FAWM: "Tattarrattat (was it a cat i saw?)"

Tattarrattat (was it a cat i saw?)

Liner Notes

#folkpop #cat

The first seeds of this song were written on the first weekend of FAWM, inspired by the palindrome challenge we stumbled across the James Joyce created word tatatarratatat which was the sound of a knock on the door.

Each section contains a palindromic chord sequence (e.g. A B C B A) and the whole song structure is palindromic with a middle 8 acting as the moment to turn around and repeat the song in reverse.

We did spend some time seeing if we could actually reverse the song to create the second half but in the end this just wasted time. Something to explore in the future, though!

The xylophone was a new acquisition so it had to feature in the song, acting as a musical knocking on the door.

The story then led us to someone/something wandering around a suburban location trying to persuade people to come to their door and evade the epidemic of Ring doorbells. Video doorbells make it much easier to ignore the knock at the door ...the outside world.

As the story developed we thought it would be more interesting to do an old switcheroo and make the door-stepper not a besuited fancy salesman but a feral feline searching for another feed and stroke. A door-to-door cat whore looking for a cheap thrill - and who could begrudge a lonely feline looking for connection?

Lyrics

Never odd or even
I’ve been padding up and down your cul-de-sac
Got an idea we can scratch each others back

So I go tattarrattat
All I hear is tattarrattat

Won’t you come to your door
Sick of staring into faceless camera lens
What you hiding from, I could be your new friend

So I go tattarrattat
All I hear is tattarrattat

Have you lost your way in life?
Are you searching for a path?
Have you given up all hope you ever had?

From a scratch upon your door
You could have your faith restored
There’s no gamble when you bet on a sure thing

So I go tattarrattat
All I hear is tattarrattat

And so onto the next one
Every intro brings me closer to success
It’s a numbers game, I’m ready to impress

So I go tattarrattat
All I hear is tattarrattat

You see my eyes they sparkle
You’ll notice that I’m dressed in the finest fur
Every time you rub my tum you’ll hear me purr

Comments

@thedutchwidows 1d

The xylophone sounds great - not enough tuned percussion these days - when I was a kid etc etc. Sweet vocal melody, delivered deftly with a lightness that works well. This could be a kids tv theme about the neighbourhood cat that swings by all the houses in the neighbourhood, getting up to little cat scams. It’s the xylophone that gives it those vibes for me. I think there might be an inadvertent tuned percussion joke in that sentence, for which I apologise. We had one of those years ago when we lived in Stroud Green. A cat that visited everyone, not a xylo. Loads of the neighbours would tell us how friendly he was and how they’d give him a little treat and a bit of love and was that ok? Over quite a wide area. He used to walk to the station with us in the morning, about a mile away, I presume flirt his way round everyone and then meet us on the way home again. Lovely cat he was. Not sure what’s weirder, having a cat like that, or living in London and knowing enough of the neighbours to find out his habits. He did it in Birmingham too when we moved there, and again where we live now, but knowing your neighbours up here is less unusual I think. I’d be grateful if you could now write the tv show please. I’d quite like to watch it.