- Jackie Magazine (This is a
British teenage girl magazine.)
- April 27th, 1968
- Issue # 225.
THE MAJIC THAT STOLE CAT
STEVEN’S HEART
CAT STEVENS’ first
girl friend was German, and looked like Elke Sommer. "I met her in Austria, where I
was on a camping holiday with two friends. Her name was EIke, too— she was 19, and I
was just 15.
"My mates and I
were moving around the country at first, and then for the last week we stayed in one
spot— a beautiful place by a lake, with hills all around and a little town.
"We pitched our tent
near this girl’s. It wasn’t the best spot—there were houses blocking the
view to the lake, but I’d seen her—so I picked the spot nearest her tent!
She was staying with her
parents and family, and when I saw her for the first time she was playing ping-pong with
her sister. That’s right—ping-pong! I went over and asked her if she’d like
to play a game of cards."
They couldn’t find a
game they both knew how to play, and laughing about it, soon became friends.
"We went swimming and
walking. In fact, we went everywhere together. I just left the two guys.
"You see, it was my
first girl and I was really crazy about her. I thought she was great, exactly right for
me— I was only 15 and she was that much older—and the difference in ages counts
a lot at that age.
"The whole thing was
very straight-forward and uncomplicated, which was why I liked it, I think. It was all
give and take. The romance only lasted a week, but when I got back to England I started
writing letters to her. I mean, we were going to meet again, and I was going to go and
live in Germany—all that kind of stuff.
"We wrote these great
big letters that said nothing except how much we loved each other. Then I suddenly said to
myself, ‘Oh, not another one of those letters!’ And I stopped writing. And that
was the end of it."
Cat says he really believes
he was in love at the time, probably because she was his first girl friend and the
surroundings were romantic.
"She stayed in the
background, and was the ‘perfect woman’ —although she wasn’t at all.
"I don’t have a
perfect woman in my mind. I wouldn’t like to meet one, either, I don’t think. I
couldn’t stand it— it’d make me feel unequal!
"I don’t
understand how people can say things like they don’t like fat girls—one of the
Bee Gees said that to one of the music papers a while ago. It’s crazy. Think how many
fat girls are going to read it!
‘And what happens if a
girl is fat and she’s got a beautiful personality, and is a marvellous character?
What about Mama Cass? I love fat girls—write that down!
‘Anyway, I don’t
think it matters what people look like. I like a warm character in a girl, because
when people are generous with me I’m generous with them."
Cat says he is quite
prepared to fall in love at first sight, and has done so many times—but has been too
scared to follow it up.
"I’ve seen a girl
in the street, but never bothered to get to know them. It could be very interesting, but
then again there could be something wrong—she might have a high, squeaky voice, and
I’d laugh and ruin it all!"
One day, in what he regards
as the far distant future, Cat wants to marry and has always thought of himself as a
husband and father.
He feels that a marriage
starts with a girl giving up a lot, her independence—and so does a man—and thus
a bond is created between them. Not a sociable person himself, he would like to have a
wife to confide in and to understand him.
"It’s what I
need—marriage, to rely on someone. At the moment, I don’t rely on anyone. I
don’t allow myself to, just in case I’m ‘done’—and in case
it’s one-sided. But I know I need someone to put my trust in.
"I always thought
I’d marry a Swedish girl when I was young. I had this romantic illusion of the
beautiful Swedish girls being everything a woman should be.
"Well, they
are—but nothing else, if you see what I mean. They haven’t got the character a
British girl’s got— they’ve got nothing to protest about, and they
don’t have anything to rebel against. In my woman, I need something a bit rebellious.
"Now, I’m certain
I’ll marry a British girl in the end."
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