Remembering when Stevens was Mr. ‘Tea’

Spencer Patterson

Friday, July 23, 2004 | 8:59 a.m.

All this talk about Linda Ronstadt, the Aladdin and what performers should and should not say prompted me to dig up a Cat Stevens disc this week.

You remember Stevens, the British-born singer/songwriter who emerged from a self-imposed exile in 1989 with alleged words of support for Iran's death sentence on novelist Salman Rushdie.

In the years since, Stevens -- now known by the name Yusuf Islam -- has claimed that his words were grossly misinterpreted.

Could be. I don't really care either way. I've always been able to separate musicians from their work. If I didn't, I probably wouldn't own enough discs to fill a single CD rack.

After the Rushdie incident, a lot of excited Americans burned their Cat Stevens albums. I could never consider doing away with "Tea For the Tillerman," a record I first discovered in my parents' collection as a youngster.

Initially, I thought it must be some sort of best-of collection. That's how good all 11 tracks are.

Stellar opening cut "Where Do the Children Play?" sets the scene. A spin through "Tillerman" is to be a serious endeavor, filled with weighty lyrics and tear-jerking moments.

The first song rails against industrialism: "Well you've cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air / Will you keep on building higher 'til there's no more room up there?"

Other heart-wrenching topics include love gone bad ("Wild World"), depression ("Sad Lisa") and familial relationships ("Father and Son").

The album easily could have turned out ridiculously sappy. Occasionally, its orchestral arrangements dip a toe or two in the schmaltz pool.

But Stevens' warm voice and measured pacing ensure that his words remain poignant more than 30 years after they were written.

I suppose I could allow Stevens' reported intolerance for Rushdie's views to obscure my enjoyment of his music, the same way some apparently allowed Ronstadt's endorsement of filmmaker Michael Moore to overshadow her music Saturday.

But that seems akin to voting against a politician for playing in a bad bar band or rooting against an athlete after a poorly acted cameo appearance in a movie.

Artist: Cat Stevens.

Title: "Tea For the Tillerman."

Year of release: 1970 (reissued 2000, A&M Records).

Tracklisting: "Where Do the Children Play," "Hard-Headed Woman," "Wild World," "Sad Lisa," "Miles From Nowhere," "But I Might Die Tonight," "Longer Boats," "Into White," "On the Road to Find Out," "Father and Son," "Tea For the Tillerman."