Lyr Add: Nobody's Moggy Now (Eric Bogle)^^^

Subject: Lyr Add: NOBODY'S MOGGY NOW (Eric Bogle)^^^
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 10:27 PM

Here's another excuse for people to get mad at Eric Bogle. ;-) Yes, he DARES to write a funny song about a dead cat! The man must be a fiend! A pervert! A heartless monster!

I heard Eric do this song live, and it was very, very funny. Specially the dramatic rising vocal phrase right at the end on the last line. Here are the lyrics:

NOBODY'S MOGGY NOW
(Eric Bogle)

Somebody's moggy by the side of the road
Somebody's moggy who forgot his highway code
Someone's favourite feline who ran clean out of luck
When he ran onto the road and tried to argue with a truck

Yesterday he purred and played in his pussy paradise
Decapitating tweety birds and masticating mice
Now he's just six pounds of raw minced meat
That don't smell very nice

He's nobody's moggy now.....!

You who love your pussy, be sure to keep him in
Don't let him argue with a truck, the truck is bound to win
And upon a busy road, don't let him play or frolic
If you do, I'm warning you, it could be cat-astrophic

If he tries to play on the roadway I'm afraid that will be that
There will be one last despairing meoow! and a sort of squelchy splat
And your pussy will be slightly dead and very very flat
He's nobody's moggy, just red and squashed and soggy,

He's nobody's moggy nooowwwww!!!!!!!!!!!^^^

---------------------------------------------------------------------
recorded by Eric Bogle
Larrikin Music
"I wrote 'Nobody's Moggy Now' in 1982 which alienated every cat-lover
in the Southern Hemisphere, and a fair proportion in the Northern
Hemisphere as well." - Eric Bogle

Subject: RE: BS: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle
From: Maryrrf
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 10:42 PM

Eric Bogle has written some great songs, but this isn't one of them.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 10:52 PM

Ah...but you have to be there and hear it live. Specially when you haven't heard of it before, and are not in the least expecting anything like it...but are instead expecting another deeply serious and touching song from Eric Bogle about the tragic deaths of young soldiers in the First World War or some other very serious subject like that.

The sheer contrast makes it all the funnier, under those circumstances.

I doubt that it was ever intended to be seen as "a great song". It's intended to be a surprise.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 10:55 PM

Have known this for almost 20 years or so....

At our Open Sing almost that long ago, a newcomer who wasn't ready to sing was asked what she'd LIKE to hear. She said, "Oh...anything I guess, as long as it's not about dead cats or something.."

She was immediately treated to 5-6, including Bogle's masterpiece....

No...it's not one of his ummmm... 'good' important songs, but it is a classic in its class. *grin*

Subject: RE: BS: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 11:02 PM

There's a very clever parody of BOTH "Nobody's Moggy" and "No Man's Land," all in one song. It's to the tune of "No Man's Land" but it's about Moggy. Anyone know it?

Subject: RE: BS: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 11:30 PM

Let's all sing it for PETA.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Gurney
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 12:39 AM

If you REALLY want a Bogle tearjerker, try 'Little Gomez.'


Well, until the last lines, anyway.

If I ever had a gig at the RSPCA, I'd learn both.

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 01:24 AM

Eric Bogle lyrics typed by his own stubby little fingers

Gurney, have you seen/heard those animal masterpieces Basingstoke & Ferdinand by Bernard Bolan

sandra

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 05:37 AM

Moggie on youtube

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 07:34 AM

Eve Goldberg, there's a link to the song you're asking about at the top of this page, under "NOBODY'S MOGGY'S LAND."

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: goatfell
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 08:50 AM

great song

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 10:07 AM

Ahh, thank you Gerry. I guess I should look before I post...

Subject: Lyr Add: NOBODY'S MOGGY'S LAND (Bob Kanefsky)
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 11:19 AM

NOBODY'S MOGGY'S LAND (No Moggy's Land)
(Bob Kanefsky)

Well, how d'ya do, old Moggy the Cat?
I just noticed you landed where I almost sat.
D'ya mind if I push you a bit to the side?
I've been driving all day on the road where you died.
You've been squashed like some butterfly pressed between glass
Were you hit by a truck that was moving too fast?
Did he slam on the brake as he saw you go past?
Or, Moggy the Cat, did he step on the gas?

CHORUS Did he honk the horn loudly?
Did you stand your ground proudly?
Did a shadow fall o'er ya as the truck mowed you down?
Did your eyes glow in that fleeting darkness?
Did the birds come and pick at your carcass?

The ground squirrels and mice all seem happy today,
The butterflies frolic; the hummingbirds play.
A mockingbird sits there composing a dirge
Till he finally yields to his scavenger urge.
The robins and sparrows all join in the feast
In their joyous relief that the terror has ceased.
And the birds dance around you, not sad in the least,
Like the Munchkins danced over the Witch of the East.

Old Moggy the Cat, I still wonder why
You road-kill look so damned surprised when you die.
Did you think that some animal spirit survives?
Did you really believe that a cat has nine lives?
Well, if that is true, this is life Number Ten
Getting ever more flat, spinning round now and then,
As the cars run you over again and again
And again and again and again and again!


Copyright 1989 Bob Kanefsky; reprinted with permission
Tune "No Man's Land," by Eric Bogle
@parody @animal @death @cat @deadcat
filename[ NOMANLD2
TUNE FILE: NOMANLD
CLICK TO PLAY
AJS

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 11:30 AM

I was interested to hear that recorded version where he sings " doing terrible things to mice".....in deference to the time he did the Freudian version of "masticating mice".

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 11:44 AM

That has got to be one of the best parodies EVER.

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Maryrrf
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 11:55 AM

I realize that some may enjoy the song and find it hilarious, and that's their perogative, but I just don't see anything funny about the following scenario:

Family has a beloved cat that is allowed to roam a little while in the garden every evening before bedtime. Usually he comes to the door in a half hour or so and wants to be let in, but one evening he doesn't come back. They search for him and call him, and go to bed worried sick, but hoping he'll turn up in the morning. Instead, the little girl goes out to catch the schoolbus and finds him dead on the road in front of their house. The furry affectionate fellow that they loved is now "six pounds of raw minced meat that don't smell very nice...red, squashed and soggy" and they can imagine him dying with a "despairing meow and a sort of squelchy splat..." Ha ha, isn't it funny to see the little girl weeping over the cat that she'd enjoyed stroking and petting, the one who loved to play hide and seek with a shopping bag or jump for a ball of yarn. Doesn't it just make you split your sides laughing to imagine that cat "slightly dead and very flat". Yes I know these things happen, pets get hit by cars and we've all seen things like that at the side of the road. A couple of years ago the car in front of me hit a dog and kept going. I stayed with the animal helplessly for a few minutes while she convulsed and mercifully died. I don't think she felt anything beyond the initial impact.

Somehow I don't think I would write a 'humorous' song about that.

As I said, Eric Bogle has written some great songs. Personally I really don't like this one.

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: topical tom
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 04:46 PM

Maybe not a child's song but fiendishly cleverly written and amusing. I admit that the last verses are a mite graphic, to say the least!

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 05:30 PM

Well, it all depends on how you choose to focus on it, Mary.

I recall a bunch of young lads singing lustily the old song, "With 'er 'ead TUCKED!...underneath 'er arm...she WALKS the bloody tower!"

In context it was quite amusing. This doesn't mean any of us think it's at all funny if someone's dear mother or wife or sister gets her head chopped off now in real life, surely?

It's a matter of context.

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: robomatic
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 05:39 PM

I once described a small backpack as a "two-cat pack."

One of my co-workers suggested I was the kind of person who liked to kill cats.

In my best Monty Python voice I answered: "Me Never!! You can't torture them when they're dead!"

Whereupon she kicked me. In the shin. Hard. (this was at work).

I learned a valuable lesson.

She became an Episcopal nun.






And I actually am quite fond of cats.

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Joybell
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 06:55 PM

NOBODY'S MOGGY'S LAND is a beautifully crafted song. Pure poetry. Thank you Dick.
Bogle's songs are also well-crafted.
My point about The Plastic Paddy song is that I believe it to be unprofessional -- given that it's about other performers. I'm not outraged about it nor am I outraged about this song. I say this here because the other thread has deteriorated into silliness.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: meself
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 08:32 PM

"I'm not outraged about it nor am I outraged about this song."

Now, now, Joybell, you know it doesn't work like that on Mudcat. You are allowed only to be blindly and zealously FOR or furiously and fanatically AGAINST. There is no middle ground. If you don't declare yourself, you will be pushed into one camp or the other.

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 09:15 PM

"There is no middle ground."


Hold on, Joybell!

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Rowan
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 11:08 PM

"Beloved cats" that roam outside their home property are, in Oz, effectively feral aliens worthy of some little empathy but almost no sympathy. In their house, I like cats; outside, they're a terror to wildlife that I'd rather see protected.

So, I find Eric's song rather amusing; even more amusing is a couple I don't think he's ever recorded and probably no longer sings. "The Little Ice Queen" is one he wrote self-deprecatorily describing a failed attempt at romance and the other described the trials and tribulations of a folksinger trying to perform when all everyone wants to hear is songs written by Bob Dylan.

There's another Oz song that "celebrates" roadkill, concerning a member of one of the great flocks of galahs that congregate on roads where grain trucks have had some of their load inadequately covered; he ended up as an unwilling "mascot" on the bullbar of a road train. Unfortunately I can't remember further details, but it is rather amusing, despite the notion of fatality involved.

Perhaps the "slipping on the banana skin" shadenfreude effect is operating.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 12:16 AM

There's also the famed "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road" by Loudon Wainright. That one doesn't seem to offend anyone. This just goes to show how prejudiced people are against skunks, and I think it's an OUTRAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   ;-) Skunks have feelings too, after all.

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 12:40 AM

Rowan, "Do You Know Any Dylan" is on the album, At This Stage - see, e.g.,
http://www.amazon.com/At-This-Stage-Eric-Bogle/dp/B000A2M1XC

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Gurney
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 12:48 AM

Sandra, I used to hear a guy sing 'Basingstoke' many years ago, if it's the one where he survives the fire, but... but I've never heard 'Ferdinand.'

How anyone can be overly sentimental about cats is beyond me. I subscibe to the Terry Pratchett view that "If they looked like toads, we'd realise what horrible bastards they are."
We have two, currently, and have had up to five at a time in the past! The most decent ones were both Siamese, who 'brought 'em back alive' and never killed anything. But, then what do you do with baby birds?
Here in NZ, if a dog strays onto a farm and chases stock, it is legal to shoot it. What then should happen to a cat that roams onto a reserve and kills native birds for fun? And by extension, one that kills the native birds that have been displaced by Man's actions and are trying to make a living in suburbia?

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Melissa
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 01:05 AM

Bill D:
slightly off topic, but did the newcomer who didn't want to hear songs about dead animals come back after that?

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 01:23 AM

Gurney - that's 'Basingstoke', & strangely enough, ABC radio is currently playing bits from Bernard's 'Rose Bay Ferry' to illustrate (illuminate?) a story about an old Sydney Ferry.

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Scorpio
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 05:30 AM

I love cats, but a funny song is a funny song. Bad taste jokes are supposed to make us feel guilty about laughing (Steven Lynch deserves a nobel prize) while allowing ourselves a time out from being sensible, moral, and politically correct. And, by the way, it teaches us not to take ourselves so damned seriously. Hint.

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Leadfingers
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 08:05 AM

I , personally , would NEVER sing a Pro I R A song -I AM Ex Service -
but ould not critcise any one who DID sing them , unless I thought they were trying to either upset peiple or cause trouble . So as an animal love , I CAN see the humour in the song and can also see the point Mary made re Family pets - Just remember the song was inspired by the Feral cats in the Australian Outback .

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Greg F.
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 09:59 AM

Cats; outside, they're a terror to wildlife that I'd rather see protected.

Amen! Nobody seems to be outraged about the animals that free-ranging cats, feral or house pets, needlessly torture and kill.

Nowt so queer as folk.

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: meself
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 10:37 AM

Now I'm confused (yet again): is it supposed to be all right because it's not really an anti-cat song or because it is an anti-cat song?

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 10:53 AM

".. but did the newcomer who didn't want to hear songs about dead animals come back after that?"

ummm...I don't believe so. She seemed bemused by our 'scope of interests', but I don't think she returned.

(To be fair, a lot of folks don't know what to expect, and it's not uncommon that we see them only once....usually because they ONLY know or care about 'pop-folk' from the 70's)

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Gurney
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 05:00 PM

Meself, I maintain that it's OK because 'We' have a robust world view and refuse to allow the mealy-mouthed to censor us, but of course, this leads to the question who are they, the mealy-mouthed?
Me, on occasion, and on certain subjects, according to certain people!

Morality is only the view from a very personal hill.

I've only ever seen the song as an expression of sympathy, from a robust viewpoint, but then, I've only ever heard it sung by EB himself, on record. It sounds to be sung with an affected stoicism, not gleefully.

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 06:59 PM

I found another album where Bogle recorded Do You Know Any Bob Dylan. It was a double album on the Larrikin label in 1985. I don't know whether it's available on CD.

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: PatMcGee
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 08:17 PM

Eric sang this at a concert I was at years ago. At the end of the song, I piped up: "Equal time for dogs!". At which point the girl next to me hit me.

I guess she knew what song I was requesting...

Pat

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Dave Roberts
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 08:57 PM

I did hear somewhere that Eric B is actually quite fond of cats. So am I.
This song is not one of Eric's best, in my opinion, but reasonably funny as long as you keep a sense of proportion.
I've always found people who really 'hate' cats very odd.
I've had devout Christians explaining to me at length why cats should not be allowed to exist because they're 'cruel' and kill birds and mice
etc. All other species which behave in a similar (or infinitely worse) manner seem to be exempt from this criticism.
Go figure - to use that most cringingly awful of current trendy expressions.
But why waste your time 'hating' small furry creatures when there are many many things on this earth far more worthy of hatred?
I've spent many hours in the company of cats and found them most agreeable companions. The late comedy genius Bob Monkhouse once said that he never met a cat he didn't like. Neither did I, and I certainly can't apply the same principle to the human race.

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Rowan
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 10:36 PM

Thanks, Gerry. I've only heard Eric sing it (Do You Know Any Bob Dylan) "live" and wondered if he'd ever thought of recording it; it was always most entertaining. I've only ever heard him sing "The Little Ice Queen" once, at the 1974 (Brisbane) National Folk Festival main concert; he was given the gig partly because he'd won second place in that year's Songwriting contest with "And the band played Waltzing Matilda", which he also sang as part of his bracket.

Ironically, nobody seems to remember who got first place that year or what the winning song was; the second placer was the one everyone has remembered, even if the words and tune have undergone subsequent modifications.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 11:41 PM

I love cats. I also enjoy Bogle's song, because I do not take it seriously at all.

His song about Bob Dylan I find a little annoying (although also a bit amusing, I'll admit)....but if anyone plays it at a musical gathering I'm at, I just retaliate by playing a Dylan song back at them just as soon as my turn comes. "Take that, you bloody sods!" ;-)

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Rowan
Date: 23 Jun 09 - 06:57 PM

His song about Bob Dylan I find a little annoying (although also a bit amusing, I'll admit)

It's a long time since I last heard it, LH, but I always recalled it as not being about Bob Dylan, but about the slavish(?) adulation of audiences who thought you weren't justifiably "on stage" unless you sang their requests; a bit galling for songwriters who wished to strut their own stuff. I'm sure other performers (whether songwriters or not) have experienced similar disdain when they declined requests to perform material from their latest pop idol; "Kris Kristofferson" at a bush dance while playing schottisches for a barn dance? I received such a request a while ago and the bloke was most disaffected when I declined his request.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Barbara
Date: 23 Jun 09 - 09:48 PM

It's all about black humor (humour for you on the other side). Either amazingly painful things that have bad jokes made about them tickle you or they don't.
As a newspaper reporter, I discovered that any majorly awful disaster ended up with some really bad jokes told about it. I don't think it's shadenfreud, more like laughing in the face of pain and death.
Example (You are warned). Christa McAuliff's last words to her family (before leaving on her fatal trip as the first female astronaut) "You feed the dog and cat; I'll feed the fish". Like that.

Given that, I would be pretty sure Eric Bogle cares about cats, is fond of them.
And no one has mentioned yet that part of what is funny about "Nobody's Moggy Now" is that -- at least on his album -- Eric Bogle and friends render this as a perfect barbershop quartet Adding that touch -- a musical form that is rife with treacly gooey sentiment about the beauties of life and love -- just ices the cake for me.

It is the kind of song I enjoy thoroughly and don't want to hear very often.

Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: Effsee
Date: 23 Jun 09 - 10:12 PM

Eric always justifies his Dylan song as because Bob doesn't sing any of his songs, he doesn't sing any of Bob's!
Fair does!

Subject: RE: 'Nobody's Moggy Now' - Bogle^^^
From: breezy
Date: 24 Jun 09 - 05:23 AM

Will check out his liking of cats when we meet him on Saturday at the James Theatre Watford U K

Concert starts at 7.00

plus M-W Reid

Nearly sold out

Contact Tim Frost

Chris Flegg likes cats, he's written 'Its a cats Life'
He was the support for E B in Norwich