CaTNiP
Es gab ein Leben
v o r Islam...
und das
war wild und bunt ヅ
I’VE FOUND A NAME!
Interview by George Brown
(Cat Stevens - The Complete Illustrated Biography & Discography)
The following information is impressive, as the girlfriend that Cat/Yusuf often credits as originating his ‘Cat’ moniker has never been identified by name. The suggested “Cat” tag has certainly stuck for all these years and was ideal during the mid 60s as a hip cool cat name – there was Jane Fonda’s Cat Ballou, Jimmy ‘The Cat’ Smith, Cat Woman… To this day, Keith Richards still refers to guys as ‘cats’ and women as ‘chicks’… and Mick Jagger as Brenda! Forgive the digression!
I had a telephone conversation with Teresa Walkley in April 2013 – as Teresa Jones, she went out with the Cat known as Steve, at the outset of his career. In the 60s, Teresa lived just off
Ladbroke Grove in Notting Hill. Coincidentally, just around the corner to Portobello Road, Teresa said she remembered Cat playing the song of the same name to her. She has quietly watched his
career evolve over the years.
How did you meet Steve?
I originally worked at Simon Massey Ltd. which was a fashion house, with David Gordon, Steve’s brother, in the mid 60s. I was a girl friday/receptionist and did some modelling of the clothes when no one was available. Steve turned up at Simon Massey one day to see his brother. I was impressed when I met him and I must’ve said to David, “He looks good!” So that got to Steve and David told me that Steve liked me and we went out for awhile. We split up amicably when he fully went into the business as it would not be fair to continue the relationship.
Did you know Peter Janes, or Peter Horgan, who was a musician and friend of Steve’s?
No I never met him but I knew his brothers, Barry and Gerry. I met Barry about 1968. I met Gerry first and I think it was Steve who introduced me to him. In 1968 I was a passenger in a very bad car accident and lost my job. Gerry introduced me to his brother Barry and got me a job at Fundamental Films, a film company in Wardour Mews in the West end. I worked in the office and Barry did editing.
Did you meet other members of Steve’s family?
I met his dad and used to go to the restaurant. Steve would play his songs to me in his bedroom, I remember I Love My Dog very well.
Not many people can say they’ve experienced this formative 60s period so close!
It was a lovely time in my life, we had great fun.
Considering the way his life turned out, did you ever see any spiritual leanings when he was young?
No, not at all.
Can you remember seeing him at any folk clubs or gigs?
Not really – he was just going in to the business but I do have a vague recollection that he got me into a concert he did at the Saville Theatre with Georgie Fame in 1966.
One thing I do believe, is that it was me who named him ‘Cat’. We had this conversation at his home and he said I just can’t be called STEVEN DEMITRI GEORGIOU ADAMS! (We spoke briefly about both David and Steve’s Greek/Swedish heritage and their use of English sounding surnames). I thought he looked such a beautiful pussycat – his eyes were so lovely and his hair and everything… so I suggested the name Cat. I have a thing about cats!
Huge thanks Teresa for the early memories and for originating the perfect name for “Steve”.
[majicat.com]
Patti D'Arbanville (1968 - 1970)
Eine heiße Liebesgeschichte... nachzulesen in "Let's spend the night together" von Pamela des Barres (Auszug der deutschen Übersetzung) und als "Hörbuch" in Auszügen hier :-D
Es heißt, sie hätte Steve zu "Wild World", "Maybe You're Right" und "Just Another Night" inspiriert... definitiv aber zu "My Lady D'Arbanville", nachdem sie ihm das Herz gebrochen hatte...
Steve trat in ihr Leben, als sie noch mit Barry Ryan liiert war... nach Steve schnappte sie sich Mick Jagger :-o
Neither time nor changing values
have diminished the memory of the affair.
"She was a girl who was one of the strongest relationships
I've ever had,"
he recalls pensively.
"I wrote a lot of songs for her."
(aus einem Interview von 1978)
Barbara Parkins (1969)
Sie war entsetzt, als sie 1967 in dem Film "Valley of the Dolls" Sexszenen mit dem viel älteren Schauspieler Paul Burke spielen musste und so hing sie Bilder von Cat Stevens in ihrem Wohnwagen auf und stellte sich vor, er wäre es, mit dem sie diese Szenen spielen sollte.
Einige Jahre später, als sie in London gastierte, wurde ihr Traum wahr...
Linda Lewis (1970)
Carly Simon (1971 - 1972)
“It feels too private to speak of our two bodies together, and too tender and spiritual to actually refer to it as sex. I loved to watch him as he slept, as he looked at the sky, or a piece of art. He rarely asked questions. When he did, it was in a wonderfully scratchy bass voice that sounded like an old man of the woods telling a tale of those who had passed by his tree hundreds of years ago.”
(aus dem Buch "Boys in the Trees: A Memoir by Carly Simon")
~ . * . ~
Für 7 Monate waren sie ein Paar, nachdem sie sich bei ihrem Producer, Samwell-Smith, trafen und sich verliebten.
Den Song "Anticipation" schrieb sie, während sie aufgeregt darauf wartete, dass Steve sie zum ersten Date abholt...
Carly Simon's late date
When Carly flew back to New York, Cat Stevens did too, and he asked Carly out. On the appointed night, she waited and waited, as she had for Robbie Robertson. Cat, who had recently been involved with actress Patti D'Arbanville, was late.
When he finally did arrive, "I was sitting on my bed and really nervous, because we hadn't officially had a date yet. And I picked up my guitar and I tuned the low E string down a whole step to D, and I wrote a song for him, because I was so excited and nervous to see him, and I'd been wasting so much time" on those feelings.
Echoing the rhythms of Cat's own songs, she wrote "An-ti-ci-pa-tion / An-ti-ci-pa-tion / is making me late / is keeping me wai-ai-ai-ting."
" I wrote the whole song in fifteen minutes," she says.
(Er schrieb ihr dafür dann den Song "Sweet Scarlet".)
Als sie ihr Lied für Steve zum ersten Mal in einem Konzert in New York öffentlich vortrug, war auch James Taylor im Publikum. Er traf sich dann mit ihr hinter der Bühne, sie verliebten sich und wurden ein Ehepaar für 11 Jahre.
Carly's neues Album enthielt noch einen weiteren Song über Steve:
durch die Augen von jemand, der ihn verehrt, wird hier die Geschichte über Steve's Aufstieg zum Ruhm erzählt:
"Legend In Your Own Time".
Sweet Scarlet by Cat Stevens:
Once she came into my room, feathered hat an' all
Wearing a warm wool shawl wrapped around her shoulders
Two eyes like lights, milky marble whites looking up at me
Looking for a way, Moons in an endless day
All I knew was with her then, no couldn't see the time
As we drank down the wine to the last Sweet Scarlet
How was I to wonder why or even question this
Underneath her her kiss I was so unguarded
Every bottle's empty now and all those dreams are gone
Ah, but the song carries on...so holy
She was so much younger then, wild like the wind
A gypsy with a grin from and old far away country
but deep beneath her curls,
Beneath this misty pearl, there was more to see
She could move mountains in the dark as silent as a knife
She cut loose a life that she never no never really wanted
All those days are frozen now and all those scars are gone
Ah, but the song carries on...so holy
Come let us drink again, before the second show
I want you so to know there's no bridge between us
All those gates have opened now, and through the light has shone
Ah, but the song carries on...so holy
Louise (Lucy) Wightman (1976 - 1979)
Lucy Was Cat's Meow but When She Bared Her Soul She Got Scratched
Can a rock star turned Muslim turned recluse find wedded bliss with a hippie turned vegetarian turned stripper? It is not an idle question. Consider the case of Cat Stevens, who two years ago
began to embrace Islam, stopped touring and adopted the name Yusuf.
In 1976 Stevens had met Lucy Johnson, a 16-year-old
fresh-faced blonde who was tossed out of New York's exclusive Emma Willard School for smoking marijuana. Backstage at one of his concerts, Lucy slipped Cat a poem ("really tacky," she remembers)
and he took her to dinner. "It blossomed," as Lucy puts it, "into a one-night stand." Cat went back on the road and Lucy joined a commune, later settling down to become a stripper named Princess
Cheyenne in Boston's famed Combat Zone.
Lucy met Cat again in May. Now deeply religious, he entertained her for a month in London, where they had frequent dinners with his mother. They studied Islam at his mosque (where she took the
name Aisha) and talked of marriage. Lucy did not mention her showbiz career.
In June Cat visited Lucy's mother in Connecticut. Lucy, already a non-drinking vegetarian, took to preparing Muslim meals in her three-room Boston flat. By July Cat was telephoning her regularly
from London. "One night we kept getting disconnected," recalls Lucy. Cat told her it might be some sort of omen.
Late in July Lucy thought it was time to tell Cat everything and called him to describe her now dormant career as one of Boston's better-known burlesque queens. There was a sharp intake of
breath, then silence. Lucy remembers Cat's next words: "I'm shocked."
"He made some noises about my past being past," Lucy recalls, "but when I told him I wanted to continue with acting lessons, he really freaked out. I don't want to give up things like
backpacking, horseback riding, acting and dancing. He thinks we should give up everything pleasurable."
For his part, Stevens (who still uses his stage name) acknowledges that he is looking for a bride, but at the moment Lucy isn't the one. "It would take a long time before she could become a good Muslim wife," he says, adding that he is courting a woman in London who fits those requirements.
Lucy says she's still getting trans-Atlantic Cat calls. "He'll ask me to come over right away, and then call back and say we shouldn't see each other. He changes his mind when it comes to music,
too. I don't know how he's going to reconcile his religion with performing, at least for money. He says we should give up everything, but he flies to Washington, D.C. just to get his teeth
capped. Basically, he's a bundle of contradictions."
[People/ by Nancy Mc Millan]
(“I had two prospective girls I was interested in marrying,
one a new convert from America
and the other from a traditional Muslim family.
I invited them to meet my mother and then asked her opinion.
She told me her preference and I agreed.
I had no intimate relationship with either before marriage.”)
Yusuf Islam's Mother Chose His Wife
Muslim musical icon YUSUF ISLAM asked his mother to choose his wife, because he couldn't decide who to spend the rest of his life with. Islam - who changed his name from CAT STEVENS and walked away from music when he converted to Islam in 1978 - denies having an arranged marriage. But the singer admits his mother helped him choose wife FAUZIA MUBARAK ALI in 1979.
The 58-year-old says,
"People think it was arranged because my mother was involved.
But I was thinking of marrying one of two girls I was dating.
I brought each to my mother at different times and asked which she thought I should marry. It was her choice.Of course, it was mine as well,
but I gave my mother the option to be part of that decision."
[contactmusic.com]
