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.

Back to Earth would become Cat’s last album for almost 30 years. By the time of its release he had embraced the Muslim faith and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. The album saw the return of Alun Davies on guitar, Gerry Conway on drums, and producer Paul Samwell-Smith, all of whom had been absent from the previous album, Izitso. During the recording it was implicitly understood that Cat / Yusuf was about to step away from the music industry which lent a sombre mood to the sessions. The album’s lyrics make a number of references to Cat/Yusuf’s dissatisfaction with the industry, however, there are also some small hints of the return that would keep fans waiting for nearly three decades.