Yusuf Islam: the Roadsinger's Renaissance

By Johnny Black

Few songwriters are as loved as Yusuf Islam. Despite a 30-year recording break prompted by near-death experiences and a conversion to Islam, his material as Cat Stevens continues to inspire millions. On the eve of his return to the stage, Music Week salutes pop's original changingman

By Johnny Black

ON A CLEAR DAY, FROM THE ROOF OF THE SHAFTESBURY THEATRE you can gaze out over London's West End and listen for the echoes of countless unforgettable songs from hundreds of successful musicals.

And, if you did, you would be walking in the footsteps of young Steven Demetre Georgiou, later known as Steve Adams, then Cat Stevens and now Yusuf Islam. "As a boy," he recalls, "me and my friend Andy used to climb up onto the rooftops of buildings near my family home in the West End, the Shaftesbury Theatre being one of them."

Then, one day in late 1962, listening to the radio, he heard the newly-released Up On The Roof, written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. "Suddenly there was a song that described exactly what we were experiencing," he says. "It felt amazing, the way that song coincided with my life, that a songwriter had perfectly expressed what I was feeling."

Since then, of course, he has written many such songs himself; songs that connect with his listeners at an unusually deep and personal level. In many cases, his songs have inspired others just as Up On The Roof inspired him.

"When I was very young I regularly sang Cat's song Father And Son at home," remembers Ronan Keating. "And when I went to the audition for Boyzone, that's what I sang. Boyzone had a number one hit with it and then I recorded it on a solo album."

Boyzone and Pearl Jam may be poles apart, but both drew inspiration from the same man, as have later stars including James Blunt, James Morrison, Paolo Nutini and Katie Melua.

"I first heard Tea For The Tillerman when I was 17," recalls Melua. "It's definitely in my top five favourite albums of all time. In fact I love Where Do The Children Play? so much that I sang it at the top of my voice when I did my first parachute jump - once the parachute opened that is!"

Seated at a table in his North London office, Yusuf Islam wears the mantle of inspirational songwriter graciously and without fuss. Now in his sixties but looking a good 10 years younger, Islam is not only returning to live touring for the first time in 33 years, but is about to launch his first musical, Moonshadow, with roots harking back to his West End childhood.

His first musical memories are an eclectic mixture of hymns, Greek wedding songs, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major and Nat "King" Cole. "But living in the West End, I also got to hear a lot of musicals," he says. "Some of my earliest hits, like I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun, were conceived as songs for musicals."

A regular habitue of Soho's R'n'B nightspots, he was equally impressed by emerging folkie Bob Dylan. Adopting the name Steve Adams, he quickly progressed to Soho's folk clubs, including the legendary Les Cousins, where he rubbed shoulders with fellow struggling troubadours such as Paul Simon and Al Stewart. Before long, though, Adams devised a better stage name. Having brought Norma Tanega's hit, Walking My Cat Named Dog, and seen Jane Fonda's movie Cat Ballou, he started thinking about his own love of animals. "Cats seemed to be coming at me from all directions," he explains, so he re-christened himself Cat Stevens.

Living in the West End put him in easy walking distance of several music publishers' offices and he was not afraid to stroll in and sing them his latest compositions. Cat's first deal saw him selling occasional songs for pounds 50 a throw to Ardmore and Beechwood, but his prospects brightened considerably when he encountered record producer Mike Hurst, who remembers that, "When I first met Cat in July 1966 it took me precisely two minutes and five seconds - the length of I Love My Dog - to realise that short of an Act of God, nothing would stop him being a success."

Hurst took the freshly-demoed I Love My Dog to Decca Records who, about to launch their new label, Deram, snapped it up, triggering a run of hits that included Matthew And Son and I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun. "When Matthew & Son went to number two, I knew I'd made it," remembers Islam. "I was very lucky to have my own publishing company Cat Music, almost from day one. Mike Hurst and my agent Harold Davidson, who were the shareholders along with me, set it up. I got 50% plus my shareholder earnings. Later, I got the whole thing."

Right from the start, Stevens' songs became hot properties for other artists. The Tremeloes were the first to score with their breezy version of Here Comes My Baby. "It was a very sad song but they turned it into a party piece," points out Yusuf, "which was completely wrong but it sounded great." In their wake came PP Arnold's version of The First Cut Is the Deepest, and a steady stream of covers from artists as diverse as Sheryl Crow, Maxi Priest, Travis, The Mavericks, David Essex and Dolly Parton have followed ever since.

Guy Moot, who oversees Yusuf's catalogue as president of EMI Music Publishing UK, says, "For well over 40 years, Cat Stevens' songs have resonated with music fans everywhere. His ability to connect so readily to people regardless of class, sex, race or geography truly marks out his catalogue and makes his music as relevant today as it has ever been."

However, behind the trappings of Cat's initial period of success, he was succumbing to the pressures of a lifestyle that ground him down. Often playing three shows a night, he found himself developing a cough. "The doctors said it was just a cold symptom, until I started spitting blood, and then they realised it was tuberculosis and I had to go into hospital."

During his slow recovery, realising how close he had come to death, he became increasingly fascinated by the many philosophical and religious explanations of his situation.

Once he was back on his feet, he started work on an ambitious project, "a musical about the Russian Revolution called Revolussia". He adds, "Out of that came songs like Father And Son, Maybe You're Right and a whole lot of others."

Revolussia was never staged, but its songs led directly to the next phase of Stevens' development. "He came to my house, took out his guitar and played me a couple of songs from a musical he was writing," says Island Records founder Chris Blackwell. "The third song was Father And Son and I stopped him right there and told him honestly I was not keen on doing a musical but I would sure like to sign him to Island Records."

Stevens' second period of success proved even greater than his first, with classic albums like 1970's Tea For The Tillerman and 1971's Teaser And the Firecat both notching up triple-platinum sales while 1972's Catch Bull At Four sold half a million in its first two weeks on sale, and spent three weeks at number one in the US.

"In 1971 Cat Stevens and I recorded the duet Honey Man," remembers Elton John. "He co-wrote the song with Ken Cumberbatch and it still sounds pretty good today. Yusuf has made a major and important contribution to the canon of classic British songs and I am so pleased that he is back writing and recording today."

Stevens' success continued with 1973's Foreigner and 1974's Buddha And The Chocolate Box, which explored to some extent his increasing interest in the spiritual side of his life.

A second brush with death, nearly drowning off the coast of Malibu in 1976, led directly to his conversion to Islam, his adoption of the name Yusuf Islam and, ultimately to his decision to drop out of the music industry, believing that a career in music was not compatible with the teachings of Islam's holy book, The Qur'an.

In May 1977 Rod Stewart took a new version of The First Cut Is The Deepest to number one in the UK but, despite his place at the pinnacle of pop success, Stevens formally converted to Islam at the end of that year, and busied himself with numerous philanthropic and charitable pursuits, including the establishment of the first state- funded Muslim faith school.

His musical legacy, however, refused to go away. Boyzone took Father And Son to number two in 1995, Sheryl Crow scored an international smash in 2003 with The First Cut Is The Deepest and in 2005 and 2006 the same song earned him two consecutive ASCAP songwriter of the year awards.

It was around this time that his son Muhammad brought a guitar home and helped rekindle his father's love of music. Islam began to reconcile himself to the idea that playing music might, after all, be compatible with his deeply-held faith. "I realised that music has so many different expressions. It's like colours, how you use those paints, what you choose to define in the art becomes good or bad. It's as simple as that."

When he returned to recording with 2006's An Other Cup, singer- songwriters were riding a new wave of popularity, spearheaded by the runaway success of James Blunt. "Having never met him before, and out of the blue, Yusuf invited me to his house and played me his new songs," recalls Blunt. "He couldn't have known the honour it was. I had been singing his songs since I was four years old, played Cat Stevens hits with my first band aged 17 and covered Wild World at Live Earth in Wembley Stadium. It's wonderful to hear this pure songwriter sing again."

Islam's ongoing commitment to world peace was underlined by his participation in the 2007 Peace One Day Concert at London's Royal Albert Hall, where another young singer-songwriter, James Morrison, found himself torn between admiration and anxiety. "Just before I went on I was watching Yusuf Islam and I thought, I'm on after Cat Stevens!" explains Morrison. "I remember being at home with my dad listening to his albums during the darkest times, the best of times."

Teaming up with Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton and others in 2008, Islam recorded Boots And Sand, a song about the bizarre case of mistaken identity which led immigration authorities to refuse him entry to the US.

This year's follow-up album Roadsinger finds him once again attracting major critical acclaim. "It was Top 15 in May when it came out," notes Island Records general manager Jon Turner, "and has since gone silver. It's an important album for us and now that he's going out on tour we're confident it will come back strongly."

Yusuf's music and records manager Nick Stewart of Nick Stewart Associates, known for his work with heritage acts including the Eagles and Neil Diamond, says, "Something that amazes me is that, for a man who has been out of the business for 30-odd years, he's incredibly well clued-up about everything from the franchising of musicals to the intricacies of downloading songs via text messages on mobiles."

In recent months, the media has been trumpeting the triumphant return of a master singer-songwriter under a new name, but they are wrong. A quick look at his track record of hits in his own right and via cover versions tells a very different story. Whether his name is Steven Demetre Georgiou, Steve Adams, Cat Stevens or Yusuf Islam, this man has never actually been away.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.