“Year of the Cat” (Al Stewart)

Today’s classic song of the day is one of my all-time favorite songs, period. It’s “Year of the Cat,” by Al Stewart, and it is superb.

In my mind, there is no more perfect song than “Year of the Cat.” It is melodic with a great chord progression, the arrangement and production (by the legendary Alan Parsons) is stellar, and the lyrics are unerringly evocative of a time and place. I can’t say enough about the recording; every instrument has a role and fits perfectly in place, from the opening acoustic piano (panned hard left) to the snarky rhythm guitar, to the perfect transition from acoustic guitar to electric guitar to saxophone in the solo section, backed with a sumptuous string arrangement.

And did I mention those lyrics? The opening verse alone is as perfect as perfect can get:

On a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they turn back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime
She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolor in the rain
Don’t bother asking for explanations
She’ll just tell you that she came
In the year of the cat

Everything you need to know is right there. Al paints a picture so descriptive you can feel the hot breeze and smell the crowded marketplace. I particularly love the (deliberate) allusions to the film Casablanca—it’s a “morning from a Bogart movie,” in a “country where they turn back time,” with the protagonist “strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre contemplating a crime.” It’s a scene right out of that classic black and white movie, until the lady in question pierces the mood by coming “out of the sun in a silk dress running like a watercolor in the rain.” The lyrics are so evocative and descriptive it’s like you’re right there.

The second verse builds on the first with more picturesque descriptions as the cat lady snares her prey:

She doesn’t give you time for questions
As she locks up your arm in hers
And you follow ’till your sense of which direction
Completely disappears
By the blue tiled walls near the market stalls
There’s a hidden door she leads you to
These days, she says, I feel my life
Just like a river running through
The year of the cat

Now we get to the bridge, which cements the deal:

While she looks at you so cooly
And her eyes shine like the moon in the sea
She comes in incense and patchouli
So you take her, to find what’s waiting inside
The year of the cat

Yeah. The guy is hooked.

Next up is a long instrumental section, a series of solos each building on the one before it. The solos start with an acoustic guitar solo by Tim Fenwick, leading seamlessly into an electric guitar solo (also by Tim Fenwick—the joys of multitrack recording!). The electric guitar builds to and holds on a long final note that is picked up by Phil Kenzie’s saxophone, taking us down from that climax to the song’s soothing initial three-chord progression.

The final verse finds the protagonist waking up the next morning, having missed his bus out of town, still with the cat lady—but for how long, he doesn’t know. Here’s how it all wraps up:

Well morning comes and you’re still with her
And the bus and the tourists are gone
And you’ve thrown away your choice you’ve lost your ticket
So you have to stay on
But the drum-beat strains of the night remain
In the rhythm of the newborn day
You know sometime you’re bound to leave her
But for now you’re going to stay
In the year of the cat

I love the not-so-subtle sexual suggestions of “the drum-beat strains of the night” remaining “in the rhythm of the newborn day.” Mr. Stewart is a wordsmith extraordinaire, there’s no doubt about that.

There’s a final fadeout featuring another sax solo, and that’s it. “Year of the Cat” tells a complete story in three verses and a bridge while still leaving you with questions about what happened next. Does our protagonist stay on in that foreign country, does he make his way back home, does he leave the cat lady or does she leave him? Like all good stories, you’re left yearning for more.

Musically, “Year of the Cat” is equally interesting. The intro is based on a cool little piano riff that goes CMaj7 – Bm7/D – Em7; it’s the ascending bass line (C – D – E) that’s key. The song itself is in the key of E minor (that’s one sharp, like the key of G Major) and that same chord progression, along with an Am7 – D7 turnaround, drives the verses—until the end of the verse, that is, where you get a B7- C interlude. Then it’s back to that CMaj7 – Bm7/D – Em7 progression. The bridge shakes things up a bit, starting with the B7 – C progression then moving to G – D, then B7 – C – G – F – C/E – D (a great descending bass line) before settling back into the established three-chord progression of the verse. Very effective.

Mr. Stewart says that “Year of the Cat” sprang to life with a completely different concept. His initial pass, based on the same chords and melody, was titled “Foot of the Stage” and it was about Tony Hancock, a British comedian who suffered from depression; Mr. Stewart liked the contrast between Mr. Hancock’s on-stage comedy and off-stage tragedy. Mr. Stewart’s record company thought that a bit too obscure for American audiences, however, which inspired the songwriter to take a different approach.

The song’s new title came from a book on Vietnamese astrology that Al’s girlfriend at the time left open to the page for the year of the cat. When he later watched the movie Casablanca on late-night television, Mr. Stewart put it all together into the song we know today.

That opening piano riff, by the way, wasn’t written by Mr. Stewart. His pianist at the time, Peter Wood, used that progression to noodle on during sound checks, and Mr. Stewart asked if he could use it in a song. Mr. Wood said no, but Al appropriated it anyway for “Year of the Cat’s” introduction. This is why Peter Wood receives co-writing credit for Al Stewart’s most popular song.

“Year of the Cat” was released as a single in October of 1976, when I was just starting my freshman year in college. Probably due to my playing it over and over in my dorm room, the song hit #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the Cash Box Top 100. It’s had tremendous staying power and, even though it wasn’t Al Stewart’s highest-charting song (that would be “Time Passages,” which hit #7 in the U.S. and #1 in the UK), it became his signature piece.

For what it’s worth, the rest of the Year of the Cat album is equally first rate. There’s a not a wrong note from first track to last. It is near the top if not at the top of my personal favorite album list, and it never fails to amaze. (It’s also meticulously recorded and produced; you need to listen to it on a good audio system or through headphones to get the full effect.)

In later years Al Stewart turned more towards historical songwriting (and there’s some of that on this album, too), but this song about a fleeting encounter in a foreign land stands above it all. My wife Sherry and I have seen Al in concert twice (both times accompanied by guitarist Dave Nachmanoff, a brilliant singer-songwriter in his own right), and “Year of the Cat” is always the highlight of the set. It is a perfect song, both musically and lyrically. Listen and learn, folks; this is how it’s done.