We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.
/

about

This song was recorded at Audio Recording, Inc. in Seattle by legendary engineer, Kearney Barton (who recorded The Kingsmen “Jolly Green Giant” of “Louie, Louie” fame, The Sonics “Psycho”, The Frantics “Werewolf”, and many others.) It was an 8 track analog studio, recorded onto 1 inch reel tape. I did 4 takes of this song on two different days. The final version combined all 4 takes, but mainly the use of take 1 from the first day. It consists of me performing the acoustic guitar and lead vocals, overdubbed a couple times for a fuller effect. At the time, I didn’t have much practice at finger picking a guitar, so this was new territory I was charting for myself. It’s not the best musical performance, but the vocal performance relayed exactly what I wanted. It even sounds like I’m sad, which I think I was very much so at the time. Little did I know, but Mr. Barton was a “cat person” himself and loved cats and had a few as pets. Soon after we recorded my song, his cat died and it made this song all the more meaningful. Kearney and I had some good “talks” about music and of personal things; things I will never forget and I truly am grateful for the time we spent working on this song and talking about life in general. It was during these sessions that Kearney became a friend to me more than just a great engineer.

To finish off this particular mix, I had to convert it from a cassette format onto the Audacity program on my computer with a JVC TD-W254 Double Cassette Deck 3 motor Silent Mechanism.
Originally titled, “Ode to Beloved Kitty,” I wrote this song back in 1991 when my pet cat died. I got the line, “They said you had no soul but your spirit is with God” from a preacher who told me that animals had no souls but only had the spirit of their nature. I disagreed and countered with the line that follows, “From what I see, I don’t believe it. I know you had a soul within your loving heart. For my pain, you have relieved it.” The song itself can be very depressing to listen to and the recording kind of reflects that. But when one discovers it’s about a pet that has passed (and in my case, a beloved pet cat named Kitty) one can start to think I’m more sentimental than I should be. I just know that when there’s pain, the best thing for a writer to do is to write about it. And so I did. He wasn’t my first pet, but he was the first pet I loved and cared about. He was there through-out my childhood—early teenage years onward until his death 7 years later. He was an indoor/outdoor cat and was in a nasty cat fight that I witnessed. He received a couple of scratches and two puncture wounds from a bite to the neck. I took him to the vet and had him cleaned and stitched back up. Three months later, he was dead. He slowly died during those couple months from FIP which is the equivalent to AIDS in humans. It was hard watching him deteriorate in such a manner after being a part of the family for seven years. I also wrote an essay about the FIP virus for a college course and received a top score. According to my notes, this is the 411th song that I had written.

Recorded at Audio Recording, Inc. in Seattle, WA.

lyrics

HOW CAN I EXPLAIN THE SADNESS IN MY HEART?
HOW CAN I TELL YOU THE HAPPINESS THAT YOU GAVE ME FROM THE START?
BUT IT’S TOO LATE TO SAY I LOVE YOU,
FOR YOU’RE SO FAR AWAY IN MY MEMORY, IN HEAVEN, ETERNALLY.

THEY SAID YOU HAD NO SOUL AND YOUR SPIRIT IS WITH GOD.
FROM WHAT I’VE SEEN, I DON’T BELIEVE IT.
I KNOW YOU HAD A SOUL WITHIN YOUR LOVING HEART.
FOR MY PAIN, YOU HAVE RELIEVED IT.
(SOLO)
IT’S TIME TO SAY MY FINAL GOOD-BYES.
BUT MY EYES STILL CRY, AND I WILL BE WITH YOU.

credits

from ANIMAL INSTINCTS [Digitally Remastered], released September 18, 2014
Wayde K. Brown

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

The Santairs image

The Santairs Auburn, Washington

I am a musician, singer, and songwriter doing this part-time but have been doing it all my life. I started singing before I could talk at the age of one, and wrote my first real song at 15 years of age. (If you count avant-garde as a song, then the age would be 7.) I currently own my own recording studio; and I write, perform, and record my own music (and other's from time to time.) I am Santairs. ... more

contact / help

Contact The Santairs

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

The Santairs recommends:

If you like The Santairs, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring interviews with LA music scene pillar Kamasi Washington, and new London-based duo Mrcy.

listen now