Rishikesh Hirway

Here it is.

The legendary singer-songwriter Yusuf Cat Stevens released his first album in 1967.

He's a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and his albums have sold millions.

In 2020, he released T for the Tiller Man 2, a reimagining of his hit 1970 album T for the Tiller Man.

In the song Father and Son, he sings a duet between the two title characters, doing both voices.

But in the 2020 version, he approached the song in kind of an astonishing way.

He recorded the part of the father, but for the part of the son, he used a live recording of himself from 1970, taken from a show he played at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.

So the two parts are still both sung in his voice, but 50 years apart.

In this episode, the 200th episode of Song Exploder, Yusuf Cat Stevens tells the story of how he created and then recreated father and son.

My name is Yusuf Cat Stevens.

The story begins with songs and lyrics that weren't originally intended for an album.

In fact, T for the Tiller Man went on to go triple platinum.

And in 2003, Rolling Stone included it in their list of the greatest albums of all time.

Coming up,

You'll hear how all of this came together in the final song.

And now, here's the 2020 version of Father and Son by Yusuf Kat Stevens in its entirety.

For more, visit songexploder.net.

You'll find links to buy or stream both versions of Father and Son, and you can watch the stop-motion animated video that was made for the new version of the song.

This episode of Song Exploder was made by me, Rishikesh Hirway, with editing help from Tini Lieberson and Casey Diehl.

Carlos Lerma makes illustrations for each episode, which you can find on the show's website and Instagram.