Now, I love Cat Stevens (or Yusuf Islam as he is now known to himself) as much as any child of the 1970s can possibly love this sweet singer. Many of his songs are poignant and lovely and must we forget the charm of Harold and Maude? Yet what started out as a sweet little song I sang to Bug at bedtime has become, for her, an audio obsession. “Can I listen to Moonshadow?” she asks, some 500 times a day now, first thing in the morning, last thing at night. Always. Constantly. It’s partly my fault. I found an old Cat Stevens record, Buddha and the Chocolate Box, and played a few tracks on her turntable (YES, my kid uses a turntable AND a tape recorder. She also gets a more modern appliance called television.)
Moonshadow was missing from the record, though, so Jim downloaded it on his iPod while I searched for the video on YouTube. Unfortunately I found several video versions of Moonshadow. We watched them. The Bug sang along. Now, the Bug is transfixed by the video, in which Cat plays acoustic guitar, singing sweetly with another hippy bell-bottomed dude accompanying him. “My hair used to look like that,” I told the Bug, pointing to a girl in Cat’s audience who wore feathered wings for bangs. “That’s how people used to look, honey!”
“You looked like that mommy??” she asks, incredulous. Yes, it was long ago. I was 10 when Cat, at the height of his fame and power, converted to Islam. I had just converted to Toughskins.
Over two weeks, we’ve probably jacked the number of views on YouTube for Yusuf Islam up by about 152. The Bug can even find the video by herself, somehow.
As for me, I’ve had my fill of Moonshadow. It is officially following us and we want it to stop.
Here are the lyrics, but beware! If you sing it to your kid, you may suffer the consequences!!!! The words are also question inducing, ie, why did he lose his legs??? And what happened to his eyes?
Oh, I’m bein’ followed by a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow
Leapin and hoppin’ on a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow
And if I ever lose my hands, lose my plough, lose my land,
Oh if I ever lose my hands, Oh if…. I won’t have to work no more.
And if I ever lose my eyes, if my colours all run dry,
Yes if I ever lose my eyes, Oh if…. I won’t have to cry no more.
And if I ever lose my legs, I won’t moan, and I won’t beg,
Yes if I ever lose my legs, Oh if…. I won’t have to walk no more.
And if I ever lose my mouth, all my teeth, north and south,
Yes if I ever lose my mouth, Oh if…. I won’t have to talk…
Did it take long to find me? I asked the faithful light.
Did it take long to find me? And are you gonna stay the night?
