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Cat Stevens Quotes
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Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his stage name Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His 1967 debut album reached the top 10 in the UK, and the album's title song "Matthew and Son" charted at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. Stevens' albums Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat were both certified triple platinum in the US by the RIAA. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and Islamic music.His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, and fifteen weeks at number one in the Australian ARIA Charts. He earned two ASCAP songwriting awards in 2005 and 2006 for "The First Cut Is the Deepest", and the song has been a hit for four artists. His other hit songs include "Father and Son", "Wild World", "Peace Train", "Moonshadow", and "Morning Has Broken". In 2007 he received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.In December 1977, Stevens converted to Islam, and he adopted the name Yusuf Islam the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all of his guitars for charity and left his musical career in order to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. He was embroiled in a long-running controversy regarding comments which he made in 1989 about the death fatwa on author Salman Rushdie. He has received two honorary doctorates and awards for promoting peace from two organisations founded by Mikhail Gorbachev.

In 2006, he returned to pop music – releasing his first album of new pop songs in 28 years, titled An Other Cup. With that release and subsequent ones, he dropped the surname "Islam" from the album cover art – using the stage name Yusuf as a mononym. In 2009, he released the album Roadsinger, and in 2014, he released the album Tell 'Em I'm Gone, and began his first US tour since 1978. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. His second North American tour since his resurgence, featuring 12 shows in intimate venues, began on 12 September 2016.

✵ 21. July 1948
Cat Stevens photo
Cat Stevens: 91 quotes0 likes

Cat Stevens Quotes

“All the times that I’ve cried, keeping all the things I knew inside,
It’s hard, but it’s harder to ignore it”

Cat Stevens

Father and Son
Song lyrics, Tea for the Tillerman (1970)

“O love! O love!
Be with us always
We who will perish salute death
Life alone goes on!”
O caritas, O caritas nobis semper sit amor mos perituri mortem salutamus — ah, ah sola resurgit vita

Cat Stevens

O caritas, O caritas
nobis semper sit amor
mos perituri mortem salutamus — ah, ah
sola resurgit vita
"O' Caritas" (co-written with Andreas Toumazis and Jeremy Taylor)
Song lyrics, Catch Bull at Four (1972)

“Bring tea for the Tillerman,
Steak for the sun,
Wine for the women who made the rain come,
Seagulls sing your hearts away
‘Cause while the sinners sin, the children play”

Cat Stevens

Tea For The Tillerman
Song lyrics, Tea for the Tillerman (1970)

“Well I rode a while, for a mile or so
Down the road to the 18th Avenue
And the people I saw were the people I know
And they all came down to take a view”

Cat Stevens

18th Avenue (Kansas City Nightmare)
Song lyrics, Catch Bull at Four (1972)

“It’s not time to make a change,
Just relax, take it easy
You’re still young, that’s your fault,
There’s so much you have to know.
Find a girl, settle down,
If you want you can marry
Look at me, I am old, but I’m happy”

Cat Stevens

Father and Son
Song lyrics, Tea for the Tillerman (1970)

“I don’t want to work away
Doing just what they all say”

Cat Stevens

But I Might Die Tonight
Song lyrics, Tea for the Tillerman (1970)

“I love everything
So don't it make you feel sad
'cause I'll drink to you, my baby
I'll think to that, I'll think to that”

Cat Stevens

Miles From Nowhere
Song lyrics, Tea for the Tillerman (1970)

“She moves like and angel
And seven evening stars
Dance through the window
Of her universal house”

Cat Stevens

Angelsea
Song lyrics, Catch Bull at Four (1972)

“Life is a journey, you know; and a lot of journeys, you go out, you come back.”

Cat Stevens

From an interview with Yusuf Islam on London Tonight, an ITV (UK) television news programme, 8th December 2009

“Don't you feel a change a coming
From another side of time,
Breaking down the walls of silence,
Lifting shadows from your mind.”

Cat Stevens

Changes IV
Song lyrics, Teaser and the Firecat (1971)

“I know many fine feathered friends
But their friendliness depends on how you do
They know many sure fired ways,
To find out the one who pays
And how you do”

Cat Stevens

Hard Headed Woman
Song lyrics, Tea for the Tillerman (1970)

“If I make a mark in time,
I can’t say the mark is mine
I’m only the underline of the word
Yes, I’m like him; just like you,
I can’t tell you what to do
Like everybody else I’m searching through
What I’ve heard”

Cat Stevens

Tuesday's Dead
Song lyrics, Teaser and the Firecat (1971)

“If Rushdie turned up at my doorstep looking for help, I might ring somebody who might do more damage to him than he would like. I'd try to phone the Ayatollah Khomeini and tell him exactly where this man is.”

Cat Stevens

As quoted in "Cat Stevens Gives Support To Call for Death of Rushdie" by Craig R. Whitney, in The New York Times (23 May 1989), p. C18

“This stranger had the key
To any door he wished — with his eyes, I say What kind of majiks, of majiks?
What kind of man —
Can make me turn and see the way I really am?”

Cat Stevens

Majik of Majiks
Song lyrics, Numbers (1974)

“Well, if you want to sing out, sing out,
And if you want to be free, be free.
'Cause there's a million things to be,
You know that there are.”

Cat Stevens

If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out, originally recorded for the 1971 film Harold and Maude
Song lyrics, Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits (1984)

“And if I ever lose my hands,
Lose my power, lose my land.
Oh, if I ever lose my hands,
Ooh, I won't have to work no more.And if I ever lose my eyes,
If my colors all run dry.
Yes, if I ever lose my eyes,
Ooh, I won't have to cry no more.Yes, I'm bein' followed by a moon shadow,
Moon shadow, moon shadow.
Leapin' and hoppin' on a moon shadow,
Moon shadow, moon shadow.”

Cat Stevens

Moonshadow
Song lyrics, Teaser and the Firecat (1971)

“All those days are frozen now and all those scars are gone
Ah, but the song carries on … so holy”

Cat Stevens

Sweet Scarlet
Song lyrics, Catch Bull at Four (1972)

“And if my mind breaks up
In all so many ways
I know the meaning of
The words, “I love you””

Cat Stevens

King of Trees
Song lyrics, Buddha and the Chocolate Box (1974)

“Novim's Nightmare”

Cat Stevens

Song lyrics, Numbers (1974)

“I love, I love, I’m ready to love — yes”

Cat Stevens

Ready
Song lyrics, Buddha and the Chocolate Box (1974)