Cat Stevens

[Muad'Dib]

[FONT=Palatino Linotype][COLOR=Navy]Well? Any of you guys listen to or have heard of Cat Stevens? If not, he's a singer from the 70s (right?). My mom happened to pop Cat Stevens Greatest Hits in the radio one day, and I had already heard 'Peace Train'. Naturally, I loved it. His songs often have a calming, acoustic feel to them.

Anyway, if you have heard of him, what do you think of him? If you like/don't like him, why/why not? What are a couple of your favorite Cat S. songs?

Personally, I like him because his songs are generally slightly upbeat, but still gentle in a way. And his voice is rather unique. A couple of my favorites are:
Peace Train
Wild World
Moonshadow
Very Young One

And a few others. You?

Note: Cat Steven's (sorry about the spelling mistake) name is now Yusuf Islam (thank you Morpheus for that useful tidbit ~_^)[/COLOR][/FONT]

[elfpirate]

*HEH*- Cat Stevens... I used to be into his music... seems like a long time ago.

I find it ironic that he went from writing things such as Peace Train to putting bounties on the heads of authors for their "infidel" content- yeah, somehow, paying someone to kill an author for their freedom of speech, etc... doesn't quite mesh with what he was saying when he recorded "Peace Train".

Last I heard, he was in hiding because the goverment wanted to question him about possible Al-Quaida links... because Cat was converted to a Muslim extremist religion or something (which was why he had raised a bounty on said-author's head- the book went against his new religious beliefs).

If you were just curious about the music, however, I can't deny that he once wrote some good songs...

[Heaven's Cloud]

[color=indigo]When I first picked up the guitar I used to play a ton of folk rock, mainly is because it is fairly easy to play and sing to. I learned to play along with songs by artists like James Taylor, Van Morrison (who is just awesome), Paul Simon, Country Joe and the Fish, and, of course, Cat Stevens.

Now I was never a huge fan of any of these artists, but they wrote some catchy songs that everyone knows. Actually, the one thing about Cat Stevens that sticks out in my mind is an SNL sketch. The sketch featured Scott Wolf (Party of Five) and Chris Kattan as two dueling college folk guitarists vying for the affection of three sorority girls. The memorable aspect of the sketch is when Scott Wolf is playing ?Wild World? and cannot play the song?s famous chord run down, so he hums it instead. It stuck with me because I couldn?t that damn chord progression for the longest time so I used to skip it. Boy did it take a lot away from the song![/color]

[Panda]

The only Cat Stevens song that I can name off the top of my head is "Wild World". The reason I remember that one is because in the 80's the band Mr. Big (they did the end theme "Shine" for Hellsing) did a cover of the song. Once in awhile I will hear Cat Stevens' version of "Wild World" while grocery shopping but that is about it. Unfortunately I think his political views have overshadowed his artistic talents.