One friend, long gone, returned to my memory this morning and the memory of him led me to think of Cat Stevens. Rick and I were big fans of Cat Stevens during the 1970s.
One of our favorite LPs from that ancient period was Tea for the Tillerman. Naturally, with this LP on my mind, I opened Spotify to give it a listen and I looked for Cat Stevens on Wikipedia as well.
I knew all about the singer's conversion to Islam, his changing his name to Yusuf Islam and his abandoning music for several years.
I was less familiar with his private life. I was completely ignorant of his wife and children. I was not at all surprised, however, to learn that his son, Muhammad Islam had decided to follow in his father's footsteps and take up songwriting.
The children of famous musicians rarely, if ever, reach the quality of their parent. Julian Lennon, James McCartney, Dweezil Zappa, and Jakob Dylan are prime examples of children who can't live up to the father's legacy. I was willing to give Cat Steven's son the benefit of the doubt and give him a listen.
Going under the stage name,Yoriyos, I was able to locate him on Spotify. He has only one CD, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. This CD was released in 2007, and it being the only one on Spotify was not an encouraging sign. The title of the CD didn't help.
Listening to this music, I can understand why he hasn't released another in the 14 years since this one debuted. Yoriyos' voice is pleasant enough, but the songs are third rate - and I'm being generous. His guitar playing is simply strumming and it doesn't appear that he knows more than two or three chords. The other musicians on the CD are fine, considering what they have to work with.
His lyrics are trite.
If he weren't the son of a famous, millionaire song writer, he would never have been able to release even this one CD. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is a remarkably horrible CD.
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