The Song Fight Bulletin Board

What is your favorite Cat Stevens song?

"Trouble" from Mona Bone Jakon

The chord changes and the harmonies are probably what initially caught my ear.

"Father and Son", because the first cut is the deepest.

"Into White" !!! "Tea for the Tillerman" is a killer album.

I have very complicated mixed feelings regarding Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens, and as much as I like his music I don't really feel comfortable listening to it enough to decide what my favorite is.

But it's also hard to untangle his actual views from the various "he's a Muslim, here's a bunch of stereotype/strawman arguments about him based on that" vitriolic articles about him that don't actually say anything specific that he's ACTUALLY said (just a lot of reading-between-the-lines).

So, I would have said Morning Has Fucking Broken, since it's you know, it's memorable and beautiful, and if you were at all exposed to American culture in the 70s you could not escape it. But I knew in the back of my head that there's a better song of his. Thanks Billy, it's Trouble. If you haven't seen the quirky movie Harold & Maude, you should.

I love YouTube, and enjoyed learning a bit about his career. I also learned that Morning Has Broken is an old Christian hymn he discovered one day in a hymnal.

I grew up with Tea for the Tillerman. It's one of the greatest albums of all time. I've probably listened to that album more than any Beatles album. For the last couple years I've gotten into Teaser and the Firecat. I always loved "The Wind" when it appears in Rushmore or Almost famous. I knew that song before those Soundtracks, but once I got those Soundtracks I heard it a lot more.

I don't give a rats ass about his religion or politics. His music is awesome. I'd have to eliminate the majority of the artists I listened to if I had to apply those kind of restrictions.

There's a gem on Teaser and Firecat called Ruby Love. That is my pick.

However Longer Boats was my favorite as a 5 year old, mostly because "Mary dropped her pants by the sand".

I must mention " I Love My Dog" also.

great artist!

glennny wrote: I don't give a rats ass about his religion or politics. His music is awesome. I'd have to eliminate the majority of the artists I listened to if I had to apply those kind of restrictions.

Yep, well-said.

For once you didn't pick any favorites that overlap with mine (except "The Wind" and its soundtrack appearances).

Honorable mentions to "The First Cut is the Deepest" and "Moonshadow." My actual favorite is "Matthew and Son."

I'm not a big enough Cat Stevens fan to give a favorite but I do want to mention that WreckdoM did a killer version of Peace Train a few years back.

Cat Stevens inspired me to write my first songs, so he's very important to me. His post-Teaser music is still good, but not as great; my favorite album Mona Bone Jakon and my favorite song off it is "Fill My Eyes".

Another Cat album I really love is New Masters, from his earlier years, which is quite different from his "classic" stuff and sadly doesn't get the credit that it deserves in my opinion. Songs like "Moonstone" or "The Laughing Apple" sound almost TMBG-ish at times. Great stuff!

glennny wrote:I don't give a rats ass about his religion or politics. His music is awesome. I'd have to eliminate the majority of the artists I listened to if I had to apply those kind of restrictions.

I care more about his hypocrisy, when his music and his statements on religion and politics are completely at odds. Also, being an ethnic Jew, I can't help but be more than a little put out by someone who arguably is anti-semitic (although again, it's hard to tell if he's actually said that or if people are just misquoting him badly).

fluffy wrote:

glennny wrote:I don't give a rats ass about his religion or politics. His music is awesome. I'd have to eliminate the majority of the artists I listened to if I had to apply those kind of restrictions.

I care more about his hypocrisy, when his music and his statements on religion and politics are completely at odds. Also, being an ethnic Jew, I can't help but be more than a little put out by someone who arguably is anti-semitic (although again, it's hard to tell if he's actually said that or if people are just misquoting him badly).

I do understand that. I admit I have to switch off part of my brain when listening to his music and pretend that Cat, a pleasant childhood memory, and that fundamentalist, anti-semitic, misogynist fanatic, claiming that Salman Rushdie must be killed, are two entirely different entities. It was easy to do so since before, like, 2005, the Cat persona basically didn't exist anymore, but it got a bit harder afterwards when he started touring etc. again. My hopes are that one day he is going to leave all that religious bullshit behind; doesn't seem very likely though, sadly. It always seemed strange to me that a guy like Cat would choose a conservative form of Islam, of all religions there are. He seemed more like a Buddhist kind of guy in the 70s. It also still strikes me as weird that he never seemed to have any problem with giving up his personal freedom and thinking for himself, given such songs as "But I Might Die Tonight", "On the Road to Find Out", "Changes IV", etc. - end of rant.

My favorite Cat Stevens album is Catch a Bull at Four. Damn I wish that was my album.

You're accusing a Muslim of being anti-Semitic? You know, Mohammad was a Semite... More seriously though, do you have any hard evidence at all that he hates Jewish people? I've seen him say things that indicate that he has a beef with Judaism and the state of Israel, but that's very different than racism.

Some quotes can be found via Google, although, as others pointed out, these are hard to verify. He softened his stance on many of those controversial political and religious issues over the years (though, notably, he never apologized to Mr. Rushdie), with most of his alleged anti-Semitic (and yes, I am aware that's a problematic term) comments dating back to the 1980s-90s. My main problem with Yusuf, however, is not his opinion on Israel or whatever, but the fact that I'm opposed to blindly following any religion and not questioning anything. At times he seemed almost brainwashed, which is strange as young Cat was a free thinker (see my above comment). I still love his Cat Stevens music.

Yeah, the only verifiable quote I've managed to find about anything that approaches actual anti-semitism is calling Judaism a "so-called religion" in reference to Orthodox Jews, and that's very different than being racist against ethnic, secular Jews. And I can't fault him for being against the state of Israel, because I'm pretty anti-Zionist myself (which is one of the reasons I'm amazed I'm not totally estranged from my extended family).