Relationships between parents and children can often be complicated and difficult to explain, even in song.
The Cat Stevens ballad, “Father And Son,” from his classic 1970 album “Tea For The Tillerman,” conveys tenderness, caring and honesty in that 70s style of Too Much Emotion, similar to today’s TMI –Too Much Information–but with an overlay of anxiety.
Much has changed since that time, not just to Cat, who later converted to Islam, and renamed himself Yusaf Islam, but to Islam, too, which was pretty much off the radar screen in the1977, and is now on the world stage.
And our American culture at large has changed, in ways we can’t see clearly, because we are in it, but as far as music reflecting the world, some songs just say it so well, time and style are not relevant, and one man’s soul searching is the work of an artist to whom many can relate.
Cat/Yusaf was 22 y/o when he recorded “Father And Son;” now its 46 years later, and he’s a father and grandfather.
Happy Fathers Day this Sunday. Dads and granddads past, present and future!