She comes out of the sun and her silk dress running like a watercolor in the rain is some of the best lyrics ever written. The visual richness of it is stunning.
Stewart didn't really want a sax on it .Parsons knew better.Phil Kemzie was in a pub watching a soccer match Parsons persuaded him I to doing the solo during half time.. He came in one take went back to the pub
a great song by a great artist...song is so incredibly well produced and composed...cool reaction video! thanks for sharing...Al Stewart and Gerry Rafferty two of the most creative musicians/artists of the 70s..💯💥✌
The first verse about Peter Lorre contemplating a crime etc, is a reference Humphry Bogart movies, they were in 6 together, "Casablanca" and "The Maltese Falcon" being the two famous ones. Peter Lorre has a distinct look, and acting style, so you have to see him to really get the reference. Both are classic movies, worth a watch even today. The song is basically about a man being seduced while on vacation in a exotic locale. Al Stewart's lyrics usually paint vivid pictures. Great songwriter.
Al Stewart was watching the movie "Casablanca" (a Bogart movie with Peter Lorrie as one of its stars) when he was inspired to write this song. By the time the movie was over he had finished the song, except for the course. He couldn't come up with anything to tie the song together. He showed the song to his Vietnamese girlfriend and her response was oh it's so mysterious, like a cat. Then she casually mentioned that, in Vietnam right now, it's the year of the cat. Something in Al Stewart clicked and he finished the song. Interestingly, once he recorded the song, he didn't think much of it. Most popular songs don't have a full orchestra, it's too long, and so on. Since the song was so long, he put it on the album as the last song on side 2 because he didn't think anyone would ever listen to it. The song ended up being his biggest hit and completely changing his life. Today he says the song is kind of like a rich uncle that keeps giving him money.
Al Stewart is a great Scottish-born singer-songwriter & folk-rock musician. He was big in the 70's. I had his albums "Year Of The Cat" & "Time Passages". All the songs on both are great. "Year Of The Cat" is one of my favorites songs. Love the sax solo.
Quite possibly the best pop composition from the 70s. The YOTC album itself contains more musical mysteries; On The Border, Broadway Hotel, Lord Grenville, Flying Sorcery. His colors single was Time Passages.
Genius song with everything in it….another great one by him with beautiful saxophone in it is “ Time Passages”. Interesting note of how this song was written…. Al’s piano player kept playing this intro as he warmed up and Al recognized after awhile that it held promise.
Thanks, Biz! Al Stewart is amazing..... a Scottish poet, really... He can just do solo acoustic guitar, too.. but this is so beautifully orchestrated.. really one of his best.. if you have time & inclination, check out "On the Border".. appreciate your reactions!
The piano,the guitar,the bass guitar,the drums,the strings,the saxophone,the lyrics and the singing. All magnificent!! It was several months ago I watched a reaction video for this song,then a couple hours later I was at a gas station and this song was playing there. I was like deja Vu!!
Spanish Guitar. Al Stewart and Engineer: Alan Parsons who arranged the whole of Pink Floyd: Dark Side Of The Mpnn, which was in The USA Album charts for a record 14 continuous years...
The lyrics, music, is so visual. When a song transports you and plays a movie in your head of what exactly is going on in the song is incredible. This song accomplishes that mission.
My interpretation. Basically it's a guy who is kicking about in a 3rd world country (he said he was watching Casa Blanca when he wrote this song, so it might be Morocco, but he also said his girlfriend had a travel book open to Vietnam, so it might be there...or somewhere else entirely). Anyway he's walking through the market looking around sort of furtively (like you might when you're a stranger in a foreign land) this free spirited woman latches onto him and takes him on a tour, ending at her apartment. I always visualized this as a sort of love at first sight meeting. So he decides to stay and see where the relationship goes.
Sounds about right to me - it definitely has that "tourist falls in love at the exotic bazaar" sense to it. The "blue tiles" line suggests north Africa. Then again, the "year of the cat" is one of the years in the Vietnamese calendar, the same as the Chinese year of the rabbit.
This is one of those songs that came out when I was a kid and it was in the background on the car radio and I would hear it as my Mom was driving some place or on the radio when she was cleaning house. I didn't think anything of it. I was 10, but I remember it being pleasant. Now that I'm old, I absolutely love this song. I think having songs like this in the background of my life broadened my taste in music without me knowing it.
Music for grown-ups. Been lovin' this for 45+ years. I have four copies of the cd. One for the house, one for each car and one as a back up..."just in case".
Producer Alan Parsons gave the track it's magic when he suggested replacing a couple of the many guitar solos Stewart had written with a sax. Stewart objected at first, saying he was making rock album, not a jazz album! He would later admit it was a very good idea, and on the following album (Time Passages, also produced by Parsons) he used the saxophone quite heavily on two tracks - and hired the same sax player to play it, too!
I've heard this song 100s of times, that sax coming in STILL SLAYS ME. Funny thing is, Al Stewart hated the idea of a sax solo/saxophones in general. Thank producer Alan Parsons for talking Al into keeping the sax. The albums " Year Of The cat " and " Time Passages " are light rock masterpieces, a few songs from these albums are outstanding: Broadway Hotel One Stage Before On The Border Life In Dark Water The Palace Of Versailles Time Passages Lyrically, he's describing a traveler having a summer romance/fling/affair, in a far off country
@@michaelbaucom4019 That was a good move on his part! Did he say if he was happy that he took the advice? Personally it would still be a great song if it wasn't in there,but the saxophone definitely takes it to another level!
@@garyclark9618 go to the RU-vid channel " Professor Of Rock ". That's the interview I believe where he mentions he hated sax. That channel is a treasure trove of information and interviews of 70s/80s/90s rock and pop
"On The Border" has some tasty Latin guitar. "Roads to Moscow" is a poetic history lesson, masterful lyrics. "Running Man" is a sweet groove. Al Stewart has a lot of great songs.
Al Stewart wrote this song after watching the Bogart movie Casablanca, Peter Laurie was another famous actor in that film that played a sketchy character. The Year of the Cat is from the Vietnamese Zodiac which kind of pulls this theme together of a chance sexual experience in a foreign land. As a young man I traveled throughout Asia when in the Navy and had several similar mystical experiences.
From "The Best of Al Stewart -- Songs From the Radio" liner notes: Al's biggest hit to date was co-written with keyboard player Peter Wood, to whom Al attributes "the demonic riff that opens it and most of the tune." A tourist is stranded in the Casablanca of Bogart and Lorre, and decides to succumb -- Al's characters are observers of their fate -- to the allure of a beautiful temptress. He stays with her for one year and that one year is the Year of the Cat (the title is derived from Vietnamese astrology). Alan Parsons' introduction of the saxophone into Al Stewart records here reaches fulfillment in the rhapsodic, erruptive solo by Phil Kenzie. Parsons' production was responsive to the cinematic quality of the song, and yet avoided any ossifying slickness. Incidentally, in an early incarnation, there was a set of lyrics about a British comedian, and the title was "Foot of the Stage."
Biz I think you'll like Al Wilson - Show and Tell. The newer color video from PBS TV is a real jam. He's in his 60's and dies 6 years later, but his voice is stronger than ever. The back up singers are dope (had a crush on the short one on the right).
Year of the cat is in reference to the Chinese calendar. This calendar measures years differently than the Roman calendar we use. This calendar has longer years and their named after animals.Then they rotate through these years. We know that China doesn’t really use this calendar officially because it doesn’t mesh with the calendar the rest of the world uses. But they still use it for tradition. To find out when this song might take place you’ll have to reference that calendar and then see when the year of the cat matches the regular calendar and then if the references in song fits the time line.
Kick ass song to welcome you back - my 3rd favorite song of all time! Al has some really good other tracks (none as good as this IMO), but there’s “Time Passages”, “On the Border”, “Song on the Radio” and Midnight Rocks” to name a few.
The usual interpretation I've heard (and repeated) is that the "you" of the song is a tourist visiting Morocco, and gets drawn in by this silky, mysterious woman, with whom he spends the night doing who-knows-what (hint: it had a drum-beat rhythm). But when he wakes up in the morning he realizes the tourist bus he was on has departed, and he's stuck there. So he resigns himself to staying there with this mysterious lady until he finally makes up his mind to leave.
If you want to check out more Al Stewart, let me suggest: "Time Passages" "Song On the Radio" "Running Man" "Nostradamus" "On the Border" "Roads To Moscow" "Timeless Skies" "Murmansk Run/Ellis Island"
If you dont get the reference to "Peter Lorre" ... look up/watch the movie "M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder" from 1931. It is an absolute masterpiece by Fritz Lang ... with a brilliant Peter Lorre as a disturbed person ... committing the worst crime imaginable.
Good to have u back from RI Bizmatik - enjoyed the rxn vid. The song title, Year of the Cat i think refers to Chinese culture where every new year an animal is chosen from their horoscope to embody the coming year.
