How did u know CatStevens?

[matthew]

Hello fans
How did u know the guy?, myself, someone told me about him

[Turan]

O my.
I never heard of Cat Stevens during his hey day. I am from Montana and his music is not common here. But I went to college in Los Angeles area, starting in 78.

One day a gentleman senior said hello to me and asked me to come watch the sun set with him. He showed me how to climb on the roof of the dorm building. We watched the sun set and talked. He wanted to know where I was from, how I liked my classes. But mostly he wanted to tell me to stop walking alone in the middle of the night, that this was not Montana, so to always walk with companions.

After that when ever I saw him around he had a smile and a friendly word for me. I felt I could turn to him if I needed help.

At the end of the semester he walked into my room and said his thesis was accepted and he was graduating. He then handed me Teaser and Firecat, saying he thought I would like it. I never saw him again. It is nice to know that there are thoroughly decent people in this world.

A few years later I married Marty. He had Catch Bull and Buddha. A housemate gave us Tea for the Tillerman. We went through times of playing CS alot and years of never playing him at all.

In the early spring of 2002 Marty and I were listening to the college radio station. The DJ put on an album he called the best album ever made, it was Teaser. Wow, we thought, it has been many years snce we played that. So we did a google and found CScom, then here. That is when I learned there was a person who made the music and that he was an intrigueing fellow.

[thewind]

I use to ride to work with a coworker named Dave... He use to play Tea for the Tillerman all the time in his car... Back during the days of 8 tracks... Yep, I'm grateful to Dave for that time in the morning and afternoon for the ride home...

[m@kansascity]

my brothers took a copy of Budda and the chocolate box at home, i think it was 1975

i was a 13 year old kid, not very into music, but i got stucked with that album and love it since then

then i got from a friend Teaser and the firecat and it was pure magic

the first Cat album i bought with my money was Tea for the tillerman i think in 1977 and it was soon one of my fav album ever

[cristalina]

Oh gosh, it was a long time ago, back in the 60's, my memory is fading I'm in the UK so I knew Cat from his very early songs and spent years trying to convert others

[Huru]

Let's put it this way: My mom kicked my Rolling Stones albums outta the house, but the Cat Stevens albums stayed. I wore out my first copy of Tea for the Tillerman. And one of the songs I most remember from that era is "How Can I Tell You." That song had many dimensions for me. I think it was the dawning of my deeper spiritual awakening, though the song was written about human relationship. It can also be interpreted as a song about God.

[m@kansascity]

wow i thought i was the only one to think that How can I tell you could be a song about looking for God

that song was the soundtrack to a painful relationship with a girl when i was a kid, but recently i hear it in a total different way

[Huru]

"wow i thought i was the only one to think that How can I tell you could be a song about looking for"

Glad to hear someone else perceived it the same way. For me the song came at a time when a boyfriend died instantly in a car accident in L.A., and his death opened up something dormant in me, then I found sufism a year later. (Good ole Bodhi Tree Bookstore. Sadly, it's too slick now for my taste, but it was the cat's meow back then.)

Anyway, another song that sticks with me from those old days is "Into White" and "Ruby Love" because of the bouzouki. I am still dragging all my many Tower Records aqua-covered world music albums (back then the section was called "ethnic" LOL).

[Vivian]

It was the sommerJune of 1972), and I heard Moonshadow on a jukebox. The rest is history.

Peace,Vivian

[salsabil]

Oh, I remember so well the first time I heard Cat!

My sister, who is ten years older than I was a huge Cat fan. I had never heard his music, I was 17 years old.
I was in my room one night, reading, and I heard this really beautiful song coming from her room which was across the hall from mine.
The music, the lyrics, just captured me, it was Sad Lisa.

I immediately went to her door and asked her who this was and could I borrow the album etc, etc.
At that time in my teenage life I was feeling just like Sad Lisa.
I was extremely shy and going through the usual high school hard times and this song just spoke to my heart.

After that, I bought and and everything I could get my hands on by Cat.
I felt like I could just lose myself in the music when I listened to him.
His music was and is poetry for my soul.

So many of his songs spoke to me, as they do to so many even now, kind of a universal "searching" appeal.
Loved them all, and to this day, stilling loving his Cat music!

I love the new one too, bravo, Yusuf, the world needs more people like you!

[Golden Sands]

I was born in 1984.. So I only knew "Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens." My father new cat stevens though, he used to say "back in the seventies it was always Cat Stevens or Bob Dylan topping the charts." Being a Muslim myself, I was interested in Yusuf's story.. i loved it whenever there was a documentary on tv or an interview. I had a lot of respect for him, but besides Wild World and Tala'a-Lbadru Alaina, I knew nothing about his music.

I few years back, my brother had a little problem with my father and there was some tension. So one day my brother wanted to express himself to dad and gave him a cd, which included the song 'father and son'.. its lyrics were so TRUE! the cd also had moonshadow.. i got to listen to those songs a lot and started thinking "what a great man Yusuf is!"

So finally one year ago, as I was in manama airport (waiting to board the plain to the US) and saw this cd in the duty-free section entitled "Remember Cat Stevens". After making sure the cd included Father and Son, Moonshadow, and Wild World, I bought it. The cd had songs from all his albums (most notably, it had Peace Train, HHW, Into White, WDTCP, Morning has broken). It took me some time to get used to the new songs and the lyrics (i wasn't used to the instruments from the 70s, and i had never thought of music the way Cat played it).. but it wasn't long before i was hooked.. it's just pure love and nothing else. More attractive than anything else was the spiritual search.. it really helped me understand my own faith.

Right now, i listen to his songs everyday, and find it hard to listen to anything else. My housemate told me the other day "all you listen to is cat stevens and james taylor." I replied, "well, I only listen to james taylor as a study break (from the majicat)"

[matthew]

Nice stories thanx 4 sharing

[michaelb]

My sister, elder of 3 years, got me into Cat. We are a musical family and she was listening to his music and learning Morning Has Broken on piano. She introduced that song to the Primary School Chior, which I was also in. That would have been about '74, I was about 12. Been hooked ever since.

[jeahis]

A girl on high school had to make a task about music. She asked a lot of teachers what kind of music they like. My favourite teacher liked Cat Stevens and I decided to give it a try. Now a month or 2 later I'm still learning about him...Everyday I learn to know new songs and I enjoy it! Here at the university there are still some people who like him, but not much!

[arne]

Hm, it was Pentecost in 1982, or so, when I was in a youth group of Christians on a holiday with bicycles and tents. The youngest son of the pastor (Matthias was his name) had a guitar and was playing "Father and son". We were only 14 years old at this time, but I remember it very well. Later on, this song became very famous in Germany through a TV ad for a tea sort (!).

Since then, I heard him (Cat Stevens, not that Matthias ) very often on radio and other occasions - until the day today. Cat Stevens is very popular in Germany, despite he is Muslim - or the opposite way: because he is. This is kind of fun for me ;D

By an accident, I detected in November, that one of my MySpace-friends is friend of Cat Stevens there (who is real, I guess). This impressed me very much, and suddenly I found out, that I am living in the days, when Cat Stevens is coming back as Yusuf to the old audience.

There is always a way, and when the most credible friends stand by Cat/Yusuf, it is a good sign.

[Medina]

One day I was watching the TV in Sarajevo. And I saw this man who came to Bosnia, talking how Europe is to be ashamed for letting Muslim people (lot of children) being slaughtered in Srebrenica in our age of "civilization". He was preparing this Bosnian record with Dino Merlin. He said that the first time he was inspired to make music again was when he got the record listened there during the war from somebody in Bosnia. He saw an important role music can have to hold the spirits in those hard times. Than my mother (who was the fan of him as Cat) explained to me who he was. I than got all the records and became Yusuf fan.
When I sent her "An Other Cup" as a present few days ago it touched her, reminded her of her yought and she was crying on the phone. That is how important he is to us.

[CatLike75]

That's a very beautiful story, Medina. We all feel the same way.

[1976]

Dino Merlin... now that's a name from the past, how did that song go, "mjesecina, k'o dukat zut..."

Last time I heard of him was when he did a duet with our Zeljko Joksimovic - mind you, not really type of music I'm into...

[Medina]

Ok, now you are safe ;D
No, not my music either (Joksimovic), as I remember he was singing on the Song Contest for Serbia too.
But, Merlin used to have some hits in the shiny days.
I was long recycling Nick Cave, Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Velvet Undeground, Jeff Buckley....you know those things. I felt always kind of not belonging to my generation (in taste) but "An Other Cup" was a great change in the direction of "light", I think I am even beginning to see it (the light I mean).

[withacat]

i already wrote in Introducing myself - i was 10 years old. Got sick, was lying in my bed, bored, and decided to look through some art albums....between two books i found a tape - tea for the tillerman. I started listening to it - and got captured forever:) i already knew english very well (im from moscow) because ive lived in States for couple of months when was 7y.o. The tricky thing is that noone in my family knows whos tape was it and where did it come from.They didnt recognize it and thought it was some childrens rhymes tape (because of the pic They never heard of CS too, except my elder sister who wasnt interested in him at all id say..so this tape somehow appeared in my flat from nowhere...its a bit of mystery, heh?
PS for the last 14 years ive only listened to tea for the tillerman album, and just 3 months ago found out its possible to buy other albums in moscow! But even the TEA album was quite enough to fill my soul:)

[giuly]

My musical knowledge started with Cat Stevens as well as many others in those days. But here is what my emotions came up to recently.
Back then I had always thought that "Foreigner" shouldn't have finished just when the music was becoming nicer and I couldn't accept the fact so I rember I used to turn the sound level up and up towards the end, 'till you really couldn't hear it anymore. But there was nothing to do about it. Eventually the music had totally stopped!
Well just last month while I was listening to the radio, I heard than unique voice again, just out of the blue. I was driving in my car and I really had make an immediate stop! That song was finally going on!!! I can't express what my feelings have been in that very moment! I could find many more meanings to such an apparently stupid event. He was finally back and right with "that" song! This means a lot to me. It's as if an old and forgotten part of my soul came back to life!

[catstevenscrush23]

I discovered him last month on you tube! I have such a crush on '70s Cat! He's everything that I'd want a man to be!

[SP4313]

In 1971 I was eleven years old. My older brother was given "Teaser And The Firecat" as a gift for Christmas, and it sat in his room for weeks without him opening it to listen. I was drawn to the album by the artwork, so at the risk of receiving the wrath of my brother, I opened it and listened to the entire album. I am forty-six years old now and still have never been touched as deeply by any other artist as I was that day. Even at age eleven I was captured by Cat Stevens' unique voice, music, and words. My brother actually gave the album to me and within a few months I had bought "Mona Bone Jakon", "Tea For The Tillerman", and my first guitar. I learned and played his songs through out Jr. High and High School, and actually caught the attention of my wife years later by playing and singing the songs "How Can I Tell You" and "If I Laugh". I listen to all different kinds of music, but since the age of eleven Cat Stevens has been my favorite artist. Even through 28 years of silence I never stopped listening to him.

Six months ago something wonderful happened. My youngest (12 year old) son asked me, "Hey dad, who is that guy that you listen to that sings that song that goes, 'If I laugh just a little bit...' " I gave him my "Teaser And The Firecat" CD, and now he has every album including "Matthew & Son" and "New Masters". He has been playing guitar for only four months and can already play "Father and Son" and "The First Cut Is The Deepest". It's a wonderful thing to get to see this happen all over again.

[krispypink]

catstevenscrush23 said:

I discovered him last month on you tube! I have such a crush on '70s Cat! He's everything that I'd want a man to be!

Sounds very much like me! I discovered Cat only a short time ago...about a year I think. I remember my mother listening to his music when I was younger too.

[Vivian]

krispypink said:

catstevenscrush23 said:

I discovered him last month on you tube! I have such a crush on '70s Cat! He's everything that I'd want a man to be!

Sounds very much like me! I discovered Cat only a short time ago...about a year I think. I remember my mother listening to his music when I was younger too.

That was me, but it was more than thirty years ago. No other artist has ever touched me as much.

Peace,Vivian

[fulaluv]

When we were around eleven years old my best friend and I stole his big brother's records, which, among the Savoy Brown, the Redbone, and the James Taylor included Cat Stevens' Teaser and the Firecat, Buddha and the Chocolate Box and his Greatest Hits album (you all know the one).

Since that time, that Greatest Hits album seemed to emerge and reinvent itself over and over again through the years, keeping my love and interest in this very special music alive.

To this day, more than any other artist, Cat Stevens is responsible for writing the soundtrack to my life, and I cherish all of it.

[julio]

my friend told me to listen to him, then i proceded to listen to all of his albums religiously.

[firecat101248]

'Teaser and the Firecat' was my first album which I bought from Cat Stevens. It was a present to my beloved girlfried. We listened to "Morning has Broken" about a thousand times ;-). It was this new interpretation of an old folk-song which I loved so much that I became a fan of Cat Stevens.
In the meantime I couldn't any more relax to the songs of Yusuf, because he became a militant Islamist. When he agreed to a death fatwa against a famous writer, this was the time, I stopped hearing t his music.

[Chris]

Well then why are you here? Yusuf is no more a militant islamist than I am. You are are a Troll, something we abhor coming on and disturbing this site. Your only here to create havoc and promote your brand of antagonism for the umpteen time. So good bye once again! You will continually be banned, so you might as well give up.

[flemmishfan]

When i was 14 i heard Cat for the first time with lady D'Arbanville,this emotive song was then the start for more.Every money i got (pocketmoney,babysiting)was for his lp's.I did'ent even had a recordplayer.My neigbur and friend put them on cassette for me and finaly my mom gived me my first recordplayer.And every lp that was coming out from him was welcome and turned grey.At that time i translated the songs with my dictionary to learn what he was singing about(i'm dutch)This was the only music that i discovered myself not by friends.I must say that noone of my friends were listing to him.Ten i heard that he was stopped and the accusations on tv but i never believed that a person like Cat with such true peacefull and warm music could do such things.They never give him a real chanse in the press and i think he was tired of all that.But in 2001 i saw a documentary on a local tvstation and i was so happy after seeing it.After that i found Cat.com and Majicat and yes Yusuf is back .You see Yusuf live is that of a peacefull man with only the best intentions.You see his son (Yoriyos)they bringed him up with lots of love and the toughts that peace is the most importend value in live.He is doing the same as his father coming up for peace with his music and alot more.He was on his road to find out and you only can see the good results after all.And stop with your shortsichtning and slandering and open your eyes.Have a open mind
Endoscopises
I made my own way-a long time ago
Packed a book and pen-to draw my own road
I started with a line-and to the distance i went
But i nevertought i'd ever endup where i have

Many souls i've met-and many a one have told
That the journey of live-willlead you to unfold
The secrets of existence-the reason for living
But i still haven't found the happiness i'm missing

It'sso easy to talk about-but much harder to find
Wisdom doesn't come with age-IT COMES WITH A OPEN MIND
Now i've been searching hard- i've travveled many miles
But the truth isn't something you grow up believing
IT'S SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO FIND

I've been alone for so long-and a long long time ago
I left in search of Peace and Truth-i left to find home
I still have Faith and Hope-one day i will see
When i found myself- that YOU'll come and find me

This are the words of Yoriyos Mohamed Yusf's son.I don't see nothing about militant Islamisme rather a unity for working for peace .Do your eyes open guy and see with a open mind.
Regine