AN INTERVIEW WITH CAT STEVENS
In 1968, after surviving an almost deadly bout of tuberculosis, Cat Stevens, already a star in his homeland of England, having racked up the hits, “Matthew and Son,” “I Love My Dog” and “I’m Gonna Get Me a Gun,” had grown weary of living life inside the bubble of fame. He harbored deeper, much bigger questions than those that could find voice inside an innocuous two- to three-minute pop song. By the turn of the ’70s, with albums Mona Bone Jakon and his timeless masterpiece, Tea for the Tillerman, Stevens’ music had taken a decidedly new turn, more intimate, more introspective, more spiritual, in alliance with kindred singer-songwriter material delivered by contemporaries James Taylor, Carole King, Jackson Browne, Judee Sill and Joni Mitchell, among others. The aforementioned Tea for the Tillerman was an extraordinary song cycle yielding classic evergreens “Where Do the Children Play,” “Wild World,” “Hard Headed Woman,” “Miles From Nowhere,” “Sad Lisa” and the title track, songs infused with spirituality and longing, a search for a higher power. Fifty years later, the artist has returned to his most famous work, issuing a newly recorded rendering, Tea for the Tillerman
2. And November sees the release of two super deluxe editions celebrating the 50th anniversary releases of Mona Bone Jakon and Tea for the Tillerman, boasting remastered versions of the album, new 2020 mixes of the songs, a bounty of alternate takes and demos alongside spellbinding live material, including a 1970 set taped at the legendary Troubadour club in Hollywood, California.
Join us for a conversation with Yusuf/Cat Stevens as we examine of the magic, then and now, of his magical catalog of music.
GOLDMINE: Bring us back to the moment when you first picked up the guitar again decades later after you put it down. What did it feel like the first time you strummed the first chord?
YUSUF/CAT STEVENS: Well, it was like coming home again. It was so easy because I found the chords exactly where I left them (laughs), and I immediately wanted to write something, and I did, so there was like a flood of inspiration that came over me. I was all alone there at that point, no one listening, just me.
GM: Do you remember the first song you played — let me see if I remember how to do this again?
Y/CS: I can’t, to be honest, but I think the chord of F might have been the most difficult one to just reconfigure. The chord F is slightly more difficult than a C chord, for instance. So I probably would have gone with “Father and Son,” because that’s a very simple one to do, it’s a simple one to play.
GM: One of the highlights of the album is the aforementioned “Father and Son,” which is such a
