Cat Stevens

Once upon a time in the very distant past I was a big fan of Cat Stevens. Last night I watched a recording of CBS Sunday Morning and they did a piece on him. His recent life doesn't interest me much but they played a lot of his old songs and showed him in concerts from the 70's. It brought back many memories, especially of the movie Harold and Maude, one of my all time favorites and only the second movie I've ever seen more than 3 times (Casablanca being the first). His songs, with their melancholy cheerfulness, were the perfect counterpoint for the dark humor of that movie. I went on iTunes and checked out what they had and played their little snippets of all my favorite Cat songs (there are lots of them).

Makes me wonder how I lost my connection to music. I used to listen to the radio, tuned in to rock n roll at least 12 hours a day. I knew all recent songs and the artists, knew them going back to the Beatles in the early 60's, and I had all of Cat Stevens' albums, probably still do somewhere. At some point in the late 80's I stopped listening and just don't seem to care for music much these days. I don't hate it but I don't seek it out, either. Talk radio has taken over my life - the little bit I listen to radio at all which is usually only in my car.

Despite being a Mac user for many years and having iTunes since it first came out I have yet to actually buy anything from them, though my wife has bought a few songs. But tonight I think I'm going to download a bunch of Cat Stevens songs and remember the days when I was barely 21. Maybe even burn a CD to take them to work. My wife has the iPod, I don't use one and never have. Practically sacrilegious for a long time Mac user.