OT; cat stevens new cd....or rather yusuf
 

I will try to find a link to the music...I love this song!
beth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX5kCx7a07I

so simple yet so deep....

Thanks Beth
 

wow i didn't know he was still composing/performing at all since he... "retired" to the east years ago... and became Yusuf.

thanks very much for that Beth.

I have always adored Cat Stevens' music...

This is a very special song.

~ waves ~

I don't want to upset anyone but I can't buy this. I used to love his music so much, but it just hurt so much when he said he never meant anything he wrote and did it all for the money. It was like a kick in the teeth. :(

I grew up on old Cat, but I won't grow old on it. I wish him well, but just can't imagine buying this or any of the old albums after his renouncement. I have them all on vinyl anyway. But still, thanks for posting this Beth, it is a good song and I will listen to youtube tunes though. I hope I didn't upset anyone by what I said, its just been bugging me today since I listened to the song. :(

It's ok Pam.
 

Hi,
I saw him do an interview on Tavis Smiley.
He did a good job -- came across as wise and peaceful and in love with music.
He was funny too.
M.

Thanks Mari, I have such a knot in my stomach about this right now. I just feel awful about it. Kinda glad he's still making music though.

I am sorry that this upset you pammy.
I love his album tea for the tillerman.....
beth
and did you see the movie harold and maude????
it was a great movie. He did the sound track.

YES! I LOVE that movie! Bud Cort was awesome in it as was Ruth Gordon, she ROCKED in this film! :D

I feel better about things now, just was afraid I might have upset you by saying what I said that gave me a knot in my tummy. :p

.

the reason I think I like this song so much is because of this last passage.
It is so freeing for me.
It is about not questioning my path or my journey, the right one is the one I am on. it is about self acceptance. having confidence in that I am taking it one day at a time and that for today I am alright, this is exactly where I need to be.
does this make any sense?

I am facing a fear of mine tomorrow...I will let you know how it goes.
beth

Hi,

Some of the message boards say that he still has a good voice because of the break he took.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDI4P...eature=related

Good luck tomorrow.
 

Dear Beth,
Let us know how it goes if you want.
M.

It reminds me of Moonshadows.
I always loved cat and played the 8 track until it wore out during college.
I guess his choosen actions were his own enlightenment and when you are famous and have power to control many parts of your life you can make kooky to others choices.

I wonder if he feels stupid for saying something to hurt so many that thrived on his themes in song.

But this song is done well, and can almost take emotions from your chest and let you feel them lift in a wave.
di

i think i see the light...
 

well i was going to stay out of it but

*** this is my interpretation/opinion ***

i have to wonder if, when one reaches a certain peak of fame, one starts to question oneself... one's motives... there's the contracts... the money does come in...

some of Cat's music is whimsical... and not so deep. but some is deep and has always been.

regardless if he said it, i DO NOT BELIEVE he never felt his music... perhaps after much time in the industry, he lost touch with that feeling, as many musicians do. and when he lost that, he perhaps began to think, hey, i'm only doing this for money any more. at the peak of fame he may not have felt like he was a "real" musician... by the standard that music was not the reward in its own right any more... it by then being drowned in obligations and many material rewards. perhaps he realized he had always had his share of ambition, and because of that judged himself not to have been really into his music. there may be some part of truth to that if he thought it. but i think he could not reconcile that the two - ambition, and passion, could coexist. especially if he had lost touch with the passion at that point. he may have thought that what he thought was "passion" was really an expression of ambition. i don't think so.

remember this is just my speculation.

but, how many of us, when we are in a different state, or further along in life, question our past actions, our motives for them, interpret them different ways. then, we reinterpret them again, and again... depending on our conditions and overall perspective.

we all know how altered states (like depression) can change how we feel about ourselves and the worth of what we do... and even what we think of it... our entire perspective. growth can do that too. a rise to fame can do that easily as it represents a huge change in conditions and perspective.

i can definitely see Cat reaching a point of feeling empty with his career to the extent of needing to find himself, regain touch with his spirit, his essence... hence his pilgrimage and conversion, and now re-emergence. and not surprisingly... with music... because i personally do believe he really is a musician. i truly think he might have got blindsighted to his own essence by his success.

i kinda doubt he feels stupid about anything he said... it probably felt true to him at the time. and he is probably mature enough now to understand and accept that about himself.

this is all speculation. i've never met Cat. before or after his conversion and reemergence. so how would i really *know*? ;)

but i wanted to share the way i see it... how things could have gone.

and now something on his music, per se. it is not a purely mechanical process.

there is a visceral aspect to music. spiritual also. actually, i find the song posted more spiritual. his earlier works powerfully visceral and sometimes spiritual also. but neither is something one can easily fake. perhaps with difficulty in lyrics and composition, and certainly not in performance, not consistently.

an artist that performs mechanically without being "into the music" him/herself is unlikely to convey feeling to the audience. the audience's feeling is product of the audience, not the artist, not the music. but i believe it takes both sides, that little feeling will be evoked in the audience by purely mechanical music... an exercise in reproducing notes.

Cat's music, to me, and also to sooooo many others i have met, is explosive in its ability to evoke powerful emotion. So he may have come to believe, at some point, that he was never into his music, for itself... but i don't believe that. it just doesn't fly with my experience with music, much less his music. ;)

if this post was too long, you can partly blame philosophy of art professor at university ;) (then you can ask me what i was doing in the class :p)

~ waves ~

a few words from the man himself
 

Here are a few words from Yusuf Islam, about his leaving... his needing to leave. it is actually simpler than my interpretations about loss of touch and fame and fortune... :o:rolleyes::D

in brief he says that what he wrote about, he was sincere about, and if he hadn't been sincere, he could have kept on making records but it was time for him to go and live by his ideals.

but have a listen for yourselves...

he says more... about reconciling his past and present, and about his direction...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6deJlvpO90E&NR=1

;)

~ waves ~

Dear Waves,
Your insight is good.
Thanks.
I like his work and am happy to find reasons to like it more.
M.

boots and sand...new video out
be forwarned it is a bit controversial but would we expect any thing less from him?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-m5k...eature=related