“This was a hit”: the moment a 15-year-old Cat Stevens knew he’d cracked songwriting
Some musicians take years to hone their craft, working tirelessly to make sure that what they’re actually putting out into the world is good and meaningful. Others, like Cat Stevens, already had what it took to become a star from a young age, writing songs he knew people would immediately love.
Stevens had the same sort of upbringing as most of his peers, falling in love with music as a teenager and deciding to pursue his own creative path in the hopes that it would lead to the same sort of success as his idols. After all, like many, Stevens greatly admired bands like The Beatles, and at just 15 years old, he became interested in playing the guitar.
After convincing his father to pay £8 to buy him his first guitar, Stevens began writing his own songs, sometimes escaping the responsibilities of his family-owned restaurant business by heading up to the rooftop to eavesdrop on the sounds of the musicals playing on Denmark Street around the corner, like West Side Story, which Stevens later said was a major turning point in his life.
At the time, Stevens wasn’t entirely sure which sort of creative career he wanted to pursue; he just knew that the only thing he was good at was art. In school, it was the only thing that made him feel like he was doing something actually worthwhile, and for a while, that was where his heart was. However, he eventually returned to music, where, as we know, he eventually got his name.
When we listen to Stevens’ music now, it’s often difficult to pinpoint his exact influences. This is because, as well as being one of the most unique musical forces in history, his influences always covered a broad spectrum, including everything from the Fab Four and Paul Simon to Muddy Waters.
Part of this also stemmed from his upbringing in the West End, where he was constantly exposed to an eclectic mix of sounds. But another factor was that his drive to ‘make it’ wasn’t the same as everyone else, and instead of attempting to recreate things that others had already done, he preferred taking his own path (he even scrapped the idea of forming a band because he realised he much preferred being a soloist).
But this independent drive ultimately paid off. Although he started out performing in local pubs, it didn’t take long for people to catch on, and Stevens’ first songs were ones that immediately put him on the map. This likely didn’t come as much of a surprise to the singer, however, as one of them, ‘I Love My Dog’, was written when he was 15, and one he knew from the start that it would eventually become a hit.
While some songs that he wrote in those early days weren’t quite as good, that was one particular song he knew held something special. “There were some really crummy ones in the beginning, but one day I wrote a song called ‘I Love My Dog’, and I just knew inside of me that this was a hit,” he later said.
The song was inspired by his family’s dachshund Pepe and written to the music of Yusef Lateef’s ‘The Plum Blossom’, showing Stevens’ in-built knack for taking his own personal experience and reimagining the genius of others. Lyrically, it’s also fairly simple, but it had that familiar cynicism that made Stevens’ work layered with meaning. After all, in the song, he talks about how he loves his dog as much as he loves his woman, a nice sentiment in principle, but one with a detectable cheeky undertone.
