Yusuf Islam (2006 - Present)

The man once known as Cat Stevens returns to the stage once again as Yusuf and this is how it started. In the early 2000's Yusuf's son brought a guitar back into the house and one morning when everyone was still sleeping Yusuf picked up the guitar and instantly he knew where every chord was that he knew all those years ago, being able to do this he started learning his old songs again and some new ones, he started to realise that music can also help the world a slow bit at a time and so he started recording again, he had another project on the run aswell which was a musical called Moonshadow named after his popular song which tells the story of a boy in a world with no light who just listens to the music of the theatres in Londons West End but this was not so succesful as he closed it 4 weeks early.

Cat Stevens Father & Son 1970 Original Music Video

The one and only Cat Stevens

Source ( http://www.literaryramblings.com/the-deconstruction-of-popular-music-wild-world-by-cat-stevens )   If you have the vinyl record version of "Teaser And The Firecat" this picture can be found if you open the record cover.

Cat Stevens (1966-1978)

 In 1966 Cat Stevens released his first single "I Love My Dog" which was featured on his first album "Matthew And Son" from his first success he went to make another album "New Masters" which failed to chart, he also went to perform with artists such as Jimi Hendrix And Englebert Humperdinck, but with the fast living he ended up contracting tuberculosis and was in hospital for a little over a year. In his year of recuperation he had the time to reflect and and write some new songs.

(1970) its been a long year but Cat is back looking healthy with a new look and a new sound. Cat came back on the scene with his third album " Mona Bone Jakon" which had songs such as "Lady D'Arbanville" "I wish, I wish" and "Trouble" this was in July 1970 and just a few months he released the very successful album "Tea For The Tillerman" with such songs like "Father And Son" "Wild World" "Where Do The Children Play?" and "On The Road To Find Out" after these two he went on to relase 7 more albums all in the seventies but with all this fame and fortune there was something bothering Cat and it went right to when he got out of hospital and throughout the seventies he experimented with different religions such as tarot cards and buddhism, he was doing this to try and find the meaning of why he was here on this earth and in 1977 when his brother returned from israel he brought a Qu'ran to Cat being aware of his spiritual searching and Cat took to it straight away and in 1978 he quit the music industry and became a Muslim who is now known as Yusuf Islam, or Just Yusuf.

Albums by Cat stevens

• 1967: Matthew and Son
• 1967: New Masters
• 1970: Mona Bone Jakon
• 1970: Tea for the Tillerman (No. 8)
• 1971: Teaser and the Firecat (No. 2)
• 1972: Catch Bull at Four (No. 1)
• 1973: Foreigner (No. 3)
• 1974: Buddha and the Chocolate Box (No. 2)
• 1975: Numbers
• 1977: Izitso (No. 7)
• 1978: Back to Earth

 

His 1978 album Back To Earth was the only that he released under the name Cat Stevens after converting to Islam. The numbers beside some of the album names refer to where it got on the charts at the time 

Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam

This is my Blog about Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam who in The early sixties right up the late seventuies was very prolific in his songwriting, I wanted to do a blog about him because to me he is one of the best musicians that I have Listened to.