Yusuf Cat Stevens

Speaker 10:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

Presenter0:04

Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. For rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:42

My castaway this week is Yosef Kat Stevens. Timeless is an overused word in pop music, but in his case, it's entirely appropriate. It's now 50 years since his breakthrough album Tea for the Tillaman brought him international acclaim, and his songs have endured. The first cut is The Deepest, Wild World, Father and Son, Moonshadow, Peace Train. They aren't just classics, they're standards, adapted from era to era and genre to genre. But whether you hear him covered by PP Arnold, Maxie Priest, or Dolly Parton, you can't miss his songwriting. His trademark sincerity and curiosity about life's big questions made him one of the most successful British songwriters of his generation. Those qualities also directed his personal journey. After a high-profile conversion to Islam at the height of his success, he put his guitar down for over 20 years. Today, he's performing again and says, I see music as a gift, and all I'm doing is enjoying that gift. With certain presents, you unwrap it and that's it. The thrill is gone after you've ripped off the wrapping paper. But not with music. Music continues to vibrate and mean something. Yusuf Kat Stevens, welcome to Desert Island Discs.

Yusuf Cat Stevens1:54

Thank you very much. Nice to be here.

Presenter1:57

So we'll talk a lot about music today, Yosef, and it's changing place in your life. What does it mean to you now?

Yusuf Cat Stevens2:02

It's a mystical thing still. I mean, we can't.

Yusuf Cat Stevens2:05

put it on the sort of laboratory you know table and and examine it. It's something which permeates our emotions and our soul, sometimes our intellect, our body moves to it. I mean, there's so many things. But for me, music was a vehicle. It helped propel me towards

Yusuf Cat Stevens2:23

The direction I wanted to go. In fact, I didn't really know where I was going, but music helped me get there.

Presenter2:29

Father and Son, Wild World, they're classic tracks, yours, and their enormous popularity has endured. And I always wonder what it feels like to write a song like that. You know, the moment you've completed it and you've really nailed it, it is going to be a hit. Do you know it?

Yusuf Cat Stevens2:45

Yeah, I mean I knew when I was writing a hit more or less, I knew it was happening and I was just excited for other people to hear it, you know, and that would be... But I was the first one to hear it, you know, so in a way you have to be a fan of your own music, you have to be a fan of yourself in a way and do things which please you and to see that imagination then adopted by millions of other people, it's a pretty incredible, you know, feeling.

Presenter3:11

Let's get into it then. Disc number one, what's it going to be and why have you chosen it?

Yusuf Cat Stevens3:16

I've chosen

Yusuf Cat Stevens3:17

Amatica.

Yusuf Cat Stevens3:18

from West Side Story because that was the musical

Yusuf Cat Stevens3:22

Which really blew my mind and opened the door for me musically. Leonard Bernstein, absolute.

Speaker 13:26

Yeah.

Yusuf Cat Stevens3:29

Genius and I've never got over him, you know, and over his music. And it was me and my pal, we used to watch this as many times as we could. Of course, Natalie Wood had a little bit to do with my infatuation with the film. You know, and we used to go dancing around the telephone boxes outside my front door. This is just a great opener for me.

Speaker 43:52

Me in America, okay by me in America, everything free in America for a small fee in America.

Speaker 44:06

Buying on credit is so nice. One do queras me charge twice I have my own washing machine What will you have though to keep clean? Sky screw is blue in a merry Ga Adana flu in a merry blue

Presenter4:24

America from the film soundtrack to Westside story lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and music by Leonard Bernstein.

Presenter4:32

So, Yusuf Kat Stevens, your parents ran the Moulin Rouge restaurant on Shafterbury Avenue in central London in the heart of theatreland. Your mum was Swedish and your dad Greek Cypriot. How did they meet?

Yusuf Cat Stevens4:44

They met in Lyons Corner House in Tottenham Court Road.

Yusuf Cat Stevens4:49

My father had arrived in London and after quite an adventure, I would say, of a journey going from Cyprus, his homeland, to Egypt first and living there for many years and then going to the States and then finally coming back through Europe to UK. My mother was an au pair and they met in Lyons Corner House over a cup of coffee and I think my dad, you know, when he spotted my mum, that was it.

Presenter5:15

So you were the baby of the family. Um you were called Stephen back then, and the youngest of three. Were you expected to help out in the restaurant?

Yusuf Cat Stevens5:22

Oh, did I? Of course, yeah, that was my first job. And of course, I learnt that it was quite well paid too, because it wasn't my dad who was paying me there, but it was the customers who were giving me great tips. I was, you know, doing whatever jobs, but the waiter, I think I began about nine or ten. And, you know, I had my own little waiter's jacket, which I dyed red.

Yusuf Cat Stevens5:43

Of course we had as many cokes as we wanted, as many cakes as my mum could bake, and so it was a pretty good background as a beginning for me.

Presenter5:54

You were growing up, you know, surrounded by the buzz of Soho. You had the Hundred Club just a few doors down, Carnaby Street, local to you. How much would you say that the place you were growing up shaped your early life?

Yusuf Cat Stevens6:05

Totally. Then again, of course, it was not just the place, it was my family. So you had this very sort of Mediterranean, very hot-blooded sort of father, you know, who was very passionate. My mother, who was much cooler, she used to sing to herself, you know, and hum, and she would be very melodic. The way she spoke was like musical. Then you had my brother, who was like the philosopher. So he got me thinking about life too early on, I think. And my sister, who really loved me and looked after me and cared for me. They were both older than me. But then again, as you go out of that kind of sphere, you look at what's going on around you. You see the American dream, like, you know, we've just heard it now. I like to live in America. That's the dream. You know, that was a dream to be.

Yusuf Cat Stevens6:54

to have all those gadgets and those cars and the Levi jeans and

Yusuf Cat Stevens6:59

I wanted to get as much of it as I could.

Presenter7:01

It must have felt like you were growing up in the centre of everything.

Yusuf Cat Stevens7:04

It was. And when I wanted to cool off, I'd just go to the British Museum. You know, when I would skive off school, I went to the mummy department.

Yusuf Cat Stevens7:13

The Egyptian mummies.

Presenter7:15

And what were you listening to at home? What sort of sounds were you taking in there?

Yusuf Cat Stevens7:18

It was my sister's record collection and I used to love going up to her room at the top floor in Charlesbury Avenue and playing her classical records. Actually they were mostly classical. Porgy and Bess, another musical which was Gershwin. And then she had a thing called Red River Rock. And so, you know, on came rock and roll.

Yusuf Cat Stevens7:41

And with Rock and Roll, the first single I ever bought, it was Little Richard, and he inspired the Beatles too. I've never heard anything quite like his voice before. It just was magical. It launched me into that whole new experience of rock and roll.

Presenter7:57

Well, I think on that note, we'd better hear your second disc, Yusuf. What's it gonna be?

Yusuf Cat Stevens8:01

It's got to be Little Richard's Dirty Fruity.

Presenter8:04

Yeah.

Speaker 48:04

What? Uh Bamba loom bombalom bomb bomb to the room

Speaker 48:07

Oh roof, poo de poo, oh roof.

Speaker 48:13

Oh rude, to the food

Speaker 48:17

Rooty root, oh root it.

Speaker 48:20

Oh wa-ba-ba-doom-ba-ba-la-bum-bum. I got a girl named Sue. She knows just what to do.

Speaker 48:27

I got a girl named Sir

Speaker 48:30

To know that's what you do.

Speaker 48:32

Shirak to the east.

Presenter8:35

Tooty Fruti by Little Richard. So your s your faith is a huge part of your life now, of course. As a kid you had a Swedish Baptist mother and a Greek Orthodox father, and they sent you to a Roman Catholic school, I think. So quite a mix of influences going on. Was religious faith important at home?

Yusuf Cat Stevens8:54

Because I went to the Roman Catholic school down in Drury Lane, St. Joseph's, I got more of an induction into that than almost anybody.

Yusuf Cat Stevens9:05

It was obviously not difficult at all to understand life with God. The only problem was I couldn't join in all the little things and the rituals which Roman Catholics were doing because I was officially, you know, Greek Orthodox. So I had to take on an observer status and sort of watch as they always wondered what did that taste like, you know, that little thing they put on the tongue. But it was an internal experience because I was left.

Yusuf Cat Stevens9:30

To just

Yusuf Cat Stevens9:31

Connect with God within myself. And that, I think, was very, very important. The background of religious school was important.

Presenter9:39

You also spent a lot of time drawing and went on, of course, to create the artwork for many of your album covers. Did you want to be an artist?

Yusuf Cat Stevens9:48

Yeah, I did. I think going back, looking at the influence, it probably was my uncle in Sweden because his name was Hugo Wickmann. And he was an abstract artist, one of the first, in fact, you know, in Sweden, you know, quite modern out there. And he was the one who really put the pencil in my hand and allowed me to do what I wanted. And wow, you know, that really got me going, especially the fact that...

Speaker 110:00

Yeah.

Yusuf Cat Stevens10:11

He was pretty good at it and he was quite famous. I thought, hmm, I might make a living out of this.

Presenter10:16

And how did you come to start playing guitar?

Yusuf Cat Stevens10:19

You'd have to put it down to the Beatles because they came along and changed everything. The world had turned a corner, you know, with the Beatles.

Yusuf Cat Stevens10:28

When they came on on our television sets, we had to be part of it. And I realized that being an artist, maybe, you know, looking at Van Gogh, he wasn't very rich, hmm, he died a bit poor.

Speaker 110:37

Yeah.

Yusuf Cat Stevens10:38

So maybe it's not the way for me. Maybe I'll get everything I want from this career if I was able to get into the music business. So I bought myself a guitar and started my own musical dictionary. And those are my songs.

Yusuf Cat Stevens10:53

I couldn't really play other people's songs because you had to learn the chords and you had to learn what the words were. I just thought, no, let's get straight to it, let's write my own.

Presenter11:01

And did it take long to start doing that? How quickly did you master it?

Yusuf Cat Stevens11:05

Ah, pretty quick, I would think, you know, because you're you're at that age when you you can do anything, you know. And we had a piano in the house too. So my dad bought my sister a piano. And then I transposed what I learnt from

Presenter11:15

And then I try.

Yusuf Cat Stevens11:18

The guitar on to the piano.

Presenter11:20

It's time for another track and this is your third today already. And what is it and why have you chosen it for us?

Yusuf Cat Stevens11:26

Well, it's got to be the moment that the sound barriers blasted open with John Lennon's scream. And I hope that you're going to play the middle bit of this because this is the most important part where John Lennon does that primal scream and we all enter a new universe called Twist and Show.

Speaker 412:02

Shake it up, baby. Twist that child. Twist that child. Come on, come on, come on, come on, baby. Come on, baby. Come on, and wake it up.

Presenter12:18

Twist and Shout, The Beatles. So Yusuf, you were just eighteen when you had your first hit as Cat Stevens. How did you come by the name?

Yusuf Cat Stevens12:28

It was a girlfriend of mine and you know at a certain point I was sitting in a certain manor and she said, ooh you look a bit like a cat and I thought hmm and then later of course when we come to choosing a name to take as a career name Stephen Dimitri Giorgio didn't quite ring right so I chose cat and I just kept Stephen at the end.

Presenter12:49

So I saw some amazing photographs of one of your very early tours, and you were sharing a bill, I'm sure you remember, with Jimi Hendrix and Engelbert Humperdink. I mean, that must have been quite a dressing room. What are your memories of of that time?

Yusuf Cat Stevens13:02

Well, they were kind of they were sort of still vague, you know, because after all, one of the things I said I was very frightened of going on stage, so I had to sometimes drink a little bit too much and Engelbert turned me on to

Yusuf Cat Stevens13:13

Horrible concoction called, well, it was brandy and port, but it really worked. I mean, you just had one glass of that.

Yusuf Cat Stevens13:20

And then of course there was Jimi Hendrix and then we heard first night I think it was Finsbury Astoria and then we heard ah there's a fire on stage so but then we found out of course that was the first time he ever lit his guitar on stage and I got to know Jimi very well and he was a lovely man very soft very gentle very modest in his own way.

Presenter13:40

In the wake of that first wave of success and all of that kind of crazy hard work, you became seriously ill. You had T B and spent three months in hospital. You were just nineteen and it was quite serious. Were you scared?

Yusuf Cat Stevens13:52

I didn't know if I was going to die. I mean, I thought maybe the doctors are not telling me everything. You know, they're keeping it back from me.

Yusuf Cat Stevens14:01

And I was stuck in this hospital, King Edward VII hospital in Midhurst.

Yusuf Cat Stevens14:07

And it was the same hospital that Boris Karloff died. I mean, you know, so you can imagine it was pretty creepy for me. But I started at that point looking elsewhere for my life, you know, for what I wanted to do next. And I started reading a Buddhist book. In fact, it was the first time I'd really gone into anything beyond Christianity.

Presenter14:28

It was a long road to recovery, about a year, I think. How did he change over that time?

Yusuf Cat Stevens14:34

In the hospital, when I tried to detach myself from the material world, I stopped shaving. I just stopped looking in the mirror. I was reading more and more. It was a great exploration, a great moment in my life where I started stretching out.

Yusuf Cat Stevens14:48

And my soul started expanding. And I was listening to a lot of different music too. You know, it was all happening at that time. And one of my favourite records, actually, which I think we've chosen now as one of the songs, was Electronic Bach by Walter Carlos, who then became Wendy Carlos. But anyway, he did this incredible thing where he transposed all of so many classic Bach pieces of music and Beethoven.

Yusuf Cat Stevens15:15

and turn them into electronic music. Wow, that just took me so far out of this world.

Presenter15:21

On that note, Yusuf, I think we'll hear your next disc if you don't mind. Would you care to introduce it? Yeah.

Yusuf Cat Stevens15:26

It wasn't from Switched on Bach because later out came a film called Clockwork Orange and in there was just the most sublime piece of music which I've ever heard and still to this day I think it is the number one song ever written and it's called Ode to Joy by Beethoven.

Speaker 415:47

They do see me in the middle of the day.

Speaker 415:55

And see you see you.

Presenter16:17

Ode to Joy March from a Clockwork Orange by Wendy Carlos.

Presenter16:22

Yusuf, the early seventies was a period of huge creative and commercial success for you. Six albums in about four years, I think. Monobone Jack on Teeth, the Tillerman, Teaser and the Firecat, Catch Bullet Four, and you were a star not just here, but you'd been catapulted to huge success in America. How did you find it?

Yusuf Cat Stevens16:41

Going back to Westside's story, you know, America, you know, it was the place to conquer.

Yusuf Cat Stevens16:47

I connected, and the audience in the States connected with me. It got very, very, very big. I was destined to be one of the.

Yusuf Cat Stevens16:56

Well, it was a superstar time, you know, that was it. But that got a little bit scary. You know, after a while, I I was still on my journey and so I still had that private personal, you know, space within me.

Yusuf Cat Stevens17:09

That was in a way more important than what else was going on because I'd made it, you know, I could now live.

Yusuf Cat Stevens17:15

So now I had to make some kind of

Yusuf Cat Stevens17:18

change in my life because it was it was affecting me.

Presenter17:22

As a young man who, as you say, was still on a kind of spiritual journey, were you happy, do you think?

Yusuf Cat Stevens17:28

I was happy that inasmuch as I was able to control my life is quite an extent, you know, I mean, I could take a holiday, but I didn't. I don't know why, because I suppose I was working and I enjoyed working, I enjoyed writing, I enjoyed the whole thing. But on my inner search,

Yusuf Cat Stevens17:43

I was expanding, you know, I was looking at tau, I was looking at numerology, you know, things like that. I thought maybe the Greeks had it right, you know, maybe Pythagoras worked it out.

Yusuf Cat Stevens17:55

I was on the periphery of all these different philosophies and religions while I was.

Yusuf Cat Stevens18:02

you know on the road

Presenter18:03

As you said, you were doing a lot of soul searching. You'd moved to Rio and then followed a a life changing moment in nineteen seventy six. You were visiting a friend in Malibu and decided to go swimming. What happened next?

Yusuf Cat Stevens18:16

I was an Englishman, I didn't know it wasn't wise to go out at that time of day and go and take a swim. So I did.

Yusuf Cat Stevens18:24

I decided to turn back and head for shore, and of course at that point I realized I'm fighting the Pacific.

Yusuf Cat Stevens18:31

And there was no way

Yusuf Cat Stevens18:34

that I was gonna win.

Yusuf Cat Stevens18:36

There was only one thing to do, and that was to pray to the Almighty.

Yusuf Cat Stevens18:40

To save me.

Yusuf Cat Stevens18:41

And I did. I called out to God.

Yusuf Cat Stevens18:45

And he saved me. And a little wave came from behind. It wasn't big. It was just simply...

Yusuf Cat Stevens18:51

pushing me forward and the tide somehow had changed and I was able to get back to land.

Yusuf Cat Stevens18:58

So I was saved.

Yusuf Cat Stevens18:59

You know, I didn't know what was going to happen next.

Presenter19:02

Well, we'll find out in a moment. But first we have to find some time for your next disc. What are we going to hear, Yusuf, and why?

Yusuf Cat Stevens19:08

We're going to hear the wind.

Yusuf Cat Stevens19:10

by me. So many people love this song and I love this song because it talks about the future and in the future we really do not know.

Yusuf Cat Stevens19:20

But for sure, God knows, and that's what I wrote and that's why it's so potentially descriptive of where I am and where I was.

Yusuf Cat Stevens19:29

I listen to the wind, to the wind of my soul.

Yusuf Cat Stevens19:37

Where I'll end up well I think, only God really know.

Yusuf Cat Stevens19:46

I've set upon the setting sun

Yusuf Cat Stevens19:50

But never near for never

Yusuf Cat Stevens19:55

I never wanted water once

Yusuf Cat Stevens19:59

Never know Yeah.

Presenter20:00

Uh

Yusuf Cat Stevens20:00

Yeah.

Presenter20:00

Cat Stevens and The Wind. A quote from you, Yusuf: You can argue with a philosopher, but you can't argue with a good song. And I've got a few good songs.

Yusuf Cat Stevens20:01

And the

Yusuf Cat Stevens20:13

True.

Presenter20:13

So you became a Muslim in nineteen seventy seven. Uh conversion is often portrayed as a moment, I think, but it's usually more of a process. How was it for you?

Yusuf Cat Stevens20:23

After this experience in Malibu, you know, I didn't know obviously what was going to happen next. And then my brother had visited Jerusalem. He'd just got married to an Israeli girl and he was holidaying there. And he discovered sort of this mosque, you know, in the middle of Jerusalem. He saw the way in which they were praying. It was so kind of peaceful. It was so

Yusuf Cat Stevens20:44

Beautiful. When he came back to London, he was inspired to buy me the Quran as one of the books, you know, which I might be interested in. And so that was the beginning, really. I would never have picked up the Quran. I was not really interested in it because it was the last thing in my list, in a way, because my father was Greek Cypriot. You know, there was a thing about the Turks, but I was a free spirit. So I started reading the Quran, and that became.

Yusuf Cat Stevens21:10

The gateway. I was still on tour. At the same time, going back to my hotel room, it was just the Koran. I was engrossed.

Yusuf Cat Stevens21:18

In this book.

Yusuf Cat Stevens21:20

And of course I knew there was going to be some kind of impact about this decision.

Yusuf Cat Stevens21:23

And in the end, after a year, I couldn't hold myself back. I just had to bow down. You know, I said, this is what I was asking for in the ocean.

Yusuf Cat Stevens21:33

God saved me. I'll work for you. So, okay, this is it. This is the deal.

Presenter21:37

Of course, so many fans who have spoken about their shock when you appeared to be stepping away from the songs that meant so much to them.

Yusuf Cat Stevens21:46

Well, that was a heart tug, you know, because I did feel, and well, this is this is very true, I felt a responsibility to my fans, and the responsibility was actually that I needed to make this step because otherwise I would have been a terrible hypocrite if I'd have written all those songs and then suddenly found what I was looking for. And no, let's write another song, let's make another album, let's do another tour. No, I needed to get real, and it was my the time where I stopped singing and started taking action, you know, with what I believed.

Yusuf Cat Stevens22:17

And and um

Yusuf Cat Stevens22:18

And so, therefore, I hoped that people would understand because if they listened to the song, it says.

Yusuf Cat Stevens22:24

I listened to On the Road to Find Out. It actually says, you know, pick up a good book, kick out the devil's sin. You know, the answer lies within. I thought everybody should get this.

Yusuf Cat Stevens22:35

And did they? It didn't quite work out like that. Some did.

Yusuf Cat Stevens22:38

But everybody probably wanted me to keep on making records.

Presenter22:41

For now, some more music, I think. It's your sixth disc today. Why have you chosen it?

Yusuf Cat Stevens22:47

When you hear these things about music and Islam, you just have to remove the veneer a little bit, and you'll see that in the culture of Islam.

Yusuf Cat Stevens22:56

It was probably the Muslim Spain that introduced the guitar into Europe, you know. And and one of the great musicians, I think, from Africa, West Africa, Ali Farkatouri, you know, I mean, God, you can see where the blues came from.

Speaker 423:13

My young man, I'm good for you.

Speaker 123:19

Uh

Speaker 123:21

Yeah.

Speaker 123:22

Yeah.

Speaker 423:30

When you attend every night, I'm attending all that.

Speaker 423:34

Yeah.

Presenter23:45

Alo Yah, Ali Fakatore. Yusuf, after your conversion you became one of the most high profile Muslims in the UK overnight. That must have been a huge responsibility to take on.

Yusuf Cat Stevens23:57

Yes, it was. I mean, now I had um

Yusuf Cat Stevens24:00

A new audience, if you like, and they were split. You know, obviously, there was the Muslim world, which was absolutely infatuated with me because it loved the idea that this pop star was, you know, become a Muslim. And, you know, in Turkey, there would be crowds, you know, coming to hear me, give talks, and things like that. And I was raised to this kind of pedestal. But then on the other side, there were those who said, well, you know, he's a bit of a traitor, isn't he? You know, so turned Turk, if you like. And that I had to deal with. And that was like very, very difficult because at one point I was an icon of the majority. You know, now I'm a part of the minority who are kind of looked down upon and certainly to a large extent misunderstood. People didn't know, for instance, you know, the Muslims believe in Jesus or believe in Moses and so many things which people are ignorant of. And there is the problem with the Muslims themselves, you know, where they're unable to express themselves and explain themselves. So I was used.

Yusuf Cat Stevens25:00

To be a kind of a little bit of a spokesman, you know, I spoke English without an accent, so kind of useful really for certain occasions.

Presenter25:10

As you mentioned, you were routinely called upon by the media for comment on news stories, and one of them was the fatwa against Salman Rushdie in nineteen eighty nine. Now reports at the time suggested that you supported it, something you've since denied. What actually happened?

Yusuf Cat Stevens25:25

I wasn't really certainly not prepared or equipped to deal with shark-toothed journalists and the whole way in which the media spins stories. And so I was cleverly framed, I would say, by certain questions where I couldn't, for instance, rewrite the Ten Commandments. You know, you can't expect me to do that. At the same time, I never actually ever supported the fatwa.

Yusuf Cat Stevens25:51

I even wrote a whole kind of press statement which very early on, which the press ignored, completely ignored. And they went for the one which was written by the journalist who originally wrote the story. And so I had to live through that. But the interesting thing is, it brought me to kind of study the whole subject of jurisprudence, which again led me to realize that music, where you have certain rules which are dictated to by certain scholars, you have to dig a bit deeper and you find out, no, hang on, this is an opinion. An opinion. That's what a fatwa is, actually. It's an opinion.

Yusuf Cat Stevens26:28

Doesn't come directly from the Quran at all. And so I found out about music. It started opening up for me.

Presenter26:35

What was it like to play again after not doing so for a couple of decades, I think?

Yusuf Cat Stevens26:40

It was absolute magic. I mean, because having laid myself fallow for all those years, almost two decades.

Yusuf Cat Stevens26:48

I had all these ideas. Music was just flooding through me. Well, the first thing I did was to write a song called Wind, East and West. Nobody's heard that yet. But I started, you know, reorbiting the whole idea of writing again and recording again. It's all in destiny and it's all out there waiting for me to do this. And I knew it was right.

Presenter27:12

It's uh time for your seventh disc today, Youssef. What are we going to hear and why have you chosen this one?

Yusuf Cat Stevens27:18

Kind of speaks for itself because of the repercussions of my inability to explain myself and my position and perhaps not be learned enough in many cases to explain. So don't let me be misunderstood. And there are many reasons for this song. One of them, obviously, because of prejudice that we carry around, we don't know we've got it. The other thing is because Nina Simone was just such an influence on my musical history and my... I used to love her. I used to listen to her so much. And I first of all thought she was a guy. You know, she had a very deep voice. But no, when I found out who she was and then I started listening to her, she's one of my favourite artists of all time.

Speaker 428:00

Baby, you understand me now?

Speaker 428:06

If sometimes you see that I'm mad

Speaker 428:12

Don't you know no one alive can always be an angel?

Speaker 428:19

When everything goes wrong you see some bad

Speaker 428:24

Brian just a soul whose intentions are good.

Speaker 428:31

Good oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood.

Presenter28:37

Uh

Speaker 428:38

Uh

Presenter28:39

Nina Simone, and don't let me be misunderstood. Yusuf, these days you're Yusuf Kat Stevens online and happy to embrace your former name. And of course, today we've been looking back at your childhood as Stephen Georgio. How does it feel to reflect on the different stages and phases in your life?

Yusuf Cat Stevens28:56

When I finally became a Muslim, I had another role to play, and that is to try and bring peace between two very beautiful worlds. But the one that I belong to is, yeah, it's Islam. I'm not shy of saying that. But what made me a Muslim was what we find in the West, is a certain freedom.

Yusuf Cat Stevens29:16

And so the freedom to choose is a God-given gift.

Yusuf Cat Stevens29:20

That's the gift. But then we have to be responsible for the decisions we make.

Yusuf Cat Stevens29:26

There's the story, really.

Presenter29:27

We reflected on your changing names. I wonder how much you've changed as a person over the time.

Yusuf Cat Stevens29:33

Can you not see my grey beard and slightly. I'm obviously now older, I'm now 72. I really never thought I'd ever get to this distance, but thank God, you know, we're still here and we're still working and we're still creating.

Yusuf Cat Stevens29:53

I'm very, very, very, very fortunate.

Presenter29:57

It's almost time to cast you away, Yusuf. How do you think you'll cope in isolation on the island?

Yusuf Cat Stevens30:03

I think I'll do very well, to be honest. I mean, that was where I started, you know, back in the hospital alone, reading.

Yusuf Cat Stevens30:11

Okay, first it was a Buddhist book, but you know, now it would be the Quran, so I would have that.

Yusuf Cat Stevens30:17

At the same time,

Yusuf Cat Stevens30:18

You know, okay, there are not many people around, but yeah, God's there, so I wouldn't feel lonely.

Presenter30:25

So, spiritually, you'd be all right, but what about physically? And what about the kind of rigours of island life? What kind of island are you hoping for?

Yusuf Cat Stevens30:32

Well, because I love the sun, surely it has to be somewhere near the equator. You know, you get a balanced day, you know, seven o'clock to seven o'clock, sunrises, sunsets, and that's nice. You know, you need vitamin D, I know that, that'll be solved.

Yusuf Cat Stevens30:46

Water, yep, got lots of that.

Yusuf Cat Stevens30:49

So and trees, well, that's the other thing. I mean, I I'd hope I'd have learnt something by that time about farming or what the Tillerman should have taught me somewhere along the line. And um I'd be you know doing my best to survive and pick those fruits all the way up there in the tree, you know.

Presenter31:06

And of course you'll have the music to keep you going. Time for one last disc before we cast you away. What are we going to hear, and why are you taking this one with you?

Yusuf Cat Stevens31:13

I'd love to hear Stevie Wonder sing As, who I think was the best thing after the Beatles. And you know, he's a very spiritual man as well, obviously, if you listen to his lyrics. But he really is epitomises for me that music, music, music, and with such a soul. Beautiful.

Speaker 431:32

As around the sun, the earth no seas revolving

Speaker 431:37

Rosebuds know the bloomin' early May

Speaker 431:42

Hate knows love's the cure You can rest your mind assure That I'll be loving

Speaker 431:49

Oh wait.

Speaker 431:52

Now can't we build the mystery up to tomorrow?

Speaker 431:57

But in passing we'll grow older every day.

Speaker 432:02

All that's fun is new. Don't know what I say is f ⁇.

Speaker 432:06

And I'll be loving you always

Presenter32:11

Stevie Wonder with As. So the time has come to cast you away, Yusuf. To help you settle in on the island, we will send you away with your discs and three books, the complete works of Shakespeare, the Koran, and a book of your choice. What will that be?

Yusuf Cat Stevens32:26

I think it would have to be, because everything I need really, I suppose, ultimately is in the Quran. But to go even further into the human sphere, poetry and prose, I would like to have a book by Rumi. And I would probably pick the Mathnawi, which is an immense work of couplets and poems by Rumi.

Presenter32:48

It's yours. You can also take a luxury item to help you pass the time more enjoyably on the island. What would you like?

Yusuf Cat Stevens32:54

It would be Bendix Bittermints because I have such a sweet juice. I mean, you can imagine growing up, you know, in a cafe, Coca-Cola, you know, almond cakes and everything all around you. So Bendix Bittermintz is it.

Presenter33:12

And if you could just save one of your eight tracks from being washed away, which would you go for?

Yusuf Cat Stevens33:17

I would pick Stevie Wonder, and I think that because it was unprepared and not composed so so perfectly, it it's got life.

Presenter33:27

Yusuf Kat Stevens, thank you very much for sharing your desert island discs with us.

Yusuf Cat Stevens33:31

Thank you. Come along sometime, you know, I'm still here.

Presenter33:47

Hello, I really hope you enjoyed that interview with Yusuf Kat Stevens. We've cast many musicians away to our island, including two people whose music was chosen by Yusuf. You can find Stevens Sun-Times programme as well as Paul McCartney's choice of Desert Island discs in our archive through BBC Sounds. Next time, my guest will be the actor and director, Samantha Morton. I do hope you'll join us.

Speaker 134:25

My father-in-law lived alone, everybody knew it.

Speaker 434:30

Late afternoon in the high plains of South Africa. A bloody encounter and a chase.

Speaker 434:36

If you attack on a farm, your chances of surviving is not good.

Speaker 434:42

In a community stalked by fear and racial tensions, an explosion of violence puts a family on trial.

Speaker 434:49

Uh

Presenter34:49

What did they do so bad to get that pity?

Speaker 434:54

Bloodlands, presented by me, Andrew Harding, is available on BBC Sounds. Just search for Bloodlands and download all five episodes now.