I recently picked up, thanks to a dealer in the States, a pile of song-poem 45s from the late 70s-early 80s that had originally belonged to US radio station WCPC, a Christian broadcasting service based in Mississippi. With a huge proportion of song-poems little more than paeans to God, it's not surprising that a low rent outfit with meagre income would resort to filling their library with music they would not need to pay royalties on, but goodness knows what the good listeners in Tupelo would have made of I'm The Cat.
It's performed by Ralph Lowe, one of the stars of the Columbine stable and, along with label mates Kay Weaver and John Muir (aka Gene Merlino) the singer of literally hundreds (quite possibly thousands) of song poems during his long and eventful career. The wondrous Ralph is also the voice behind such sing-poem classics as Jimmy Carter Says Yes, Disco Dancer You're The Answer, Stop In And Howdy With Me and the brilliantly-titled Grow Up And Go Away.
I had to share this with you. It's everything a song-poem should be. Insane delivery, insane lyrics and a brilliantly wrong backing. Oh, and a spoken word passage, which in my book is always a bonus.
Enjoy!
Why couldn't we get "Dig Me A Hole" as well? This is important stuff. We demand action!
ReplyDeleteThis thoroughly poignant manifesto of the untamed nature of the magnificent feline is simply the loveliest appraisal of such wonderfulness in it's truest sense!!!
ReplyDeleteWe thank you profoundly for this sublime gem; Yours truly, Morris (The Cat), Felix (The Cat), Cat Stevens (Yusef Islam), Al Stewart (?????)
I can't stop listening to this song. Please help me. The singing is fantastic and the groove is just so infectious! (Do I detect the slightest bit of wah-wah on the guitar--or bass guitar?)
ReplyDelete(This tune makes me want to prance around on all fours!)
No, I'm serious, this song is really good!
ReplyDelete(No hairballs on this one!)
Four Big Paws Up!
ReplyDelete(The spoken word section of this track sounds amazingly like Mike Kenneally's deadpan recitation (delivery-wise) during the version of Frank Zappa's "Who Needs The Peace Corps." found on the live album 'The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life' recorded in 1988.)
It's a shame Zappa probably never heard this tasty catnip morsel!
If you genuinely have a taste for more of this nonsense I'll bung up some more Ralph Lowe cuts soon! They're excruciatingly execrable.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I reckon you're right about that wah-wah pedal...
Thanks again, this is me (2nd anonymous) again, glad you let the Cat out of the bag with this one! Mmmmmm, Great! (I can only hope other Ralph Lowe contributions are as worthy as this piece!!)
ReplyDeleteI just came across a (different, unfortunately) song entitled "I'm The Cat" by Jackson Browne, which makes this ditty sound even more purrfect!
ReplyDeleteBrowne's song is truly abysmal!