--On tolerance, specifically in relation to Rushdie's "Satanic Verses." The following is an excerpt from the BBC television program moderated by Geoffrey Robertson. Cat Stevens is now Yusuf Islam:
Robertson: You don't think that this man deserves to die?
Y. Islam: Who, Salman Rushdie?
Robertson: Yes.
Y. Islam: Yes, yes.
Robertson: And do you have a duty to be his executioner?
Y. Islam: Uh, no, not necessarily, unless we were in an Islamic state and I was ordered by a judge or by the authority to carry out such an act - perhaps, yes.
[Some minutes later, Robertson on the subject of a protest where an effigy of the author is to be burned]
Robertson: Would you be part of that protest, Yusuf Islam, would you go to a demonstration where you knew that an effigy was going to be burned?
Y. Islam: I would have hoped that it'd be the real thing.
The New York Times also reported this statement from the program: [If Rushdie turned up at my doorstep looking for help] I might ring somebody who might do more damage to him than he would like. I'd try to phone the Ayatollah Khomeini and tell him exactly where this man is.
Yusuf later asserted that while he regretted the comments, he was joking and that the show was improperly edited. In the years since these comments, he has repeatedly denied ever calling for the death of Rushdie or supporting the fatwa.
--On relationships with women:
" Oh baby baby it's a wild world,
It's hard to get by just upon a smile.
Oh baby baby it's a wild world.
I'll always remember you like a child, girl.
You know I've seen a lot of what the world can do,
And it's breaking my heart in two,
Cause I never want to see you sad girl,
Don't be a bad girl,
But if you want to leave take good care,
Hope you make a lot of nice friends out there,
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware,
Beware,
Oh baby baby it's a wild world,
It's hard to get by just upon a smile
Oh baby baby it's a wild world,
And I'll always remember you like a child, girl."
Ellen Willis, the rock critic of the New Yorker, thinks that " 'Wild World' betrays a condescending, sexist viewpoint." Reverse the roles, she says, and "It's hard to imagine a woman sadly warning her ex-lover that he's too innocent for the big bad world out there." I couldn't agree more. Cat Stevens supposedly wrote this song while breaking up with actress Patti D'Arbanville.
In a 1979 interview, Steven's denies the charge stating that ""I was trying to relate to my life. I was at the point where it was beginning to happen and I was myself going into the world. I'd done my career before, and I was sort of warning myself to be careful this time around, because it was happening. It was not me writing about somebody specific, although other people may have informed the song, but it was more about me. It's talking about losing touch with home and reality - home especially."
Not buying it. Since when are you "like a child, girl," Cat? If you need further proof, check out the lyrics of Stevens' 1970 tune, Lady d'Arbanville:
"My Lady d'Arbanville, why do you sleep so still?
I'll wake you tomorrow
And you will be my fill, yes, you will be my fill.
My Lady d'Arbanville why does it grieve me so?
But your heart seems so silent.
Why do you breathe so low, why do you breathe so low,
My Lady d'Arbanville why do you sleep so still?
I'll wake you tomorrow
And you will be my fill, yes, you will be my fill.
My Lady d'Arbanville, you look so cold tonight.
Your lips feel like winter,
Your skin has turned to white, your skin has turned to white.
My Lady d'Arbanville, why do you sleep so still?
I'll wake you tomorrow
And you will be my fill, yes, you will be my fill.
La la la la la....
My Lady d'Arbanville why do you grieve me so?
But your heart seems so silent.
Why do you breathe so low, why do you breathe so low,
I loved you my lady, though in your grave you lie,
I'll always be with you
This rose will never die, this rose will never die.
I loved you my lady, though in your grave you lie,
I'll always be with you
This rose will never die, this rose will never die."
This song is just plain "creepy".
--On the relationship with his father:
"Son
How can I try to explain, when I do he turns away again.
It's always been the same, same old story.
From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen.
Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away.
I know I have to go.
Father
It's not time to make a change,
Just sit down, take it slowly.
You're still young, that's your fault,
There's so much you have to go through.
Find a girl, settle down,
If you want you can marry.
Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy.
(Son-- Away Away Away, I know I have to
Make this decision alone - no)
Son
All the times that I cried, keeping all the things I knew inside,
It's hard, but it's harder to ignore it.
If they were right, I'd agree, but it's them They know not me.
Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away.
I know I have to go. "
Responding to the interviewer from Disc, he said, "I’ve never really understood my father, but he always let me do whatever I wanted—he let me go. ‘Father And Son’ is for those people who can’t break loose."
Maybe, but it still smacks me as a patient going to see a shrink asking for help for "his friend", who has this problem.... You can only write about what you know, even if you make shit up:-)
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