Monday 13th February

There can be little doubt that in the late Sixties and early Seventies one of the coolest cats around was Cat Stevens.  He had it all, great looks, wonderful voice and the ability to write brilliant pop-songs.  Born Steven Georgiou in 1948 to Greek Cypriot parents he entered the pop-charts in 1967 with the brilliant ‘I Love My Dog’ and Matthew and Son’ followed by ‘I’m Gonna Get me  A Gun.’  I loved them all and can remember putting shillings in the Juke Box in the Mikado coffee bar in Stowmarket and selecting one of his B sides ‘Granny’ and playing it over and over.  What we didn’t realise at that time was that Cat wrote all his own songs; apart from The Beatles most artists were just singers of other’s words.  His best known early songs, sung by many others were ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’ and ‘Wild World’.  In 1969 Cat nearly died of TB.   He emerged with a batch of new songs and determined to sound different, more honest, less poppy and formed his own band of musicians and signed for Island Records.

His first four Albums are by far his best; ‘Mona Bona Jakon’ (1970) featured ‘Lady D’Arbanville’ and ‘Time’ and ‘ and ‘Lilywhite’ – full of dreamy whimsical laid back songs.  He followed this later the same year with ‘Tea for the Tillerman’ which featured ‘Where Do the Children Play’, ‘Wild World’ and the brilliant ‘Father and Son’. (Incidentally Cat’s version has never been bettered, he sings in two completely different voices, the hot-headed Son and the world-weary father.  Ronan completely mullah-ed it, and even Rod years later did a wet version).  In 1971 he released ‘Teaser and The Firecat’ moving into new territory with the Greek inspired ‘RubyLove’ the rather insipid ‘Morning Has Broken’ and the rallying call ‘Peace Train’.  In 1972 he came out with my favourite record of his ‘Catch Bull At Four’ – this is much heavier with songs ‘Can’t Keep it In’ and ‘Freezing Steel’ and the gorgeous ‘Boy with a Moon and Star on his head’ (we should have seen the sign – the sign of Islam).

In 1973, although immensely popular he decided to produce a new sounding album – ‘Foreigner’ with a side-long mostly instrumental piece and four other songs.  He had relocated to Brazil and by his standards the record flopped.  He released a handful of records ‘Budha and the Chocolate Box’, ‘Numbers’ (an album for children), ‘Izitso’ – a brief return to form with single ‘Remember the Days of the Old Schoolyard’ and finally ‘Back To Earth’.

But Cat had changed, in fact Cat was Cat no more.  In 1977 he converted to Islam and in 1979 he finally gave up music, auctioned his guitars and dedicated his life to Islamic charities and the study of Islam. He was now known as Yusuf Islam, no longer a cat called Cat.