Lyric discussion by MilesFromNowhere 

This is taken straight off Cat Stevens website yusufislam.com

"In the late 60’s, due to the successful landing of a man on the moon (which happened coincidently on my 21st birthday) there was a lot of talk and speculation about UFOs.

I wrote the song as a plea for human unity in face of external (possibly extra-terrestrial) threats. There was also a lyrical inference to say that we should look closer at the beautiful and mystical nature of the earth, and watch out for adopting inherited wisdoms from people who claimed to be masters of the high, moral ground. I don’t want a ‘god’ (statue or false image) on my lawn Just a flower, I can help long For the soul of nobody knows, How a flower grows – how does a flower grow?

True, I gave interviews sometimes and talked about UFOs with passion, but that was partly due to my wish in making the interview more interesting. My apologies.

But in another way, the image of ‘longer boats’ in my mind reminds you of the Vikings and the ships they conquered Britain with. A hint of how we perceive aliens who have different customs to us – thankfully, my mother was Scandinavian, so I never really shook listening to such stories."

Curious to know how much later the live addition was added to his original? While the indication of Mary seems quite blasphemous, it seems as though the latter perhaps was added quite sometime later when he became more radical in his views.

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