A Nostalgic Look Back--Cat Stevens!
Cat Stevens, musician extraordinaire, born of Greek parents in London is one of the most prolific lyricists of all time! The picture I remember of him as he launched onto the music scene back then is the one of the the most gorgeous dark and sensous man sitting on a wall with a cocky expression on his face dressed in black leather pants and boots and a fluffy ruffled white shirt. Men wanted to be like him and women swooned over this man's looks and his gorgeous folk-singer voice. I do admit, I was one of the smitten! I was hopelessly in love with him and had his pictures hung on my wall as a shrine to him!At the time, as the girlfriend of a guitarist and a sister of a drummer and a singer in my own rite, I bought his albums and crooned his lush and melodic tunes with the grabbing hooks; the hooks that made you want to sing the songs over and over again! I saved my allowance and bought the--what seems like ancient now--33rpm albums and played them until the grooves wore out! All the aspiring folk singers of the time that had any kind of talent at all always had a couple of Cat Stevens songs in their repertoire.
In the late 60's and the 70's, Cat Stevens sold over 40 million albums world wide. Always an advocate of peace, Cat Steven's anthem to peace, "Peace Train" is still covered by other musicians today and his songs still get continuous airplay on classic rock stations.
Cat Stevens explored his spirituality in the 70's after turning to Islam as his chosen faith. He has made some controversial personal opinions in the past years regarding Middle East policies and government leaders, but never abandoned thoughts of peace and speaking out about his
beliefs. While still living in London and being a part of the Islamic community doing good works and donating time and money to charity, two philanthropic organizations that he founded himself. Royalties that he still gets from his music are donated to charity.
It seems unbelievable to me that this world renowned musical personality would be stopped from coming into the United States because of being noted on a Homeland Security Watch List. And his detention and questioning in Bangor, Maine yesterday raises many questions. Is this an example of racial profiling? Just what kind of danger to the US does this man pose as an advocate of peace and a recording artist and a world wide figure? If he had blonde hair and did not wear his Muslim robes and attire would he have been singled out at the airport? Is there concrete evidence that this man associates with terrorists or does he only associate with known Muslims in his community? How does this relate to religion, race, and ethics? Has this war that our country is enmeshed in become, in reality, another Crusades and Holy War? As a free and democratic nation and one that promotes equality for all, how was this kind of thing allowed to happen? And finally, where does the US government draw the line because it seems that the line is no longer blurry!
http://www.phillywire.com/Cat_Stevens.html
posted by Zalala @ 9/22/2004 08:38:00 AM
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