From the musical, Cats

D (4 bars)

G5      D5       F#5     B5
Gus is the Cat at the Theatre Door
    E5       A5             D5      D5
His name as I ought to have told you before
   G5    D5         F#5           B5
Is really Asparagus, but that's such a fuss
      G5  --  F#m7- - Em9- - G5  G5             D5
To pronounce that we usually call him just Gus

    G5       D5         F#5       B5
His coat's very shabby. He's thin as a rake
       E5          A5          D5          D5
And he suffers from palsy that makes his paw shake
       G5      D5            F#5         B5
Yet he was in his youth quite the smartest of cats
       G- - F#m7- - Em9- - G5  G5           D5
But no longer a terror to mice and to rats


       G5         D5        E5        D5
For he isn't the cat that he was in his prime
           G5              D5          F#5          B5
Though his name was quite famous, he says, in his time
        G5       D5      E5              D5
And whenever he joins his friends at their club
             G5            D5           F#5          B5
(Which takes place at the back of the neighbouring pub)

   E5        A5            D5        D5
He loves to regale them if someone else pays
     E5       A5              D5    D5
With anecdotes drawn from his palmiest days
       G5          D5        E5       D5
For he once was a star of the highest degree
       G5          D5         F#5        B5
He has acted with Irving, he's acted with Tree
       G5          D5        E5         D5
And he likes to relate his success on the halls
          G5       D5          F#5      B5
Where the gallery once gave him seven catcalls


        G-- F#m7- - Em9- - G5   B5          B5
But his grandest creation as he loves to tell
    Em7- - F#m7- - G7M- - G5 C5       G5   D5
Was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell


        G5         D5        F#5      B5
"I have played, in my time, every possible part
      E5          A5       D5       D5
And I used to know seventy speeches by heart
      G5     D5        F#5         B5
I'd extemporize backchat. I knew how to gag
      G5 -- F#m7- - Em9- - G5     G5          D5
And I knew how to let the cat out of the bag
  G5       D5        F#5         B5
I knew how to act with my back and my tail
        E5       A5          D5       D5
With an hour of rehearsal, I never could fail
      G5            D5       F#5        B5  
I'd a voice that would soften the hardest of hearts
        G--F#m7-Em(b9)G/A        G         D
Whether I took the lead, or in character parts


       G5          D5       E5         D5
I have sat by the bedside of poor little Nell
         G5          D5        F#5          B5
When the curfew was rung then I swung on the bell
       G5         D5     E5        D5
In the pantomime season I never fell flat
      G5         D5         F#5           B5
And I once understudied Dick Whittington's cat


       G-- F#m7--Em(b9)-G/A   Bm           Bm
But my grandest creation as history will tell
    Em7--F#m7--G7M--G/A Csus2       G/B   D
Was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell

D5 D5 D5


        D5            C#5       D5           D5
Then if someone will give him a toothful of gin
        A5     A5            D5            D5
He will tell how he once played a part in East Lynne
     D5              C#5        D5              D5
At a Shakespeare performance he once walked on pat
          D5        A5          E5         A5
When some actor suggested the need for a cat

       G5             D5          E5        D5
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained
      G5          D5         F#5   B5
As we did in the days when Victoria reigned
     G5         D5         E5     D5
They never get drilled in a regular troupe
         G5              D5          F#5            B5
And they think they are smart just to jump through a hoop"

       E5        A5            D5         D5
And he says as he scratches himself with his claws
           E5        A5         D5       D5
"Well, the theatre is certainly not what it was
      G5         D5         E5       D5
These modern productions are all very well
            G5          D5       F#5         B5
But there's nothing to equal from what I hear tell


     G--F#m7--Em(b9)-G/A      Bm     Bm    
That moment of mystery when I made history
   Em7--F#m7--Gmaj6-G/A Csus2        G
As Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell"


D5


(Reprise)
"I once crossed the stage on a telegraph wire
To rescue a child when a house was on fire
And I think that I still can much better than most
Produce blood-curdling noises to bring on the ghost
And I once played Growltiger
Could do it again
Could do it again
Could do it again . . ."