25 – I Think I See the Light - Yusuf Islam – 2005 and 96 – I Think I See the Light – Cat Stevens – 1970

I Think I See the Light - 1970

I Think I See the Light - 2005

            Here is another favorite of mine, two versions, actually, one by Cat Stevens from 1970 and the other from his “comeback” album of 2005 as Yusuf Islam. The earlier version is being sung to a girl and the second seems to be sung to God.

            In the 1970 version, Cat sings in the second verse…

                        My heart was made of stone, my eyes saw only misty gray,

                        Until you came into my life, girl, I saw everyone that way,

                        Until I found the one I needed at my side

I think I would have been a sad man all my life.

            In 2005, Yusuf sings…

                        Until you came into my life I saw everyone that way,

                        Until I found the one I needed at my side

                        I think I would have been a blind man all my life.

            The jaunty piano break that follows in the 1970 version is replaced by a jazzy, muted trumpet break in the 2005 version. I like them both.

            As most Cat-philes know, after hitting the pinnacle of pop stardom at 18, with hits like “I Love My Dog”, and “Here Comes My Baby”, he partied until he dropped, literally. A collapsed lung and then tuberculosis kept him in hospital for almost a year. When he came back with Mona Bone Jakon in 1970, it was a more introspective Cat.

            I started buying his albums in 1971, when Tea for the Tillerman came out, and as the albums came out in the 70’s, each one seemed to have one or two songs that addressed his search for…something. It seemed he didn’t know what exactly he was searching for, but the titles alone could be evocative: “I Wish, I Wish,” “On the Road to Find Out,” “Father and Son,” “The Wind,” part of the “Foreigner Suite,” (which Yusuf incorporated into “Heaven/Where True Love Goes” on An Other Cup), and “Oh Very Young,” and “Jesus,” from Buddha and the Chocolate Box. 

            On 1977’s Izitso, he sings, “(I Never Wanted) To Be a Star,” which has shout outs to “Matthew and Son,” “I’m Gonna Get Me a Gun,” “Bad Night, “ and “I Think I See the Light.” 

            In 1978, Steven Georgiou became Yusuf Islam, and the last Cat Stevens album for almost 30 years came out. He appears to have found what he had been looking for. He wanted to stop recording altogether, but he owed one more album to Island records, which became “Back to Earth.”

            Getting back to “I Think I See the Light,” it’s hard to choose between these two versions. The original reminds me of “Harold and Maude” it’s used in the scene where 20 year old Harold is seen blowing bubbles in 80 year old Maude’s bed after presumably losing his virginity (I know, I know, that description kept me from even giving this movie a chance at the time it came out in 1971. I didn’t see it until 1978, just before I left for Canterbury, England, for summer school (“Year of the Cat”) and if you give it a chance, you’ll find that it’s a great movie, trust me!)

UPDATE: 1/7/14:

            How could I forget the first place where the song is used in “Harold and Maude”? It’s my favorite scene, the appearance of Harold’s first computer date. His mother has answered all the questions for the application as she wishes them to be and when the girl shows up, Harold is seen through the window, in the garden, dressed in flowing robes.

             As his mother interrogates the girl, we (and the girl)can see over the mother’s shoulder as Harold dumps a liquid all over himself and then bursts into flame. The poor girl becomes hysterical, and runs screaming from the room, just as Harold walks calmly through the door to meet her (this is just one of several mock suicides he stages throughout the movie)

             As “I Think I See the Light” begins, Harold stands quietly next to his mother, looking out at us in the audience with a slight smirk on his face, But as he slowly turns his head  he sees his mom glaring at him and he is scared  into submission, instantly wiping the smirk from his face.

            Bud Cort (Harold) is priceless in this scene.

            I like the newer version as well, every time I hear it I remember Yusuf’s appearance on the Colbert Report and Stephen Colbert’s comment to him about how he loves him for coming back and also hates him for depriving us of Cat Stevens for almost 30 years, (I’m paraphrasing here, check it out on YouTube)

            And that’s what makes me tear up a little even now, when I see the YouTube clip, we did lose almost 30 years of music and the new music, not just the re-made songs, are just as good as any Cat did in the day.

            In the big picture view, it’s good to have him back making music.