S – is for a Man Called Yusuf

Saturday 18th February

Cat Stevens was always seeking something spiritual, some understanding of the World, something to hang onto that made sense of the chaos – maybe we all are.  Born a Christian, he dabbled with Buddhism and other far eastern religions; there was something in the air, George found his Maharishi a few years earlier.  Cat’s brother who had recently converted to Judaism (something in the family?) bought him a copy of the Qu’ran and Cat was hooked.  To him it all made sense.  His music had begun to pall a couple of years earlier and I suspect that for a while now his heart had not been in it, the constant demands for new albums and the tours.

Cat became Yusuf (Arabic for Joseph – though not the father of Jesus) Islam.  He gave up his music career, finding too many contradictions with earlier songs of sexual love and the strict form of Islam he adopted.   At least he didn’t try to preach through his music like Dylan in the early eighties, or Cliff with his sanctimonious songs.  Although Yusuf gave up music, music refused to give him up and he was still earning enormous royalties from his time as Cat.  He set up several Islamic schools and charities, and he rose up in the London Muslim community. This was not without controversy; he supported the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, but he did condemn the 9/11 attacks.

Gradually though he re-assessed his decision to abandon his music and in 2006 he released a lovely gentle album (under the name of Yusuf). ‘An Other Cup’ is really quite good, the voice older and softer, the songs all about Peace and Love.  He followed this in 2009 with ‘Roadsinger’ and in 2014 with ‘Tell ‘Em I’m Gone’.  He has also started touring occasionally, but this time maybe on his own terms.  He seems to have mellowed at last and found a middle way between his Religious beliefs and his music.  Of course, I still prefer the music from when he was Cat.

Yusuf Islam and Cat Stevens