Decoding this Cerebral 1977 Classic is LIKE Putting Together a 5000 piece PUZZLE!-Professor of Rock

Coming up next, the story of a song that was written 4 times! Al Stewart and his 70s chart classic Year of the Cat - that ranked from late 1976 into 1977… and was produced by legend Alan Parsons who engineered Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon was a bit of a question mark for a while. With this 70s classic Al showed a very different side of his music. He wrote 4 different sets of lyrics for the song, that’s how badly he wanted to get it right! He put this 70s classic together like a 5000-piece puzzle. Up next We try to piece it together to figure out what Year of the Cat actually means, with interviews with singer/songwriter Al Stewart and iconic producer Alan Parsons. NEXT on Professor of Rock.

Thank you to this episode’s sponsor, Zenni
GET ZENNI Glasses HERE: https://imp.i279709.net/vn5gLd

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Executive Producer
Brandon Fugal

Honorary Producers
Kimberley Rumburg, Brent Gephart, Glenn Beardmore, Jennifer Selvidge, Carl Curcuruto

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check out my Hand Picked Selection Below

Professor's Store

- Van Halen OU812 Vinyl Album https://amzn.to/3tLsII2
- The 80s Collection https://amzn.to/3mAekOq
- 100 Best Selling Albums https://amzn.to/3h3qZX9
- Ultimate History of 80s Teen Movie https://amzn.to/3ifjdKQ
- 80s to 90s VHS Video Cover Art https://amzn.to/2QXzmIX
- Totally Awesome 80s A Lexicon https://amzn.to/3h4ilrk
- Best In Ear Headphones (I Use These Every Day) https://amzn.to/2ZcTlIl
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check Out The Professor of Rock Merch Store -http://bit.ly/ProfessorMerch
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check Out Patron Benefits
http://bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan

Help out the Channel by purchasing your albums through our links! As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you, thank you for your support.

Click here for Premium Content: https://bit.ly/SignUpForPremiumContent

https://bit.ly/Facebook_Professor_of_Rock

https://bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of_Rock

#classicrock #70srock #vinylstory #70srock

Hey music junkies Professor of Rock always here to celebrate the greatest artists and the greatest songs of all time. If YOU ever heard a song for the first time on the radio and were so BLOWN AWAY you immediately went OUT AT BOUGHT THE ALBUM YOU’LL dig this channel of musical nostalgia.. make sure to Subscribe below right now because here you get the inside story of your favorite songs, most of the time straight from the artist. Hit the bell so you never miss out. And help support our mission of curating rock and pop history by clicking on our Patreon link below.

I’ve talked about it before on here but I always love a great song that is like a puzzle. A song that you have to really listen to carefully, almost like you’re decoding it. Al Stewart's classic 1976 song Year of the Cat is definitely one of those compositions. It was released in 1976 and peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977, it also went to the top 10 in Australia.

The film Casablanca was a major inspiration for the song, which name-checks actors Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre. In fact, its the biggest hit about Casablanca in history, even more successful than Casabalanca’s own popular standard, As Time Goes By, It’s interesting how a lot of pop artists at that time were inspired by Humphrey Bogart, as Rupert Holmes was very close to using the actor as the main part of the lyric to Escape the Pina Colada song, changing the lyric at the last second of if You like Pina Coladas instead and then, of course, Bertie Higgins name-checked Bogie in his 1981 Yacht Rock classic Key Largo.

Al toured with a band called the Sutherland Brothers and their keyboardist was a guy named Peter Wood. Well, Peter played this really haunting piano part at soundcheck all the time… after about 14 times hearing it, Al Stewart approached him and told him it was wonderful and that he’d like to try and put lyrics to it. Peter told him he could so Al did it. He said writing the lyrics was a huge challenge. First, he came up with a set of lyrics about an English comedian named Tony Hancock, and the song was called 'Foot of the Stage.’ this comedian had committed suicide in Australia and Al Stewart saw him right before he went there and he could tell something was horribly wrote. so he wrote the chorus as your tears fell down like rain At the foot of the stage

The American record company told Al they’d never heard of Tony Hancock. So, Al said and I quote 'Well, that's annoying so I'll take the piss out of them.'

Видео Decoding this Cerebral 1977 Classic is LIKE Putting Together a 5000 piece PUZZLE!-Professor of Rock канала Professor of Rock