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A YOUNG seeker named Cat Stevens ''picked up a couple of very
important strands of the mysterious truth'' during his last tour of Australia in 1974.
important strands of the mysterious truth'' during his last tour of Australia in 1974.Within two years they would lead him to a new faith and a new name – Yusuf Islam – and out of the music business for three decades.
In a luxury hotel overlooking the Yarra yesterday, one of the most gently persuasive voices of the peace/love generation recalled a pair of random meetings with lingering wonder.
''She was a tall lady, 60 years old. Her name was Hestia Lovejoy and she turned to me on to numerology. My next record wasNumbers, as a direct result of that,'' he said.
''Another interesting thing was a book with a velvet cover that was given to me, a book of Rumi's poems. That was my first introduction to Sufism and that was quite important.''
As Yusuf Islam, the Londoner born Steven Georgiou, retired from music in 1976. Although a sudden departure to fans, he has long maintained that his conversion to Islam was the culmination of a gradual process of discovery.
The assertion is borne out in the lyrics of old songs such as The Road to Find Out, from his landmark Tea for the Tillerman album of 1970, one of many classics of the singer-songwriter tradition he has enjoyed rediscovering, with much larger audiences, since picking up his discarded guitar in 2002.
''It's amazing how seamless the process has been,'' he said yesterday. ''But you know, life is continuous. Each album represents a stage in my pathway of life. That's what you find when you listen to them.
''An Other Cup [his comeback album of 2006] was obviously disjointed in time, but the title represents a connection with Tea for the Tillerman. It was proof that you can have more than one cup of tea, and even though it's not the same it still refreshes you.''
Yusuf weathered controversy in the wake of the fatwa against British author Salman Rushdie in 1989; and in a case of mistaken identity that had him barred briefly from the US in 2004.
Today he distances himself from a Western media seeking to cast him as a political spokesman for Islam. ''I've been asked many questions in the past and, to be honest, I'm not very successful at being a politician,'' he said yesterday. ''However, as a poet, as a singer, and as a spiritual person, I find lots of ways, I think, of fixing things.''
Yusuf also reflected on a recent meeting of minds with Bono, a pop figure who has rarely shied from bringing the convictions of his faith to bear on political matters. ''It's a great mission we share. It's not just music. Music is part of the solution to help people harmonise.''
Yusuf is touring Australia for the first time in 36 years with his son, Yoriyos, whose '60s-style blues-rock band Noxshi is supporting on all dates.
They perform at the Rod Laver Arena on Friday and tonight, the only show on the seven-concert tour for which tickets are still available.
Source: The Age
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