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Cat Stevens/Yusuf — 115, 114

ALBUMS: Catch Bull at Four (1972); Teaser and the Firecat (1971)

MVC RATING: Bull: 4.0/$$$; Teaser 4.0/$$$$

It wasn’t until Cat Stevens accumulated a bunch of songs that I grew to appreciate him. WIth one exception — ‘Wild World.’ That song hooked me from the beginning.

‘Father and Son’ not far behind.

Both songs are on Tea for Tillerman. an album I don’t have. The radio was where I picked up on that song. The truth is, even though I have two of Cat Stevens biggest selling albums, I didn’t listen to them much because the hits were all over the radio, and I never spent the time to explore the songs that weren’t so famous.

Catch Bull at Four, for example has no hits and is a good album. Surprisingly, Catch Bull was one of his biggest hit albums. But Teaser was the breakthrough album for Stevens. It had Peace Train and the gorgeous ‘Morning has Broken,’ a song found in many Christian church hymnals. (Although he popularized the song, Stevens did not write Morning has Broken.)

When I did try out the albums I found some to be erratic. Several songs, I thought, were meandering and oblique (House of the Freezing Steel, for example.) It wasn’t until I got a greatest hits collection on CD that included all in one place “Wild World,” “Peace Train,” Father and Son,” “The First Cut is the Deepest,” “Morning has Broken,” and ‘Moonshadow,’ among others — that I paid attention. His voice and unusual vocal style grew on me.

In the late 1990s after several life-changing events, including nearly dying of tuberculosis, Stevens changed his name to Yusuf Islam and converted to Islam. For years he wouldn’t play his old music or even any secular music. As Yusuf he eventually came back to playing his old songs about 2006 — as well as new ones. I have listened to the Roadsinger one of his first Yusuf secular albums. and though he’s singing in his old familiar voice, the songs are more spiritual and it doesn’t have any potential classic singles on it like his older albums — but certainly worth exploring if you are a big Cat Stevens/Yusuf fan.

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His and Hurricanes (Pt. 8 in a serial story)

“Stop there,” muscle head said.

He had a gun Prosby noticed, a Walter PP, pretty bad-ass pistol.

Prosby didn’t realize he said that out loud.

“I’ll show you how it works and fired a shot that whizzed by Prosby’s right ear.

“Now go ahead, piss and let’s go.”

Prosby turned to a tree. He took his time.

“Hey come on,” muscle head said. “Nobody takes this long.”

“I have a UTI,” Prosby said, confusing meathead.

And that’s when meathead made a meathead mistake.

He grabbed Prosby by the arm to turn him around and Prosby instantly had his hand on the gun, Using two hands with  lightning speed, Prosby snapped it upward, the sound of the gunshot straight up into the sky almost overpowered the sound of muscle brain’s wrist snapping like a rubbery chicken bone. Almost simultaneously, Prosby smashed the nose with his elbow and kneed him in the groin.

That was too easy, Prosby thought, putting the pistol in his waistband. Yes it  was too easy.

The other Dani Boy, the 6-foot-7-inch Gladiator reject and part-time driver, had Prosby in a crushing bear hug from behind.

Prosby managed to grab the Gladiator’s pinkies and snap them like wishbones while simultaneously stomping on his attacker’s foot.

“I love you too but not in the mood tonight,” Prosby  said, grabbing a handful of his Thor-like yellow hair and bringing down his head  to meet Prosby’ crunching knee lift to the face.

“Night-night,” Prosby said.

The  fight moves were courtesy of an ancient but little know self defense art said to have emanated out  of a game called basketball.

The defensive fight moves are called OMH, which no one can remember the meaning. It came from Alabama as basketball games became more and more violent. A tribe of older men needed a way to protect themselves, using techniques of basketball, like the Elbow Bash, the Wrist Snap, the Ankle Breaker, the Eye Gouge and the Rock Pick. These ancient techniques can be traced back to a day called Madness when tribes from near and far came to battle and ‘no blood, no foul’ became its creed.’

Now was time for Prosby to run. Dani would be coming and she will not be happy with her boys’ work. Now in a Level 2 Air Zone, gas masks were unnecessary in this part of Florida. But he took Gladiator’s anyway, and hung it with his own on a hip pack designed just for that.

He heard Dani’s voice calling out for her boys as he began to move lightly, quickly and decisively under the cover of the woods and darkness.

…..To Be Continued