustic
sound than his previous records, using synthesisers and other instruments.
Although the sales of the album indicated Stevens' popularity, the album did
not produce any real hits, with the exception of the single
"Sitting", which charted at number 16. Catch Bull at Four was
Platinum certified in 2001.
Movie & TV Soundtracks:
In July 1970, Stevens recorded one of his songs, "But I
Might Die Tonight", for the Jerzy Skolimowski film, Deep End. In 1971,
Stevens provided nine songs to the soundtrack of the black comedy Harold and
Maude which became a popular cult film celebrating the free spirit, and brought
Stevens' music to a wider audience, continuing to do so long after he stopped
recording in the late 1970s. Among the songs were "Where Do the Children
Play?", "Trouble", and "I Think I See the Light". Two
of the songs, "Don't Be Shy" and "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing
Out", were not released on any album until their inclusion in 1984 on a
second "greatest hits" collection, Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest
Hits, Vol. 2.
After his religious conversion in the late 1970s, Stevens
stopped granting permission for his songs to be used in films. However, almost
twenty years later, in 1997, the movie Rushmore received his permission to use
his songs "Here Comes My Baby" and "The Wind", showing a
new willingness on his part to release his music from his Western "pop
star" days. This was followed in 2000 by the inclusion of "Peace
Train" in the movie Remember the Titans, in 2000 by the use in Almost
Famous of the song "The Wind", and in 2006 the inclusion of
"Peace Train" on the soundtrack to We Are Marshall. Since then,
permission has been given for Cat Stevens songs to be used in the soundtracks
for several movies and tv shows, including the song "Tea for The
Tillerman" used as the theme tune for the Ricky Gervais BBC-HBO sitcom
Extras. A Christmas-season television commercial for gift-giving by the diamond
industry aired in 2006 with Cat Power's cover of "How Can I Tell
You".
In 2011, "Don't Be Shy" was used in the pilot
episode of the ABC television series Once Upon A Time. In 2014, "Cat and
the Dog Trap" (from the Tell 'Em I'm Gone album released as Yusuf) was used
on an episode of the CBS television series Elementary.
Later Recordings:
Subsequent releases in the 1970s also did well on the charts
and in ongoing sales, although they did not touch the success he had from 1970
to 1973. In 1973, Stevens moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as a tax exile from
the United Kingdom, however, he later donated the money to UNESCO.[57] During
that time he created the album Foreigner, which was a departure from the music
that had brought him to the height of his fame. It differed in several
respects: entirely written by Stevens, he dropped his band and produced the
record without the assistance of Samwell-Smith, who had played a large role in
catapulting him to fame, and instead of guitar, he played keyboard instruments
throughout the album. It was intended to show a funk/soul element rising in
popularity that Stevens had come to appreciate. One side of Foreigner was
continuous, much different from the radio-friendly pop tunes fans had come to
expect. In November 1973 he performed side two of the album at the Aquarius
Theater in Hollywood, with a pre-arranged uninterrupted quadraphonic simulcast
on the ABC network. The show was titled the "Moon and Star" concert.
This performance did include his band, but they were all but overshadowed by an
orchestra. The album produced a couple of singles including "The
Hurt", but did not reach the heights he had once enjoyed. The follow-up to
Foreigner was Buddha and the Chocolate Box, largely a return to the
instrumentation and styles employed in Teaser and the Firecat and Tea for the
Tillerman. Featuring the return of Alun Davies and best known for "Oh Very
Young", Buddha and the Chocolate Box reached platinum status in 2001.
Stevens' next album was the concept album Numbers, a less successful departure
for him.
In April 1977, his Izitso album updated his pop rock and
folk rock style with the extensive use of synthesisers, giving it a more
synthpop style. "Was Dog a Doughnut" in particular was an early
techno-pop fusion track and a precursor to the 1980s electro music genre,
making early use of a music sequencer. Izitso included his last chart hit,
"(Remember the Days of the) Old Schoolyard", an early synthpop song
that used a polyphonic synthesiser; it was a duet with fellow UK singer Elkie
Brooks. Linda Lewis appears in the song's video, with Cat Stevens singing to
her, as they portray former schoolmates, singing to each other on a schoolyard
merry-go-round. This is one of the few music videos that Stevens made, other
than simple videos of concert performances.
His final original album under the name Cat Stevens was Back
to Earth, released in late 1978, which was also the first album produced by
Samwell-Smith since his peak in single album sales in the early 1970s. Several
compilation albums were released before and after he stopped recording. After
Stevens left Decca Records they bundled his first two albums together as a set,
hoping to ride the commercial tide of his early success; later his newer labels
did the same, and he himself released compilations. The most successful of the
compilation albums was the 1975 Greatest Hits which has sold over 4 million
copies in the United States. In May 2003 he received his first Platinum Europe
Award from the IFPI for Remember Cat Stevens, The Ultimate Collection,
indicating over one million European sales.
Religious Conversion:
While on holiday in Marrakesh, Morocco, Stevens was
intrigued by the sound of the Aḏhān, the Islamic ritual call to prayer, which
was explained to him as "music for God". Stevens said, "I
thought, music for God? I'd never heard that before – I'd heard of music for
money, music for fame, music for personal power, but music for God!"
In 1976 Stevens nearly drowned off the coast of Malibu,
California, United States, and said he shouted: "Oh God! If you save me I
will work for you." He related that right afterward a wave appeared and
carried him back to shore. This brush with death intensified his long-held
quest for spiritual truth. He had looked into "Buddhism, Zen, I Ching,
numerology, tarot cards, and astrology". Stevens' brother David Gordon
brought him a copy of the Qur'an as a birthday gift from a trip to Jerusalem.
Stevens took to it right away, and began his transition to Islam.
During the time he was studying the Qur'an, Stevens began to
identify more and more with the name of Joseph, a man bought and sold in the
market place, which is how he said he had increasingly felt within the music
business. Regarding his conversion, in his 2006 interview with Alan Yentob, he
stated, "to some people, it may have seemed like an enormous jump, but for
me, it was a gradual move to this." And, in a Rolling Stone magazine
interview, he reaffirmed this, saying, "I had found the spiritual home I'd
been seeking for most of my life. And if you listen to my music and lyrics,
like "Peace Train" and "On The Road To Find Out", it
clearly shows my yearning for direction and the spiritual path I was
travelling."
Stevens formally converted to the Islamic religion on 23
December 1977, taking the name Yusuf Islam in 1978. Yusuf is the Arabic
rendition of the name Joseph. He stated that he "always loved the name
Joseph" and was particularly drawn to the story of Joseph in the Qur'an.
Although he discontinued his pop career, he was persuaded to perform one last
time before what would become his twenty-five year musical hiatus. Appearing
with his hair freshly shorn and an untrimmed beard, he headlined a charity
concert on 22 November 1979 in Wembley Stadium to benefit UNICEF's
International Year of the Child. The concert closed with a performance by
Stevens, David Essex, Alun Davies, and Stevens' brother, David, who wrote the
song that was the finale, "Child for a Day".
After a brief engagement to Louise Wightman, Yusuf married
Fauzia Mubarak Ali on 7 September 1979, at Regent's Park Mosque in London. They
have five children and seven grandchildren and currently live in London,
spending part of each year in Dubai.
Life as Yusuf Islam: (1978 to Present)
Following his conversion, Yusuf abandoned his music career
for nearly three decades. In 2007, he said that when he became a Muslim in
1977, the Imam at his mosque told him that it was fine to continue as a
musician, as long as the songs were morally acceptable, but others were saying
"it was all prohibited", and he decided to avoid the question by
ceasing to perform. He has said there was "a combination of reasons,
really", and that the continuing demands of the music business had been
"becoming a chore, and not an inspiration anymore". In a 2004
interview on Larry King Live, he said "A lot of people would have loved me
to keep singing. You come to a point where you have sung, more or less ... your
whole repertoire and you want to get down to the job of living. You know, up
until that point, I hadn't had a life. I'd been searching, been on the
road."
Estimating in January 2007 that he was continuing to earn
approximately US$1.5 million a year from his Cat Stevens music, he said he
would use his accumulated wealth and ongoing earnings from his music career on
philanthropic and educational causes in the Muslim community of London and
elsewhere. In 1983, he founded the Islamia Primary School in Brondesbury Park,
later moved to Salusbury Road, in the north London area of Queen's Park and,
soon after, founded several Muslim secondary schools; in 1992, Yusuf set up The
Association of Muslim Schools (AMS-UK), a charity that brought together all the
Muslim schools in the UK. He is also the founder and chairman of the Small
Kindness charity, which initially assisted famine victims in Africa and now
supports thousands of orphans and families in the Balkans, Indonesia, and Iraq.
He served as chairman of the charity Muslim Aid from 1985 to 1993
Salmon Rushdie Controversy:
Yusuf attracted controversy in 1989, during an address to
students at London's Kingston University, where he was asked about the fatwa
calling for the death of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. The
media interpreted his response as support for the fatwa. He released a
statement the following day denying that he supported vigilantism, and claiming
that he had merely recounted the legal Islamic punishment for blasphemy.
In a BBC interview, he displayed a newspaper clipping from
that period, with quotes from his statement. Subsequent comments made by him in
1989 on a British television programme were also seen as being in support of
the fatwa. In a statement in the FAQ section of one of his Web sites, Yusuf
asserted that while he regretted the comments, he was joking and that the show
was improperly edited. In the years since these comments, he has repeatedly
denied ever calling for the death of Rushdie or supporting the fatwa.
September 11, 2001
Immediately following the September 11 attacks on the United
States, he said:
I wish to express my heartfelt horror at the indiscriminate
terrorist attacks committed against innocent people of the United States
yesterday. While it is still not clear who carried out the attack, it must be
stated that no right-thinking follower of Islam could possibly condone such an
action. The Qur'an equates the murder of one innocent person with the murder of
the whole of humanity. We pray for the families of all those who lost their
lives in this unthinkable act of violence as well as all those injured; I hope
to reflect the feelings of all Muslims and people around the world whose
sympathies go out to the victims of this sorrowful moment.
He appeared on videotape on a VH1 pre-show for the October
2001 Concert for New York City, condemning the attacks and singing his song
"Peace Train" for the first time in public in more than 20 years, as
an a cappella version. He also donated a portion of his box-set royalties to
the fund for victims' families, and the rest to orphans in underdeveloped
countries. During the same year, he dedicated time and effort in joining the
Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism, an organisation that worked towards
battling misconceptions and acts against others because of their religious
beliefs or their racial identity (or both), after many Muslims reported a
backlash against them due in part to the grief caused by the events in the
United States on 9/11.
Denial of Entry into the United States:
On 21 September 2004, Yusuf was on a United Airlines flight
from London to Washington, travelling to a meeting with U.S. entertainer Dolly
Parton, who had recorded "Peace Train" several years earlier and was
planning to include another Cat Stevens song on an upcoming album. While the
plane was in flight, his name was flagged as being on the No Fly List. Customs
and Border Protection (CBP) officers alerted the United States Transportation
Security Administration, which then diverted his flight to Bangor, Maine, where
he was detained by officers from the Department of Homeland Security.
The following day, Yusuf was denied entry and flown back to
the United Kingdom. A spokesman for Homeland Security claimed there were
"concerns of ties he may have to potential terrorist-related
activities". The Israeli government had deported Yusuf in 2000 over
allegations that he provided funding to the Palestinian organisation Hamas, but
he denied doing so knowingly. Yusuf, who repeatedly has condemned terrorism and
Islamic extremism, stated "I have never knowingly supported or given money
to Hamas". "At the time I was reported to have done it, I didn't know
such a group existed. Some people give a political interpretation to charity.
We were horrified at how people were suffering in the Holy Land."
However, the United States Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) added him to a "watch list". The removal provoked an
international controversy and led the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to
complain personally to the United States Secretary of State Colin Powell at the
United Nations. Powell responded by stating that the watchlist was under
review, adding, "I think we have that obligation to review these matters
to see if we are right".
Yusuf believed his inclusion on a "watch list" may
have simply been an error: a mistaken identification of him for a man with the
same name, but different spelling. On 1 October 2004 he requested the removal
of his name, "I remain bewildered by the decision of the U.S. authorities
to refuse me entry to the United States". According to a statement by
Yusuf, the man on the list was named "Youssef Islam", indicating that
Yusuf was not the suspected terrorism supporter. Romanisation of Arabic names
can easily result in different spellings: the transliteration of the Islamic
name for Joseph (Yusuf's chosen name) lists a dozen spellings.
Two years later, in December 2006, Yusuf was admitted
without incident into the United States for several radio concert performances
and interviews to promote his new record. Yusuf said of the incident at the
time, "No reason was ever given, but being asked to repeat the spelling of
my name again and again, made me think it was a fairly simple mistake of
identity. Rumours which circulated after made me imagine otherwise."
Yusuf wrote a song about his 2004 exclusion from the U.S.,
titled "Boots and Sand", recorded in the summer of 2008 and featuring
Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton, and Terry Sylvester.
Return to Music as Yusuf Islam (1990 – 2006):
Yusuf gradually resumed his musical career in the 1990s. His
initial recordings had not included any musical instruments other than percussion,
and featured lyrics about Islamic themes, some in spoken word or hamd form. He
invested in building his own recording studio which he named Mountain of Light
Studios in the late 1990s, and he was featured as a guest singer on "God
Is the Light", a song on an album of nasheeds by the group Raihan. In
addition, he invited and collaborated with other Muslim singers, including
Canadian artist Dawud Wharnsby. After Yusuf's friend, Irfan Ljubijankić, the
Foreign Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was killed by a Serbian rocket
attack, Yusuf appeared at a 1997 benefit concert in Sarajevo and recorded a
benefit album named after a song written by Ljubijankić, I Have No Cannons That
Roar.
Realising there were few educational resources designed to
teach children about the Islamic religion, Yusuf wrote and produced a
children's album, A Is for Allah, in 2000 with the assistance of South African
singer-songwriter Zain Bhikha. The title song was one Yusuf had written years
before to introduce his first child to both the religion and the Arabic
alphabet. He also established his own record label, "Jamal Records",
and Mountain of Light Productions, and he donates a percentage of his projects'
proceeds to his Small Kindness charity, whose name is taken from the Qur'an.
On the occasion of the 2000 re-release of his Cat Stevens
albums, he explained that he had stopped performing in English due to his
misunderstanding of the Islamic faith. "This issue of music in Islam is
not as cut-and-dried as I was led to believe ... I relied on heresy [sic], that
was perhaps my mistake."
Yusuf has reflected that his decision to leave the Western
pop music business was perhaps too quick with too little communication for his
fans. For most, it was a surprise, and even his guitarist, Alun Davies said in
later interviews that he hadn't believed that Stevens would actually go through
with it, after his many forays into other religions throughout their
relationship. Yusuf himself has said the "cut" between his former
life and his life as a Muslim might have been too quick, too severe, and that
more people might have been better informed about Islam, and given an
opportunity to better understand it, and himself, if he had simply removed
those items that were considered harām, in his performances, allowing him to
express himself musically and educate listeners through his music without
violating any religious constraints.
In 2003, after repeated encouragement from within the Muslim
world, Yusuf once again recorded "Peace Train" for a compilation CD,
which also included performances by David Bowie and Paul McCartney. He
performed "Wild World" in Nelson Mandela's 46664 concert with his
former session player Peter Gabriel, the first time he had publicly performed
in English in 25 years. In December 2004, he and Ronan Keating released a new
version of "Father and Son": the song entered the charts at number
two, behind Band Aid 20's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" They also
produced a video of the pair walking between photographs of fathers and sons,
while singing the song. The proceeds of "Father and Son" were donated
to the Band Aid charity. Keating's former group, Boyzone, had a hit with the
song a decade earlier. As he had been persuaded before, Yusuf contributed to
the song, because the proceeds were marked for charity.
On 21 April 2005 Yusuf gave a short talk before a scheduled
musical performance in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on the anniversary of
Muhammad's birthday. He said:
There is a great deal of ignorance in the world about Islam
today, and we hope to communicate with the help of something more refined than
lectures and talks. Our recordings are particularly appealing to the young,
having used songs as well as Qur'an verses with pleasing sound effects ...
Yusuf observed that there are no real guidelines about
instruments and no references about the business of music in the Qur'an, and
that Muslim travellers first brought the guitar to Moorish Spain. He noted that
Muhammad was fond of celebrations, as in the case of the birth of a child, or a
traveller arriving after a long journey. Thus, Yusuf concluded that healthy
entertainment was acceptable within limitations, and that he now felt that it
was no sin to perform with the guitar. Music, he now felt, is uplifting to the
soul; something sorely needed in troubled times. At that point, he was joined
by several young male singers who sang backing vocals and played a drum, with
Yusuf as lead singer and guitarist. They performed two songs, both half in
Arabic, and half in English; "Tala'a Al-Badru Alayna", an old song in
Arabic which Yusuf recorded with a folk sound to it, and another song,
"The Wind East and West", which was newly written by Yusuf and
featured a distinct R&B sound.
With this performance, Yusuf began slowly to integrate
instruments into both older material from his Cat Stevens era (some with slight
lyrical changes) and new songs, both those known to the Muslim communities
around the world and some that have the same Western flair from before with a focus
on new topics and another generation of listeners.
In a 2005 press release, he explained his revived recording
career:
After I embraced Islam, many people told me to carry on
composing and recording, but at the time I was hesitant, for fear that it might
be for the wrong reasons. I felt unsure what the right course of action was. I
guess it is only now, after all these years, that I've come to fully understand
and appreciate what everyone has been asking of me. It's as if I've come full
circle; however, I have gathered a lot of knowledge on the subject in the
meantime.
In early 2005, Yusuf released a new song, titled
"Indian Ocean", about the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
disaster. The song featured Indian composer/producer A. R. Rahman, a-ha
keyboard player Magne Furuholmen and Travis drummer Neil Primrose. Proceeds of
the single went to help orphans in Banda Aceh, one of the areas worst affected
by the tsunami, through Yusuf's Small Kindness charity. At first, the single
was released only through several online music stores but later featured on the
compilation album Cat Stevens: Gold. "I had to learn my faith and look
after my family, and I had to make priorities. But now I've done it all and
there's a little space for me to fill in the universe of music again."
On 28 May 2005, Yusuf delivered a keynote speech and
performed at the Adopt-A-Minefield Gala in Düsseldorf. The Adopt-A-Minefield
charity, under the patronage of Paul McCartney, works internationally to raise
awareness and funds to clear landmines and rehabilitate landmine survivors.
Yusuf attended as part of an honorary committee which also included George
Martin, Richard Branson, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Klaus Voormann, Christopher Lee
and others.
In mid-2005, Yusuf played guitar for the Dolly Parton album,
Those Were the Days, on her version of his "Where Do the Children
Play?" (Parton had also covered "Peace Train" a few years
earlier.)
Yusuf has credited his then 21-year-old son Muhammad Islam,
also a musician and artist, for his return to secular music, when the son
brought a guitar back into the house, which Yusuf began playing. Muhammad's
professional name is Yoriyos and his debut album was released in February 2007.
Yoriyos created the art on Yusuf's album An Other Cup, something that Cat
Stevens did for his own albums in the 1970s.
In May 2006, in anticipation of his forthcoming new pop
album, the BBC1 programme Imagine aired a 49-minute documentary with Alan
Yentob called Yusuf: The Artist formerly Known as Cat Stevens. This documentary
film features rare audio and video clips from the late 1960s and 1970s, as well
as an extensive interview with Yusuf, his brother David Gordon, several record
executives, Bob Geldof, Dolly Parton, and others outlining his career as Cat
Stevens, his conversion and emergence as Yusuf Islam, and his return to music
in 2006. There are clips of him singing in the studio when he was recording An
Other Cup as well as a few 2006 excerpts of him on guitar singing a few verses
of Cat Stevens songs including "The Wind" and "On the Road to
Find Out".
In December 2006, Yusuf was one of the artists who performed
at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway, in honour of the prize
winners, Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank. He performed the songs "Midday
(Avoid City After Dark)", "Peace Train", and "Heaven/Where
True Love Goes". He also gave a concert in New York City that month as a
Jazz at Lincoln Center event, recorded and broadcast by KCRW-FM radio, along
with an interview by Nic Harcourt. Accompanying him, as in the Cat Stevens
days, was Alun Davies, on guitar and vocals.
Music as Yusuf – (2006 to Present)
In March 2006, Yusuf finished recording his first all-new
pop album since 1978. The album, An Other Cup, was released internationally in
November 2006 on his own label, Ya Records (distributed by Polydor Records in
the UK, and internationally by Atlantic Records)—the 40th anniversary of his
first album, Matthew and Son. An accompanying single, called "Heaven/Where
True Love Goes", was also released. The album was produced with Rick
Nowels, who has worked with Dido and Rod Stewart. The performer is noted as
"Yusuf", with a cover label identifying him as "the artist
formerly known as Cat Stevens". The art on the album is credited to
Yoriyos. Yusuf wrote all of the songs except "Don't Let Me Be
Misunderstood", and recorded it in the United States and the United
Kingdom.
Yusuf actively promoted this album, appearing on radio,
television and in print interviews. In November 2006, he told the BBC,
"It's me, so it's going to sound like that of course ... This is the real
thing ... When my son brought the guitar back into the house, you know, that
was the turning point. It opened a flood of, of new ideas and music which I
think a lot of people would connect with." Originally, Yusuf began to
return only to his acoustic guitar as he had in the past, but his son
encouraged him to "experiment", which resulted in the purchase of a
Stevie Ray Vaughan Fender Stratocaster in 2007.
Also in November 2006, Billboard magazine was curious as to
why the artist is credited as just his first name, "Yusuf" rather
than "Yusuf Islam". His response was "Because 'Islam' doesn't
have to be sloganised. The second name is like the official tag, but you call a
friend by their first name. It's more intimate, and to me that's the message of
this record." As for why the album sleeve says "the artist formerly
known as Cat Stevens", he responded, "That's the tag with which most
people are familiar; for recognition purposes I'm not averse to that. For a lot
of people, it reminds them of something they want to hold on to. That name is
part of my history and a lot of the things I dreamt about as Cat Stevens have
come true as Yusuf Islam."
Yusuf was asked by the Swiss periodical Das Magazin why the
title of the album was An Other Cup, rather than "Another Cup". The
answer was that his breakthrough album, Tea for the Tillerman in 1970, was
decorated with Yusuf's painting of a peasant sitting down to a cup of steaming
drink on the land. Yusuf commented that the two worlds "then, and now, are
very different". His new album shows a steaming cup alone on this cover.
His answer was that this was actually an other cup; something different; a
bridge between the East and West, which Yusuf explained was his own perceived
role. He added that, through him, "Westerners might get a glimpse of the
East, and Easterners, some understanding of the West. The cup, too, is
important; it's a meeting place, a thing meant to be shared."
On CBS Sunday Morning in December 2006, he said, "You
know, the cup is there to be filled ... with whatever you want to fill it with.
For those people looking for Cat Stevens, they'll probably find him in this
record. If you want to find [Yusuf] Islam, go a bit deeper, you'll find him."[11]
He has since described the album as being "over-produced" and refers
to An Other Cup as being a necessary hurdle he had to overcome before he could
release his new album, Roadsinger.
In April 2007, BBC1 broadcast a concert given at the
Porchester Hall by Yusuf as part of BBC Sessions, his first live performance in
London in 28 years (the previous one being the UNICEF "Year of the
Child" concert in 1979). He played several new songs along with some old
ones like "Father and Son", "The Wind", "Where Do the
Children Play?", "Don't Be Shy", "Wild World", and
"Peace Train".
In July 2007, he performed at a concert in Bochum, Germany,
in benefit of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Peace Centre in South Africa and the
Milagro Foundation of Deborah and Carlos Santana. The audience included Nobel
Laureates Mikhail Gorbachev, Desmond Tutu and other prominent global figures.
He later appeared as the final act in the German leg of Live Earth in Hamburg
performing some classic Cat Stevens songs and more recent compositions reflecting
his concern for peace and child welfare. His set included Stevie Wonder's
"Saturn", "Peace Train", "Where Do the Children
Play?", "Ruins", and "Wild World". He performed at the
Peace One Day concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 21 September 2007.
In 2008 Yusuf contributed the song "Edge of
Existence" to the charity album Songs for Survival, in support of the
indigenous rights organisation Survival International.
Roadsinger and Tours (2008 – 2014)
In January 2009, Yusuf released a single in aid of children
in Gaza, a rendition of the George Harrison song, "The Day the World Gets
Round", along with the German bassist Klaus Voorman, who had formerly
collaborated with The Beatles. To promote the new single, Voormann redesigned
his famous Beatles Revolver album cover, drawing a picture of a young Cat
Stevens along with himself and Harrison. Proceeds from the single were donated
to charities and organisations including UNESCO, UNRWA, and the nonprofit group
Save the Children, with the funds earmarked for Gaza children. Israeli Consul
David Saranga criticised Yusuf for not dedicating the song to all of the
children who are victims of the conflict, including Israeli children.
On 5 May 2009, Yusuf released Roadsinger, a new pop album
recorded in 2008. The lead track, "Thinking 'Bout You", received its
debut radio play on a BBC programme on 23 March 2009. Unlike An Other Cup,
Yusuf promoted the new album with appearances on American television as well as
in the U.K. He appeared on The Chris Isaak Hour on the A&E network in April
2009, performing live versions of his new songs, "World O'Darkness",
"Boots and Sand", and "Roadsinger". On 13 May he appeared
on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Los Angeles, and on 14 May, on The Colbert
Report in New York City, performing the title song from the Roadsinger album.
On 15 May, he appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, performing "Boots
and Sand" and "Father and Son". On 24 May he appeared on the
BBC's The Andrew Marr Show, where he was interviewed and performed the title
track of Roadsinger. On 15 August, he was one of many guests at Fairport
Convention's annual Fairport's Cropredy Convention where he performed five
songs accompanied by Alun Davies, with Fairport Convention as his backing band.
A world tour was announced on his web site to promote the
new album. He was scheduled to perform at an invitation-only concert at New
York City's Highline Ballroom on 3 May and to go on to Los Angeles, Chicago and
Toronto, as well as some to-be-announced European venues. However, the New York
appearance was postponed due to issues regarding his work visa. He appeared in
May 2009 at Island Records' 50th Anniversary concert in London. In November and
December 2009 Yusuf undertook his "Guess I'll Take My Time Tour"
which also showcased his musical play Moonshadow. The tour took him to Dublin,
where he had a mixed reception; subsequently he was well received in Birmingham
and Liverpool, culminating in an emotional performance at the Royal Albert Hall
in London. In June 2010 he toured Australia for the first time in 36 years, and
New Zealand for the first time ever.
On 30 October 2010 Yusuf appeared at Jon Stewart and Stephen
Colbert's spoof Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington, DC, singing
alongside Ozzy Osbourne. Yusuf performed "Peace Train" and Ozzy
performed "Crazy Train" at the same time, followed by The O'Jays
performance of "Love Train".
On 2 March 2011, Yusuf released his latest song, "My
People", as a free download available through his official website, as
well as numerous other online outlets. Said to have been recorded at a studio
located within a hundred yards of the site of the Berlin Wall, the song is
inspired by a series of popular uprisings in the Arab world, known as the Arab
Spring.
On 1 April 2011, Yusuf launched a new tour website
(yusufinconcert.com) to commemorate his first European tour in over 36 years
scheduled from 7 May to 2 June 2011. The ten-date tour visited Germany, France,
the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and cities such as Stockholm, Hamburg,
Oberhausen, Berlin, Munich, Rotterdam, Paris, Mannheim, Vienna and Brussels.
In May 2012, Moonshadow, a new musical by Yusuf, featuring
music from throughout his career, opened at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne,
Australia. The show received mixed reviews and closed four weeks early.
In October 2013, Yusuf was nominated for induction into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work under the Cat Stevens name (this was
his second nomination – the first being an unsuccessful nomination in 2005). He
was selected and was inducted by Art Garfunkel in April 2014 at the Barclays
Center in Brooklyn, New York, where he performed "Father and Son",
"Wild World", and "Peace Train". A record of his travel
from Dubai to New York is captured in an episode of the NatGeoTV show Ultimate
Airport Dubai S2, episode 6, first aired in China on 17 January 2015. In this
episode he causally talks about his difficulty in entering the US and even
boarding the airplane.
On 15 September 2014, Yusuf announced the forthcoming release
on 27 October 2014 of his new studio album, Tell 'Em I'm Gone, and two short
tours: a November 2014 (9-date) Europe tour and a December 2014 (6-date) North
America tour, the latter being his first one since 1976. On 4 December 2014, he
played to his first public US audience since the 1970s at the Tower Theater in
Philadelphia.
2015 promises to be exciting as Yusuf heads back to the studio with the Tillerman
team!
Discography:
As Cat Stevens
1967: Matthew and Son
1967: New Masters
1970: Mona Bone Jakon
1970: Tea for the Tillerman
1971: Teaser and the Firecat
1972: Catch Bull at Four
1973: Foreigner
1974: Buddha and the Chocolate Box
1975: Numbers
1977: Izitso
1978: Back to Earth
As Yusuf:
2006: An Other Cup
2009: Roadsinger
2014: Tell 'Em I'm Gone
CONTACT: BSmith@wmeentertainment.com
The Story of Tell ‘em I’m Gone – (2014)
Yusuf Cat Stevens Live Performances
Yusuf Cat Stevens Music 1990 to Present
Documentary – Cat Stevens Becomes Yusuf
Islam – 2015
The Story of Tell ‘em I’m Gone – (2014)
Yusuf / Cat Stevens – CBS Sunday Morning Interview - 2014
Yusuf Cat Stevens Live Performances
Cat Stevens Music - (1960's and 1970's)
Yusuf / Cat Stevens LINKS:
VIDEO
BUY MUSIC
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