“Now I’ve been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come and I believe it could be something good has begun” ~ Cat Stevens
I had the immense pleasure to see Cat Stevens / Yusuf at the Wang Center in Boston Sunday night. It was unlike any concert I have been to.
I go to concerts to see my favorite performers live and listen to their music, right? Concerts are about the music and visual stimulation. Well, the music was fabulous, the stage setting was tranquil and he looked great.
But this was more about feeling. In a deep way.
I experienced a different kind of excitement that night, something almost magical; kind of like the night-before-Christmas excitement I had when I was a kid and still believed in Santa Clause. Truly, this concert was an experience.
When I was a child, it was pure magic, waking up on Christmas morning, so excited that Santa Claus had visited my house in the middle of the night. Did he leave that ONE gift I had wished for all year long? Think about that for a second. I waited all year wondering if I would get a special gift. That was a magical time.
And so was seeing Yusef / Cat Stevens play again. A gift I have waited so many years to ‘open’.
Cat Stevens played his last U.S. concert in 1976. 1976! At the height of his Mega-Stardom. I didn’t know he had left music at first. There was no Farewell Concert Tour.
We were not alerted to every single event, whether catastrophic or mundane, every second of our life on our cell phones. And we certainly did not know the daily comings and goings and most intimate details of celebrities.
We could not Google them, download music on a whim or pull up a video on YouTube.
They were ‘Stars’. Bigger than life and mysterious. We were lucky enough to enjoy their creativity once in a while without being saturated with the minutia of their daily movements.
Aside from going to a concert, the only opportunity to catch a glimpse of your favorite musician was on TV. I used to stay up late or make sure I was home on a Friday night to watch my faves on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert or The Midnight Special. The release date of a new album was a major event.
And I would take every opportunity I could to see Cat Stevens on TV. I can remember vividly watching one show that featured his artwork along with his music; it was the art from Tea for the Tillerman. I was mesmerized.
For me, Cat Stevens has been in a time capsule.
I adored him. His words spoke to my heart. His music lifted me. I had a full length poster of him hanging on my wall. The quote above was in my yearbook. Many milestones in my life were reached with his music as my soundtrack.
But I never got to see Cat Stevens live.
That he left music saddened me. This gorgeous man with the silky voice who wrote and sang about love and peace with such passion.
Why he left I can understand completely. More now than ever. We are all searching for contentment and we seek that in many forms. His was a spiritual journey. I can appreciate and respect that. But I missed him.
Watching him sing and play and listening to his words from the perspective of 30 years lived, I realized just how relevant his message is today as it was when he wrote the words. His music touched me on a completely new level.
I swear I was in a total state of bliss for much of the next day.
And by the many standing ovations he received, I wasn’t the only one feeling the magic that night.