(Credits: Far Out / IMDB)
Renowned beneath his unique stage moniker of Cat Stevens, Steven Demetre Georgiou carved an unmistakably distinctive path within the music trade. As a pivotal determine within the early Seventies singer-songwriter motion, Stevens later embraced Islam, present process a big transformation and adopting the identify Yusuf Islam. He put aside his guitar in favour of the Qur’an, a shift that left his devoted followers grappling with a mix of admiration and frustration.
Before all of that, Georgiou turned Cat Stevens after his then-girlfriend mentioned his eyes resembled a cat’s, encouraging him to undertake the stage identify because it each mirrored his musical persona and rolled off the tongue properly. He additionally intentionally selected the extra flamboyant alias as a way to hide his Greek heritage, explaining, “I didn’t think anybody was interested. And I thought that it had nothing to do with me,” he mentioned earlier than including, “I couldn’t imagine anyone going to the record store and asking for that Stephen Demetri Georgiou album. And in England, and I was sure in America, they loved animals.”
Stevens’ charming appeal and melodic voice have been shortly recognised by unbiased document producer Mike Hurst, a former member of the folk-pop group the Springfields. Before Stevens left music behind in 1977, he delivered a handful of putting up with hits, together with ‘Matthew and Son’, ‘Father and Son’, ‘Wild World’, ‘Moonshadow’, and ‘Peace Train’.
Stevens’ first dance with loss of life occurred in 1969, after the discharge of 1967’s New Masters, which didn’t carry out very nicely when it comes to gross sales and charting position. Stevens additionally skilled a bout of tuberculosis, which introduced his profession to a irritating halt and almost threatened his life. Nonetheless, he recovered and soldiered on, however this time with a newfound curiosity in discovering solutions outdoors of Christianity. “It was then that I started to think: What was to happen to me?” he later wrote.
Upon his return to the music scene, he achieved worldwide success with a brand new assortment of introspective songs about his religious journey. After experiencing a big rise to fame, nonetheless, Stevens skilled one other near-death expertise when he almost turned engulfed within the sturdy ocean tides in Malibu, California.
He recalled the expertise to Michael Krasny: “I felt as if I had no power. After I was swimming for about half an hour, I couldn’t get back to shore. At that point, quite simply, there was no one to help me. As they say, you’ll never find an atheist on a sinking ship. I called out. I said, ‘Oh God, if you save me, I’ll work for you.’ And at that moment, a wave, however big it was, came from behind me and pushed me forward, and suddenly, I had all the energy I needed. I was back on land and safe.”
When did Cat Stevens convert to Islam?
After looking for solutions in tarot playing cards, astrology, and his old Christian bible, Stevens began to despair till his brother introduced again a translation of the Qur’an from his travels to Jerusalem. Finally, he discovered what he had been looking for. The Qur’an, he mentioned, was “a guidance that would explain everything to me, who I was; what was the purpose of life; what was the reality and what would be the reality; and where I came from, I realised that this was the true religion.”
Therefore, in December 1977, Stevens embraced Islam and adopted a reputation higher aligned together with his newfound spiritual path: Yusuf Islam. Following the discharge of his closing album as Cat Stevens, he withdrew from the pop music scene and immersed himself within the research and apply of his new religion. Still, he didn’t abandon music altogether: his appreciation for its significance in his journey to self-discovery stays intact.
As he defined to The Guardian: “[Music] is a mystical thing still. It is something that permeates our emotion, our soul, sometimes our intellect. Our body moves to it. I didn’t know where I was going, but music helped me to get there.”
