11/06/2024
FLASHBACK RADIO with CHUCK REYNOLDS - SOUTHPOINT SUN - NOV 6, 2024 EDITION
As briefly mentioned in last week’s column, Cat Stevens had an incredible career in music. Born as Steven Demetre Georgiou, he changed his name professionally to Cat Stevens and was on his way.
His debut album and title song “Matthew and Son” went nowhere in North America. However, both the album, “Matthew and Son” and title single reached the top 10 on the UK charts.
However, in 1968, with the heavy load of touring and pressures of being a pop star, Stevens contracted a serious bout of tuberculosis and spent several months in the hospital. Following his recovery, Cat wrote over forty songs and made positive changes to his lifestyle, while exploring of variety of spiritual paths.
Furthermore, he followed that in 1970 with his album, “Tea for the Tillerman” which went gold in America and featured the classic hits “Wild World”. His next album, “Teaser and the Firecat” in 1971. Both these albums were certified triple platinum meaning they each sold over 3 million copies in North America.
1971 was also a big year for Stevens with his single releases “Wild World” reaching #11, “Moon Shadow” resting at #30 and “Peace Train” reaching #7.
Cat’s next album, “Catch Bull at Four”, in 1972 also went No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 200. That same year, Cat’s biggest single hit, “Morning Has Broken” was on the charts for 14 weeks in a row and reached #6.
In 1973, Stevens moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as a tax exile from the United Kingdom. Later, he donated that tax money to UNESCO. Also, during that time, he created his seventh album called “Foreigner”. It was quite a departure from many of his previous albums.
Along with being written entirely by Stevens, he didn’t use his band on it at all. The only exception was a little bit of guitar work on the title track, “Foreigner”, and “100 I Dream”. Also, he produced the album without any help or assistance from Samwell-Smith who had been there for him since the beginning.
Cat Stevens continued releasing singles like “Oh Very Young” that reached #10 in 1974. His next single, very much up-tempo that year, called “Another Saturday Night” went even higher finishing up at #6. Stevens also continued putting out popular albums like “Foreigner” in 1973 and “Buddha and the Chocolate Box” in 1974.
That was the first album solely produced and written by Stevens. It was also his first release to somewhat jettison his folk-influenced acoustic sound in favour of a more expansive R&B style.
In 1975, Cat experienced a life-changing event while swimming in the Pacific Ocean off Malibu. A large wave suddenly began sweeping him out to sea. Fearing imminent death, Stevens called out to God begging that should he be saved, he would dedicate his life to God’s service. Suddenly, a gentle wave brought him into shore and safety.
Now, that he was saved by God, a sequence of events was set into motion and, after receiving a copy of the Koran from his brother, he truly embraced Islam in 1977. It was during his Islamic studies that Cat felt a spiritual connection with the story of Joseph and took its Arabic equivalent as his new name of “Yusuf Islam” in 1978.
Yusuf Islam then walked away from fame and his career as a music star and started a family and dedicated himself to charitable work. In regard to the September 11 attacks in the United States, on the next day, he expressed his “heartfelt horror at the indiscriminate terrorists’ attacks committed against innocent people”.
He then appeared on videotape for VH1 pre-show for the October 2001 Concert for New York City, condemning the attacks and singing his “Peace Train” as a song for the first time in more than 20 years and then donating a portion of his box-set royalties to the fund for victims’ families and the rest to orphans in underdeveloped countries.
