The Cat Came Back

(Fred Penner version)

Words & Music:

Harry S. Miller

 

Fred plays it in Em with the "Stray Cat Strut" version of the chords [Em  D  C  B7] and this bass line under the chords:

     Em  D  C  B7

D |------0--------|

A |---------3--2--|  [repeat ad infinitum until song is done]

E |--0------------|

 

Old Mister Johnson had troubles of his own.

He had a yellow cat which wouldn't leave its home;

He tried and he tried to give the cat away,

He gave it to a man goin' far, far away.

 

CHORUS:

But the cat came back the very next day,

The cat came back, we thought he was a goner

But the cat came back; it just couldn't stay away.

[spoken:]  Give me a "Meow".  "Meow!"

 

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 that they found.

 

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 the man is now, well, I dare not say.

 

CHORUS:

 

He gave it to a man going way out West,

Told him for to take it to the one he loved the best;

First the train hit the track, then it jumped the rail,

Not a soul was left behind to tell the gruesome tale.

 

CHORUS:

 

The cat was a possessor of a family of its own,

With seven little kittens till there came a cyclone;

Blew the houses all apart and tossed the cat around,

The air was full of kittens, and not a one was ever found.

 

CHORUS:  [2x]