Cat Stevens Songs - On The Road To Find Out Lyrics

Cat Stevens - On The Road To Find Out

Cat Stevens - On The Road To Find Out Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Tea For The Tillerman
Released: 1970

On The Road To Find Out Lyrics

Well I left my happy home
To see what I could find out
I left my folk and friends
With the aim to clear my mind out

Well I hit the rowdy road
And many kinds I met there
And many stories told me on the way to get there

So on and on I go, the seconds tick the time out
So much left to know, and I'm On The Road To Find Out

In the end I'll know
But on the way I wonder
Through descending snow
And through the frost and thunder

I listen to the wind come howl
Telling me I have to hurry
I listen to the robin's song
Saying not to worry

So on, and on I go, the seconds tick the time out
So much left to know, and I'm on the road to find out

Well I found myself alone
Hoping someone would miss me
Thinking about my home and the last woman to kiss me

Well sometimes you have to moan
When nothing seems to suit you
But never the less you know
Your locked towards the future

So off and on you go, the seconds tick the time out
There's so much left to know and I'm on the road to find out

And I found my head one day
When I wasn't even trying
And here I have to say
Cause there is no use in lying, lying

Yes the answer lies within
So why not take a look now
Kick out the devils sin
Pickup, pickup a good book now

Yes the answer lies within
So why not take a look now
Kick out the devils sin
Pickup, pickup a good book now

Yes the answer lies within
So why not take a look now
Kick out the devils sin
Pickup, pickup a good book now

Writer/s: YUSUF ISLAM, CAT STEVENS
Publisher: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

On The Road To Find Out

This is about a young man who wants to see the world for himself, so he sets out on a journey into the world where he can clear his mind and see what he can discover.

"On The Road To Find Out" was inspired by a deep spiritual emptiness in the composer's life. He was not writing about traveling in a literal sense but in finding out who he was and the purpose if any of his existence. Cat Stevens had fame and fortune thrust upon him at an early age, and like so many people in a similar position he looked at what he'd accomplished and realized it had brought him neither happiness nor peace of mind. This was one of the songs he wrote after recovering from tuberculosis, a disease that had all but been eradicated in the Western world by the time he contracted it, and which in his case was caused by personal neglect and fast living.
In 1977, he converted to Islam after several years of serious contemplation of religion. He played his final concert in November 1979 then withdrew totally from music for over two decades. In 2004, after his return as Yusuf Islam, he featured in a TV documentary where he told presenter Alan Yentob that his songs were a narrative to his life – none more so than "On The Road To Find Out."

The last couplet reads "...the answer lies within, so why not take a look now? Kick out the Devil's sin, pick up, pick up a good book now."
When asked about this he told Yentob that – as far as he recalled - he had originally written "pick up the Good Book now" - an obvious allusion to the Bible, but had altered it to avoid its being taken up by "Bible bashers."

Although they are separated by three decades, and the latter is written in the third person singular, "On The Road To Find Out" is strikingly similar in content to "Drops Of Jupiter (Tell Me)," which was inspired by an entirely different subject, but has been and can be interpreted as a voyage of self-discovery.