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That Is How I Lost My Cat

Route 18

In 2017, I was sitting in a cafe in Nice and I heard, in the distance, a cumbia band percussion group its distinctive 2/4 groove. My imagination took flight, and I started improvising this song over the percussion.

I’m still toying with the arrangement - I’d love for it to be less clean, more percussion-centric, and more on-the-street. But this recording has the basic shape, and as a bonus, my son loves to sing along with it. One day he’ll figure out what it actually means!

Lyrics

My cat and I, we were both lovers
My cat and I, we were both free
My cat and I, we would discover
What cats and I really could be
And if the world were ever kind to us
Then kind to it were we

Drank till five and had a spat
And that is how I lost my cat
Honey, where my cat is at is
Is where I want to be
Drank till five and had a spat
And that is how I lost my cat
That is how I lost my cat
That is how I lost my cat

My cat, he said that I was frightening
My cat, he said I wreaked of sin
My cat was gone faster than lightning
My cat was gone, 'long with my gin
To know he saw me in that sordid state
Is much to my chagrin

Drank till five and had a spat
And that is how I lost my cat
Honey, where my cat is at is
Is where I want to be
Drank till five and had a spat
And that is how I lost my cat
That is how I lost my cat
That is how I lost my cat

Never thought that I would run asunder
Never thought that I would cause him strife
Never thought that cat would see my blunder
Never thought that cat would be my life

And if the world
And if the world
And if the world

And if the world could just have kept me dry
Then I'd have sheaved my knife

Drank till five and had a spat
And that is how I lost my cat...