The Steven Demetre Georgiou, Cat Stevens, Yusuf Islam Thread

[Edie]

"On the road to find out" is one of my favorite songs of any one's, ever.

[Analogman]

McCartney, Parton Guest On New Yusuf Album

Yusuf Islam

January 20, 2009 02:34 PM ET

Ann Donahue, L.A.

 

The former Cat Stevens will follow up 2006's "An Other Cup," his first secular album in 28 years, with a set that recalls his straightforward troubadour days. The as-yet-untitled set is due in late spring from Universal.

 

"This one was really a result of me writing a lot of songs and being kind of inspired again," Yusuf tells Billboard. "After I recorded ['Cup'] people just wanted to hear me do a lot of simple stuff, just with the guitar."

 

The single "Boots & Sand" features Paul McCartney and Dolly Parton -- with a video shot by Jesse Dylan, son of Bob -- while Michelle Branch and Gunnar Nelson assist on the track "To Be What You Must."

 

"Boots" was written as a result of 2004 incident in which Yusuf was denied entry into the U.S., apparently as a result of mistaken identity on the post-9/11 "no fly" terrorist watch list. "It's a slight oddity of a song," he says. "The image I had was kind of a cowboy B-movie made in Italy, but the story came from real events, real people."

 

The new album's stripped-down sound is in contrast to "Cup," which featured tracks with prominent layers. "Perhaps I went to town a little bit with the production on the last album," Yusuf says. "I was just having fun with the new technologies -- we have endless tracks on Pro Tools. You can just flow them out and add and add, and I did."

 

Yusuf came to Pro Tools thanks to his son, who performs under the name Yoriyos and encouraged him to play with recordings and a computer in his home studio in London. "He's got such ears," Yusuf says. "I could understand what he wanted to create - that journey than the album can take you on."

[Lammycat]

I thought this thing came out a year or so ago. He released something a year or so ago that I listened to a few times and thought was pretty good. It was a black album cover with a cup featured on it.

 

I like the Cat. Some great tunes in his repertoire.

[Analogman]

I thought this thing came out a year or so ago. He released something a year or so ago that I listened to a few times and thought was pretty good. It was a black album cover with a cup featured on it.

 

I like the Cat. Some great tunes in his repertoire.

 

I do too - but I did not care for that album.

 

An Other Cup

[Lammycat]

O.k. I thought the article near the beginning of the thread said An Other Cuo was going to be the new one. A bit confused here is all. He has another coming out, I guess. Got it.

 

ed. Now I see that this thread was created in 2006. Ah.

[Analogman]

A link to get the song.

 

The former Cat Stevens performs song for Gaza

 

By ARON HELLER

Associated Press Writer

 

JERUSALEM -- The musician formerly known as Cat Stevens released a charity song on Monday to help the children of Gaza.

 

The United Nations said the London-born Yusuf Islam recorded a rendition of the George Harrison song "The Day the World Gets Round," along with the German bassist and former Beatles collaborator Klaus Voorman.

 

All proceeds from the song will be donated to the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, and to the nonprofit group Save the Children to be directed to aiding Gaza residents.

 

Gaza officials say 280 of the 1,285 Palestinians killed in the three-week Israeli offensive were children. Children make up 56 percent of Gaza's 1.4 million people. The offensive aimed at stopping rocket fire by Gaza's Hamas rulers into southern Israel.

 

Islam explained on his Web site that he hoped the song would "help remind people of the immense legacy of love, peace and happiness we can share when we get round to looking at mankind's futile wars and prejudices, and start to change our foolish ways."

 

UNRWA said the donation would help it continue its vital work in the Gaza Strip.

 

"This is a fantastically generous act and we hope to reach new audiences in bringing a message of hope at a time when Gaza so badly needs it," said Christopher Gunness, an UNRWA spokesman.

 

Cat Stevens sold 60 million albums in a prolific musical career that included the hit songs "Wild World," "The First Cut is the Deepest" and "Peace Train." In 1977, he converted to Islam, changed his name and largely distanced himself from popular music.

 

Israeli authorities have barred Islam twice from entering the country on suspicion he gave money to charity groups linked to Islamic militants. He has denied the accusation. He raised controversy in 1989 by making comments construed as supporting Iran's Islamic edict calling for the death of author Salman Rushdie. He said later he was misunderstood.

 

Throughout the years, Islam recorded a handful of spoken word records on Islamic topics, some with percussion. In 2006, he made a mini-comeback to pop music recording his first album since his conversion titled "An Other Cup."

[LouieB]

Yusef did a lengthy interview with Tavis Smiley a few months back which was really good. The guy seems pretty mellow and willing to come back to music after decades of being away. He has always written tuneful songs and so his new one should be okay.

 

LouieB

[tongue-tied lightning]

"On the road to find out" is one of my favorite songs of any one's, ever.

 

 

mine too

[Analogman]

Roadsinger (To Warm You Through The Night)(May 5th, 2009)

 

Yusuf Islam - Boots & Sand (from The Chris Isaak Hour)

 

 

1. Welcome Home

2. Thinking 'Bout You

3. Everytime I Dream

4. The Rain

5. World O' Darkness

6. To Be What You Must

7. This Glass World

8. Roadsinger

9. All Kinds Of Roses

10. Dream On (Until...)

11. Shamsia

[mountain bed]

I watched the Isaak Show Friday night, and it was very good. Set your DVRs if it shows up again soon!

[calvino]

I downloaded a boot of his recent Chicago concert - but I haven't listened to it, yet.

 

Tickets were too steep for me, but it would have been cool to see him.

 

Only have his Greatest Hits disc and a few live boots from the 70's - I play his Greatest Hits disc quite a bit - great sounding disc.

 

[Analogman]

I didn't know Alun Davies was playing shows with him. That is cool.

 

This is from Billboard:

 

 

The word "journey" was spoken multiple times during the final concert of Yusuf/Cat Stevens' brief U.S. tour, his first in 35 years. It was used as a metaphor and literally, Yusuf speaking both about his life, the lyrics of songs from the early 1970s and his two most recent albums. Without question, this tour indicates Yusuf/Stevens' interrupted journey with his fans is back on track and his power as a musician, singer and charmer undiminished.

 

A dilapidated train station provided a fitting backdrop -- it is the Peace Train Tour, after all -- for this 32-song evening at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre. Many in the sold-out crowd of 7,000 had waited nearly four decades to board this train, and as standing ovations greeted album tracks such as "Where Do the Children Play," "Sad Lisa" and "Miles From Nowhere," it was clear few came to hear hits. The devotion is to the LP format, specifically his breakthrough LP, 1970's Tea for the Tillerman.

 

Backed by his bandmate from those heady days, guitarist Alun Davies, and four young musicians, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer delivered one convincing performance after another, hewing close to recorded versions driven largely by his acoustic guitar sound, still richly broad yet intimate.

 

Even at 66, Stevens' voice remains full of the character that provided intellectual and libidinal stimulation 40 years ago; it's easy to forget or overlook that guitar-strumming thoughtful guys like Stevens, James Taylor and Dan Fogelberg provided the charms of Beck and Justin Timberlake in one package.

 

Unlike other acts who came to define the post-Beatles singer-songwriter movement of the early 1970s, the man who went by Cat Stevens disappeared from music, returning first in tabloid reports with the name of Yusuf and in 2009 with an album, Road Singer, that married the unique qualities of albums such as Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat with his modern station in life. His new album, Tell 'Em I'm Gone, on Sony Legacy, extends that milieu, albeit veering into blues structures, a first for the former pop star.

 

Without mentioning the existence of the new album -- and the reason for this five-city tour -- Yusuf/Stevens took listeners on a -- what else? -- journey through the album's covers that influenced him early on in his career: The blues of Jimmy Reed's Big Boss Man"; the spirituality of Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready"; the out-of-character music of Edgar Winter and Procol Harum. He discreetly included two of the album's bluesy originals, "Editing Floor Blues" and "Gold Digger"; for whatever reason, he had more to say about his 2009 release "Roadsinger."

 

Nostalgia may have been a key reason this tour sold out in minutes. It's Yusuf/Stevens' ability to deliver songs new and old without artifice that makes his journey one that need not end with this stop.

Set list
"The Wind"
"Don't Be Shy"
"In the Blackness of the Night"
"First Cut is the Deepest"
"Here Comes My Baby"
"Miles From Nowhere"
"Sitting"
"Thinking 'Bout You"
"Where Do the Children Play"
"Roadsinger"
"People Get Ready" (Curtis Mayfield cover)
"Maybe There's a World"/"All You Need is Love" (Beatles cover)
"If You Want to Sing Out Sing Out"
"Big Boss Man" (Jimmy Reed cover)
"Trouble"
"Oh Very Young"
"Dying to Live" (Edgar Winter cover)
"Heaven/Where True Love Goes"
"(Remember the Days of The) Old Schoolyard"
"Bitterblue"
"You are My Sunshine" (Jimmie Davis cover)
"Moonshadow"
"Editing Floor Blues"
"Another Saturday Night"
"The Devil Came From Kansas" (Procol Harum cover)
"Wild World"
"Father and Son"

Encore
"Gold Digger"
"Peace Train"
"Sad Lisa"
"Morning Has Broken"

[LouieB]

Wow, I don't even remember writing some of this stuff from nearly 10 years ago.  We is getting old.

 

LouieB

[Analogman]

He did a Tiny Desk Concert:

 

Yusuf - NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

[guitargeek85]

This was on a few weeks ago. Best news show of the week for me, CBS Sunday Morning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVahkfUEzOI