Tommy the Cat

Infobox Single
Name = Tommy the Cat


Artist = Primus
from Album = Sailing the Seas of Cheese
B-side =
Released = 1991
Format =
Recorded =
Genre = Alternative rock, funk metal, alternative metal
Length = 4:15
Label = Interscope
Writer = Claypool/Huth/LaLonde/Alexander
Producer = Primus
Certification =
Chart position =
Last single = Jerry Was a Race Car Driver 1991
This single = Tommy the Cat 1991
Next single = Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers 1991
Misc =

Tommy the Cat is a song by the funk metal band Primus, first released in 1989 on their live debut, "Suck on This". The studio version was released on their third album, "Sailing the Seas of Cheese".

The song is about a cat named Tommy that resides in an alley and is looking for love (hence, the lyrics, "Say baby, do you wanna lay down with me?")

In 1989, Primus hadn't met Tom Waits (the singer who recites the words in the studio version) at the time of the performance for their live album "Suck on This", so Les Claypool invited his grandfather to sing Tommy's lines. Live, Claypool sings the entire song.

In 1991, Primus released "Tommy the Cat" on "Sailing the Seas of Cheese", shortly after their first major label single, "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver", broke out and became a smash hit. This version of the song features Tom Waits as Tommy the Cat. The album grew quite popular, and so did the song. Eventually, the song got so popular that in concert, Primus started introducing all of their other songs by saying "This next song is "not" Tommy the Cat". In the summer of 1991, the video was released and received heavy airplay on MTV, but was infrequently shown on the regular music channels. The video has Les Claypool as the bartender serving milk, due to cats coming to the bar. The entire video is in black and white, as in a later video, "Over The Falls".

"Tommy the Cat" and Primus were briefly featured in the 1991 film "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey" during the 'Battle of the Bands' portion of the movie. It also lacked Claypool's trademark Carl Thompson bass and was instead replaced with a rather generic looking 6-string bass.

The song was originally recorded with Les's 6-string Rainbow Bass, but since at least 1996 he never used it for the song again during live performances and instead used his 4-string. Since Primus' return in 2003, he has used his 6-string Rainbow Bass for the song during live performances, except for the show on December 8, 2006 where he played it off the cuff during Pudding Time.