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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Friday, December 18, 2015

song about looking for a cat

Music Division, The New York Public Library. (1899). Has anybody seen our cat?
Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-ec98-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Here's the 1899 cover of the sheet music to "Has Anybody Seen Our Cat?" This bumptious song about a runaway puss was written by James T. Powers and set to music by T. W. Conner.  I tried to find some clips of the play "The Messenger Boy," to no avail, but I can send you to a period recording of the song itself.  It's on the National Jukebox at the Library of Congress, and it's great.

I'm upset now; let me tell you why,
Our old tom cat has been and run away
My old gal declares that it's a sign
Somebody's number's up and two to one it's mine . . . 

2 comments:

parlance said...

How amazing to be able to listen to a song from so long ago. It's like jumping into a time machine. Thanks for the link. I'll be exploring other recordings also.

curator said...

It IS pretty fascinating! I plan to go back and have a listen, too.