Earlier this week I met up with a bunch of friends from Springdales School, my alma mater. Instantly transported to our time together, we had a magical evening of laughter, recounted memories and gentle ribbing 😁. I sat all evening with a big smile on my face, and later that evening thousands of memories raced through my mind. For some strange reason, my old school diary floated into memory – you know the one that we all had to write down our homework tasks in? I remembered that at the back of our school diary (or was it a separate song book?) was a collection of songs we sang at morning assembly and other occasions, ranging from “Jana Gana Man” and “Sare Jahan Se Accha” to “500 Miles” and….. “Morning Has Broken”. To be honest, I never really gave these songs much thought, usually just sang them by rote. Except one – because one Monday evening on Forces Request, I heard Cat Stevens sing “Morning Has Broken”. Transfixed by that incredible voice, I very distinctly remember thinking “wow, my school is really cool – we sing Cat Stevens’ songs” 😉. That memory led to me listening to Cat Stevens on repeat all evening and .….. here we are!

“Morning Has Broken” is one of the very rare songs Cat Stevens recorded that he didn’t write himself. I discovered much later in life that this is actually a hymn written by a Ms. Eleanor Farejon in 1931 set to a lovely Scottish tune called “Bunnesan” – hence it’s inclusion in our morning assembly book (and not just because Mrs. Rajni Kumar was a hip school principal 😂 !). Cat randomly found the hymn hanging out in a bookshop while looking for inspiration to complete his fifth album “Teaser and the Firecat”. Extending the 45-second hymn to 3 minutes and polishing the Scottish melody, he recorded the masterpiece in just one session. The label weren’t convinced of it’s commercial value – they thought it wouldn’t do well as a single as it was too religious! Ye of little faith, right ?! Of course, it was a smash hit, and is now and forever associated with Cat Stevens.

A voice that seems to contemplate life’s mysteries with a shy, half-knowing smile. Zen in every syllable. Lyrics that wash over you with calm word pictures…. ever since I first heard “Moonshadow”, well over 40 years ago, that for me, has been the essence of Cat Stevens.  “Moonshadow” was inspired by Cat’s first Spanish holiday, out by the seaside, when for the first time, he experienced nature at its most serene, wondrous and beautiful. Growing up in London’s West End, the bright neon lights must have made him see the moon merely as a stage-prop in the cityscape. At the Spanish seaside though, he saw a full moon in it’s awesome glory. And looking down, he saw… his…moon-shadow. As he jumped and skipped across the rocks in gay abandon, a melody that he had already composed jumped into his mind, and, the words to the song just came to him. It’s an amazing word picture, built up of layers of peace, solitude, optimism, humour and playfulness – all from a 23 year-old (at 23 I was learning how to drink a bottle of Old Monk in one sitting – takes all sorts I guess 🤪). “Moonshadow” is a song about being in the present and enjoying it. It’s about as perfect a song as you can possibly have, with the voice, the lyrics and the melody all coming together magically, a bit like moonbeams lighting up the ocean.

To be fair, Cat Stevens didn’t exactly start out that “evolved”. Born Steven Georgiou into a Greek Cypriot/Swedish family that lived above their restaurant ‘Moulin Rouge’ on London’s Shaftesbury Avenue (spot quiz – a Cadbury éclair to anyone who can identify the song by my favourite band that references Shaftesbury Avenue. Answers on a postcard please), he was a teenager in the “mod” and “hip” 60s, with all the affectations and indulgences that went with it. Teaching himself the guitar at 15, by 17 he had written his first hit, changed his name to Cat Stevens (because his girlfriend thought he had eyes like a cat 😁), he burst onto the Pop scene with his debut single “I Love My Dog”. This is an interesting spin on a love song, challenging his girlfriend to give him unconditional love – like his dog gives him. I’m sure his girlfriend(s) was not amused – but who cares when you’re 17, right?! The lively melody and catchy chorus made sure “I Love My Dog” rapidly climbed up the charts in dog-loving Britain, making him a bona-fide pop-star! In case you’re wondering, there really was a dog that inspired this song. It was an abandoned Daschund (or as he called it, a “sausage-dog”) that Cat rescued and got very attached to ❤️ – I always knew Cat Stevens was my kind of people!

In the next couple of years, Cat’s pop career exploded. However, he quickly found himself on the pop-star treadmill – the record label pushing him for more hits, his songs being over-produced with full orchestras , and, he being overridden on musical decisions. In early 1968, his body – and I suspect, his spirit -broke down and Cat fell very ill, contracting tuberculosis. Forced out of the music scene for almost two years while in hospital and later recuperating, he had ample time to press the reset button on his music career. He decided that going forward it would be all about what he wanted to say and how he wanted to sing, rather than what his label wanted. Luckily for him (and for us) he found a new label that gave him that freedom.

And then, in late 1968, fate intervened, in the shape of a gorgeous young American teenage model – Patti D’Arbanville – who became the inspiration for two of Cat’s biggest hits, Wild World and Lady D’Arbanville. They met at a music industry party and after a year of dating, Cat was getting serious about her. However, Patti’s attention was wandering as her modelling career was taking her all over the world (rumour has it that Mick Jagger also had something to do with her attention wandering – they dated for a year after Cat and she broke up!). Cat wrote a couple of songs about his ill-fated relationship with Patti, which became huge hits that relaunched his career. The first, Lady D’Arbanville, is a plaintive love song written while Patti was away in NY for a month. Feeling lost and pining for her, I suspect he was worried that his romance was fading away.

And just a few months later, when their love affair was over, he wrote his greatest hit “Wild World”, a farewell song for Patti. Of course, I knew nothing of this when I first heard “Wild World” on the radio, back as a teenager in Delhi. To be honest, I didn’t really register the lyrics for a while – the lovely melody and the catchy, very philosophical chorus, somehow just resonated with me. Finding out the backstory many years later, just made the song even more poignant. Now, every time I hear it , I can hear the love he still had for Patti as he bid her goodbye. Knowing that she had moved on from him, he was still wishing her well. No rancour, no bitterness – just…. love ❤️!

Sandwiched between these were two brilliant songs “Father and Son” and “Peace Train” that I discovered many years later. The first is a dialogue between a father and a son, between experience and passion, between making peace with circumstances and going to war for your beliefs, between settling down and rebellion. It’s a gorgeous song, sung by Cat in two different registers with different voices for the “Father” and the “Son”. Reminds me a lot of some conversations with own my dad, and to be honest, some conversations I’ve had recently with my own son.

“Peace Train” was Cat Stevens’ “Imagine” moment – Vietnam was raging, and more and more artists were raising their voices in protest. A very catchy song from the long-haired late sixties, it quickly became a very popular peace anthem – not least because of Cat’s peace advice “If everyone could love Alfred Hitchcock the world would be a better place”😂. Watch this video!

Of course, we do have to talk about his transformation to Yusuf Islam. As he tells it, Cat was always on a spiritual quest, deep down feeling he had a gap in his soul that he didn’t really know how to fill. And then in 1977, one night swimming in the sea in Malibu, he got into trouble. About to drown, he called out to God and asked to be saved. And amazingly, just then, the tide turned and he was washed back to shore. Within six months, he had converted to Islam and had eschewed all his previous music, taking on the name Yusuf Islam. I remember hearing about it at the AIR studios one evening and thinking what a shame it was that we wouldn’t hear any more Cat Stevens music. And somehow, he just faded from the airwaves of Delhi, and, I lost track of Cat Stevens for a while.  

However, thankfully, such amazing music can never be forgotten. Cat Stevens is back, singing under his old name , issuing new music again. Thank God!! Listening to him always feels like I’m gabbing with an old friend about life in general, a glass of Oban in hand. The window is open and waves are gently crashing on the shore.

Peace. Calm. Zen.