Which musician retired too soon?

Good old Alvin. One hit record and then not much work after that. Kinda like Barney Rubble...great actor but no good scripts since his show was cancelled.

Bruce Lee! Oops, sorry...only music.

Anybody else think Stevie Ray was doing Robin Trower who was doing Hendrix? (And I don't mean in a sexual way.)

Cat Stevens retired for deeply held religious convictions?!? Anyone else remember he supported the murder fatwah against Salmon Rushdie which resulted in at least two translators (one Japanese and the other European) being murdered? Anyone else catch that expose about 5-6 years ago in, I think, the Wall Street Journal about his charity? The one whose workers would walk right over the bodies of starving Jewish, Christian, and Hindu children to get to the Muslims? No other charity in existence that I know of operates in this way.

Hooper, I think if you used any kind of Yiddish words like chutzpah around Stevens he'd have you thrown out.

People like George Harrison (Vaishnava Hinduism) and Richard Gere (Tibetan Buddism) chose different spirtual paths and show us all paths are not the same. Remeber, Cat Stevens resused to ever criticize the Taliban and, as I remember the article saying, supported their destruction of the 100+ ft Buddist statues. This is not a guy to admire.

Boa2 makes a good point but please allow me one more indulgence. I don't know if Stevens (Yusef Islam) is a Shiite, Sunni, or Sufi (I think the other two sects have pretty much wiped out the Sufis) but why on earth embrace a religion where your own "soul mates" will kill you for disagreeing with them?

As far as not hearing from the Taliban anymore - don't tell that to the 400,000+ dead in Sudan as Muslims from Syria, Jordan, Saudia Arabia, Eygyt, and Sudan attempt to make a Taliban society there. Taliban is very active in Pakistan and Chechnya, also. Many Chechnyans (sp?) are fighting hard to establish a Taliban style government.

Anyway, did someone say Peter Green was recording again?

Christians are constantly criticized, ridiculed, and denigrated in public, on TV, in movies, newspapers, music, etc. Not one of those who do it regularly (George Carlin, Bill Maher, etc, etc.) is in any danger from the hapless people they attack. However, even Hooper believes you'd better not do the same to Islam or you get get your head cut off, shot five times and stabbed multiple times in the chest, blown up at work or in your hotel, etc.

When was the last time you heard of a Buddist or "Hindu" going crazy (by the thousands) and killing people who spoke against them? More people were killed in Muslims riots protesting what they thought was someone's desecration of their holy book in two days than have been killed in Christian riots in Ireland in the last 3 years.

How about those crazy Catholics who rioted, killed people, and burned down buildings after finding out an "artist" had pissed on their crucifix? Oh wait, that never happened...

Hmmm, same thing when another "artist" threw manure on their holy Mother. And when was the last time an Irishman tried to murder a thousand Americans because we are good friends with England? And how about all those crazy Serbs who've been committing terrorist attacks in our country since we bombed them for 6 weeks 7 years ago? Oh wait a minute - none of this has happened!

All religious and ethical philosophies are not the same and this is even more true than all speakers are not the same.

"He may be principled, but he's not stupid. Ever think of what happened to those who did speak up? Let's just say, they'll never be heard from again."

Maybe I misunderstood the above statement absolving Stevens of speaking up against radical Islam (the fastest growing sect in Islam today and for the last 25 years - now that's a trend!). My statement described what happened to people who have spoken up against this monstrosity, and remember that the Taliban is not an isolated phenomenom. They are an expression of Islam embraced by tens of millions of people. Maybe Hooper is right. Stevens should pretend he's not horrified by the major thrust of his religion in the world today.

Anyway, I just picked up Peter Green's "End of the Game" which I think was his first solo release after leaving Fleetwood Mac. A good live recording of that original band is "The Boston Tea Party, Part 1".

Yes, Peter did get a wonderful tone from his guitar and amp, didn't he? If you think about, a lot of the rock performers we've loved simply created a great great tone such as Jorma Karkaroun (sp?), Jerry Garcia, etc. Much of their doodlings were not interesting in and of themselves but sounded so nice and after a while, comfortable.

I don't think Alvin did the Witch Doctor song; that (I'm pretty sure) was done by some DJ kinda like the Disco Duck song in 1976. Now there's a guy who stopped too soon.

I have an old Denon CD player with 12% pitch control. Damn if I didn't hear good old Alvin on everything I tried.

Yeah, we're pretty sure Frank's dead.