The song Yusuf/Cat Stevens called one of the most “profound” he ever wrote
“To be what you want to be, you must give up being what you are”. – Yusuf/Cat Stevens
His interviewer didn’t even blink when he said it, nor did they signpost the quote to the reader, but on they went, transcribing, elaborating, publishing, as if they knew Stevens said this type of stuff all the time.
They were right. Forget “I think, therefore I am”, with Stevens, we upgrade to ‘I feel, therefore I am’. Cat Stevens, also referred to as Yusuf Islam, is a British singer-songwriter and musician with great lyrical skill. The musician and general philosopher has been granted two honorary doctorates for his humanitarian work, and that’s only scratching the surface.
Sure, Stevens pondered the collective human spirit, our shared consciousness, which allows us to share, or at least understand, base-level morality. When he speaks with sweeping pronouns such as “us” or “you”, fans listen as if he were a certified preacher, and the festival becomes a sermon.
Yet, this isn’t all Stevens is good at: he can find a thread tied into a loop to connect us all in surprising and tender ways, sure, but he can also spin that skill back on himself, which is what he did on the track ‘Father and Son’.
“I was once like you are now,” he sings, writing from the perspective of an omniscient father forced into self-reflection when his son won’t heed his warnings. It’s a stunning concept we’re all familiar with, shirking off the truisms of our parents, or those who try to guide us, because we have to learn the knowledge in our own way. Things would just be easier for both the speaker and the listener if we could put away our pride, as Stevens writes beautifully, “All the times that I’ve cried / Keepin’ all the things I knew inside / It’s hard but it’s harder to ignore it”.
Still, he uses the song to impart some of his wisdom, even if it is being ignored, highlighting, “But take your time, think a lot / Think of everything you’ve got / For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not”. He wants us to run along with the rhythm of our passion, feast with the fire in our bellies, and these things are transitory, transcient, and beautiful in and of themselves.
The musician shared how he came up with the melancholic reflection, telling GQ in 2020, “‘Father and Son’ is probably the most prominent and profound song on the album. It doesn’t necessarily refer to my dad. It was originally written for a musical. So, after I had my first expedition, you might say, into the pop fray, which happened in ’67, ’68, I was taken very ill with tuberculosis, and I was suddenly erased from the scene.”
Stevens isn’t a stranger to mishaps and near-death experiences, which charge his art with a survival instinct that is charming, alluring, and poetic, which he continued to show in his recollection, saying, “During that time, I was really looking within myself and trying to find where my centre was, and where I was going… all the big important questions you ask yourself when you’re on death’s doorstep, or it seemed to me, anyway. And I came back to my original ambition, which was to become a composer of musicals.”
The song was written for Revolussia, a musical set during the Russian Revolution, following a generational clash between a conservative father and his son who wants to join the revolution. It never made it onto the stage, yet enjoys an incredible legacy as the origin story for the “prominent and profound” ‘Father and Son’.
