Canadian singer-songwriter couple John K. Samson and Christine Fellows just recently launched a new EP of songs under the name Vivat Virtute — likewise the name of the couple’s online craft store — that includes a brand-new tune that tangentially discuss the late life of a cat called Virtute. It’s the 5th such tune in a decades-long legend about this imaginary cat that will definitely melt your heart.
Samson is, in my modest viewpoint, among the single biggest songwriters in history. Though possibly not a household name, he has a unique propensity for crafting stunning narratives in tunes that trigger a lot insight into the human condition, without ever being pedantic or judgmental. The informal “Virtute Saga” is sort of the best encapsulation of this. The very first chapter, “Plea From A Cat Named Virtute,” was the 5th track on the 2003 album Reconstruction Site, tape-recorded by Samson’s then-band, The Weakerthans. The lyrics are composed from the viewpoint of the eponymous cat, whose owner is experiencing a major bout of anxiety, slipping into alcohol addiction. Of course, the cat — articulate though it might be, being a songwriter and all — still does not have the language to comprehend what the owner is going through. But she still wishes to help:
All you ever wish to do is consume and enjoy television
And honestly that thing does not truly interest me
I swear I’m going to bite you difficult
And taste your tinny blood
If you do not stop the self-defeating lies
You’ve been duplicating considering that the day you brought me home
I understand you’re strong
Virtute returned in 2007, on the band’s follow-up album, Reunion Tour, in the tune “Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure.” By now, the cat’s owner has actually slipped even deeper, and has actually stopped looking after Virtute completely, to the point where the poor cat can’t remember the human name that her precious owner had actually when offered her.
I keep in mind the method I would await you
To get here with kibble and a box filled with beer
How I’d scratch the empties desperate to hear
You make the noise that you discovered for me
(Also, obviously Steven Page from Barenaked Ladies covered this tune, in sort of a lounge design? Those rascally Canadians!)
The story of Virtute ended there for a while, left unsettled for almost a years till the release of John K. Samson’s 2nd solo album, Winter Wheat, in 2016. “17th Street Treatment Centre” shows up in the middle of the record, informing a brief vignette of an individual’s experience with an in-patient dependency healing program (Samson himself got sober in 2013, though I do not understand if he went to a comparable program). Though distinguished a human viewpoint, the tune discreetly exposes one informing information:
On the 21st day I danced through the 12 action
analyzed, confessed I’m helpless to
Sang the one about the spring the cat fled
on the 21st day of my court-ordered stay, here
(When Samson carries out the Virtute legend live, he typically begins with “17th Street” and after that moves through the remainder of the series in an otherwise direct style, so that I can simply weep for 15 minutes straight)
The last tune on Winter Wheat returns us to Virtute’s viewpoint — sort of. In “Virtute at Rest,” the cat sings to her owner from some location beyond, forgiving him for the errors he made as he experienced his illness, so they may both proceed in their own methods.
Now that the treatment, and anti-depressants,
and 7 months sober have actually constructed me a bed
In the back of your brain where the memories flicker
And I paw at the synapses intense littles string.You need to understand I am with you.
Know I forgive you.
Know I take pride in the actions that you have actually made.
Now, on the new Vivat Virtute EP that Samson produced with his better half, the tune “All My Ex-Boyfriends Are You” concludes with a curious refrain:
All my ex-boyfriends are you
That’s why I safeguard every door you meow to survive
Now that all my ex-boyfriends are you.
How does this fit into the wider cycle? Honestly, I’m uncertain. But it’s a touching tune by itself, and it advised me of just how much Virtute has actually assisted me throughout my own life. And I do not even like cats!
