Goodbye Mr. Blue

Album: Chloë and the Next 20th Century (2022)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Goodbye Mr. Blue" is a stripped-down, country-folk ballad about a Turkish Angora pedigree cat. The moggy symbolizes the only bond left in a broken relationship. "I think the cat is more of a pain in the ass for the narrator, at least at the very start of the song," Father John Misty explained to The Sun. "The ex-girlfriend has advanced in her career and is traveling more now and, as such, can't look after Mr. Blue."

    He added: "So he begrudgingly takes the cat because he doesn't have anything else going on, which seems like a point of contention in the relationship."

    Their crumbled romance takes an upturn following the death of the beloved Turkish Angora cat. "Mr. Blue getting sick and dying brings them back to together for a moment, but you get a sense what's been lost is lost," Misty said.
  • Father John Misty recorded the slow and emotional acoustic ballad for Chloë and the Next 20th Century. It is one of many story-telling songs on the album.
  • Father John Misty recorded Chloë and the Next 20th Century in the second half of 2020 with his longtime collaborator Jonathan Wilson. The singer-songwriter entered Wilson's Five Star Studios in August 2020 with four tunes. Following that session, Misty wrote the rest of the songs, including "Goodbye Mr. Blue," before recording resumed from October to December.
  • Misty took the album name from the record's opening track, "Chloë," and closing song, "The Next 20th Century."
  • Noel Paul (Bat For Lashes' "All Your Gold," Lily Allen's "Air Balloon," Father John Misty's "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings") directed the video. It follows a young woman's journey to her family home in Sofia, Bulgaria.

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