YUSUF Islam

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Catching a Ride on the Peace Train

Sydney Morning Herald
21st April, 2003

Cat Stevens refused to appear at Live Aid, but the plight of Iraqi children has finally brought him out of his self-imposed musical exile. Steve Meacham reports.

The singers listed on the album cover include some of the greatest egos in the history of popular music. Sir Paul McCartney. David Bowie. George Michael. All three answered the call, rushing to record their track for Hope, a collection of songs to raise money for the children of war-ravaged Iraq.

Yet their contribution – and that of younger singers such as Avril Lavigne and Ronan Keating – is overshadowed. What has made news is the performance of singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, who has effectively been in retirement since he converted to Islam in late 1977 and renamed himself Yusuf Islam.

Islam has been back in the recording studio, singing for the first time in English for 25 years. It’s not a new song, but the lyric is apt: “Out on the edge of darkness/ there rides a peace train/ Oh, peace train, take this country/ come take me home again.”

He wrote Peace Train for a different world in 1971. The new version, recorded while he was visiting Johannesburg, features African rhythms and a South African choir, Incwenga. “Peace Train is a song I wrote, the message of which continues to breeze thunderously through the hearts of millions,” says the artist on his website (www.yusufislam.com). “There is a powerful need for people to feel that gust of hope rise up again. As a member of humanity and as a Muslim, this is my contribution to the call for a peaceful solution.

“It’s certainly not a return to Cat Stevens,” Islam told reporters in South Africa. “The words of the songs speak for themselves.”

Islam had flown to South Africa on the invitation of Nelson Mandela to take part in a concert to raise money for AIDS prevention in Africa. This was cancelled because of a production problem, but Islam stayed on to open a medical centre for AIDS patients which his charity has funded.

He recorded the two new tracks at Yellowbrick Studios, inspired by the sounds he had heard in Africa. “Because I don’t play guitar any more, African harmonies and rhythms have been an inspiration to me,” he writes on his website. “I love the raw origin of the sound. It complements my voice and words naturally.”

It was way back in 1978 that Stevens recorded his final song for his last English language album, Back to Earth, and quietly withdrew from the spotlight. He was then one of the most successful performers in the world, having sold 25 million LPs worldwide.

Born Steven Demetre Georgiou to a Swedish mother and a Greek Cypriot father, he was raised as a Catholic in north London, helping out in the family restaurant. In 1966 he released I Love My Dog, followed by Matthew and Son, and soon became one of the most famous singer-songwriters, with his trademark beard and doe-like eyes.

In the 1970s his albums Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat featured such classics as Wild World, Where Do the Children Play? and Hard-Headed Woman. But he had already began to question his life before he turned 20, admitting in his autobiography: “I’d lost control. Staying up late, drinking, partying, smoking endless cigarettes …”

In 1976 his brother David gave him a birthday present that changed his life – a copy of the Koran. He converted, changed his name and tried to live a quiet life. Vut as Britain’s best-known Muslim, he was often dragged into controversies by the Fleet Street press – most notoriously when he was quoted as supporting the fatwah imposed on the author Salman Rushdie by the Ayatollah Khomeni in 1989. He has repeatedly claimed he was misquoted (and argues so on his website).

Since then, he has devoted his life to charitable causes. His only recordings have been spoken word versions of Islamic texts. His last concert was in 1997 when he performed in Sarajevo to celebrate Bosnian culture. “It is part of my faith as a Muslim to try to help those who are suffering from poverty or economic or political injustice. It’s very difficult to ignore humanitarian disasters.”

The day after the September 11, 2001, attacks, he publicly condemned the actions and donated the royalties from the boxed set of his greatest hits to the September 11th Fund and his own charity, Small Kindness.

Articles

Catching a Ride on the Peace Train