Unfortunately, this song text has very little to do with cats! Al Stewart serenades a big love that he seemingly experienced during the year of the cat. Part of his inspiration, he clearly gets from the movie Casablanca, by referring to Bogart, Lorre and the woman of his dreams.
But what does the year of the cat stand for? After all, in Chinese astrology there is no such thing as a year of the cat! Al Stewart finally unveiled the mystery in Royal Albert Hall in London in 2015. While he was working on new material, his girlfriend was involved in Vietnamese astrology. One fine day, a book open on the table displayed a page mentioning “The Year of the Cat”. About that moment, Al Stewart says: “I don’t know a whole lot about a whole lot of things but I recognize a song title when I see one and that was a song title”. Fact is, the title was there before the rest of the song. As popmusic generally is not about cats, the theme of the lyrics is… love. In the year of the cat!
The year of the cat
