Yusuf / Cat Stevens - Wild World 1971 / Salman Rushdie

I enjoyed the Yusef / Cat Stevens set at Glastonbury, although he did brush past a few hits in a melody early on. I might even buy his latest album, but I can't believe most reporters these days take what he said about Salman Rushdie as a misquote, or words put in his mouth, regarding Stevens supporting  the fatwa placed on Rushdie. On Desert Island Discs Stevens states : 

“I was certainly not prepared or equipped to deal with shark-toothed journalists and the whole way in which the media spins stories.

“I was cleverly framed, I would say, by certain questions, where I couldn’t for instance rewrite the 10 Commandments. You can’t expect me to do that.

“At the same time I never actually ever supported the fatwa. I even wrote a whole press statement which, very early on, which the press ignored – completely ignored.

“They went for the one which was written by the journalist who originally wrote the story. And so I had to live through that.”

However he can be found here endorsing it (with a really annoying presenter).  The thing is, l don't care if he thought that then, as everyone has the right to evolve and change their minds, hopefully becoming a better person as the live and learn. But the mistakes of the past should also be admitted, and then moved on from, not re-written.

Anyway, here he is in what to me was his peak.

Toodle pip