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Curiosity's Cat

from Hotel Oregon by vonHummer

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about

"Curiosity's Cat" was written pretty much in one piece in the late 90's. I had no idea what I was trying to say, the words kind of flowed one after the other as if I'd hacked into Paul McCartney's mid-70s muse.

At the time I had just discovered my long love affair with esotericism via the books of Vernon Howard, and maybe that's what I was trying to convey. Vernon Howard said that one should never be interested in the answers to one's own questions. And so did Tom Hanks, in "Joe vs. the Volcano," a secret esotericist film I was watching a lot then.

There are a lot of riddles in esoteric study, and that's what "Curiosity's Cat" is: a sort of koan. The guitar riff sounds a bit like "Uncle John's Band" at the beginning and then there's a kind of ascending scale thing that was very new to me then. I felt like I was growing in swell new ways as a composer and player with the creation of this song, so it's a favorite of mine.

Hence, I kept it around so long before finally recording it. Curious indeed!

lyrics

"Curiosity's Cat"
[vonHummer]

Curiosity’s cat is dead, what can I say that hasn’t already been better said by forthright men? Take my advice, boy: get out of town, keep your chin up and keep your head down, downtown there’s a parking lot where you can park your soul cheap, everybody need be disembodied, learn to crawl before you creep,
Curiosity’s cat is dead, what can I say that hasn’t already been better said by forthright men?
Observe the zeppelins, go how they go-go: float high and obvious, crash and burn slow now, slow down long enough to smell the rats beneath the roses, wrong live the King and Queen, the peasant supposes,
Curiosity’s cat is dead, what can I say that hasn’t already been better said by forthright men?
These fourth-rate, forthright, manly men, forever fond of delusion, so struggle to stretch the stratosphere to wrap a foregone conclusion, but curiosity’s cat is dead…
Curiosity’s cat is dead…
Take my advice, boy: get out of town now, keep your chin up and keep your head down...

credits

from Hotel Oregon, released April 16, 2005
vonHummer: vocals, guitar, drums

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about

vonHummer Portland, Oregon

vonHummer is a Portland music/cable access legend whose career spanned from Fall of 2001 to Fall of 2011, during which he recorded a hundred or so songs for use in his absurdist show (and feature film) and played only a handful of concerts. Currently retired, his work shines on for the ages. Or will he someday return...? ... more

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