Year of the Cat (excerpt from chapter 30)

There is a near-perfect song from 1976 called "Year of the Cat," from a Scottish artist named Al Stewart. It is a poetic, soft tune that refers to a term from Vietnamese astrology, also know as "Year of the Rabbit." It is supposedly a stress-free year which occurred in 1975 (just before Stewart's hit), 1987 and 1999 with one on the horizon in 2011. On a website called "Songfacts," i found numerous comments about this song, some people interpreting it for deep analogies, others caught up in the Casablanca movie-inspired imagery:

On a morning from a Bogart movie
in a country where they turn back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime

She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolor in the rain
Don't bother asking for explanations
She'll just tell you that she came
In the year of the cat.......from "Year of the Cat", Al Stewart, 1976

Throughout musical history, there are countless songs with words about time, age and the meaning of life. All are subject to interpretation but some become "earworms," haunting us with melodies and thoughts that may even guide us on our paths. Sometimes we see ourselves in these songs and realize our own changes. We are influenced by heredity and the people and places along the way, endlessly hoping that every year will be our "year of the cat." The music inside follows us from birth to whatever lies beyond death. Harps in heaven? Bass drums in hell? Maybe, but we can always expect new sounds to add to our immortal playlist.