Al Stewart: Clarence Frogman Henry, Audrey Hepburn and The Year of the Cat (1980)

He may be a bit of a bore in interviews (see here), but Al Stewart did tell a great shaggy-dog story in concert -- and of course wrote Year of the Cat among many other fine songs.

So here you get both as he tells a bizarre story then swings into a sharp version of that huge hit live at the Roxy.

You had to take your hat off to Stewart: it is a courageous man who would rhyme "cola . . . Francis Ford Coppola . . . Angola" (on Here in Angola) or could incorporate a new song (World Goes to Riyadh) into the middle of another piece based on the quatrains of Nostradamus.

But that's just the kinda guy intellectual Al was -- and is. 

This is taken from the '81 double album Indian Summer; Live (one studio side, three sides live) with his Shot in the Dark band, and comes with some slight ambient surface noise for your added pleasure.

For more one-offs, oddities or songs with a backstory see From the Vaults.