Cat On The Road To Findout/ On The Road To Findout: Greatest Hits

I was ‘in da house’ seeing Cat Stevens/Yusuf inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Shame in 2014. It had been years since most of us had seen or heard from the man in a live setting and I was as much chomping at the bit to see if he’d perform this night (which he did) as taken with his humorous acceptance speech.

The man was just so humble about his legacy and the whole rock and roll thang.

He is just a smatter-of-fact, self-aware and forthcoming in his new autobiography, Cat On The Road To Findout.

It’s a great story, of young Steven Demetre Georgiou growing up in early 60s England, his first rise to fame with his music and adorable looks (both exploited) his splash on the pop world then his downturn in the music business, ‘reinvention’ as Cat Stevens and then rise to superstardom as a premier songwriter of the 70s.

How he deals with fame and his constant search for spiritual truth, as one would expect, are at the core of this account as much as all the tales of music making.

Alongside the book, there is the companion career retrospective music release On The Road To Findout: Greatest Hits from Cat/Yusuf as well. Collected here are songs from Cat’s debut Matthew & Son, all the way to his lats release, 2023’s King Of A Land. Included is a great bunch of stuff, songs like “The Wind,” “Peace Train,” “Where Do The Children Play?” and many others, plus a 24-page lyric booklet and more never-before-seen reflections by the man himself.

On tour presently to present readings of Cat On The Road To Findout, one is also sure to hear some of the man’s classic songs played. Book or music, Cat Stevens/Yusuf is a treasure.