![]() ![]() ![]() The first known live version of the song dates from a Carousel Ballroom performance on January 17, 1968. No commonality seems to link the imagery, except that they can take us on a journey. I see crazy quilts, and lacey patterns, and weaving in and out of everything, cats. Maybe it’s a reflection of Hunter’s mind in the self-described “hypersensitive state,” but it works fine for any listener who can picture silk trombones, violin rivers, Cheshire cats peeking through lace bandanas, and crazy quilt star gowns. Hunter referred to the effect as something along the lines of a “glittery image bank,” saying: I can sit right here and write you a ‘China Cat’ or one of those things in ten minutes. The kaleidoscope of imagery in the song does seem fairly clear in the overall state of mind it’s communicating. Hunter mailed the lyrics to the band in mid-1967, and by January 1968 the band was performing a medley of songs that included “Dark Star,” “China Cat Sunflower,” and “The Eleven.” The song is part of what was a set of lyrics sent by Hunter to the band when they recruited him to be the lyricist for the group. This cat took me in all these cat places there’s some essence of that in the song.” I had a cat sitting on my belly, and was in a rather hypersensitive state, and I followed this cat out to-I believe it was Nepture-and there were rainbows across Neptune, and cats marching across the rainbow. I don’t think any of the words came, exactly-the rhythms came. “I think the germ of ‘China Cat Sunflower’ came in Mexico, on Lake Chapala. It’s good that a few things in this world are clear to all of us.”Īnd, from an interview with David Gans, in his Conversations with the Dead: ![]() People seem to know exactly what I’m talking about. “Nobody ever asked me the meaning of this song. Hunter’s statements about the song include this, from his lyric anthology, A Box of Rain: ![]()
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