YUSUF ISLAM (CAT STEVENS) - YUSUF'S CAFE SESSION (2007)

7900 - YUSUF - TELL 'EM I'M GONE (2014)

YUSUF
''TELL 'EM I'M GONE''
OCTOBER 27 2014
35:57

1 I Was Raised in Babylon 3:53
2 Big Boss Man (Luther Dixon, Al Smith) 3:10
3 Dying to Live (Edgar Winter) 3:47
4 You Are My Sunshine (Jimmie Davis, Charles Mitchell) 3:13
5 Ediing Floor Blues 3:42
6 Cat & the Dog Trap 3:22
7 Gold Digger 4:34
8 The Devil Came from Kansas (Gary Brooker, Keith Reid) 3:42
9 Tell 'Em I'm Gone 3:12
10 Doors 3:22
Tracks By Yusuf Islam, Except As Indicated

Iyad Ben Abderahmane/Guitar (Electric)
Pete Adams/Keyboards
Peter Adams/Hammond B3, Piano, Wurlitzer
Abdallah Ag Alhouseyni/Vocals (Background)
Eric Appapoulaye/Guitar (Electric)
Trevor Barry/Bass
Bonnie "Prince" Billy/Vocals (Background)
Lenny Castro/Percussion
Chris Dave/Drums
Stefan Fuhr/Bass
Monique Harcum/Vocals (Background)
Nick Ingrams/String Arrangements
Jason Lader/Bass
Eyadou Ag Leche/Guitar (Electric)
Adam MacDougall/Keyboards, Wurlitzer
Neville Malcolm/Bass
Bonginkosi Motha
Happy J. Motha
Charlie Musselwhite/Harmonica
Paul Samwell-Smith
Al Smith Composer
South African Vocal Choir
Mike Sweeney/Guitar (Electric)
Linda Thobela
Ian Thomas/Drums
Richard Thompson/Guitar (Acoustic)
Tinariwen/Clapping, Percussion, Vocal Drone
Assaleck Ag Tita/Translation
Frank Tontoh/Drums
Yoriyos/Percussion, Vocals (Background)
Yusuf/Guitar, Guitar (12 String), Guitar (12 String Electric), Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Percussion, Synthesizer, Vocals

REVIEW
by Mark Deming
Cat Stevens quietly retired from his career as a pop star after the release of 1978's Back to Earth to pursue a spiritual path. Stevens became a devout Muslim and adopted the name Yusuf Islam, quietly making spiritually oriented recordings but avoiding the mainstream, especially after the controversy that followed his comments about the fatwa declared against author Salman Rushdie in 1989. However, Yusuf has been quietly inching back into the public eye since he released the album An Other Cup in 2006 and set out on an extensive concert tour documented on the 2009 live disc Roadsinger. Released in 2014, Tell 'Em I'm Gone finds Yusuf in part paying homage to the blues and R&B sounds that inspired him as a young man while also looking back to the canny mixture of pop and folk that informed his best work of the '70s. For the most part, Tell 'Em I'm Gone works best when Yusuf follows the latter path; while he remains a committed and canny vocalist, Yusuf's voice has never boasted the force or grit of an R&B shouter, and he seems far more comfortable with the gentle fable of "Cat & the Dog Trap" or the parables of "I Was Raised in Babylon" than the Lead Belly-influenced title cut or the blues-shot reworkings of "You Are My Sunshine" and "Big Boss Man." Tell 'Em I'm Gone also seems curiously long on covers, especially since Yusuf has a great deal to say in his originals; "Editing Floor Blues" is an autobiographical piece that ponders the ebb and flow of fame (as well as the Rushdie controversy), "Gold Digger" rails against corruption in the South African mining trade, and "Doors" quietly but eloquently deals with his spiritual beliefs. Rick Rubin produced the bulk of the album (and brought in guests who include Richard Thompson, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, and Charlie Musselwhite), and while the dry, spare sound of the sessions works for the band, it doesn't always make the most of Yusuf's vocals, which could use a bit of sweetening. (It's worth noting that Paul Samwell-Smith, who produced Cat Stevens' best albums, was brought in to mix this material, perhaps in an effort to give it more of a vintage sound.) Tell 'Em I'm Gone confirms that Yusuf still has the talent and passion that made him a star as Cat Stevens, but the efforts to find a new sound for him don't quite work, and Rubin doesn't quite catch the light but emphatic touch of Yusuf's salad days; maybe a full reunion with Paul Samwell-Smith would be worthwhile for Yusuf's next album.

OFFICIAL SITE

7466 - CAT STEVENS - Foreigner (1973)

CAT STEVENS
''FOREIGNER''
JULY 1973
36:05

1 Foreigner Suite 18:21
2 The Hurt 4:19
3 How Many Times 4:29
4 Later 4:46
5 100 I Dream 4:10
All Tracks By Stevens

Patti Austin /Guest Artist, Vocals, Voices
Gerry Conway /Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Herbie Flowers /Bass
Paul Martinez /Bass
Barbara Massey /Vocals, Voices
Bernard "Pretty" Purdie /Drums, Guest Artist
Jean Roussel /Bass, Bass Arrangement, Brass Arrangement, Keyboards, Piano (Electric), String Arrangements, Strings, Woodwind Arrangement
Cat Stevens /ARP Synthesizer, Bass, Brass Arrangement, Clavinet, Fender Rhodes, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Keyboards, Organ, Piano, Piano (Electric), Producer, String Arrangements, Strings, Vocals, Woodwind Arrangement
Tasha Thomas /Vocals, Voices
Phil Upchurch /Guest Artist, Guitar, Guitar (Electric)

REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann
Between 1970 and 1972, Cat Stevens recorded four albums in the same manner, using the same producer and many of the same musicians, painting the album covers, and assigning the records ponderous titles. Things changed with his next album, Foreigner. The recording itself had been produced by Stevens, and while a couple of Stevens' usual backup musicians had been retained, New York session musicians appeared, and second guitarist Alun Davies was gone. With him went the acoustic guitar interplay that had been the core of Stevens' sound, replaced by more elaborate keyboard-based arrangements complete with strings, brass, and a female vocal trio featuring Patti Austin. It's easy to look at the 18-plus minute "Foreigner Suite" that took up the first side and accuse Stevens of excess and indulgence. What should be kept in mind, however, is that his peers in 1973 were acts like Jethro Tull and Yes, who in turn were taking their cue from the Beatles' Abbey Road and the Who's Tommy. Call Foreigner ambitious, then, rather than indulgent. Actually, the suite is full of compelling melodic sections and typically emotive singing that could have made for an album side's worth of terrific four-minute Cat Stevens songs, if only he had composed them that way. As it is, the suite is a collection of tantalizing fragments. But the album's second side, featuring the Top 40 hit "The Hurt," demonstrates that, even in the four-minute range, his songwriting and arranging were becoming overly busy. On the whole, Foreigner marked a slight fall-off in quality from Catch Bull at Four, which itself had marked a slight fall-off from Teaser and the Firecat. The decline seemed more extreme, though, because Foreigner clearly was intended to be better than its predecessors. That's the risk of ambition.

BIOGRAPHY
by William Ruhlmann Cat Stevens, born Steven Demetre Georgiou, was the son of a Swedish mother and a Greek father who ran a restaurant in London. He became interested in folk music and rock & roll in his teens while attending Hammersmith College and in 1965 began performing under the name Steve Adams. Mike Hurst, a former member of the folk-pop group the Springfields, who had become a record producer, heard him and took him into a recording studio to cut his composition "I Love My Dog." This demo caused Decca Records to sign him under the name Cat Stevens and assign him to its newly formed Deram subsidiary. "I Love My Dog" reached the British charts in October 1966, peaking in the Top 40. Stevens' next single, "Matthew & Son," entered the charts in January 1967 and just missed getting to number one (in America, it grazed the bottom of the charts). It was another self-written effort, and Stevens' reputation as a writer was further enhanced by the success of his song "Here Comes My Baby," which was recorded by the Tremeloes and entered the British charts in February, reaching the Top Five. (In America, it peaked just outside the Top Ten.)

Stevens' third single, "I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun," entered the British charts in March and reached the Top Ten, preceded by his debut album, Matthew & Son, also a Top Ten entry. In May, P.P. Arnold got into the British charts with Stevens' composition "The First Cut Is the Deepest," peaking in the Top 20. (Ten years later, Rod Stewart topped the U.K. charts and reached the U.S. Top 20 with his revival of the song. Sheryl Crow revived it for an American Top 20 hit in 2003.) Stevens' fourth single, "A Bad Night," was in the charts in August, peaking in the Top 20. That was a disappointment, considering his recent success, and his next records did even worse: "Kitty," his fifth single, barely made the charts in December, while New Masters, his second album, didn't chart at all. Even worse, in March 1968, Stevens contracted tuberculosis and was hospitalized for three months. He spent a year recuperating. After the failure of an intended comeback single, "Where Are You," released in July 1969, he parted ways with Deram.

Disillusioned by his experience in the music business, Stevens began writing more personal, introspective material. He signed a new contract with Island Records and released his third album, Mona Bone Jakon, in April 1970. Drawn from the album, the single "Lady D'Arbanville" was issued in June 1970 and became his third Top Ten hit in the U.K., causing Mona Bone Jakon to chart modestly in July. Stevens' talent as a songwriter for others had not deserted him; in August, Jimmy Cliff entered the British charts with his composition "Wild World," reaching the Top Ten. With a backlog of material, Stevens had a second Island album, Tea for the Tillerman, out in November; it made the U.K. Top 20. In America, where his Island recordings were licensed to A&M Records, Mona Bone Jakon had not charted, but Tea for the Tillerman marked his American LP chart debut in February 1971, followed shortly by the single release of his own recording of "Wild World," which appeared on the album; it peaked in the Top 20. With that, Stevens suddenly became a major star in the U.S. Tea for the Tillerman reached the Top Ten and went gold; Mona Bone Jakon finally reached the charts (it was belatedly certified gold in 1976); and Deram reissued Matthew & Son and New Masters as a two-LP set, which also charted. Stevens was hailed as one of the most important figures in the currently popular folk-rock singer/songwriter trend, along with James Taylor, Carole King, and others.

In June 1971, Stevens released a new single, "Moon Shadow," which made the Top 40 in the U.S. and the U.K. This was followed in September by "Peace Train," which hit the pop Top Five and reached number one in the easy listening charts in the U.S., just in advance of Stevens' fifth album, Teaser and the Firecat. An immediate gold-record seller, the LP just missed the top of the U.S. charts and hit the Top Five in the U.K. In addition to "Moon Shadow" and "Peace Train," it contained "Morning Has Broken," an adaptation of a hymn, which became Stevens' second consecutive easy listening number one and reached the pop Top Ten on both sides of the Atlantic. Meanwhile, Deram compiled another collection of juvenilia, Very Young and Early Songs, which peaked in the U.S. Top 100 in early 1972, as did a belated American release of the single "Where Are You."


Stevens contributed new and old songs to the film Harold and Maude, a black comedy that became a cult success after its release in 1972, though no soundtrack album was released. (The previously unreleased songs from the film finally turned up on his album Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 in 1984.) He also toured and worked on his sixth album, Catch Bull at Four. A slightly harder-rocking effort, the LP, released in October 1972, represented Stevens' commercial peak: it hit number one in the U.S. and just missed duplicating that feat in the U.K., earning gold-record status immediately. Different singles from the album were released in the two countries, in the U.S. "Sitting" and in the U.K. "Can't Keep It In"; both reached the Top 20.

By 1973, Stevens was again beginning to show signs of the strain of being a pop star, even if he didn't become physically ill. For tax reasons, he left the U.K. for a year and moved to Brazil, but he donated the money he would have paid in taxes to charity. He performed less often and stopped granting interviews. In June, he released a new single, "The Hurt," which made the U.S. Top 40. It was followed in August by his seventh album, Foreigner, an ambitious effort that featured an entire LP side given over to a musical suite. The record was another massive commercial success, peaking inside the Top Five in the U.S. and U.K. and going gold instantly. His major appearance for the year was a 90-minute performance on the American TV show In Concert in November.

Stevens issued his eighth album, Buddha and the Chocolate Box, in March 1974, preceded by the single "Oh Very Young," a Top Ten hit. As usual, the album made the U.S. and U.K. Top Five and went gold upon release. In July, Stevens released an independent summer single, a revival of Sam Cooke's "Another Saturday Night," and it made the U.S. Top Ten and the U.K. Top 20. In November, A&M extracted "Ready" from Buddha and the Chocolate Box and released it as a single that made the Top 40. Stevens' Greatest Hits LP was released in June 1975 and predictably was a big success, eventually selling over three million copies in the U.S. alone. "Two Fine People," a new song featured on it, reached the American Top 40. Stevens had his ninth regular album release, Numbers, ready by November. As if in acknowledgment that his greatest hits were now behind him, the album only made the Top 20 in the U.S., though it was certified gold within a couple of months, did not generate a Top 40 single, and missed the charts entirely in the U.K. Stevens took 18 months to deliver his tenth album, Izitso, in May 1977. It restored some of his commercial clout, hitting the U.S. Top Ten and being certified gold in a month, while reaching the U.K. Top 20, and the single "(Remember the Days of The) Old School Yard" made the Top 40 in America and charted in Great Britain.

On December 23, 1977, Stevens formally became a Muslim and adopted the name Yusuf Islam. Notwithstanding this change, there was an 11th and final Cat Stevens album, Back to Earth, released in December 1978; it sold modestly. With that, Yusuf Islam announced his retirement from the pop music business. He entered into an arranged marriage that eventually produced five children, auctioned off his possessions, and founded a Muslim school near London. He was not widely heard from for another ten years, until he made news at the end of the '80s by commenting on the Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against novelist Salman Rushdie for writing the book The Satanic Verses. Islam later explained he was not calling for Rushdie's death but that he was defining Islamic law in the same way a Bible student would "quote the legal punishment of a person who commits blasphemy in the Bible." Still, "classic rock" radio stations discontinued playing him as a result, and 10,000 Maniacs, who had covered "Peace Train" on their In My Tribe album in 1987, had it removed from the record.

In 1990, the compilation album The Very Best of Cat Stevens reached the U.K. Top Five. A different album with the same title charted in the U.S. in the spring of 2000, as Yusuf Islam undertook a promotional tour in connection with the reissues of remastered versions of his Cat Stevens albums. Then, in 2006, nearly 30 years after the final Cat Stevens studio album, Islam released a new studio effort, An Other Cup. In early 2009 he collaborated with "fifth Beatle" Klaus Voormann for a cover version of George Harrison's "The Day the World Gets 'Round." All proceeds from the song were donated to a charity to help the children of war-torn Gaza. Later that same year he released the album Roadsinger. He toured often during the years after its release, and in 2012 produced a musical titled Moonshadow, which opened in Melbourne, Australia. In April 2014, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

3723 - CAT STEVENS - Majikat_ Earth Tour 1976 (2004)

CAT STEVENS
''MAJIKAT: EARTH TOUR 1976''
SEPTEMBER 21 2004
69:16

1/Wild World/3:03
2/The Wind/1:38
3/Moonshadow/2:43
4/Where Do the Children Play/3:20
5/Another Saturday Night/Cooke/2:35
6/Hard Headed Woman/3:54
7/King of Trees/3:28
8/C79/3:08
9/Lady d'Arbanville/3:47
10/Banapple Gas/3:08
11/Majik of Majiks/4:27
12/Tuesday's Dead/4:06
13/Oh Very Young/2:24
14/How Can I Tell You/4:10
15/The Hurt/4:54
16/Sad Lisa/3:26
17/Two Fine People/3:47
18/Fill My Eyes/3:01
19/Father & Son/4:10
20/Peace Train/3:58
Tracks By Stevens, Except 5

Chico Batera/Percussion
Kimberley Carlson/Vocals
Gerry Conway/Percussion, Drums
Alun Davies/Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals, Guitar (12 String)
Angela Howell/Vocals
Bruce Lynch/Guitar (Bass)
Sue Lynch/Vocals
Jean Roussel/Organ, Synthesizer, Piano (Electric), Clavinet
Larry Steele/Flute, Guitar, Percussion, Guitar (Bass), Vocals
Mark Warner/Guitar (Electric), Bazouki
Cat Stevens/Guitar, Vocals, Piano

REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann
During his popular heyday in the 1970s, Cat Stevens did not release a live album, so it was some surprise that, nearly 30 years later, a live recording turned up on both DVD and CD. The performance captures Stevens on his 1976 American tour, just past his commercial peak. (Numbers, the album he was promoting, broke a string of six consecutive Top Ten albums in the U.S. by peaking at number 13 in Billboard.) Supported by the same musicians who had played on his records, including guitarist Alun Davies and keyboard player Jean Roussel, he had a repertoire of hits and other favorites, and the audience can be heard cheering enthusiastically, not only for the chart singles, but also for tracks from albums like Mona Bone Jakon, Tea for the Tillerman, and Teaser and the Firecat. Stevens performs faithful versions of eight of the 11 hit singles he had scored in the U.S. up to this point (omitting "Morning Has Broken," "Sitting," and "Ready"), interspersing them with equally familiar songs such as "Where Do the Children Play," "Tuesday's Dead," and "Father & Son." ("How Can I Tell You," another audience favorite, is missing from the DVD version of this concert, while the DVD boasts performances of "Miles from Nowhere" and "Ruins" not found on the CD.) For most of the show, Stevens says practically nothing, but toward the end he becomes much more talkative, saying of "Sad Lisa" that he may have been writing about himself rather than the woman of the title; admitting that his recent single "Two Fine People" is musically a rewrite of his earlier hit "Wild World"; and revealing that he actually wrote "Peace Train" on a train, although he was thinking of Alfred Hitchcock (and presumably, of the film Strangers on a Train) at the time. More such revelations would have been welcome, but as it is the album constitutes an excellent Stevens best-of.

BIOGRAPHY
by William Ruhlmann
Cat Stevens, born Steven Demetre Georgiou, was the son of a Swedish mother and a Greek father who ran a restaurant in London. He became interested in folk music and rock & roll in his teens while attending Hammersmith College and in 1965 began performing under the name Steve Adams. Mike Hurst, a former member of the folk-pop group the Springfields, who had become a record producer, heard him and took him into a recording studio to cut his composition "I Love My Dog." This demo caused Decca Records to sign him under the name Cat Stevens and assign him to its newly formed Deram subsidiary. "I Love My Dog" reached the British charts in October 1966, peaking in the Top 40. Stevens' next single, "Matthew & Son," entered the charts in January 1967 and just missed getting to number one (in America, it grazed the bottom of the charts). It was another self-written effort, and Stevens' reputation as a writer was further enhanced by the success of his song "Here Comes My Baby," which was recorded by the Tremeloes and entered the British charts in February, reaching the Top Five. (In America, it peaked just outside the Top Ten.)
Stevens' third single, "I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun," entered the British charts in March and reached the Top Ten, preceded by his debut album, Matthew & Son, also a Top Ten entry. In May, P.P. Arnold got into the British charts with Stevens' composition "The First Cut Is the Deepest," peaking in the Top 20. (Ten years later, Rod Stewart topped the U.K. charts and reached the U.S. Top 20 with his revival of the song. Sheryl Crow revived it for an American Top 20 hit in 2003.) Stevens' fourth single, "A Bad Night," was in the charts in August, peaking in the Top 20. That was a disappointment, considering his recent success, and his next records did even worse: "Kitty," his fifth single, barely made the charts in December, while New Masters, his second album, didn't chart at all. Even worse, in March 1968, Stevens contracted tuberculosis and was hospitalized for three months. He spent a year recuperating. After the failure of an intended comeback single, "Where Are You," released in July 1969, he parted ways with Deram.
Disillusioned by his experience in the music business, Stevens began writing more personal, introspective material. He signed a new contract with Island Records and released his third album, Mona Bone Jakon, in April 1970. Drawn from the album, the single "Lady D'Arbanville" was issued in June 1970 and became his third Top Ten hit in the U.K., causing Mona Bone Jakon to chart modestly in July. Stevens' talent as a songwriter for others had not deserted him; in August, Jimmy Cliff entered the British charts with his composition "Wild World," reaching the Top Ten. With a backlog of material, Stevens had a second Island album, Tea for the Tillerman, out in November; it made the U.K. Top 20. In America, where his Island recordings were licensed to A&M Records, Mona Bone Jakon had not charted, but Tea for the Tillerman marked his American LP chart debut in February 1971, followed shortly by the single release of his own recording of "Wild World," which appeared on the album; it peaked in the Top 20. With that, Stevens suddenly became a major star in the U.S. Tea for the Tillerman reached the Top Ten and went gold; Mona Bone Jakon finally reached the charts (it was belatedly certified gold in 1976); and Deram reissued Matthew & Son and New Masters as a two-LP set, which also charted. Stevens was hailed as one of the most important figures in the currently popular folk-rock singer/songwriter trend, along with James Taylor, Carole King, and others.
In June 1971, Stevens released a new single, "Moon Shadow," which made the Top 40 in the U.S. and the U.K. This was followed in September by "Peace Train," which hit the pop Top Five and reached number one in the easy listening charts in the U.S., just in advance of Stevens' fifth album, Teaser and the Firecat. An immediate gold-record seller, the LP just missed the top of the U.S. charts and hit the Top Five in the U.K. In addition to "Moon Shadow" and "Peace Train," it contained "Morning Has Broken," an adaptation of a hymn, which became Stevens' second consecutive easy listening number one and reached the pop Top Ten on both sides of the Atlantic. Meanwhile, Deram compiled another collection of juvenilia, Very Young and Early Songs, which peaked in the U.S. Top 100 in early 1972, as did a belated American release of the single "Where Are You."
Stevens contributed new and old songs to the film Harold and Maude, a black comedy that became a cult success after its release in 1972, though no soundtrack album was released. (The previously unreleased songs from the film finally turned up on his album Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 in 1984.) He also toured and worked on his sixth album, Catch Bull at Four. A slightly harder-rocking effort, the LP, released in October 1972, represented Stevens' commercial peak: it hit number one in the U.S. and just missed duplicating that feat in the U.K., earning gold-record status immediately. Different singles from the album were released in the two countries, in the U.S. "Sitting" and in the U.K. "Can't Keep It In"; both reached the Top 20.
By 1973, Stevens was again beginning to show signs of the strain of being a pop star, even if he didn't become physically ill. For tax reasons, he left the U.K. for a year and moved to Brazil, but he donated the money he would have paid in taxes to charity. He performed less often and stopped granting interviews. In June, he released a new single, "The Hurt," which made the U.S. Top 40. It was followed in August by his seventh album, Foreigner, an ambitious effort that featured an entire LP side given over to a musical suite. The record was another massive commercial success, peaking inside the Top Five in the U.S. and U.K. and going gold instantly. His major appearance for the year was a 90-minute performance on the American TV show In Concert in November.
Stevens issued his eighth album, Buddha and the Chocolate Box, in March 1974, preceded by the single "Oh Very Young," a Top Ten hit. As usual, the album made the U.S. and U.K. Top Five and went gold upon release. In July, Stevens released an independent summer single, a revival of Sam Cooke's "Another Saturday Night," and it made the U.S. Top Ten and the U.K. Top 20. In November, A&M extracted "Ready" from Buddha and the Chocolate Box and released it as a single that made the Top 40. Stevens' Greatest Hits LP was released in June 1975 and predictably was a big success, eventually selling over three million copies in the U.S. alone. "Two Fine People," a new song featured on it, reached the American Top 40. Stevens had his ninth regular album release, Numbers, ready by November. As if in acknowledgment that his greatest hits were now behind him, the album only made the Top 20 in the U.S., though it was certified gold within a couple of months, did not generate a Top 40 single, and missed the charts entirely in the U.K. Stevens took 18 months to deliver his tenth album, Izitso, in May 1977. It restored some of his commercial clout, hitting the U.S. Top Ten and being certified gold in a month, while reaching the U.K. Top 20, and the single "(Remember the Days of The) Old School Yard" made the Top 40 in America and charted in Great Britain.
On December 23, 1977, Stevens formally became a Muslim and adopted the name Yusuf Islam. Notwithstanding this change, there was an 11th and final Cat Stevens album, Back to Earth, released in December 1978; it sold modestly. With that, Yusuf Islam announced his retirement from the pop music business. He entered into an arranged marriage that eventually produced five children, auctioned off his possessions, and founded a Muslim school near London. He was not widely heard from for another ten years, until he made news at the end of the '80s by commenting on the Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against novelist Salman Rushdie for writing the book The Satanic Verses. Islam later explained he was not calling for Rushdie's death but that he was defining Islamic law in the same way a Bible student would "quote the legal punishment of a person who commits blasphemy in the Bible." Still, "classic rock" radio stations discontinued playing him as a result, and 10,000 Maniacs, who had covered "Peace Train" on their In My Tribe album in 1987, had it removed from the record. In 1990 the compilation album The Very Best of Cat Stevens reached the U.K. Top Five. A different album with the same title charted in the U.S. in the spring of 2000 as Yusuf Islam undertook a promotional tour in connection with the reissues of remastered versions of his Cat Stevens albums. Then in 2006, nearly 30 years after the final Cat Stevens studio album, Islam released a new studio effort, An Other Cup. In early 2009 he collaborated with "fifth Beatle" Klaus Voormann for a cover version of George Harrison's "The Day the World Gets 'Round." All proceeds from the song were donated to a charity to help the children of war-torn Gaza. Later that same year he released the album Roadsinger.

DoWnLoAd