 Year Of The Cat (1978) [ larger cover art ] |
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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 watercolour in the rain
Don't bother asking for explanations
She'll just tell you that she came
In the year of the cat
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
Well, 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
Well, morning comes and you're still with her
And the bus and the tourists are gone
And you've thrown away the choice and lost your ticket
So you have to stay on
But the drum-beat strains of the night remain
In the rhythm of the new-born day
You know sometimes you're bound to leave her
But for now you're going to stay
In the year of the cat
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 watercolour in the rain
Don't bother asking for explanations
She'll just tell you that she came
In the year of the cat
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
Well, 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
Well, morning comes and you're still with her
And the bus and the tourists are gone
And you've thrown away the choice and lost your ticket
So you have to stay on
But the drum-beat strains of the night remain
In the rhythm of the new-born day
You know sometimes you're bound to leave her
But for now you're going to stay
In the year of the cat
| Lazarus (Bethany) | Posted: May 17, 2013 - 10:02 shellbella wrote: And does anybody really know what it's about??? I guess it's whatever you want it to mean. The title is a Zodiac allusion... the song is about a romance between a tourist and a wild woman... I remember when this song came out, too... it was catchy... good song... |
| shellbella (so california) | Posted: May 17, 2013 - 09:56 And does anybody really know what it's about??? I guess it's whatever you want it to mean. |
| shellbella (so california) | Posted: May 17, 2013 - 09:53 I've always liked this song...... I always remember where I was the first time I heard it.  |
| ScottishWillie (The Scottish Lowlands) | Posted: Apr 16, 2013 - 02:28 ScottishWillie wrote: This song acts like my own personal time machine. Going through the posts from other listeners it looks like I am not the only one transported back in time by this song. This tune seems to be particularly evocative to a special time and place for a lot of us. The ability for a song to do this must be one of the most under rated aspects of music. |
| westslope (BC coast) | Posted: Mar 15, 2013 - 15:49 This came out in 1976. Starting hitching that year and arrived in Tierra del Fuego in 1978.
This one received considerable air play. |
| jocelynsart | Posted: Mar 15, 2013 - 15:45 Loved this song since I first heard it. Still ranks up there as probably one of my personal favourite 5 songs of all time. |
| coloradojohn (A Mile High and then some, Cherry Creek, Denver) | Posted: Mar 15, 2013 - 15:45 Timeless and always apropos... I walk into the room, on the way out for a bike ride in the splendor of a day that makes Colorado proud...and this grabs me, makes me sit and comment that I recall hearing this one summer evening in San Luis Obispo in an altered state and always and everywhere I LOVE HEARING THIS and now I go out and ride through Cranmer Park, past Robinson Park, and around Crestmoor Park...and THIS WILL BE IN MY HEAD! and Thank You, RP! |
| coloradojohn (A Mile High and then some, Cherry Creek, Denver) | Posted: Jan 11, 2013 - 22:13 I HEAR YA! One hell of an era it was! Any of those songs you mention can send me back...I was even then A WILD AND CRAZY GUY in love with beer, weed, music and speed (as in racing); these songs were on the radio and on tape; I had a hot-rod Cutlass with Thrush glass-packs, Cragar mags and G-60s on the back, an Audiovox 8-Track in the dash and awesome speakers in the rear deck...YES! ————- WonderLizard wrote: This along with "Baker Street," and Rumours were that summer's soundtrack. Single, male, straight bartender in San Francisco—it was a good time to be alive. |
| robertomiller (Mountain View, CA) | Posted: Jan 11, 2013 - 22:13 Beautifully unexpected choice, RP. That really takes me back in an elegant way. Long drives, listening to Rock 100 "The KATT" out of Oklahoma City... |
| WonderLizard (2,755.46 mi. due east of Paradise) | Posted: Dec 11, 2012 - 13:14 This along with "Baker Street," and Rumours were that summer's soundtrack. Single, male, straight bartender in San Francisco—it was a good time to be alive. |
| linzie | Posted: Dec 11, 2012 - 13:10 I remember when and where..... |
| joelbb | Posted: Oct 09, 2012 - 19:34 zivko wrote: Delicious fluff Exactly! Definitely fluff, but nice and blues/jazzy with a good pop vocal on top of it. Didn't realize it was that old. |
| zivko (toronto canada) | Posted: Sep 08, 2012 - 05:59 Delicious fluff |
| sajitjacob (Christchurch NZ) | Posted: Aug 07, 2012 - 18:58 I never realized how much Neil Tennant sounds like Al Stewart. I dislike both equally. Sorry. |
| Sasha2001 (I can see Zabars from my window) | Posted: Jun 05, 2012 - 13:43 Wow! Like other posters here this song evokes vivid memories of a particular time and place. I can remember coming home from kindergarten and hearing this song on the radio in the kitchen of my dad's restaurant. I was the kind of kid the would create the most elaborate drum kits from pots and pans. Wish I had film of some of those jam sessions. |
| lazylemming (City of the Angels) | Posted: Jun 05, 2012 - 13:38 Cheesy deliciousness for my ears! |
| msymmes (Toronto, CA) | Posted: Jun 05, 2012 - 13:37 Fits well on RP. It's a classic but you won't find it on Classic Rock stations. Not that I have actually listened to Q107 in a million years :) |
| neuticle (fog fog fog) | Posted: Jun 05, 2012 - 13:36 I know it's a classic and all..but I just don't hear it. Seems cheesy ... |
| deepwoodskev (In a town west of Chicago) | Posted: Jun 05, 2012 - 13:36 Ahhh....memories of summers listening to WLS AM in Chicago on a shitty 1-speaker transistor radio. |
| lily34 (lexvegas) | Posted: Jun 05, 2012 - 13:33 ScottishWillie wrote: This song acts like my own personal time machine.  |
| 93vx800 (Red Sox Nation) | Posted: Jun 05, 2012 - 13:33 Nice! |
| samoflapland | Posted: Apr 03, 2012 - 02:54 i agree that rest of the song feels like..well another song but i dont think it ruins it at all..althought i m still more familiar with the finnish cover version by artist named Hector. I think its from year 1978 |
| garycha (Bristol, UK) | Posted: Apr 03, 2012 - 02:47 Puts me in that place and with that vibe of when I first heard it. I was in the car with my father driving to Bournemouth in 1976 and he stuck the tape in the car. I was 14 and we shared a father son music appreciation thing to this, not always easy to find common musical ground, i know now with my own kids. He's gone now but the memories live on. BTW I love the rasping sax. Unhip. Meh1 thanks RP. |
| coloradojohn (Mile High on the Colorado Vibe, Cherry Creek, Denver) | Posted: Mar 02, 2012 - 10:18 Definitely forever one of those tunes; one that always seems to sound good in an ethereal way; one that ties everything you were ever doing every time you ever heard it play, wherever you were at the time(s)...and now it ties itself and me and everything to this time and place, starting over again in a place that feels like the home it always did but with yet so many uncharted Time Passages awaiting exploration...Thanks, RP! |
| iTuner | Posted: Mar 02, 2012 - 10:14 This song starts out so well, then the guitar and sax solos in there cheese it up. Really a shame that those solos ruin the song from being timeless. |
| kysmet (Central Florida) | Posted: Mar 02, 2012 - 10:14 Ahhhh, memories.  |
| Proclivities (Carrboro, NC) | Posted: Jan 30, 2012 - 18:04 drsteevo wrote: It doesn't happen very often, but this is one of the few songs that will cause me to turn off Radio Paradise. There are some other tunes that do that, but not this one. I can last it out, despite the unpleasant memories of high school it conjures up. It's not a bad tune really, but that lispy vocal is bothersome. |
| westslope (BC coast) | Posted: Jan 30, 2012 - 17:57 I just checked. This song came out in 1976 as a single. I knew I had heard as of 1976 or earlier. |
| mineralBOB (Germany/Saxony) | Posted: Jan 06, 2012 - 00:16 luv it. One of my earliest enlightments concerning music. Still causes me goose bumps, although my taste of music changed slightly since then :-) |
| schayler (Denver) | Posted: Dec 05, 2011 - 05:06 Wow! So fantastic. Thank for making my Monday morning a little brighter. |
| emmilina (chicago) | Posted: Dec 05, 2011 - 05:05 Haven't heard this one in years.....blast from the past love it |
| catnip (mostly wearing lard) | Posted: Nov 03, 2011 - 14:47 Toulouse, February 1990. I'd spent my last few francs on the petrol to drive to the city for a night out, and was left with just enough petrol to get the two hundred or so kilometres home. Overcast day, horrible metallic hangover, no breakfast, no water, no money. The cassette player in the car had stopped working after a misguided attempt to fix it with a screwdriver. Only French radio to rely on, not a good recipe for the head. Got lost somewhere around the airport, unable to find the motorway. Ran out of cigarettes. Things were dire. And then this came on the radio, a shaft of light in the grimness of it all, and everything was ok: I was in France, after all, the place had its own kind of pre-millenium beauty: cafes, Gauloise smoke, 2cvs. The motorway appeared as if by magic, and suddenly I was speeding along, vineyards on either side,. as the song kicks in. It may feel somewhat mawkish, kitsch, overplayed now, but it has a place in my heart. |
| bpkengor (York, Maine, USA) | Posted: Nov 03, 2011 - 14:36 drsteevo wrote: It doesn't happen very often, but this is one of the few songs that will cause me to turn off Radio Paradise. I agree with the sentiment but not the outcome. i can wait it out... |
| westslope (BC coast) | Posted: Nov 03, 2011 - 14:35 The whistful sax says it all. This one received international play and no wonder. |
| finoufk (Bordeaux - france) | Posted: Oct 03, 2011 - 00:57 I learned English with Al S. so easy to understand for a foreign ear....  |
| ScottishWillie (The Scottish Lowlands) | Posted: Oct 03, 2011 - 00:56 This song acts like my own personal time machine. |
| sirdroseph (Yes) | Posted: Aug 01, 2011 - 05:36 Cynaera wrote: I just love this song, and Al Stewart's music in general. Don't need to analyze it - I just love listening to it and being in the moment. I guess I'm shallow. Well if you are, I am too! Love me some Al Stewart!  |
| oufason | Posted: Aug 01, 2011 - 05:32 Strange, but for me, Al Stewart is an artist that I like better in winter when it is cold out. Not a summer time listen for me. |
| Cynaera (South of Neanderthal) | Posted: Jun 30, 2011 - 20:13 I just love this song, and Al Stewart's music in general. Don't need to analyze it - I just love listening to it and being in the moment. I guess I'm shallow. |
| lshinkawa (Berkeley, CA) | Posted: Jun 30, 2011 - 20:10 running like a watercolor in the rain.. |
| (former member) | Posted: Apr 28, 2011 - 15:36 tkosh wrote: It's great how music takes you back.....1977-8 University of Minnesota mostly doing homework in my rented room,... LSU, same time. Every once in a while, some song would break through the airwaves and grab you. This one. |
| cosmiclint (Vancouver BC) | Posted: Apr 28, 2011 - 15:36 Always liked this song. I was a HUGE KISS fan in 1976, and thought the cat-like person in the mirror on the album cover looked like Peter Criss. |
| Dave_Mack (Still Hangin' in the Twilight Zone) | Posted: Apr 28, 2011 - 15:33 I loved this song when it came out, and I had soooo many of the words wrong, it's hard to fathom now. "In the morning from a forgot movie", "You go strolling through the crowd like Big Tolare...", on and on. It's still great, and I tried to remember all the words in the shower the other day. Think I did pretty well.  |
| 4merdj (donde el viento se devuelve) | Posted: Apr 28, 2011 - 15:31 Such a nice surprise to hear this tune on RP  |
| ub | Posted: Feb 24, 2011 - 14:27 Because of this song, ever since the late 70s I have been confusing Al Stewart with Cat Stevens...  As a huge fan of Alan Parsons Project back then I loved this song, it brings back some sweet memories. That electric guitar sounds like Mike Oldfield, another favorite of mine at the time. |
| unclehud (300 feet above the planet) | Posted: Feb 24, 2011 - 13:57 1_Lucky_Texan wrote: Bogart and especially Peter Lorre references are getting old .... Nope, just causing Google searches among the young folks who want to learn stuff. Same as Khalil Gibran or wormwood for my generation. |
| linzie | Posted: Feb 24, 2011 - 13:57 This and 'Broadway Hotel' are my favorite cuts from the album...sooooo nice.... |
| Jelani (Home of the freak, land of the vague) | Posted: Feb 24, 2011 - 13:54 Ahh...this washes the taste out of my ears from the previous tune. |
| Rooney (Near Paradise) | Posted: Jan 24, 2011 - 07:54 Baby_M wrote: It's from Vietnamese astrology. The Vietnamese have a 12-year cycle just like the Chinese, but with a slightly different set of animals. The Year of the Cat corresponds to the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese system. Oh, so that's it! Thanks, and I always wondered... |
| Baby_M (a 100+-year old building in downtown Akron, Ohio) | Posted: Jan 24, 2011 - 07:33 Giselle62 wrote: i posted this on another song from this album and wanted to put it here for next time it's played: I've been wanting to know something for a long time... Is there a "year of the Cat?" or is he using it as a metaphor for an invisible netherworld? If there is no "Year of the Cat" (I mean, I've never seen one of the Chinese restaurant menu) then that song is similar to the Television song "Venus de Milo" "I fell into the aaaarms of Venus de Milo.." Tom Verlaine singing. It's from Vietnamese astrology. The Vietnamese have a 12-year cycle just like the Chinese, but with a slightly different set of animals. The Year of the Cat corresponds to the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese system. |