The Cat (Stevens) came back
The singer formerly known as Cat Stevens is nothing if not controversial. It’s hard to write about him even now without generating a firestorm of hatred. But I’m going to try.
Stevens (now Yusuf Islam) is hated by a lot of people mainly for two reasons. One, he became a Muslim, and in the early days of his conversion he seemed to support the fatwah against Rushdie (he later said the remarks were a joke, but not many buy that). Two, he left performing after he converted, dismaying his devoted fans—although it was Steven’s intensity and spirituality they’d always liked in the first place (as well as his music, of course), which made the extremes of his commitment to his chosen faith a bit less surprising but no less disturbing.
A few years ago Stevens returned to performing. In more recent clips of his concerts, it appears that he has lost some of his intensity, which is not all that surprising. What originally drove it? Youth was probably a good part of it, and there would be a natural diminution of energy as he aged. But I think some of that early energy was fueled by his spiritual quest which, according to his Wiki entry, was a search Stevens had been on for quite some time.
When a person finds what he’s looking for he can lose some of that edge. Stevens’ edge was never all that edgy to begin with, though; he was sincere and touchy-feely, but not saccharine. That’s part of what made him great—that slight hint of bite combined with the sweetness in his lovely and immediately distinctive voice.
Even before Cat’s conversion he showed an almost trance-like quality in many of his performances. projecting a seemingly unselfconscious sincerity in surrendering to this religiously-inspired feeling that is unlike that of any performer I’ve seen. If you look at the comments at YouTube on many of his old videos, many people write “I love him!” and I think it’s because Stevens used to seem emotionally naked when he performed, even though he had all his clothes on. And his nakedness did not have as its source—as with some performers, such as for example Janis Joplin—the emotion of anguish. It seemed, instead, to spring from ecstasy.
Like most great singers, Stevens has an instantly recognizable and unique voice, now somewhat deepened with time. Here he is in his heyday, performing his signature piece (which he did not write, by the way; it’s a Christian hymn written in the 1930s and set to a traditional tune):
And here he sings the same song much more recently. You can see (and hear) the difference:
Here’s another before-and-after. In this case one of the oddities of the song “Oh Very Young” is that, although Stevens wrote it when he was very young, the words are more suited to an older person. I love this early version, despite the gratuitous and random still photos that the compiler of this video has chosen to add:
Here’s the same song from the perspective of age (I left in the intro because I wanted to show that the old guy still looks awfully good):
I defy you to find a cover of “Morning Has Broken” that can compare to Stevens’ original version. And I defy you to find an even halfway decent cover of “Oh Very Young” at all. Most YouTube cover versions of the latter song—as well as the cover versions available through iTunes, which number quite a few—are too sweet, icky sweet and slow, unlike Stevens’ original, with its rhythmic drive and verve. “Oh Very Young” is a song about the transience of life, but Stevens makes it energetic and upbeat whereas other performers seem to just make it syrupy. Yuck. When Stevens sings the song it may sound simple, but it most assuredly is not, and his rhythms always surprise.
Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings, crucifixes, and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of Ignorance.” Abu Dawud
Here’s hoping there isn’t a fatwa in Cat’s future.
As for the music, I salaam to Neo.
I guess you had to have been there.
Seriously I have some dim recollection of a girlfriend sometime in the mid 80’s saying to me that Cat Stevens had joined some religious cult. I figured he’s become a Hare Krishna groupie or a Moonie, or maybe a Seventh Day Adventist.
She was good looking enough for me to feign interest in what she was saying.
Like many, I was troubled by his conversion–at least, when it resulted in comments like those he made about Salman Rushdie–and others. However, I always liked his music–“Trouble” is a particular favorite of mine.
Neo:
I feel guilty now about the comment I left. No reason for me to rain smart remarks on someone else’s heartfelt parade, just because the subject reminded me, of what seemed in retrospect, a comical misunderstanding.
Rick Wakeman did the arrangement and played the piano on the original. According to Wakeman they agreed on a sum of 10 pounds, which Stevens never payed him nor gave him the credit on the album.
Papa Dan: Not quite the story. Here’s what happened [emphasis mine]:
I don’t care.
Neo- I stand corrected. Wakeman has an acoustic version on his album “Amazing Grace” an album well worth getting.
Hearing Steven’s early voice always reminds me for various reasons of a singer/songwriter I truly do miss, and wonder “what if?” about: Jim Croce.
Time in a Bottle (this looks like a home video)
Operator (remastererd: good quality)
These Dreams
He died too young.
…which isn’t to deny any single bit of my enjoyment of Cat Stevens (I just ignored his Islamism: old dude craziness, been there, done that, got the scars, glad he’s back, hope he shows up at a local venue sometime, I’ll surely go) …there were several of his albums/songbooks I had memorized at one time, years ago.
It also brings to mind that there were a lot of great male minstrels (primarily acoustic based singer/songwriters) during this period. James Taylor, Loggins & Messina, Gordon Lightfoot, Seals and Crofts, John Denver …and others, no longer on the tip of my tongue.
These kinds of threads always leave me nostalgic and freshen memories decades long …and often enough I lose myself in Youtube songs and videos for several hours after.
…an efficacious panacea for too much politics taken too seriously lately.
Thanks, neo.
——
Ah, what the hell …unrelated thematically and by period, but a slightly more current favourite singer you might enjoy:
Izzy Kamakawiwoʻole singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Oops. Almost forgot.
GREAT post.
…oh, and here’s, perhaps, a better rendition of Morning Has Broken, with a clearer video, showing Steven’s intensity and expressions on stage, that clearly illustrates what you were discussing (Munich, 1976: very good production values).
…like I said: “…several hours after”
Jim Croce also reminds me of Harry Chapin, great singer-songwriter who left us too soon.
Yes. Harry Chapin Taxi (live performance)
…the top comment on this video is especially poignant:
I came of age during the 70s but almost immediately gravitated towards the music of the 60s. To this day I think it was much better. It was fresher, livelier, and more innovative.
On the other hand, immersing myself in that cultural milieu probably kept me a liberal longer than I otherwise would have been.
I have to agree with the comment from the Chapin YouTube video. Having those artists, and their songs, in my memory bank (and some in my MP3 player:) makes being an old fart a little easier.
Do the young adults today have anyone comparable? My music library stops about 1990, so I couldn’t name any current artists like those old ones I know so well.
Cat Stevens & Gordon Lightfoot were always two of my favorites.
I do believe that Morning would not have been such a big hit without the piano part. It is brilliant.
And I actually prefer his voice now that he’s older. He seems to be more comfortable in his skin. And I wonder if maybe some kind of hallucinogen was responsible for his intensity in his early years?
Being an extremely old fart, I vaguely remember a Cat Stevens. Never listened to him. Stuck with Classical, Opera and Musicals. Just put a bunch on an Ipod Nano. A 2 foot high stack of CDs (in their plastic covers) got sucked into this watch sized device and used a 1/3 of its capacity. Since I date back to the days when punch cards were hi-tech, I calculated how high a stack of punch cards I would need to store 16GB worth of music, or anything else, for that matter. Based on a card thickness of 0.07″ I came up with 27 miles. I’m waiting for the Islamic response to the incredible advances made by Western technology in the last few centuries and I hear crickets chirping.
Yes, Iran is working on a nuclear weapon but it is highly dependent on Western Technology and the assistance of our enemies, such as North Korea, Russia, Pakistan and China. That’s why Stuxnet was so successful in disrupting their centrifuges. Their dependency made them vulnerable. That doesn’t mean they won’t succeed in getting nukes. After all, Pakistan got there, probably with Chinese help.
Where am I going with this? Converts to Islam are trying to escape modernity and Western civilization. But to what end? If being an automaton in a universe controlled solely by Allah’s will is your fancy, so be it. The Judeo-Christian idea that God sets the rules for the universe and abides by them allowed science to develop as a way to discover God’s rules. Couldn’t happen in Islam.
Maybe they are like Liam Neeson and Barack Obama. Our President considers the Muslim call to prayers “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth.” I don’t suppose they performedMozart’s Reqium or Rossini’s Stabat Mater at the Reverend Wright’s church.
Marine’s Mom: well, you know what they say—sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
But if you read the Wiki entry, he had a couple of experiences when a young man that might have added to his intensity. Stevens was already a musician, but had not yet become a big star (and hadn’t written his big hits yet) when he almost died from TB:
It was some time after that that Stevens became really popular, with a changed sound and a new producer and new guitarist. His big hits and big fame followed.
Using the cthulhu analogy; why go for partial anguish when you can listen to Joy Division / Ian Curtis?
An “edit post” capability would be nice. One types in a postage stamp sized window, inserts some approved HTML, and one is rewarded with a post that lacks the perfection one aspired to. Looks like WordPress does not allow one the luxury of editing one’s posts after one exposes themselves to the world. Here is the Mozart link I screwed up.
Pat Dooley: I’ve tried and tried and tried to find a plug-in that adds an edit function for comments on this blog, but all of them seem to introduce major glitches into the blog that seem unfixable. So I’ve had to do without, although I regret it.
Neo: How about a “preview” button?
pst314: same problem.
@Neo-neocon: Thanks for the info. There’s always a balance between free speech and malware trapdoors. I’m just glad you allow the “a” tag 🙂
Oy.
Another wandering Jew – like Dylan.
“”An “edit post” capability would be nice.””
I think there should be a name for corrective post that are unneeded. Like when someone post a correction to explain “tht” in their previous post was “that”.
Wat could we call it?
Above “wat” should be “what”. 🙂
I’m glad to learn he’s performing again, and embracing the musical legacy he had seemingly repudiated in favor is Islam.
From the cuts you posted, I don’t detect a deepening of his voice. To me it sounds somewhat lighter and raspier — which leaves it pleasant but not nearly as interesting it was in his heyday. Whereas his voice used to be a multi-bladed knife, now it seems about as lethal as a spatula.
The songs, however, are timeless.
Meh.
Doowop rules!
I liked neo’s “comparison over time” so much, that when I noodled through Simon & Garfunkle’s Sounds of Silence in the Youtube sidebar, I thought they might also be apropo thematically.
Sounds of Silence, Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel, various versions as noted
Original (circa 1964) Pay attention to the tempo, in particular; this is the base.
1966 Live (obviously), the video appears to be from a television feed. At one point you can see an audience member silently mouthing the lyrics: the song was already iconic (I can testify to that). The tempo is close to the original; it’s hard to tell if the slight off-tempos are due to the quality of the recording (best guess: probably).
1981 Live version, Central Park in NYC. Paul’s voice is [lamentably] up in the mix, which accents his problems that day; Art’s voice is also uneven, and he seems to struggle (less than Paul Simon, to my ear), though his clarity as always is crystalline. Do note that they’ve slowed the original tempo considerably …to the detriment of the tune (and whether cause or effect of their vocal phrasing that day, it would be hard to say …I wonder if they’d even recall, some 30 years later).
2011 Inarguably, the best live version, and arguably their best interpretation of their own tune. Both voices are thematically stronger, with a slight rough edge sometimes evident in occasional phrases, that reveals the aging of the duo and the individual, yet wonderfully augments and accents the lyrics …they’ve covered obvious weak points, through thematic strength (changing phrasing, adding lyric flourishes, etc). They look and sound like they’re enjoying themselves again (and finally! – yaay). For old dudes, well done. And as an old dude: thanks for not embarrassing us generationally, guys. Kudos.
…the tempo was back up there. But the tempo was no longer with the mechanical precision of any of the earlier versions; as in life, it seemed they’d learned to go with the latent flow of music that the lyrics [probably] demanded all along.
…still guilty: “…several hours after”
Not that familiar with Cat Stephens, and can’t say that that I intend to be.
Not to be a downer or anything, but if someone converts to Islam I view them as having “gone over to the dark side” big time, and I reserve particular scorn for “celebrity converts” who, my impression is, are treated with kid gloves, allowed to live a version of Islam lite, and are very valued by Muslims as forming an entering wedge into the West, and as an example for others–who are enamored of those celebrities– to emulate. I note that such “conversion” is apparently a trend among some of the royals in England, with speculation that Prince Charles may already have converted, and is a crypto-Muslim.
The only “converts” I feel sorry for are those Western women who are stupid and unwary enough to convert (structure is one thing, slavery another)–particularly those who marry Muslim men and are then whisked away–children in tow–into the Umma, and who are almost never able to get out again, especially with their children.
You know Wolla, I’m not so sure about that, at least to acknowledging having a certain degree of semantic difficulty with what you’re saying.
It is [inadvertently, I’m sure] potentially misleading inasmuch as what you’ve said suggests a condemnation of all of Islam, as ever practiced in all the various times and in all its places and manifestations…instead of a criticism of a particularly virulent sect of Islam (all too prevalent in the here-and-now), called Wahhabism.
The Wahhabi sect is all you imply …you may have even understated the case, as it’s arguably been as bad for Islam, as for the rest of us.
Worse yet: it’s the western financing of the kingdom that is the heart of Wahhabism (the Saud’s, who – doing an unexceptional obeisance, required by their faith …using their oil wealth, gleaned from Western demands for the product – unleashed a monster they never foresaw) that nourished the growth of a demon ravaging both Islam and the West.
To wit, it was the West itself that financed the corruption of an older, far more secular Islam …an Islam that is now an outlier; an Islam that was striving for balance, and accommodating itself to the modern world. (It’s all there in the history books; you only have to dig a bit.)
As for Islam’s influence …there was a time in my life (younger, of course: for such is the time of natural fluidity, and – if precocious, still allowable – curiosity), when I indulged in a certain degree of fascination with different religions …and took delight in often strange brew (no doubt as reaction to my quite fundamentalist – and indeed, pentecostalist – upbringing).
Amongst the detritus of old memories (it was a long time ago), of which only dessicated details remain (and I don’t want to understate how very little does remain), I read several books on Sufism (a mystical form of Islam), and I recall being vastly enchanted with the thing. For a time …only for a time.
And the shadow that earlier me left behind in my mind, makes it hard to accept summary judgment without at least a moment taken in the now for defence of an old, almost forgotten, friend.
There is an historical richness that we don’t always take note of I s’pose, that serves as a sort of balance, an equalizer if you will …and I’d respectfully submit it be applied to our views of Islam and what Islam means, if we ever hope to hone an edge to a sword that we might hope to proffer, so Islam itself can finally defeat an evil Djinn.
(…well, to phrase it all poesy and stuff …but it’s been that kind of day).
Simply: any religion that can produce a Kahlil Gibran, and Sufism, isn’t – well, couldn’t have been, at least – all bad.
So I’d cut Cat some slack.
Wolla Dalbo: If you research Stevens’ life, it was no “conversion lite.” Nor was it a trendy celebrity thing. He converted in 1977 (before a lot of the worst terrorist excesses), and it was the result of a decade-long religious quest of his that had started around the age of 21 when he came very close to dying from tuberculosis. He had another brush with death shortly before his conversion.
davisbr: I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent looking at these sorts of before-and-after things. I love YouTube’s ability to allow us to be time-travelers, with a cornucopia of wonderful performances at our fingertips. Who could ever have imagined such a thing?
I guess I’m old as some (many?) of you. I remember an 8th grade Catholic school ‘dance’, in a classroom with a phonograph, while the nuns carefully monitored our behavior. One 45 r.p.m. (does having those that make me old?; I have a 45 from the preconfigured blue seat days at Madison Square Garden, where a guy was selling a 45 studio recorded version of the Ranger fan chant ‘Potvin Sucks’; I guess you had to be there) I remember that was played was Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’.
In the immortal (paraphrased) words of Charlie Gibson: Cat Stevens? Never heard of him. Well, I have, but who cares? In the days of my youth Stevens was chick music, not real music, like Yes and Robin Trower and Traffic and Hot Tuna and The Who and — oh hell just about any decent rock band back then. Maybe it’s a male listening to semi-religous ballads sung by a male thing, I don’t know, but I have no love for them (Harry Chapin being a BIG exception, in my case I believe because of Chapin’s cynicism). Personally, I’d rather hear the true religion songs of Steve Marriot and Humble Pie:
“Newcastle Brown, I’m tellin’ you, it can sure smack you down
Take a greasy whore and a rollin’ dance floor
It’s got your head spinnin’ round”
I was like many of my peers: There is inspiring music and there is rock music. Sometimes, the two actually meet, and that’s a bonus (Emerson Lake & Palmer’s ‘Lucky Man’ comes to mind). But for rock music to be rock music, the former is not necessary for the latter. Montrose. Enough said.
Cat Stevens fell into a negative niche when I was young, and his subsequent conversion to islam and ridiculous statements concerning same, showed that — for once — I had good taste. I find his hypocrisy at playing again fantastical. He quit playing because of islam, now he’s playing because of islam? Puh-leeze. Yussuf Islam just wants to rake in a few more Infidel bucks to support arming terrorists via zakat. After Yussuf Islam’s comments after 9/11, he’s my enemy, no matter how purdy he sings.
So count me as one of those who fall into the first of your two ‘hate Cat Stevens’ categories.
What did Yussuf say after 9-11 ?
I was never a big Steven’s Fan.
The way those who practice Islam treat women is horrid, by and large, over great areas of the planet.
Oh, did you know, the U S could have met all its energy demands from Natural Gas in America.
We don’t need the Foreign Saudi Oil.
Really we don’t, a revolution is happening right before our eyes; there is a glut of Natural gas, it can be used in cars, and all our Energy demands can be met from U S resources.
A new dawn is coming in America, a bright beautiful day, with Blue birds singing as the sun rises.
Can’t you hear the SOUND……(to COME)
Davisbr–After several years of research, beginning with research on the Qur’an–and the fundamental interpretive principle of “abrogation” (naskh) Muslim religious scholars use in interpreting and understanding it, which dictates that (despite what–via Tikkya and Kitman–reassuring Muslim “spokesman,” Muslim allies, and even our own MSM, and various academics, popular writers, and government officials might pretend is the case about the “Religion of Peace,” and tells us clueless, willfully ignorant, in denial, and likely frightened “unbelievers”) the much more warlike and predatory, chronologically later verses from Medina override, negate, and supersede the more peaceful earlier Meccan verses. Then, going on to look at the major Hadiths, and the Sira–which, when taken together with the Qur’an, are the three fundamental texts of Islam. Investigating, in addition, the ideology and history of Islam, especially its interactions with unbelievers, including the religiously sanctioned deceptive techniques that are supposed to be used by Muslims when dealing with unbelievers i.e. Takiyya (lying) and Kitman (withholding of key parts of the truth) which together function, it seems to me, to destroy any possibility of believing anything that a Muslim says to us unbelievers, or appears to be. Looking, too, at the sermons, and statements of prominent Muslims, ancient and modern, at the writings of Muslim ideologues and Muslim governments and officials, and finally noting current day news, and the daily mounting death toll from lslamic terrorism around the world, this morning standing at 18,383 since 9/11 (http://thereligionofpeace.com/) –I find Islamto be totally opposed to, and at war with everything that the West is and stands for, and with all of us “unbelievers,” as it has been for these past almost 1,400 years.
As for the Sufis, it was apparently Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, a Sufi from the Naqshibandi sect, who planned, directed, and claimed responsibility for the horrific tortures and the resultant deaths of some 320 elementary school children that happened a few years ago at Beslan in Russia.
I, too, read those books about the “spiritual,” “otherworldly,” ”mystically oriented,” and supposedly more “peaceful” Sufis, and saw the “whirling dervishes,” Sufis who were supposedly at odds with their more hardline brethren within Islam, and often subjected to persecution because of their more “spiritual” approaches and practices within the Umma. But, the question that must be asked is not about these internal differences among Muslims but, rather, what is the Sufi’s position on how we “unbelievers” should be viewed and treated, and what has Sufi behavior been towards us. And when this is the question that is asked, from the evidence, the answer is that they have the exact same view of us unbelievers as “unclean,” “accursed,” and the “vilest of creatures” that their hardline Muslim co-religionists do, and Sufi’s behavior towards us unbelievers is just as harsh, as predatory, and violent as their fellow Muslims, with Sufis often in the forefront of the Jihad against us.
A seminal article on the subject of Sufis and Jihad is Andrew G. Bostom’s scholarly, well written, and well documented “Sufism Without Camouflage (Beyond Stephen Schwartz)” which appeared on the Jihadwatch.org website in February of 2005 (http://www.jihadwatch.org/2005/02/bostom-sufism-without-camouflage-beyond-stephen-schwartz.html ), which chronicles the close connection between Sufis and Jihad and their views on it, and includes several extended quotations about this subject from prominent Sufis, from the world renowned Al-Ghazali in the 12th century A.D. , to ibn Taymiyya in the 14th century, to Sirhindi in India in the 17th century, up through Basayev and other Sufis in modern times.
Muhammad said that [the essence of]”… warfare is deception,” and the myth of the “peaceful” Sufis is just one thread in a tapestry of deceptions that Islam and Muslims have woven, and are trying to pull over our “unbeliever” eyes, and to blind us with.
This is not “Islamophobia,” as Muslims and their allies and defenders would have you believe, but rather a hard-eyed and rational “threat evaluation” of Islam, and the conclusion is that Islam poses an existential threat to all us “unbelievers,” in what Islam terms our “House of War.”
Whoa. I didn’t really mean to start a general discussion on Islam (or even Sufism), Wolla: I thought with my concluding statement it would have been clear I meant to suggest you give the guy a break as he was young, and young people do inexplicable (and often, stupid) things.
And I illustrated it with a personal anecdote from my own past, of things (Sufism) I barely recall now (and said as much …why you’d respond as if I’d made some defence of Sufism is beyond me).
Now, I did not mean to be personally offensive, OR insulting to you …and if you read that into my reply, well, maybe try re-reading it again in light of my explicitly stated intent.
But since you’ve already morphed this into a general discussion of Islam …
…and if I’m getting your implications and conclusion correctly, than I now have an actual problem with your assertion and conclusion.
You’ve made an effort to paint a picture of Islam and all its practitioners as totally evil.
And then you assert, that painting isn’t Islamaphobic, not at all.
What, exactly, do you think an actual expression or manifestation of Islamaphobia would or could even be than? And how would that actual expression by any different from your response?
Understand: I’m not disputing any of your historical or literary citations. Nope. And I’m not disputing that it can help to know the antecedents of your actual enemies core ideology, as aid to understanding his historical and current motivational biases (those can be useful in war-gaming). And even though it’s a bit over-wrought, I’m not even denying some of your backgrounder as being marginally useful as a “threat evaluation”.
But if I read correctly, that you’re asserting that all of Islam and all its adherents are a mortal danger to the West based upon their ideology, then you paint with rather far too broad a brush.
And your denial about not being Islamaphobic, is simply counter-factual, after you’ve spent several paragraphs providing an example of just what you say you’re not being.
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
I certainly do not accept your at-least-implied conclusion that all Islam’s adherents are implacable foes of the West, bent upon our destruction and enslavement (and the East as far as that goes) at all. And I don’t have to rebut or deny your references as being factually accurate as to do that.
That’s why I referenced “…a far more secular Islam in my original comment.
It’s your conclusion that you need to work on, not your research …
——
Furthermore …I wouldn’t be in some kind of mortal terror of Islamic culture and peoples even if they WERE our implacable foes and explicitely bent on our destruction.
Why?
Because no culture (or nation) in history wages war as effectively or completely as the West wages war when we get down to it …we haven’t even bothered yet to wage all-out war on such an insignificant enemy. (Our “rules of engagement” should indicate we’re hardly serious about “winning the war”.)
…here: I suggest you read Victor Davis Hanson: Carnage & Culture …it might help you sleep better at night. Really. It’s a quite good history and analysis.
I’ve never accepted Stevens given his call for a fatwa (a joke… yeah, right) given his song “Peace Train”.
It’s like these idiots with “Coexist” bumper stickers.
There’s a reason why there’s nore hate in the world than love… a reason why there’s more war than peace.
IT TAKES TWO to love. Two to make peace. BOTH parties have to WANT it.
It only takes ONE to hate. ONE to wage war.
And so many of these imbeciles not only don’t Get It when young, but STILL CAN’T FATHOM IT WHEN OLD.
Drives me bananas that people can’t learn basic, freaking OBVIOUS life lessons.
*sigh*
It’s an inevitable result of civilization, I suppose, the seed of every civilization’s own doom built into it.
Civilizations inevitably protect people from their own remarkably stupid mistakes, often preventing them from learning from them entirely.
Too much tiger food.
Not enough tigers.
WE NEED MORE TIGERS.
Hey there,
I am surprised and shocked to hear that you have not ever come across a cover of ‘Morning has broken’ that could even compare to Steven’s version. I must tell you that though he’s my favorite singer and perhaps an inspiration to a great extent, my version of this hymn has been touted to be better than his by most of those who have heard it. Here’s the link: https://soundcloud.com/anikbiswas/morninghasbroken
Sorry to disappoint you.
I too miss the voice of Cat Stevens. Jusef has no fire in his belly. He must never have listened on how to protect his younger voice. I still think he was a sweet soul. But along with losing his voice he changed with wife and family and old age. I am so sorry wish I could have heard him before he went into heavy marketing himself so much.and lost his combination of edge and purity The magic isn’t gone Just diminished God’s gift of that voice was brief. He holds back. He just can’t do what he did. Maybe he’s really tired. He would have fun with his la la la and growls and when he listened to the wind nobody could ever sing that 2nd or 3rd Never Never never like Cat. I missed him. Next life
A dear friend, Tom, recalled decades ago he was awakened from a sweet morning slumber by this song.
At his wake this was played per his wishes. He never missed a chance to praise this song.
Didn’t know till now this was a spiritual. RIP Tom