Hey, Yusuf, You Wanna Have a Catch?

For Christmas, my husband gave me the Yusuf album, Tea for the Tillerman². If you’re not familiar, it is a full-length cover version of Yusuf’s own 1970 album Tea for the Tillerman, written and recorded when he was known as Cat Stevens. I specifically want to talk about the song, “Father and Son.”

Let’s be clear: he wrote this song at the age of twenty-one. Let me repeat that, he was 21 years old and he wrote this very balanced and mature work of art. Seriously, his brain wasn’t even finished developing and he composed this massively poignant song about a father/son relationship and nailed the part of the father without being a father at the time. I mean, come on! The original song alone is beautiful and makes you want to cry and possibly have a Field of Dreams catch with your dad (or someone else’s dad, if your dad is a punk. Honestly, my guess is Yusuf would have a catch with everyone if it were humanly possible, but it isn’t, so maybe don’t bombard him with sudden baseball requests.) And then, AND THEN, this goddamn glorious human at the age of 72 is like, you know what, I’m a father now, I am old and I am happy…I’m going to duet with my younger self.

What?!

The song starts with Yusuf singing softly, giving his fatherly advice. Then it gets a little louder when Cat, the son, kicks in his response. Neither overpowers the other or feels shoehorned or out of place like sometimes happens when an artist duets with an older song. This is more like when a breeze takes a feather into the air and another gust, hardly noticeable, keeps it going further; a natural progression that leaves you at peace and wanting more.

I’m neither a father nor a son, but I’ve always identified with the son part. Now, my own son is about to move away to live his life and fulfill his dreams, so perhaps the timing of the song has hit close to home for me. All I know is the original song was already a work of art and the new duet with his younger self makes it a fucking masterpiece.