I had no idea Father and Son was originally written as part of a(n unfinished) musical set during the Russian revolution. Continue to be impressed by the fact that Yusef Islam/Cat Stevens voice hasn't changed a bit in 50 years. (Why do I care? Personal anecdote ahead.)
https://twitter.com/camanpour/status/1334953594022486016
When I first transferred from segregated gimp school to tree hugging hippie school, folk/protest songs and guitar were part of the curriculum. We sang a lot of Cat Stevens (+ Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, Pete Seeger... you get the idea). So, there's a certain subset of music...
That takes me back to the days where I was just discovering what autonomy meant, how big the world was and how little I knew of it, what being disabled really meant (sociologically), what injustice was, what intersectionality & being an ally meant, and what to do about any of it.
I could sing every Cat Stevens song by age 6. I'd break down the lyrics of various protest songs with no prompting required. (Not sure what people thought of the gimpy 6 year old earnestly explaining Tosh's Peace Train but belated kudos to them for putting up w/ me.)
I had complicated thoughts about Moonshadow. (Still do.) And I mourned - genuinely - when Islam/Stevens gave up music. Not for him - for all the music unwritten. Of course, his departure was more an extended hiatus; to my surprise and jubilation.
To discover this many years on that the owner of one of the most foundational voices in my childhood was actually writing about the Russian revolution and the generational issues therein is heady, wonderful, slightly unnerving serendipity.
(Just realized I managed to bork the joke in the editing process. On more than one occasion I held forth on the respective meanings of Tosh's Peace *Treaty* vs. Stevens' Peace *Train* and how and why one could respect the sentiments of each. At six. Thus the putting up with me.)
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
