Cat Stevens, now 76, was one of the true music superstars of the 1970s. His gentle songs like "Morning Has Broken," "Peace Train," and "Wild World" built his artistic reputation and made him a star. The story of how he started writing music is intriguing because it has to do with the Beatles. Stevens got so frustrated trying to play their music that he began to write his own. Thus his classics came to be.
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Cat Stevens Discussed His Introduction To Music At An Early Age
There Was A Piano In His Home And He Bought Himself A Guitar
In an interview five years ago with SongwriterUniverse via Showbiz Cheet Sheet, Stevens talked about his early encounters with music. "We had a little baby grand piano in our living room. It was way too big for our living room, but it was a present that my father got from my sister. And at first, nobody really bothered to play it. My mother sometimes played a piano song here and there, but that was it."
Then the Beatles came along and had a seismic effect upon contemporary music. Stevens, like millions of other young people in America and globally, was thrilled by them. He got himself an inexpensive guitar and attempted to play their songs.
"And I started trying to play and learning the chords, like where you put your fingers and all that. That was hard, and playing other people's songs was even harder. So it was just a fast track for me to say, 'OK, I'll just write my own songs' (laughs). In a way, that was it ... it was just kind of a necessity. In order to play something, I needed to make it up myself."
George Harrison Said He Appreciated Stevens' Music
He Reportedly Lauded Stevens For Having 'Class'
In a 1979 interview contained in the volume George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters, Harrison reportedly said he liked Stevens' melodies and singing. Per the outlet, "George also opined that Stevens had 'class,' which is not something you can say about every rock star."
Stevens Made A Career Move That Connected Him In A Way With Harrison
He Signed With A Recording Label That George Harrison Founded
According to Rolling Stone via Showbiz Cheat Sheet, last year, Stevens signed on with Dark Horse Records. George Harrison, who tragically died in 2001 at the way-too-young age of 58, founded that label. Stevens also went a step further. He paid homage to Harrison by covering "Here Comes The Sun," one of the late Beatle's famed songs.
