Discography / 4% Pantomime

4% Pantomime

The most unplanned song on Cahoots, and one of the strangest collaborations in the group's catalog. Van Morrison, who was living near Woodstock at the time, dropped by Bearsville Studios one afternoon while the album was being recorded and struck up a conversation with Robertson about the difference in alcohol content between Johnny Walker Black and Johnny Walker Red labels, four percent, which became the song's title. The two of them wrote the song more or less on the spot, and Morrison stayed to record it as a duet with Richard Manuel. Levon Helm later described the session as extremely liquid, in more than one sense.

Manuel sings about Morrison directly in the lyric, referring to him by his nickname, the Belfast Cowboy, and the loose, unrehearsed chemistry between the two singers gives the track an energy that stands out from the more considered songwriting elsewhere on the record. Robertson later called the session wild and bizarre, and said everyone involved simply had fun making it, a rare description for anything recorded during the tense Cahoots sessions.

Notable versions

• The Band with Van Morrison, Cahoots (1971), lead vocals Manuel and Morrison