A Story about a Cat and a Boat
yet, no boats were seen.
Cat Stevens is not only a singer, but also a songwriter. The song is called ’’Longer Boats’’ and can be found on his ’’Tea for the Tillerman’’.
To me, the most obvious reason I picked this song to write about was, I listened to it as a teenager. Cat Stevens and especially Tea for the Tillerman, was a favorite, way back when. I will tell you though; I really had no idea what the song was about, until I did research, when I decided I was going to write on it. Mind you this is the whole point of dissecting lyrics, to find out what songwriters/listeners perceive from words, when either written or heard. In this case I for one, thought and enjoyed the song at the opposite end of the spectrum from where Cat was standing.
Where shall I start, with his expressions or my conception? Well since it’s my article, we’ll start with mine and soon find, how wrong I was. The lyrics start out with the words ’’Longer boats are coming to win us’’; I envisioned tall boats, with large sails floating through the ocean. I remember closing my eyes as I listened to the song, floating along with wind and sail. Cat’s familiar tone that was set by his voice and music made the words secondary in many of his songs and many of his songs were short.
I think coming from an era of free life and love, made room for less words to be used and vivid imaginations to take the listener in whatever direction, one wanted to go. To me I wanted to go in the direction of the sea. In a mental sense, I wanted those boats to come and take me away. Cat Stevens was in reality writing about UFO’s, flying saucers, in this song. I must admit the words are clear (now that I’ve been enlightened that is). That same phrase now sounds like very large boat-like space ships are coming to take over ’’win’’ control. The line ’’Hold on to the shore, they’ll be taking the key from the door.’’ takes on the meaning of protecting ones self against little green men. Interesting, how far off I was back then. Now some of you are saying right now, ’’I knew that all along’’, well why didn’t you call me and let me in on the simple mystery?
Two other songs that spoke of UFO’s with a clear message were ’’It’s a Super (dupa) Life’’ (New Masters) and ’’Freezing Steel’’ (Catch Bull at Four ), to me the later was very clear as to what the lyrics were about.
A little background on Cat Stevens:
He was born Stephen Demetre Georgiou on July 21, 1948, (father was Greek and mother was Danish) resulting in him having dark hair, blue eyes and olive skin. He was raised primarily in London. Although Greek Orthodox, he was enrolled into Roman Catholic schools. At the age of 29 converted to the Muslim faith and becoming known as Yusuf Islam. His music by the name of Cat Stevens came to a halt on the charts in 1977, and has released Islamic music since that time. He contracted T.B. at age 19 and said his confrontation with mortality lead him towards the Islamic/Muslim faith. He was first taught how to play the piano, then learned the guitar.
The Song: Longer Boats
Album: Tea for The Tillerman
Singer/Songwriter: Cat Stevens
Other songs on The Cd are:
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 findout
Father and son
Tea for the tillerman
An excellent Cd by Cat Stevens (next time you listen to the Cd think about what he is really saying). You may be like me and will end up very surprised.