Dracula's Cat

(Lyrics | Chords)

The Story
This is my first song inspired by Dominic. Well, kind of. When we first started the rotating hosts at the open stage, Dom decided that on his night, we'd do a theme night. Dominic would pick the theme, and everyone who wrote a song on that topic would get to play an extra song and a prize. This month's topic was Dracula's Cat.

The other person who inspired the song was a girl sitting next to me on the plane home from London, England. I knew about the contest, and I figured writing a song was a good excuse to have my pad of paper out in case I could get her number. (I didn't.)

But protagonists of the song aren't people at all. They're the media associations of the music and movie industries, particularly RIAA.

The sleaze, the gall of these cartels have always amazed and disgusted me. So I made them into Dracula's cat; a creature whose ostensible purpose is to keep the rats down, but who has taken on the bloodthirsty attributes of its master, and who is now feeding indescriminately on any creature it can lock its jaws around.

The words, as I mentioned, were written on a plane. The chords and tune were first conceived in the basment of Oasis. They were refined considerably, in the process of playing and rehearsing it, and I now think they're among my best.

The Song
Given the sub-optimal conditions I was composing under, you'd think the song would be crap. But it's actually one of my favourites, and my most complicated.

Like Comfortable Things, it's a fast, simple-sounding song, but the chords are actually more complicated than 1-4-5. Whenever I ask someone to play it with me, I give them charts.

It's also got a riff, which is something I'm doing more of, now that I play D without using my pinkie.

It also has stops in the verse, to give Jamie something fun to do.

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Questions, comments or suggestions about this web site? Email me at aaron.bentley@utoronto.ca