Now, I know that thanks to the wonders of the internets, a fella can find out just about anything at all. But I was wondering if folk around here might assist me, instead.
I found myself this morning singing a snippet of song and my daughter asked about it and when I described it to her, she said she'd never heard of it.
As a child in elementary school, one of the songs we sang was "Senor Don Gato." It was the tragic love story of Senor Don Gato, who was a cat.
The first verse, as I recall it, went...
Oh, Senor Don Gato was a cat
On a high red roof, Don Gato sat
He went there to read a letter, meow meow meow
Where the reading light was better, meow meow meow
It was the end of poor Don Gato...
And that's all I remember of the actual. That, and it was sung in a minor key.
The story line, as I recall it, was that Don Gato went to read the letter and, as it turns out, it was from his lover. It was a Dear Juan letter! He was dumped by his lover and in his heartache or surprise or shock or something, Don Gato falls from the roof to his death on the streets below.
My daughter called that a horrifyingly morbid song for schoolchildren to be singing.
How about it? Was this a song specific to my particular school/area? OR, were schoolchildren across the nation being taught illicit love stories that end in the tragic death of beloved kittens?
Anyone?
15 comments:
Last verse, as much as I can remember:
When the funeral passed the market square
Such a smell of fish was in the air
-something something- meow meow meow
-something something- meow meow meow
He came back to life, Dan Gato
So it has a true Hollywood ending.
Yeah - Zombie Cats in Love!
That sounds familiar, though, I think you're right. Maybe that's why I'm not traumatized...
wow! we sang that song in school too! how funny to remember it. zombies rock!
By the way, I learned this in elementary school near Syracuse, NY, in case you're looking for how geographically dispersed this song was.
And indeed everything is on the Intertubes.
Don Gato, English version
So, it wasn't just me here in Louisville, KY! Hipchick, where'd you sing it?
Oh, by the way, welcome to these Woods, Doug, I don't believe you've commented here before. Come back anytime...
Ah, but I have been around. :)
Then welcome back. (My memory was the first thing to go, now my eyes. I suspect it won't be long before the ears start shutting down or getting too full of hair to hear...)
stopped by and was intrigued by your blogs ;)
Thanks
Kringle
Senior Don Gato was a cat,
On a high red roof Don Gato sat.
He went there to read a letter -- meow, meow, meow --
For the reading light was better -- meow, meow, meow --
'Twas a love note for Don Gato.
I adore you, wrote the Lady Cat,
Who was silky, white and nice and fat.
O there is no sweeter kitty --
meow, meow, meow --
in the country or the city -- meow, meow, meow --
and she said she'd wed Don Gato.
Well Don Gato jumped so hapily
he fell off the roof and broke his knee.
Broke his chin and all his whiskers -- meow, meow, meow --
and his little solar plexes -- meow, meow, meow --
'Twas the end for poor Don Gato.
[I learned this in 3rd grade in Dearborn, Michigan. I don't recall Doug's verse... maybe my bad memory, or, as he says, "a true Hollywood ending". I'm a Hemingway fan... don't mind the song ending with Don Gato's death...]
Thanks, Bro Dave, and Kringle. Stop in anytime.
"wiskas" and "solar plexus" as rhymes?
Senor Don Gato made it to Brookline, Mass., too, in the '60s. I've had this song running through my head for years. Glad I'm not the only one!
````and they held a consultation meow meow meow about how to save their patient meow meow meow.....(forgot this part).....
(song slows here)....and it wasn't very merry...meow meow meow...going to the cemetery..meow meow meow...twas the ending of Don Gato...
When the funeral passed the market square..such a smell of fish was in the air...though the burial was slated...meow meow meow..he became reanimated meow meow meow..HE CAME BACK TO LIFE DON GATO!!!!.... (ALL OF IT EXCEPT FOR THE DOCTOR PART)...anyone remember it?
ah...I didn't notice before that you had a link with all the lyrics....thank you! That verse about the doctors was driving me crazy! I learned this song from my little sister when she was nine and I was thirteen. We used to sing it to our baby brother to get him to go to sleep. He's 41 now......talk about getting old. My sister learned the song at Garden Home Elementary in Oregon. Thanks for the memory jog!
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