Monday 25 July 2011

Fat Freddy's Cat, Hawkwind and Deputy Knob



The rabbit has been asked, 'who is Fat Freddy's Cat'? A reasonable question, I am sure all will agree. There is a context, Namely that the rabbit's Yahoo identity is 'fatfreddyscat'. The answer is that Fat Freddy's Cat was a spinoff cartoon strip from Gilbert Shelton's Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers cartoon strips. Fat Freddy was the obtuse, dope addled Freak Brother (okay they were all dope addled but Freddy was particularly dim). His cat, on the other hand, was brighter than him. Not that this was difficult.



He was in the of habit of showing his contempt for the brothers by various tricks such as using their headphones as an - erm - cat toilet and clawing upon their black vinyl.

Beyond being a put upon subverter of human stupidity, Fat Freddy's Cat was constantly put upon himself by an array of feline nephews and nieces.

So that's about it. Save to say that so far as I know he didn't have a name apart from 'Fat Freddy's Cat' which is plainly nonsense (okay apart from apparently 'Uncle F' which doesn't count) as it is a truth universally acknowledged that all cats have names. Except for the feral ones and Fat Freddy's Cat was not a feral cat.  
The rabbit has been greatly entertained by the Friday night rock stuff on BBC4 of late. Friday before last was Kinks night which was huge fun and last Friday there was a documentary about stoned rockers Hawkwind who were really known for two things. Firstly, they had a dancer called Stacia who was 6 foot 2 and had 52 inch breasts. She used to take her clothes off and dance. She also painted herself blue in the manner of an ancient Briton. As you do. Secondly, Lemmy, later of Motörhead, was their bassist for a while - apaprently a difficult relationship (wrong sort of drugs on Lemmy's part).

The rabbit's favourite Hawkwind story is that they once turned off for a concert more than usually over-refreshed on assorted pharmaceuticals, stumbled onstage and came out with the immortal line 'we'd like to get it together but we don't think we can' and stumbled back offstage. They were part of the group who rejected the Isle of Wight festival on the grounds that music should be free and played outside the perimeter. They would reputedly often turn down paying concerts to play free ones. The rabbit was going to put up their only major hit Silver Machine only to find 'embedding disabled by request'. Guys! Guys! What is going on here? Pension fund to top up? Anyway, Hurry On Sundown makes an okay substitute.

Simply Wondered - who the rabbit has previously opined should write more - he does it very well, complains following last week's Knob of the Week to the effect that knobs in high places rather exclude the ordinary knob in the street. I suppose he has a point albeit that one previous winner of this prestigious award, 'Cranmer', is a mere blogger so there is hope for all. But in the interests of fairness, a new award namely Deputy Knob is awarded to the utterly anonymous bloke who spent the entire journey on the 7.58 Thameslink from East Croydon to City Thameslink last Friday snogging an overweight young woman. It's not so much the snogging that wins this prestigious award but the fact that every time he came up for air between snogs he made a snorting noise. Memo to Deputy Knob: this is really not nice. Do not do this in a public place.





6 comments:

Verdant Earl said...

He also went by F. Frederic Skitty.

"Keed Spills!!!"

sybil law said...

Oh Fat Freddy, I mean, white rabbit - I am really enjoying the Hawkwind!!

JoJo said...

I had some friends in CA who were wicked into Hawkwind and made me a tape of some of their tunes and I liked Hurry On Sundown, along with Assault & Battery and Needlegun.

white rabbit said...

Earl - Yes but F. Frederic Skitty is just another variant of Fat Freddy's cat. It is a truth universally acknowledged that all domestic cats have proper names.

Keed does indeed nodnod.

Sybil/JoJo always glad to please!

simply wondered said...

just wait til he puts on his stereo headphones


ahhhhh! the very memory warms my soul.

Anonymous said...

In an early version, he called himself

Fat Freddy Scat