Favorite CAT STEVENS song

[Bossy Monkey]

Poll question: Favorite CAT STEVENS song

If begged appropriately I might switch one of these for another nominee, though on a Saturday morning a groundswell of responses in under an hour is hardly likely. Anyway, I think I got the 9 best, that Peace Train is going to win whatever I put on, and also point out that the ever-popular Other option is also available. Whatchasay?

Edit: By popular demand, or lack of it, Two Fine People switched at last minute for Oh Very Young. Probably bolluxes some Other votes, though

[mhr]

1. Trouble - From The Mona Bone Album

eom

[Magrittes Pipe]

32. Also from the "Harold and Maude" soundtrack.

Great song.

[DODI]

2. Music - Buddha and the Chocolate Box

[billybob537]

3. OH VERY YOUNG!

[donco6]

5. I really like that one, too. eom

[1monster]

11. likewise

[donco6]

4. Sitting

Oh I'm on my way, I know I am, somewhere not so far from here
All I know is all I feel right now, I feel the power growing
in my hair
Sitting on my own not by myself, everybody's here with me
I don't need to touch your face to know, and I don't need to use my eyes to see

I keep on wondering if I sleep too long, will I always wake
up the same (or so)?
And keep on wondering if I sleep too long, will I even wake up
again or something

Oh I'm on my way I know I am, but times there were when I thought not
Bleeding half my soul in bad company, I thank the moon I had the strength to stop
I'm not making love to anyone's wishes, only for that light I see
'Cause when I'm dead and lowered low in my grave, that's gonna
be the only thing that's left of me

And if I make it to the waterside, will I even find me a boat
(or so)?
And if I make it to the waterside, I'll be sure to write you
not or something

Oh I'm on my way, I know I am, somewhere not so far
from here
All I know is all I feel right now, I feel the power growing
in my hair

Oh life is like a maze of doors and they all open from the
side you're on
Just keep on pushing hard boy, try as you may
You're going to wind up where you started from
You're going to wind up where you started from

[Bossy Monkey]

10. A great one. Used to wear out my voice on this as a young person

If Two Fine People still has no votes 10 minutes hence, maybe I'll switch it out (though I suspect Oh Very Young would get more support)

[Bill of Rights]

50. I Want to Live in Wigwman

This was on a compilation album.

[TlalocW]

6. Hey!

Pick "Peace Train" or I'll kick your @$$!

TlalocW - Celebrating Mixed Message Day

[Goldmund]

7. Hard-headed woman

[skjpm]

9. Just saw Majikat DVD

He's a great performer, and lesser-known songs like The Hurt, Majik of Majiks, and Ruins come across very well.

[ET Awful]

8. Miles from Nowhere has always been my favorite I think. . . .

I like pretty much everything he ever did, but for some reason that one always had some kind of personal resonance :).

[HEyHEY]

12. wind of my soul

[Seeking Serenity]

13. Just about anything from the "Tea for the Tillerman" album

"Miles From Nowhere"
"On the Road to Find Out"
"Longer Boats"
"Sad Lisa"
etc.

I also like "Matthew and Son"

[GCP]

14. "Morning Has Broken"

Beautiful old English hymn that he did really nicely.

[chaska]

24. I'm with you on that 'un.

[El Supremo]

33. You ain't kidding.

Why was this one left out of the list????
Cat Stevens was once my favorite singer. He really had something before he became Youseph whatever.

[Cpt Spaulding]

35. my favorite

too.

[Bjornsdotter]

36. Ditto n/t

[Jade Fox]

15. How Can I Tell You

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

16. Two Fine People

Two Fine People

Now that I've passed your test
How can I prove to you baby i'll never let you down
If I led you around, I'm sorry
But I never meant to worry you.... no
Now that I've kissed your breast
How can I prove to you baby I'll never make you sad
If I ever had , do believe your tears tears won't come back again
I love you, though the stars may fade
And mountains turn into sand. I love you
'Til my body changes into an old man. I love you
And the song that i sing is the only way that I can explain
La la la la la la
You know i wish for you baby nothing but good times ahead
Anything that heaven can give you, I can give you instead
La la la la la la
How could I lie to you baby, i'll never lead you around
I'll take care of everything you need, darling
Every little need'll be found. I love you
Thought the time may change and snowmen sleep in the sea
And I really only want you to want me. I love you
And the song that i sing is the only way that i can explain
Now that you've shown your heart
I'll be right with you baby, I'll never leave you alone
Anywhere you want me to be honey, i'll be there to have and to hold
And now that the clouds roll back, hold on to me baby
We're going never to land, flying on the power of love
Flying on the power of love. I love you
Though time may fade and mountains turn into sand
I love you, 'til the very same come back to the land
I love you and the song that i sing is the only way that
i can explain
Two fine people should love each other
Two fine people should help each other

[Bossy Monkey]

17. It was on there, and skunked, for the first hour

I'm with you, but had to vote Where Do the Children Play

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

18. I shoulda never slept in :)

Love that song!

[Ann Arbor Dem]

19. I can't settle on just one song.

Most of them hold special memories for me.

[Bossy Monkey]

20. It was quite tough enough to cut down to 9, or as it turned out ten

and I like all the other suggestions that I know, and have a shrewd notion that I'd like the ones that I don't know, too.

[Enraged_Ape]

21. The entire "Tea for the Tillerman" album gets my vote

It is a masterpiece, from start to finish. I'm so glad I'm not the only Cat Stevens fan in the world.

[Taverner]

22. "I Think I See the Light"

But a lot of that has to do with the scene in Harold and Maude....


"Flabby.....buttocks....."

[TN al]

23. Eighteenth Avenue

[SarahB]

25. "The First Cut is the Deepest"

And yep, it was recently covered by Sheryl Crow, but Cat wrote it and did it first. Good song.

[Rhiannon12866]

40. I associate that song with Rod Stewart

and have always liked it. Now I know why. Thanks.:-)

[marzipanni]

26. I like so many of CS's songs...

but it made me feel good when I put my old album on the turntable and played "Peace Train" turned up loud for our young son before we took him to his first demonstration against the war in Iraq.

I looked up Cat Stevens on the internet around that time to see if he had written anything about how he felt about the war, and found an interesting article from the point of view of a person who had converted to Islam. I had heard that he renounced his music when he became a Muslim, and that made me sad.

[KoKo]

27. All of Cat's songs were really good. Sad that he opted out..but he maybe

said what he had to and "moved along." Great Poets need to do that..some of them. :shrug:

[cosmokramer]

28. Oooh, baby, baby it's a wild world...

Hands down. 2nd: Hard Headed Woman

[greatauntoftriplets]

29. Many years ago (1971 to be exact)... I met Cat Stevens' father.

He ran a chippie (diner) in London and I can't remember the location. I stopped in there one day to get some lunch and the mailman brought in an enormous pile of mail "for your son...." As I looked bewildered, the father and mailman explained who the son was.

Fortunately, I was (and am) a big fan and owned several of his albums. It was a terrific experience and the meal was quite good, though cholesterol-laden.

Very interesting experience.

[amazona]

30. Sitting

By far my favorite is Sitting.

Some of his songs I actively dislike because they were overplayed to the point of obnoxiousness and certainly for me Peace Train falls in that category unfortunately.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

31. Father and Son, because

it was popular at a time when my mother was trying to plan my life for me, and I was trying to assert myself.

I played that song over and over.

[Enraged_Ape]

44. I had the same experience with that song

I played it over and over again when I was trying to decide whether to leave home and strike out for Southern California. This song was my inspiration.

It's also the unconscious inspiration for one of my NEW favorite songs: "Fight Test" by the Flaming Lips.

[ForrestGump]

34. Old Schoolyard

Even when it came out, when I was just starting high school, it made me nostalgic for the old schoolyard. Always loved it. Of the song choices listed, I'd probably go with "Peace Train."

Remember the days of the old schoolyard
We used to laugh a lot
Oh, don’t you remember the days of the old schoolyard
When we had imaginings
And we had all kinds of things
And we laughed and needed love
Yes, I do
And I remember you

[Elidor]

37. Pardon me, I hate to be negative

But the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens can go fuck himself.

[mr blur]

38. Hang on, you're not allowed to like Cat Stevens...

Don't you know he's a Muslim Fundamentalist? The Thought Police will be round at your home any second now.

Actually, he is. He said some extremely nasty things about S. Rushdie when the fatwa had been established against him - including the thought that Rushdie should be killed for what he'd written. Ah the irony, the man who produced "Peace Train".

[cosmokramer]

42. Watch out! Herr Ashcroft is watching...

...and he may take all your Cat Stevens LP as evidence that you are a potential threat to National Security!

[Bossy Monkey]

43. No he didn't

Here's what he said last year:
http://catstevens.com/articles/00236/index.html
Here's what he said at the time: http://catstevens.com/articles/00013/index.html
Basically, he was just answering a question about what a fatwah is, and was hanged for it.

[Enraged_Ape]

45. Actually, he was sort of misquoted on the Rushdie thing

He has since apologized for how people interpreted that. Basically all Cat (or Yusuf) said was that Rushdie knew what he was getting into when he published the Satanic Verses, and that he had to know that there were going to be people out after his head. This was interpreted by the anti-Muslim media to mean that Yusuf was endorsing the murder of Rushdie, which is absolutely not true. But do you imagine the whore media saying anything else?

[Blue-Jay]

39. Since I was a kid, Peace Train has always been special.

I guess I've been a liberal by whole life. Even before I knew what the word meant. I remember playing that song over and over on the LP that I found somewhere in the house when I was about 6 or 7 years old.

[bushneedstogo2]

41. Where do the children play

[Enraged_Ape]

46. Love that song. Love it. Love it.

Well I think it’s fine, building jumbo planes.
Or taking a ride on a cosmic train.
Switch on summer from a slot machine.
Yes, get what you want to if you want, ’cause you can get anything.

I know we’ve come a long way,
We’re changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass.
For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas.
And you make them long, and you make them tough.
But they just go on and on, and it seems that you can’t get off.

Oh, I know we’ve come a long way,
We’re changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

Well you’ve cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air.
But will you keep on building higher
’til there’s no more room up there?
Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry?
Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?

I know we’ve come a long way,
We’re changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?


So many great songs from this man... I'm gonna have to dig up my copy of this album and listen again.

[Yupster]

47. Help - don't know which song

I like the one with the lines

"I am old -- I am old, but I'm happy"

"You're still young, that's your fault, there's so much you have to change ..."

"Find a girl, if you want you can marry"


We took a roadtrip this weekend and was playing Cat Stevens in the car for my seven year olds benefit.

[Bossy Monkey]

49. That's "Father and Son"

and from memory, those should be:
Look at me, I am old but I'm happy
...there's so much you have to go through
Find a girl, settle down; if you want you can marry

Unfortunately, my total recall stopped accepting new information at about the age of 26, but all the old stuff is still there:
All the times
that I cried
keeping all the things I knew inside
It's hard
but it's harder to ignore it
If they were right
I'd agree
but it's them they know not me
Now there's a way
and I know
that I have to go away
I know
I have to go

[Burma Jones]

48. Moonshadow - I sing it to my daughter every night at bed time

I also like "Oh Very Young," "Here Comes my Baby," and Ruby Love. My Wife absolutely loves "Can't Keep It In"

Too bad we lost him to fundamentalism.

[Rhiannon12866]

51. I agree.

I wish that my Dad had sung me that song. It's one of my favorites and she is a lucky little girl.:-)