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He used to be known as Cat Stevens — and his recordings from the 1970's are being rereleased on CD to mark the 30th anniversary of his 1st American hits. In 1977, he embraced the Islamic faith and turned his back on the music industry. He was denounced for his reported support of the Ayatollah Khomeni's death decree against novelist Salman Rushdie, and just this month, he was not allowed to enter Israel for his reported support of Hamas. Yusuf Islam tells Liane his side of the story, and about his life and faith.

Modest Mouse is the name of a band from Issaquah, Washington. They've had a few releases on independent music labels, but their first album for a major company has just been released. The CD is called The Moon and Antarctica. Elyssa Gardner has our review.

We continue the Monday rebroadcasts of our American Popular song series, with a program about composer Will Marion Cook. He was born in 1869 and was part of the first generation born after slavery. Cook was one of the innovators of ragtime song, and helped introduce ragtime to Broadway. Cook wrote In Dahomey the first full-length Broadway musical written and performed by African Americans. It opened on Broadway in 1903. Some of Cooks songs reflect the racial stereotypes and dialect of the time. In this program we hear selections of his music performed by singers VERNEL BAGNERIS and TERRY BURRELL, and pianist DICK HYMAN. We also hear from MARVA CARTER who is writing a biography of Cook. She is the director of Graduate Studies at the School of Music at Georgia State University. (original broadcast: MAY 18, 2000)12:28:30 FORWARD PROMO (:29)12:29:00 I.D. BREAK (:59)12:30:00...

Performances continue and we hear from TOM RIIS who compiled and edited a book containing the complete score of In Dahomey. RIIS directs the American Music Research Center at the University of Colorado and is the author of Just Before Jazz.PERFORMANCES CONTINUED.Conductor MAURICE PERESS. He specializes in reconstructing historic American concerts. Hes worked with Ellington and Bernstein, and is the author of the forthcoming book, Living With American Music: Dvorak to Duke Ellington.12:58:30 NEXT SHOW PROMO (:29) PROMO COPY On the next fresh air. . . our encore presentation of our American popular song series continues, with the music of Will Marion Cook, the principal composer of the 1903 Broadway musical In Dahomey, the first Broadway show written and performed by African Americans. Join us for the next Fresh Air.

NPR's Brian Naylor reports that a bill to ban almost all forms of Internet gambling failed to pass the House of Representatives yesterday. The measure would have allowed betting on horse and dog tracks, jail-alai matches to continue. Critics of the bill say it is unenforceable, since most online casinos operate outside the United States.

Commentator Richard Rosenfeld compares the upcoming presidential election to the election of 1800, when Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were running against each other. Rosenfeld says back then, gun control was also a big issue.

NPR's Peter Kenyon reports on today's Senate debate over a bill that would give a tax break to some married couples. Sponsors of the measure say it fixes a discrepancy that causes some married people to pay more income tax than they would if they were filing as singles. Senators opposed to the bill say it also gives a tax cut to couples who don't pay the so-called marriage penalty, but in fact pay less filing jointly than they would singly.

To bring us up to date on the state of the Presidential race, Robert Siegel speaks with David Brooks, Senior Editor at the Weekly Standard, and E.J. Dionne, columnist for the Washington Post and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. They talk about the stage of the race now drawing to a close -- the time in-between the primaries and the party conventions, and what to expect as the parties convene in a few weeks.

NPR's Peter Overby reports on the bragging by both Democrats and Republicans about how many millions they've raised for congressional elections. This is expected to be the most expensive congressional campaign season ever, and the Democrats say they have the most money in hand now -- a rare occurrence. Both parties seem poised to break the legal limit on how much can be spent directly to help a candidate. They note that a federal court has outlawed the spending caps in six western states and the parties say they might just assume the caps will be thrown out for the rest of the country too.

A new magazine arrives on-line today, after a few false starts. Failure magazine is, as its title implies, about failure: battles lost, sports blunders, products that didn't catch on. The fact that someone would even come up with an idea for such a magazine suggests that, in an age when dot-coms come and go like buses, the very notion of failure may not have the stigma it once did when Willie Loman first walked the boards. NPR's Brooke Gladstone reports. (7:30) For more information, visit http://failuremag.com