Year Of The Cat - Al Stewart (1976)

Year Of The Cat was the title track from Al Stewart's seventh studio album which was released in the summer of 1976. The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London and engineered by Alan Parsons. This song is very special to me....in my top 5 of all time. The songwriting, Al's vocals, the guitar work is outstanding (Peter White plays the acoustic solo and Tim Renwick follows with the electric solo), Peter Wood's piano was so important that he received a co-writing credit.....yeah it's all top-notch work, but I think the thing that really made the song shine and made it such a stand-out classic was that gorgeous, melodic Phil Kenzie sax solo. The cover design, by Hipgnosis and illustrator Colin Elgie, depicts a woman who has an apparent obsession with cats. She can be seen in the mirror dressing up as a cat for a costume party, and all of the items on her dresser have feline motifs. It's always a treat to work on videos that feature some of that iconic Hipgnosis artwork.....I couldn't begin to count the hours I spent scrutinizing some of the incredible Hipgnosis artwork as the record was spinning away on my turntable. I have some very interesting things in the pipe for you other Hipgnosis aficionados out there! Stay tuned. This video represented a milestone for my....the 200th one I've created! Maybe 10 or so videos back I realized that I would be hitting 200 soon and started thinking about which song to give the spot. I had been working on a video of this...