Absolutely live in 1967, here's the Tremeloes and the dangerous ear worm that is "Here Comes My Baby."
Written by the Artist Formerly Known as Cat Stevens, of course.
Seriously -- I think it's the dictionary definition of the perfect pop song. Three chords, addictively catchy, sounds perky, and yet at the heart of it is a profound sadness.
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17 comments:
Agree, Steve. This was getting radio play when I was a college sophomore in Madison. Great memories, great tune.
What I don't get is why so many people find it necessary to use the arguable over-reaction of barring Cat Stevens from entering the country as a bridge to mocking the idea of Cat Stevens as a person deserving profound scorn. Seen that is from the mainstay of liberalness – free speech.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens'_comments_about_Salman_Rushdie
2 different anon's
Anonymous said...
What I don't get is why so many people find it necessary to use the arguable over-reaction of barring Cat Stevens from entering the country as a bridge to mocking the idea of Cat Stevens as a person deserving profound scorn. Seen that is from the mainstay of liberalness – free speech.
I have no idea what the point you're trying to make is.
I do remember that when Stevens said what he said, it wasn't too long after 10,000 Maniacs had covered "Peace Train."
Somebody interviewed Natalie Merchant about it, and she said "Thank god it wasn't a hit."
Cat Stevens should have retired after writing this and "The First Cut Is The Deepest".
My favorite version of this song is by New Wave also-rans The Jags, who pumped it up with a little Costello-style energy.
The man wrote some wonderful songs and sang and performed them brilliantly. Then he was interviewed about Salman Rushdi when he was a baby Muslim and he supported the statements of his "elders" in the religion.
I am not sure what his stance on violence and murder is today, but his songs should not be ignored or vilified if he goes crazy later on.
Trey
I sense from your headline here that you think it’s pretty silly to think of Cat Stevens as part of something called a “Mohammedan menace.”
So either you agree there is a threat from Islam but he’s not part of it; or – the more likely one – you think the idea of a threat from Islam is pretty silly and tends to gets people all panicked for almost no reason.
When I think about the threat from Islam, I don’t think so much about terror, though that’s part of it. I think about what the threat of terror does to some normal people’s reactions to manifestations of the political threat, which have to do with giving way in the face of the overall insistence within Islam that Islam shall not be mocked. Giving way, that is, under the always available disguises of “peace” and “inclusion.”
You read Cat’s statements then and now, it’s quite clear he agrees with the insistence that Islam shall not be mocked; and it’s clear that given that, he sees no reason to question much less vehemently disagree with the Ayatollah’s original declaration against Rushdie.
For me, when a religious leader tells his followers to kill a man because of something in a novel, the only – repeat, only – acceptable reaction is vehement disagreement and one hell of a lot of mockery. In fact, my understanding of liberalness is that when anyone or anything insists it shall not be mocked, job one is mocking it.
Except when they’re serious about it, apparently.
Instead, we got leftists in Europe then reacting as if the problem were Rushdie’s over-zealousness, not the Ayatollah and his non-disagreeing followers. (You need cites, I’ll get you cites.) And now, here, in this country, we have liberals evidently never reading much at all about political trends in Europe vis-à-vis Islam, and retreating very quickly into making fun of the idea of a threat from Islam. And certainly, since he once wrote a song called “Peace Train” and the Bush administration doesn’t like him – how can this guy be considered an aspect of any kind of threat?
Trey
He didn't go crazy.
I'm not saying anything about his songs.
And I know you want to stay non-political.
But when you go over to blogs you don’t like and offer the comments you do, and then get some people over here in response, and it turns out much to your amazement that some of them are not drooling Zinjanthropus – well, those people will notice when you allow yourself a little nonsensical political jab meant to assuage your worldview and the worldviews of your readers. All of whom are wonderful people who love wonderful music but who have cut off one side of their brains when it comes to politics.
I don't have the energy for this, so here's the short version. I think the original fatwah against Rushdie was an outrage, and Stevens reaction to it rephrensible.
That said, when people start telling me to be very afraid of the scary brown people under my bed, my reaction is that the Bush administration is using what my favorite rightwing asshole refers to as the Mohammedan Menace in a cynical and transparent ploy -- the purpose of which is to secure the unwarranted power to pursue depraved foreign policy goals and destroy civil liberties at home. It's all very un-American and disgusting.
Thus, when people tell me to be very afraid of the scary brown people under my bed, my response is to laugh derisively rather than cower.
Hope that clears things up.
Hey Steve, I saw Cat interviewed about the fatwah and his response was that he was a new convert when asked about it and he gave a pat answer that he supported it without knowing if he could or if he did object.
He was not raised Muslim, and I imagine he had a fair amount of insecurity about his "legitimacy" since he had a fair amount of anxiety about a lot of stuff.
This is not to excuse the fatwah of course, but the context helps me understand the issue. If he was supporting that kind of hatred now that he is a minor celeb in the British Muslim world, that is a different story.
Trey
Trey:
The fatwah got rescinded eventually, right?
It's not still in effect, I don't think.
Trey -
At the Wiki link I provided, the facts are presented differently with regard to Stevens’ response then and afterwards. I don’t guarantee all accuracy. But it seems somewhat balanced.
And again: the only legitimate response to such a religious edict is outright, plain anger and disdain. It’s not enough to redeem him morally if all he’s done is vaguely back off. He needs to be public and clear in saying – it’s stupid, I was an idiot, I’m sorry. But he can’t, or can’t see why he should, and that’s the problem.
On the fatwa being rescinded, I don’t think so, at least not clearly or permanently – I believe they made noises in that direction in the late 90’s, but it never really took firm hold except in the pages of western journals seeking to reassure themselves that that ugliness was now in the past. And the direction seems to be moving the other way – there are a great many articles around the theme “it never could be rescinded except by a higher authority and there has been no higher authority, and it could never be rescinded because it is based on sound Islamic principles.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article414681.ece
(2005: “revived” by one of the current Iranian ayatollahs)
Currently in Sweden, an atheist artist has drawn a cartoon of Mohammed as a dog, expressly to elicit a response, in order to make the point that the inevitable response is absolutely impermissible, and there needs to be 100% non-Muslim and sane Muslim agreement on that:
“When it's suggested that might prove an arrogant -- if not insulting -- way to engage Muslims, he is unrelenting, even defiant.
“"No one actually loves the truth, but someone has to say it," he says.”
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/10/16/artist.controversy/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
For me, the chilling part of the video here is the lady shrouded in black they interview. Do any of you believe she is vilified by her mosque in her adopted country?
For me, the chilling part of the video here is the lady shrouded in black they interview. Do any of you believe she is vilified by her mosque in her adopted country
What any of that has to do with the Bush administration and the climate of fear they've deliberately encouraged in this country is beyond me.
Nothing, absolutely nothing.
Thank you for reiterating my point.
Well, then I'm obviously incredibly obtuse, as I still don't get it.
Oh well.
Let's just stipulate that it's a good song.
Maybe I should go find the video for "Matthew and Son."
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