In 1978, after having sold millions of records and become one of the
biggest international artists of the 1970s,
Cat Stevens decided to step
out of the rock star spotlight and walk away. That year, he was to
release his final album under that name.
While Stevens’ legions of fans were saddened by the news, along with the
musicians who had played with him on record and stage, the singer
himself was exhilarated by the prospect of moving on. “It was like going
back to my original nature,” he reflected at the time. “Back to
wide-eyed childhood again”. The appropriately-titled
Back To Earth was
his parting gift: an album that saw the London-born singer saying
farewell to his fans, while obliquely explaining his decision to quit in
songs such as ‘Last Love Song’ and ‘Just Another Night’.
“What’s going on behind the appearance of stardom or the stage itself
can be a completely different world,” he says now, “and that’s what it
was a lot of the time. I kept my sanity and I kept my eyes open.”In May
2019, Back To Earth is to be reissued in various formats on Cat-O-Log
Records / BMG, including a 6 Disc, 2LP Deluxe Boxset featuring the
original album (remastered at Abbey Road), along with demos, unreleased
tracks, and material from UNICEF’s 1979 Year Of The Child concert, the
singer’s last live performance as Cat Stevens.
