About the artist: Al Stewart (1945) is a British singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician who developed a unique style of combining folk-rock songs with delicately woven tales of characters and events from history. He released sixteen studio albums, of which the ones from the mid seventies were by far the most successful. Al Stewart currently has two songs in my list of about 200 best pop/rock songs of all time.
About the song: the title track of the 1976 album Year of the cat, the absolute highlight in his long recording history. The song starts off with what is probably the greatest starting line of a pop song: "On a morning from a Bogart movie, in a country where they turned back time". And who can improve on the line "She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running like a water colour in the rain", pure Monet in music. Speaking of music, both melody and instrumentation live up to the high standards set by the lyrics. Especially the musical intermezzo, where acoustic guitar, electric guitar and saxophone take over from one another is awesome. In an abridged version, this track stormed up the charts all over the world. Run time 6:38.
