Blog
Song for a bored cat
Wednesday 22 November 2006
Muffy and I once recorded a wacky little number called “Song For A Sad Cat”. It was to be a dirge inspired by the sound of Ms Sukie Binbay Purr (I hope I’m remembering her name) meowing plaintively at the door… but it didn’t quite turn out that way.
Well, here’s the Song-a-day sequel:
Song for a bored cat (0’50”)
It started out with a recording off my phone - it has a “Voice Memo” function that I’ve used in desperation when inspired and without any other recording device, and the memory was full, so tonight I snagged it all onto my hard drive. The slightly out-of-time lead guitar is the first snippet to get used in a piece.
Now. There is no door on the upstairs studio, just a baby gate to keep out M’s cat Cobweb so he won’t pee on things. It doesn’t keep out the more athletic cats in the house, and our two cats usually try to take over my lap whenever I’m working up here, at least during the colder months.
After recording the basic tracks, I was setting up the microphone to possible record a very quiet vocal part when Tarquin sauntered in and started chattering at me. So I recorded him instead. He then proceeded to get real friendly with my lap before I got fed up and ejected him. That took about three tries, and he was replaced in short order by Gomiya. My primary function in life is to serve as furniture for pushy black cats.
Comments
Glad you like it! It’s a little thrown-together, but that’s the nature of this whole effort.
Our cats don’t always sound full of despair - just when they’re trying to attract our attention.
Tarquin is the most articulate cat I’ve ever met. M’s cats all have distinctive voices but they don’t have much range.
My favorite Tarquin noises are the ones where he uses a glottal stop (“myi’ ‘ew!”) and the tiny, mournful little “oooo…” he makes when he realizes he hasn’t been getting his point across to us for the past five minutes, and resorts to heart-tugging pathos instead.
Posted by Eli McIlveen on 26 November 2006 at 1:46 PM
Zsa-Zsa, unlike many cats, doesn’t ever vocalize as a question…just as a plaintive cry or a jaunty statement.
She uses the glottal stop when she desires quick, non-committal acknowledgement (“mehk-oww!”). Affection is shown with “burrrr.” “Yow!” means “I want to watch you play with a ball of string.” When she’s truly desperate about something she says “G-ahhh,” with the “ahhh” almost silent.
Whenever anybody enters my apartment, she flops onto her side and pedals around frantically. I noticed that sometimes she’d meow while doing the flop, resulting in a comically high-pitched squeak. Through operant conditioning I’ve got her squeaking now about 50% of the time, up to 75% when she knows she’s being ignored.
Thank goodness for cats!!!
Posted by Muffy St. Bernard on 27 November 2006 at 4:45 PM
Aww, the perfect sequel! And in honor of it I’ve placed the original version at:
http://www.dangermuff.com/uphold/audio/Song For A Sad Cat.mp3
(Hopefully that link won’t get mucked up)
Yes, it was Chief Sukie Binbay Purr, and I remember exactly how the song came about. We’d taken a long drive out to New Hamburg, intending to record something on the 4-Track I’d rented for a week. The pressure was on. We sat and sat and sat. There was no inspiration whatsoever.
Suddenly, Sukie started meowing and scratching at my bedroom door, so we recorded her on track one. You can hear us giggling in the background.
Then we decided to create a “song for a sad cat,” because she sounded SO depressed, and it had to be a dirge. I started recording on track two, holding a long note on my cheap-o Yamaha keyboard, then striking another key without realizing that the “auto-song” function was on. The Yamaha automatically started playing “Rock And Roll 1” (I think), so I recorded a series of fumbling chord changes.
Track 3 was your guitar. It took a while for you to learn those fumbling chord changes, since they were done without any real structure.
Track 4 was Kinder Eggs full of rice…the shakers. I think you played one and I played the other.
Then we went on a real creative spree, picked up the Mindsculpture Voicef*cker, and recorded “Cthulhu Eats All the Fresh Fruits That He Wants.” What a day!
“Bored Cat” is wonderful. Cats always sound like they’re in the depths of despair. This is odd, because I’ve spent ten years thinking that “Song for a Frustrated Cat” would be a good follow-up!
Posted by Muffy St. Bernard on 22 November 2006 at 8:43 PM