On some date back in 1976, I was the giddiest, most excited teenage girl on the planet. I was at what was then The Music Hall in Boston with my sister Joanne and her boyfriend to see Cat Stevens live. I'd been to plenty of concerts before, but this was different. It was THE CONCERT. I was in the same airspace with the one musician I worshiped, whose posters were the wallpaper in my bedroom (he was SO hot!), and whose every song I knew verbatim. I played his records so much that I could anticipate exactly where the scratches on the vinyl were. I'm pretty sure I floated into the Music Hall, and was in such a hypnotic state that I guess I picked the seat with the best stage shot, which just happened to be BETWEEN my sister and her boyfriend, a fact she reminded me of years later (Sorry Joey, but I needed the best view of my future husband!) The concert was probably the the most incredible show I've ever seen, Cat Steven's gorgeous self filling the room with that gorgeous voice, moving with ease from guitar to piano and singing every song so passionately. Amazing stuff. But unbeknownst to his millions of fans, it was also to be his last tour as Cat Stevens.
Apparently, what happened was Cat Stevens was swimming somewhere in South America, had a "near death experience" involving a large wave, promised God that he would Serve Him if his life was spared, miraculously made it to shore, was given a Quaran by his brother, found The Truth, ditched the evil secular music, changed his name to Yusuf Islam, and then pretty much disappeared. And that life change was totally his choice, even though, as such a huge fan, I went through all of Elizabeth Kubler Ross's Stages of Grief, from Denial to "Whatever." In the pre- internet days it wasn't easy to get information about him, but some of the articles I was able to find described a man deeply immersed in a world of medieval religious zeal, a man who refused to look female journalists in the eye, a man who shunned music, his greatest gift, and would not touch an instrument...his transformation was, to me, disturbing. He became a person who embodied so much I fundamentally abhor. So I suppose it's not a shock to report that we DIDN'T get married. In fact, he let his mother pick his wife for him. Go figure...he says she's a really good cook.
The Big Wave In The Ocean episode was not to be the last of Cat Steven/Yusuf Islam's "epiphanies" though. After a few decades out of the music business, although not always out of the headlines, all the while steadily building an internet and somewhat more public presence, he's decided to do another tour. According to him, some years ago his son brought a guitar home, he picked it up and VOILA! He had another "Magical Moment!" Music wasn't so evil after all! Of course he wrote a book about the life altering experience of touching a guitar again, instead of just saying "I've been sort of a mindless shit for a lot of years, but I need the money, I miss the attention, and I just want to sing again. Oh..and thanks for the Hall of Fame thing!" That's just not quite profound enough for Yusuf/Cat Stevens (which is how he's referring to himself now). Hence my personal dilemma.
Nostalgia has a very powerful lure, so OF COURSE I wanted tickets to the Boston leg of his first North American tour in thirty years, and of course they were nearly impossible to score. So I joined his "internet fan club" to see how other people were getting their tickets. The impossibility of purchasing tickets for a high demand show was my initial beef, but I very quickly began to notice another very uncomfortable "theme." I "get" it's a fan site, and there are plenty of now middle aged women who, like me, stood in a concert hall when they were teenagers listening to the musician whose posters were also all over THEIR bedroom walls who chimed in on that space. But it was also weirdly religious, full of people who consider "Brother Yusuf" to be almost God-Like. So after reading a lot, I eventually "Went There." (It's just who I am and what I do..I am an equal opportunity critic of all organized religions, Islam MORE than included). I mentioned that pesky "Rushdie Thing." The backlash against me was immediate and Holy Shit and Crap! Yusuf Islam has verbally danced around this "issue" for years..but I simply cannot "un hear" his words. He said, unequivocally, on a British television show called "Hypotheticals" in 1989, that he supported a Fatwa against a writer whom he believed insulted his religion, and that he would personally do the job himself if he lived in an Islamic State and was directed to do so by a cleric. He's never said, when later asked about his words, "Yeah. I'm sorry. That was an asshole, morally wrong, thing for me to say." The Fatwa is still in effect, as evidenced by Salman Rushdie's name being invoked just last week when some Pakistani's were "celebrating an "I Am Not Malala Day, in reference to the young woman who was shot in the face and left for dead because she wanted to go to school. Mr. Islam says only that he was "joking" when he initially supported the Fatwa, yet he has not denounced it either. I'm sure Rushdie is just cracking up over That one, as he attempts to go about his life knowing he has a bulls eye on his back.
So the bottom line is I've been "prayed for" on Mr. Islam's fan site. I've been told I wasn't "Riding The Peace Train." (Seriously) One poster even told me that Vanilla Ice was now Amish, so TAKE THAT, you heathen! And I've eve been told to simply "shut up." (Like THAT'S ever gonna happen!) But here's the deal. The world has changed dramatically since the late 70's. The person who used to be Cat Steven's wants back in, and we're embracing him too quickly. His voice and his platform could be SO huge, but he's been curiously silent about some VERY real issues. And his newer songs are overtly religious and political, so he doesn't get the "Love and Peace" pass. He's an enormous musical talent, but he is still a religious zealot. He'll make a pile of money from women just like me, but I'll bet my next paycheck there will not be a female musician on his stage. One sane fan wrote to me privately and said, basically, that she too was disturbed by the tenor of the discussion on his fan club site, that she loves his older body of work, but believes fully that he is attempting to straddle two worlds for financial gain. I would also add hubris to his "motivations."
And let me end by saying that I am no longer the giddy teenager I once was...but the man's voice DOES still get to me, in a visceral way. But his WORDS are pure blather, bullshit, and religious weirdness. It's sort of sad that this once Super Duper Teenage fan wouldn't attend his concert if I was GIVEN tickets now, because I've got my my own moral absolutes to live by. And I have no patience for hypocrites, cowards, or True Believers, especially if Thy Name is Cat Stevens.
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