Cat Stevens or Yusuf Islam.

"Tea for the Tillerman", is one of most favorite albums ever since i was given a cassette of this album by an English gentleman who was travelling by yacht along with another and had anchored off the Penang jetty sometime in 1970s. This was also one of my first few contacts with foreign back packers in my young adult life that had great impact upon my future; they gave me the wandering bug. Cat Stevens became my idol and his songs echoed in my mind till I could sing just about every song on the album as the lyrics had subliminal meanings in them that wakened in me the same similar questions about life around me. The song "Father and Son" became my favorite and i would sing it every time i got myself a guitar and a small crowd to entertain.
Car Stevens has come a long way from his former self of a folk singer to become a Muslim and leading a life he has found for himself in this world of turmoil and religious conflict. He is still dong his thing but only in a more subdued and less glamorous performances unlike before the crowds of thousands in the past. Most of the younger generation has no idea who or what he is all about today but a few of his songs still survives and being remixed into a more contemporary version especially the song "Wild World," a song he wrote about himself. I feel very fortunate to have been exposed to such a great song writer and ballad artist of an era when people were leaving their own borders and exploring the very corners of the planet making the connections between cultures and interpersonal understanding. Back then it was truly a world without borders when travelling was more fun and less costly with a whole lot of paperworks; all you needed was an International Passport. Today they practically strip you to your underwear and treat you with undignified rudeness when you walk into the airport especially if you came from a Muslim country and you name carries a 'Ben' or 'Bin', which simply means 'son of'. 
In the West the borders are down but the barriers are up and those intent upon segregating humanity for their own diabolical agendas are looking for ways and reasons to build permanent walls that would keep others out while their own in like herds of cattle. The human mind that had created the computer to further breakdown the intellectual walls as well as bring greater sharing and understanding between people has become itself a tool to police and subjugate the freedom of masses. This the so called age of , information technology, has become also an age of ignorance and decadence, an age of violence and waste with nature taking the toll of its negative effect.
In the lyrics to his song, 'Where do the Children Play,' Cat Stevens had painted for us what or where our future is headed for. They don't make great song writers like this anymore as today most songs are written and sung mostly of things or thoughts related to sex and violence, the demeaning of the human species. Today the ego sings out louder than the spirit and the younger generation is being fed with more trash than ever before in a more subliminal and diabolical way that only those awakened to the reality of the own being can identtify and recognize this decadence that is the plague eating at our society.