In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Muscled, black with steel green eye
Swishing through the rye grass
With thoughts of mouse and apple pie
Tail balancing at half-mast
And the mouse police never sleeps
Lying in the cherry tree
Savage bed foot warmer
Of purest feline ancestry
Look out, little furry folk
He's the all night working cat
Eats but one in every ten
Leaves the others on the mat
And the mouse police never sleeps
Waiting by the cellar door
Window-box town crier
Birth and death registrar
With claws that rake a furrow red
Licensed to mutilate
From warm milk on a lazy day
To dawn patrol on hungry hate
No, the mouse police never sleeps
Climbing on the ivy
Windy roof top weathercock
Warm blooded night on a cold tile
The mouse police never sleeps
The mouse police never sleeps
The mouse police never sleeps
...
Swishing through the rye grass
With thoughts of mouse and apple pie
Tail balancing at half-mast
And the mouse police never sleeps
Lying in the cherry tree
Savage bed foot warmer
Of purest feline ancestry
Look out, little furry folk
He's the all night working cat
Eats but one in every ten
Leaves the others on the mat
And the mouse police never sleeps
Waiting by the cellar door
Window-box town crier
Birth and death registrar
With claws that rake a furrow red
Licensed to mutilate
From warm milk on a lazy day
To dawn patrol on hungry hate
No, the mouse police never sleeps
Climbing on the ivy
Windy roof top weathercock
Warm blooded night on a cold tile
The mouse police never sleeps
The mouse police never sleeps
The mouse police never sleeps
...
Lyrics submitted by Philadelphia Eagles
And the Mouse Police Never Sleeps Lyrics as written by Ian Anderson
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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MORE PPL SHOULD COMMENT ON J TULL SONGS. IAN ANDERSON IS A LYRICAL GENIUS, ANBODY WHO DISAGREES WITH ME CAN F*** ME SIDEWAYS :P
I definitely AGREE.
This song that brilliantly opens the album -capturing the muscular, rustic feel of the Heavy Horses. It also briefly references the album's final song, Weathercock. I think it's Ian first song about cats (his last album has two songs about the little critters).
@offhand agreed. This is the first song I remember Jethro Tull doing that celebrates the hunting instincts of cats. Awesome song. Ian Anderson reveals alot about this song in the Heavy Horses 40th Anniversary set: New Shoes Edition.
Per Ian Anderson within the Heavy Horses 40th Anniversary Set: New Shoes Edition "this is a song about the hunting instincts of cats, and is a celebration in spite of the fact they\'re pretty vicious as killers of birds, snakes and other wildlife..." he writes of his young kitten Mistletoe who got credited on the album as a cat that would go hunting with him on his shoulder and acted like a gun-dog. There was a symbiotic relationship during their mutual hunts.
the line "Window-box town crier;" reminds me of observing my own cat when chipmunks or birds come on our deck and he watches from our sliding glass door as he makes instinctual sounds indicating he is powerless to do anything unless the slider is opened so he can pursue now. \n\nthe line "warm-blooded night on a cold tile." suggests Ian is comparing their actions to hunters that wait on a tree stand in the cold for prey.
Sounds like a lovely song. I really have to get Heavy Horses when I stumble upon it:).
In Jack-a-Lynn he makes a reference to this: "Cole black cats in policeman's hats. Nosing where the mice have been".
I always thought that the cat was looking for the police-mice. That the roles had been switched.