Mom, Cat, And A Broken Morning

Cosmic forces can be cruel, and for the second time in half-a-century, my Mom gets screwed out of seeing her favorite musician.

Cat Stevens back in the day. His name now is Yusuf Islam.

Boy this was gonna be a story. When I started sharing the details with friends of mine, they all smiled, some became a little emotional. You see this thing was lining up proper. An injustice had been done and the universe was about to course correct after over 50 years. What a story this was. Damn.

Now, it’s a different story. And while nobody in the Cat Stevens/Yusuf camp knows anything about any of this, I’m very sure it would add to their absolute disappointment over all that’s happened.

The story begins in the early 1970’s, and centers around my mom’s efforts to see Cat Stevens live, my dad shutting it down, my ex-wife giving my mom another chance all these years later, and our current visa and immigration snarls shutting it down all over again.

It’s still a really good story - and features your buddy here being in the front row at Met Center in the early 70’s to see Cat Stevens live. How in the hell did that happen?