Is there a song we should be familiar with that *is* about fish and this performer might have in his repertoire? Or wait, that he might have been getting requests for and had to decline?
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The cat in the front row is really persistent.
Could the audience be requesting a song by the band Phish?
@chemgal – Thanks for posting that “Fish Heads” link; it’s been quite a while since I’ve heard it and I love its construction. It’s slightly (very slightly) coincidental because (the current) Lost in Space season 3 dropped on Netflix last week. (the link: Bill Mumy)
Check out “Barnes & Barnes” on Wikipedia for the band origin story. 🙂
Googling around: The Jazz Butcher was a band founded by a man named Pat Fish.
This seems relevant, but also the sort of thing which only a relatively small number of people would get.
Further observations: Pat Fish died two months ago. Looking at the pictures of him, that does look pretty much like his haircut. Comics that require visiting two separate Wikipedia pages not counting disambiguation pages may be a little obscure for a general audience.
LOL, Kay Kyser and his Kollege of Musical Knowledge! Featuring Ish Ka-bibble
Well, I totally missed the cat the first time around, too. I also wondered about the “Jazz Butcher” on the case, assuming it was a reference to a group, but too lazy to follow up. After reading everything here, I noticed there is a “Pat Fish, R.I.P. 12/6” in the upper right corner, so Coverly is definitely tipping his hat, so to speak.
I was also too lazy to look up Kevin A’s reference to Bill Mumy. But, something struck me as very familiar in the chords to Fish Heads and Satie’s Gymnopedie #1 so I did go looking for that, and low and behold Bill Mumy’s name pops up as the creator of Fish Heads, along with his role in Lost In Space. It just goes to show, one can learn all sorts of trivia reading CIDU, whether they want to or not.
Sounds like it’s working on two levels, where the cartoonist wanted to pay tribute to Pat Fish and came up with the cat and fish songs as a way.
Ish Kabibble was a fine poet, as evidence by this verse he once recited:
I sneezed a sneeze into the air.
It fell to earth I know not where.
But you should see the looks on those
In whose vicinity I snoze.
MIB, I had forgotten about that one. My dad used to sing it.
The Diabetes discussion group which I am part of has one member who calls himself Ish Kibble and for awhile had a photo of the original as his icon picture.
Having said that – his instrument case is labeled “Jazz BUTCHER”. He would prefer, perhaps, songs about meat related things rather than those about fish?
He is a guitarist.
Leo Kottke is a guitarist.
Leo Kottke used to perform a number called The Fisherman.
Oh I dunno.
But then I never did understand the association between cats and fish. How many cats in the wild hunt fish?
Mike P, I didn’t get aboard your train of thought about Leo Kottke, but I do get reminders about him regularly since Al Franken uses his music as theme music for his podcast.
There are cat species that fish; most obvious is the fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus, see http://www.catsg.org/index.php?id=121) from Southeast Asia. And if you ask Google Images for ” fishing” you’ll get results for most of the well-known species (e.g. bobcat, jaguar, ocelot, leopard). No idea if feral domestic cats will catch fish if the circumstances allow, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
Anyway it’s kind of irrelevant because it’s obvious that cats care about what their food tastes like, and you don’t have to evolve to eat something to find it tasty.
(oh also: note that the “fisher” found in northeastern North America, despite sometimes being called a “fisher cat”, isn’t a cat; it’s a marten.)
… that was supposed to say “(cat species) fishing”.
Comics I Don't Understand 
The cat in the front row is really persistent.
Could the audience be requesting a song by the band Phish?
Coverly is referencig an actual, long-running band, too: http://jazzbutcher.com/
Man I didn’t even see the cat. Lost has it.
Yeah, the cat is the only one making requests. Might be more obvious if the requests were for songs about mice.
yeah, totally missed the cat.
Yeah, I missed the cat too!
I saw the cat right away, but to answer the question, yes there are songs about fish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKDtUzRIG6I
@chemgal – Thanks for posting that “Fish Heads” link; it’s been quite a while since I’ve heard it and I love its construction. It’s slightly (very slightly) coincidental because (the current) Lost in Space season 3 dropped on Netflix last week. (the link: Bill Mumy)
Check out “Barnes & Barnes” on Wikipedia for the band origin story. 🙂
Googling around: The Jazz Butcher was a band founded by a man named Pat Fish.
This seems relevant, but also the sort of thing which only a relatively small number of people would get.
Further observations: Pat Fish died two months ago. Looking at the pictures of him, that does look pretty much like his haircut. Comics that require visiting two separate Wikipedia pages not counting disambiguation pages may be a little obscure for a general audience.
Another song about fish, so popular in 1939 that many bands recorded it: Three Little Fishies, Kay Kyser
LOL, Kay Kyser and his Kollege of Musical Knowledge! Featuring Ish Ka-bibble
Well, I totally missed the cat the first time around, too. I also wondered about the “Jazz Butcher” on the case, assuming it was a reference to a group, but too lazy to follow up. After reading everything here, I noticed there is a “Pat Fish, R.I.P. 12/6” in the upper right corner, so Coverly is definitely tipping his hat, so to speak.
I was also too lazy to look up Kevin A’s reference to Bill Mumy. But, something struck me as very familiar in the chords to Fish Heads and Satie’s Gymnopedie #1 so I did go looking for that, and low and behold Bill Mumy’s name pops up as the creator of Fish Heads, along with his role in Lost In Space. It just goes to show, one can learn all sorts of trivia reading CIDU, whether they want to or not.
Sounds like it’s working on two levels, where the cartoonist wanted to pay tribute to Pat Fish and came up with the cat and fish songs as a way.
Ish Kabibble was a fine poet, as evidence by this verse he once recited:
I sneezed a sneeze into the air.
It fell to earth I know not where.
But you should see the looks on those
In whose vicinity I snoze.
MIB, I had forgotten about that one. My dad used to sing it.
What’s about that old album by REO Speedwagon?
The Diabetes discussion group which I am part of has one member who calls himself Ish Kibble and for awhile had a photo of the original as his icon picture.
Having said that – his instrument case is labeled “Jazz BUTCHER”. He would prefer, perhaps, songs about meat related things rather than those about fish?
He is a guitarist.
Leo Kottke is a guitarist.
Leo Kottke used to perform a number called The Fisherman.
Oh I dunno.
But then I never did understand the association between cats and fish. How many cats in the wild hunt fish?
Mike P, I didn’t get aboard your train of thought about Leo Kottke, but I do get reminders about him regularly since Al Franken uses his music as theme music for his podcast.
There are cat species that fish; most obvious is the fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus, see http://www.catsg.org/index.php?id=121) from Southeast Asia. And if you ask Google Images for ” fishing” you’ll get results for most of the well-known species (e.g. bobcat, jaguar, ocelot, leopard). No idea if feral domestic cats will catch fish if the circumstances allow, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
Anyway it’s kind of irrelevant because it’s obvious that cats care about what their food tastes like, and you don’t have to evolve to eat something to find it tasty.
(oh also: note that the “fisher” found in northeastern North America, despite sometimes being called a “fisher cat”, isn’t a cat; it’s a marten.)
… that was supposed to say “(cat species) fishing”.