The Cat Came Back

Words & Music:

Harry S. Miller

Make up your own verses!  In fact, so many people have added their own verses that you'll find a zillion versions on the web!  There is also a brilliant cartoon of this made by the Canadian Film Board back in the 1970s or 1980s.  See it if you can.

 

 

Bm    A    G    F#  [why yes, this is the same vamp as "Stray Cat Strut"]

 

Old Mr. Johnson had troubles of his own

He had a yellow cat that wouldn't leave his home.

He tried and he tried just to give the cat away.

He gave it to a neighbor who was moving far away.

 

CHORUS:

But, the cat came back the very next day.

But, the cat came back, they thought he was a goner.

Yes, the cat came back the very next day.

     G                 F#     Bm    A    G    F#

He just couldn't stay away.

 

The man around the corner swore he'd kill the cat on sight,

He loaded up his shotgun with nails and dynamite;

He waited and he waited for the cat to come around,

Ninety seven pieces of the man is all they found.

 

CHORUS

 

He gave it to a little boy with a dollar note,

Told him for to take it up the river in a boat;

They tied a rope around its neck, it must have weighed a pound

Now they drag the river for a little boy that's drowned.

 

CHORUS

 

He gave it to a man going 'way out west.

He told him for to give it to the one he loved the best,

The train left the track, it hit a broken rail.

And not a soul was left alive to tell the tragic tale.

 

CHORUS

 

He gave it to a man going up in a balloon,

He told him for to take it to the man in the moon;

The balloon came down about ninety miles away,

Where he is now, well I dare not say.

 

CHORUS