"That guitar sounds like a cat - meowww." Muddy Waters' own words regarding the sound of his 1968 concept album Electric Mud give a nod to the subject of this edition of OTR, the psych-blues "Tom Cat ". The album was put out on Cadet, a subsidiary of Chess, in hopes of breathing life into Muddy's career by pairing him with a backing band of psych rockers from label-mates The Rotary Connection. Tom Cat does a great job of blending the two sounds together, heavy on the trip, deep in the blues.... and even though a good deal of Psych/Garage bands of the time started by doing blues covers or blues based rock & roll, this approach at the same idea gets a few extra points for including an O.G. Blues man in the mix.
I found this sealed, 1981 Canadian pressing at RedCat in Vancouver about a year ago for under $30. It got crossed of my list of albums containing samples from classic hip hop songs that I'm looking for, as Tom Cat appeared on Cypress Hill's self titled 1991 album in an interlude entitled "Ultraviolet Dreams". Although not even a minute long, Ultraviolet Dreams' simple loop of Tom Cat sets the smoked out scene behind some mumblings from unidentified loccs that are about to light another...
Love that fuzz-wah... and the whole Cypress Hill album in general. I've found more samples/breaks used by Cypress that will be featured in future installments of OTR... Jimmy McGriff comes to mind...
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