Cat Stevens performs at his induction into the Rock Hall of Fame. (From my flat screen tuned to HBO)

Something I thought I’d lost forever:

I watched Cat Stevens perform three of his songs that marked my introspective teens on stage with a big and great band to celebrate his induction into the Rock Hall of Fame.

Yeah, I know, the event happened in April, in Brooklyn. But the four hours of acceptance speeches and musical segments — hello, Peter Gabriel, KISS, Hall and Oates, Linda Rondstadt, E Street Band and Nirvana, too — debuted on HBO Saturday night, so I fired up the DVR.

Stevens had dropped out of the popular music world quite famously to become Yusuf Islam, study art and his spiritual self, and all I was left with were the records, memories of that early 1970s burst of poetic and melodic genius and vague stories about…