Miscellaneous - D-Dogs

  by Andy Cassidy

published: 15 / 1 / 2012

Article

I used to work in a bar, and, one afternoon, Stevie, one of my regular customers, came in with a face as long as a wet weekend in Blackpool. I poured him his usual pint of lager, and, cautiously, asked him what the matter was. “It’s been a rough few weeks, Andy,” he replied. “First off, my wife left me, then, two days later, Morven [his beloved German Shepherd] died.” I expressed my sympathy and, sensing that he didn’t want to talk any more, wandered off to look busy. Later in the day, when Stevie had left the bar to answer a call of nature, I mentioned Stevie’s situation to another regular, and noted how uncharacteristically morose Stevie seemed. “I know, poor guy” replied Jim, “he really loved that dog.” Jim’s response, although deadly serious, still makes me laugh to this day. Fortunately for me, when I was setting about coming up for the inspiration for this month’s piece, I happened to be thinking of Stevie and Morven with a home-made “mix-tape” of Beach Boys sound-alikes playing and, when I heard Henry Gross’s 'Shannon', I knew that I had my subject: Dogs in music. Henry Gross’s 'Shannon' was a hit in 1976, and dealt with the death of Carl Wilson’s Irish Setter Shannon. Poor old Shannon went out swimming in the ocean one day, and for whatever reason, decided not to turn back and, presumably, drowned. Now, normally I’m pretty cynical and would be quick to scoff at this sort of thing, but that day, with Stevie in mind, I went to pieces. For those of you unfamiliar with the song, here is a sample lyric: "Shannon is gone/I hope she's drifting out to sea/She always loved to swim away/Maybe she'll find an island/With a shady tree/Just like the one in our backyard." Cry? I broke my heart. I then began to think of other “dog” songs, and boy! There are loads, and the thing that strikes me is the sheer level of emotion involved. Listen to Howard Vokes, the notorious Country doom-singer (a man with such cheery recordings as 'Willie Roy the Crippled Boy', 'Engineer’s Last Ride” and 'The Sinking of the Titanic'), and his version of 'Old Shep'. This is some serious sentimentality. "Old Shep he knew he was going to go/For he reached out and nipped at my hand/He looked up at me just as much as to say/We're parting but you'll understand." Just typing this has me welling up. Then of course you have 'Old Tige' by Jim Reeves, Neil Young’s 'Old King' (a tribute to his tick-hound, Elvis), 'Old Red' by Blake Shelton, 'Blue' by Peter, Paul and Mary, the Beatles’ 'Martha, My Dear' – the list goes on and on. Fortunately, though, not all dog songs are weepies. Take Patti Page’s 'How Much is that Doggie in the Window?', 'Hound Dog', Pink Floyd’s canine triumvirate of 'Dogs', 'The Dogs of War' and 'Seamus', Belle and Sebastian’s 'Dog on Wheels' and 'I Love My Dog' by Cat Stevens. Thomas Truax offers 'Why Dogs Howl at the Moon (Parts One and Two)?' and 'The Bassett Hound’s Lament'. Dylan gets in on the act with 'If Dogs Run Free', and who could overlook the utterly charming 'Hold on Little Tomato' by Pink Martini. The Monkees were in the charts in 1965 with 'I’m Gonna Buy Me a Dog', the Aquabats recorded 'Canis Lupus', while Nick Drake offered 'Black Eyed Dog'. One of my current favourites is 'Fido, Your Leash is too Long' by the Magnetic Fields, while Rolf Harris’ 'Big Dog' – complete with “eefing and eyefing” - never fails to make me smile. No other animal has had this effect on popular music. Sure, there are a few cat songs (Pink Floyd’s 'Lucifer Sam' and the Kinks’ 'Phenomenal Cat' come immediately to mind), a few about birds ('Blackbird' by the Beatles, 'Birds' by Neil Young) and even elephants (Syd Barrett’s 'Effervescing Elephant'), but none come close to outnumbering dogs. As Pulp said in their 1986 single, 'Dogs Are Everywhere'. When Brian Wilson put together 'Pet Sounds', the last sound on the album was of a train departing and his two dogs, Banana and Louie, barking and howling. Maybe, like Brian, we should give them the last word: Woof. A further list of dog songs that didn’t make the finished article: Damn Dog – Manic Street Preachers Hair of the Dog - Bauhaus Bride of Rain Dog – Tom Waits Dog Bite – Dead Kennedys Walking the Dog - Rufus Wainwright I Wanna be Your Dog - Iggy and the Stooges Dogs of LA - Liz Phair Queenie's Song - Guy Clark Dixie the Tiny Dog - Peter Himmelman Puppy Love - Donny Osmond Black Dog - Led Zeppelin Atomic Dog - George Clinton Diamond Dogs – David Bowie Dirty Old Egg Sucking Dog – Johnny Cash Bird Dog – The Everly Brothers All Good Things – Klaatu You, me and a dog named Boo – Lobo Mad Dogs and Englishmen - Noel Coward The Dog Song – Nellie McKay K9 – Skinny Puppy Even Dogs in the Wild – Associates Shake Dog Shake – The Cure Year of the Dog - Relaxed Muscle