It was Boyzone who got me into Cat Stevens.

As one of those snobbish pricks who is obsessed by music, lives his through music, wears his elitism on his sleeve and even makes a living from criticising and cajoling those who make the music, this is not an easy thing for to me to admit.

But my relationship with Cat goes back to the teenage years, when a pre-new gnashers Ronan Keating was delivering a rendition of �Father & Son� with all the passion of a seal before that final strike of the club. Yet the song transcended both artist and delivery � I liked it and went out and bought lots of Cat Stevens albums. It was easily done � along with other 70s icons Demis Roussos and Nana Mouskouri (who, like Stevens are both of Greek parentage) - the charity shops are full of them.

What is the appeal? Well, to a punk rock atheist motherfucker like myself, Cat Stevens offers a kind of universal � urgh � spirituality that�s free from dogma and easily digestible. When Cat speaks, he speaks to everyone � and always in a quasi-Biblical tone that ensures a timeless commonality to his lyrical parables. Unlike the similarly-titled �Matthew & Son�, which subtly meditates on the emptiness of the 9-5 grind, �Father & Son� uses the device of a dialogue exchange to explore a generational gap. Over the course of a mere three verses, Stevens manages to capture two lives passing in different directions, the song the point at which the two respective bell-curves cross: one going up and looking forward (the son), one going down and looking back (the father). Though a tone of paternal regret permeates throughout, it is not necessarily a pessimistic song (�Look at me, I am old, but I�m happy�), but instead one which advises a Zen-like approach to life, a change of pace from which to enjoy the view: �Just sit down, take it slowly...

Stevens allows room for the father to impart his knowledge and wisdom (�I was once like you are now, and I know that its not easy� ), while serving to remind that we all grow old. Again, it is Cat the Humble Prophet on a universal mission of understanding. In pointing out the inherent similarities between young and old, the idealistic and realistic, he�s reminding us that everything passes, everyone grows old and even the strongest weaken. The son meanwhile, expresses a frustration at being advised, rather than being allowed to find his own way (�From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen�) � another key Cat theme � perhaps stemming from an emotional distance between the two during earlier years: �How can I try to explain, when I do he turns away again�.� The irony, of course, is that father and son are essentially one and the same, their differences merely a by-product of the passing of time. They are man. Cat Stevens is man.

Never mind that this man was guilty of sentimentality, of open-necked denim shirts and sandals, of occasionally - at his early/mid 70s peak - giving off a Messiah-like air of someone taking themselves way too seriously. And, of course, sending our mixed message to the ignorant masses concerning the fatwa on Salman Rushdie after the publication of �Midnight�s Children� in the late 80s. Never mind any of that. Simply put, Stevens� music was and still is too powerful to dismiss as the usual hippy-dippy slop of the day. Here were a set of songs that were as close to religion as you could get without subscribing to a particular religion; these were songs for the past, present and maybe the future too. And time has surely proven that Cat Stevens � now as campaigner and Muslim community leader, Yusuf Islam � has put his words and ideas into practice by doing good things, rather than just singing about them.

By the time the song was in the hands of Louis Walsh�s Boyzone, all life had been wrung out of it, the colour replaced with varying degrees of beige, dressed up in inappropriate off-the-peg suits and timberland boots, and delivered with all the panache of late-night gay chat line ad.

But still. Good songs last to outlive even their own murders.

And �Father & Son� is a good song.

Born in Durham, Ben Myers retired from conventional working life at the age of 23. Since then he has existed solely by writing. Now 30, he is the author of the novel 'The Book Of Fuck', several music biographies and one collection of his journalism. He also lyricist/artist for The Gulag whose debut album is released next year, and his second novel, 'The Missing Kidney' will also be published in 2007 through Wrecking Ball Press. He currently lives in Peckham, London and also runs Captains Of Industry record label. He has no hobbies. No time. Born in Durham, Ben Myers retired from conventional working life at the age of 23. Since then he has existed solely by writing. Now 30, he is the author of the novel 'The Book Of Fuck', several music biographies and one collection of his journalism. He also lyricist/artist for The Gulag whose debut album is released next year, and his second novel, 'The Missing Kidney' will also be published in 2007 through Wrecking Ball Press. He currently lives in Peckham, London and also runs Captains Of Industry record label. He has no hobbies. No time. To visit Ben�s official website, click here or to read a selection of Ben�s poetry on the showcase section of the site, click here.

© 2006 Laura Hird All rights reserved.