Well, the first song I ever recorded (on my dodgy home PC microphone) was Katzenjammer. The story goes that my girlfriend at the time, Steph, was looking for a cool name for her new Gmail account. She had in her possession a book of whacky and wonderful words which she perused in search of a fitting moniker. One nomination was “Katzenjammer” which supposedly meant the wailing sounds cats make when they are making love. It is with this definition in mind that I wrote my humourous little ditty.

Just before writing this post I thought I should recheck the spelling (umlaut or no), and discovered that it has other meanings and denotations. See here for example. It has also been used to help name a card game, comic book family, piano duo, and restaurant.

After significant deliberation ( I think I had time to wonder off, write the song and return to assist in the selection process), Steph settled on the name “intakaal”, with which she unwittingly sent an attachment of “death and destruction” with every email, until finally notified of her erring ways.

Anyways, here are the lyrics and the basic chord progression (it’s very simple…it’s more about the vibe than the complexity – or so I say). The strumming pattern is similar to a basic gypsy jazz strumming pattern. Don’t know Gyspy Jazz? Check out Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grapelli and the Quintette du Hot Club De France

[Post] Ha I started writing the lyrics and chords and realised that
a) it is really elemental
b) it doesn’t really make sense without the music…

So I’ll leave it as an intro for now and will put up an Mp3 version as soon as practicable (i.e. when my head cold subsides :)