Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Yusuf Inducted to R&R Hall of Fame

First posted on FB 6/8/14:

Congratulations to Yusuf / Cat Stevens for your induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! I still remember listening to your haunting "Moon Shadow" on a summer evening long ago--a dreary, haunting song for sure, but what teenager couldn't relate? We all felt your presence Cat, that you were one of us. I remember just where I was, the feel of the cool, still, desert night, bright stars and a crescent moon with bright city lights away on the horizon. I won't say exactly where we were on that lonely night, sitting in a circle on a lawn of cool grass, because we might be blamed for that big hole in the chain linked fence just behind us. So I'll simply say we were visiting "Gary Dexter" which was code for our inner circle of adolescents in the City of Sin so many years ago ;) Today we can see how we've all changed, Yusuf. Some of those who listened to your songs didn't make it to the new millennia. Two of my dearest high school friends were lost to the HIV/AIDS epidemic halfway between then and now. For those of us still here, today is a time of reflection about those years at the "edge of darkness" as we ponder what we may leave behind, "dreaming about the world as one" and how we can help make our planet and our species whole. So Yusuf, I pray moving forward you and I are (praise be to Allah) more inclined to sing of hope than loss as we ask our brothers and sisters to "jump upon the Peace Train." 
 

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