"Dogs" (originally composed as "You've Got to Be Crazy") is a song by English
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...
band
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...
, released on the album ''
Animals
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...
'' in 1977. This song was one of several to be considered for the band's 2001 compilation album ''
Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd''.
Musical components
The music was written in 1974 by
David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett. P ...
and
Roger Waters
George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. In 1965, he co-founded the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. Waters initially served as the bassist, but following the departure of singer-so ...
, with lyrics by Waters, and originally titled "You've Got to Be Crazy" and was part of the ''
Wish You Were Here Wish You Were Here may refer to:
Film, television, and theater Film
* Wish You Were Here (1987 film), ''Wish You Were Here'' (1987 film), a British comedy-drama film by David Leland
* Wish You Were Here (2012 film), ''Wish You Were Here'' (2012 ...
'' setlist. Waters modified the lyrics in some parts, transposed the key to suit both Gilmour's and his vocals, and re-titled it "Dogs". The version on ''Animals'' is 17 minutes long.
The main theme features what were, for Pink Floyd, rather unusual chords. In the final version's key of
D minor
D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major.
The D natural minor scale is:
Changes needed for t ...
, the chords are D
minor ninth
In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second.
Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is an octave larger than a second, its ...
, E♭
maj7 sus2 /B♭, A
sus2sus4, and A♭sus2
(♯11). All these chords contain the
tonic of the song, D—even as a
tritone
In music theory, the tritone is defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three a ...
, as is the case in the fourth chord.
[''Guitar World'' magazine, Volume 22, Number 11, November 2002.][Phil Rose: ''Which One's Pink? An Analysis of the Concept Albums of Roger Waters and Pink Floyd''. Collector's Guide Publishing Inc. S /ref>
The song fades in with an acoustic guitar in ]D tuning
Guitar tunings are the assignment of pitches to the open strings of guitars, including acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and classical guitars. Tunings are described by the particular pitches that are made by notes in Western music. By ...
strumming the chords with a lively, syncopated
In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "place ...
rhythm, with a droning Farfisa organ
Farfisa (Fabbriche Riunite di Fisarmoniche) is a manufacturer of electronics based in Osimo, Italy, founded in 1946. The company manufactured a series of compact electronic organs in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Compact, FAST, Professiona ...
playing chord tones (A, B♭, A, and A♭, respectively). After the first sixteen-bar progression, Gilmour begins the vocal. For the third repetition, bass guitar, Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...
, drums and lead guitar (playing a subtle drone of D) enter. After this repetition comes the first of several guitar solos, played by Gilmour on a Fender Telecaster
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bo ...
rather than his usual Fender Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously ...
. Next is another verse of lyrics, followed by a keyboard solo. Finally, after six repetitions of the main theme, the tempo is cut in half (and thus dramatically slower). A new chord progression is introduced, resolving gradually to the relative major
In music, relative keys are the major and minor scales that have the same key signatures (enharmonically equivalent), meaning that they share all the same notes but are arranged in a different order of whole steps and half steps. A pair of major an ...
, F major
F major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative minor is D minor and its parallel minor is F minor
F minor is a minor scale based on F, consis ...
, with two lead guitars loudly playing a slow harmonized melody, and a quieter third guitar adding decorative string bends, with heavy use of reverb
Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abso ...
and echo
In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the list ...
.
The song is then stripped back down to acoustic guitar, droning on the Dm9 chord, with the bass softly striking E, the ninth
In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second.
Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is an octave larger than a second, its ...
of the chord, in the same range as the guitar's lowest note, D. Another slash chord
In music, especially modern popular music, a slash chord or slashed chord, also compound chord, is a chord whose bass note or inversion is indicated by the addition of a slash and the letter of the bass note after the root note letter. It does no ...
movement follows, B♭ to C/B♭, followed by the key's dominant, A major
A major (or the key of A) is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The key of A major is the only k ...
, with the minor sixth
In Western classical music, a minor sixth is a musical interval encompassing six staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and is one of two commonly occurring sixths (the other one being the major sixth). It is qualified as ''mi ...
heard first at the top of the chord, in an A(add♭6), and later, as its bass note (in a progression of A, A/F, A/E, to D minor). After another guitar solo over the new progression, Gilmour sings a melisma
Melisma ( grc-gre, μέλισμα, , ; from grc, , melos, song, melody, label=none, plural: ''melismata'') is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referr ...
tic vocal with overdubbed
Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...
harmonies from Richard Wright, ending with the lyric "So have a good drown/As you go down all alone/Dragged down by the stone", as the dissonant
In music, consonance and dissonance are categorizations of simultaneous or successive Sound, sounds. Within the Western tradition, some listeners associate consonance with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, and dissonance with harshness ...
A/F leads back to Dm9.
The middle section, in a slow, metronomic 6/4 time, is built upon several layers of synthesizers, sustaining the four chords of the main theme, with the sound of dogs barking processed through a vocoder
A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation.
The vocoder was ...
and played as an instrument. (One dog moan is excerpted from the group's earlier recording "Seamus
Seamus may refer to:
* Séamus, a male first name of Gaelic origin
Film and television
* Seamus (''Family Guy''), a character on the television series ''Family Guy''
* Seamus, a pigeon in '' Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore''
* Seamus Mc ...
".) Gilmour's last word, "stone", echoes slowly for many measures, gradually fading out (it reappears later in the instrumental section of "Sheep
Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...
"). There are no guitars in this section. Gradually, a synthesizer solo emerges, and as it reaches its climax, the acoustic guitar returns, at the original tempo, once again lively and syncopated.
The formula of the first section is followed, but this time with Waters singing the lead. A third guitar solo ends in three-part harmony, playing descending augmented triad
Augment or augmentation may refer to:
Language
*Augment (Indo-European), a syllable added to the beginning of the word in certain Indo-European languages
*Augment (Bantu languages), a morpheme that is prefixed to the noun class prefix of nouns i ...
s, leading to Gilmour's slow, harmonized guitar melody in F major, in a section of music indistinguishable from its first appearance in the song. This leads to the final verse, with Waters singing a new, repeating melody and a sixteen-line anaphora, where each line begins with the words "who was." Originally sung over the tonic only, in the final recording the multiple harmonized guitars alternate between D minor and C major
C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and ...
, while the bass further extends the harmony with a descending F, E, D, and C, creating the sense of an F sixth chord
The term ''sixth chord'' refers to two different kinds of chord, the first in classical music and the second in modern popular music.
The original meaning of the term is a ''chord in first inversion'', in other words with its third in the bass a ...
followed by C/E. Originally, Waters' lyrics ("Who was born in a house full of pain", etc.) were echoed by Gilmour and Wright in a round
Round or rounds may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* The contour of a closed curve or surface with no sharp corners, such as an ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, cant, or sphere
* Rounding, the shortening of a number to reduce the number ...
style, but in the final recording only the last few are repeated, and done so by Waters himself, using tape delay. This section resolves first to B♭, then to A, before concluding with the A, F, E bass movement to a sustained Dm9, as the lyrics again end with "dragged down by the stone".
"Dogs" is the only song on ''Animals'' in which Gilmour sings a lead part or receives a co-writing credit. It was also Wright's last vocal contribution before leaving the band in 1979.
Concept
Fitting into the album's Orwellian
"Orwellian" is an adjective describing a situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. It denotes an attitude and a brutal policy of draconian control by pr ...
concept of comparing human behaviour to various animals, "Dogs" concentrates on the aggressive, ruthlessly competitive world of business
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...
, describing a high-powered businessman. The first two verses detail his predatory nature — outwardly charming and respectable with his "club tie and a firm handshake, a certain look in the eye and an easy smile", while behind this façade he lies waiting "to pick out the easy meat...to strike when the moment is right", and to stab those who trust him in the back. Subsequent verses portray the emptiness of his existence catching up to him as he grows older, retiring to the south rich but unloved: "just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer", and drowning under the weight of a metaphorical stone.
The final verse explores a number of aspects of business life and how it compares to dogs, for example taking chances and being "trained not to spit in the fan", losing their individuality ("broken by trained personnel"), obeying their superiors ("fitted with collar and chain"), being rewarded for good behaviour ("given a pat on the back"), working harder than the other workers ("breaking away from the pack") and getting to know everyone but spending less time with family ("only a stranger at home"). Recommended by a friend of Waters named Joel Eaves, this line was personal to him as he was split from his family at infancy, being "broken away", as he put it. He later joined the Air Force squadron known as "Wolfpack", which directly inspired the implementation of this line. Every line of this verse begins with the words "Who was", which prompted comparison to Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
's poem "Howl
Howl most often refers to:
*Howling, an animal vocalization in many canine species
*Howl (poem), a 1956 poem by Allen Ginsberg
Howl may also refer to:
Film
* ''The Howl'', a 1970 Italian film
* ''Howl'' (2010 film), a 2010 American arthouse b ...
". However, Waters has denied the Ginsberg poem was any influence on his lyrics. Instead, these lines can be seen as subordinate clauses to the lyric line that precedes them ("And you believe at heart everyone's a killer/Who was born in a house full of pain/Who was tc.).[Recordings](_blank)
There is an obvious link to the band's 1971 song on Meddle
''Meddle'' is the sixth studio album by English rock band Pink Floyd, released by Harvest Records. The album was produced between the band's touring commitments, from January to August 1971 at a series of locations around London, including EMI ...
, Seamus
Seamus may refer to:
* Séamus, a male first name of Gaelic origin
Film and television
* Seamus (''Family Guy''), a character on the television series ''Family Guy''
* Seamus, a pigeon in '' Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore''
* Seamus Mc ...
, which was an early use of a dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
howling
Howling is a vocal form of animal communication seen in most canines, particularly wolves, coyotes, foxes, and dogs, as well as cats and some species of monkeys. Howls are generally lengthy sustained sounds, loud and audible over long distances, ...
by Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...
.
Early versions
During 1974 performances of "You've Got to Be Crazy", which can be heard on the ''Immersion Box Set'' and the ''Experience'' version of ''Wish You Were Here Wish You Were Here may refer to:
Film, television, and theater Film
* Wish You Were Here (1987 film), ''Wish You Were Here'' (1987 film), a British comedy-drama film by David Leland
* Wish You Were Here (2012 film), ''Wish You Were Here'' (2012 ...
'', the band performed the song faster than it would eventually become, and in its original key of E minor
E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major.
The E natural minor scale is:
:
Changes needed ...
, before they started using D tuning
Guitar tunings are the assignment of pitches to the open strings of guitars, including acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and classical guitars. Tunings are described by the particular pitches that are made by notes in Western music. By ...
on their guitars, for a concert pitch
Concert pitch is the pitch (music), pitch reference to which a group of musical instruments are musical tuning, tuned for a performance. Concert pitch may vary from musical ensemble, ensemble to ensemble, and has varied widely over music history. ...
of D minor. The lyrics, though different, were thematically similar to the final version of "Dogs". The lyrics were modified by the time the song was played live in 1975, and then the lyrics changed again when recording ''Animals''.
Equally impossible was for Gilmour or Waters to sing the song's highest part, "dragged down by the stone", in the original key, which would begin on the first B above middle C
C or Do is the first note and semitone of the C major scale, the third note of the A minor scale (the relative minor of C major), and the fourth note (G, A, B, C) of the Guidonian hand, commonly pitched around 261.63 Hz. The actual frequen ...
. As any recording of the early performances will attest, neither singer could quite reach and sustain it, even when attempting it together. The line appears twice, as the climax to each singer's performance. It was likely for the sake of achieving high-quality lead vocals, specifically on this line, that they lowered the key before committing the song to record (Waters, however, would go on to reach even higher notes on songs like " Hey You", " Every Stranger's Eyes" and "One of My Turns
"One of My Turns" is a song by Pink Floyd, appearing on their 1979 album ''The Wall''. The song was also released as a B-side on the single of "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)".
Composition
The song is split into distinct segments: a groupie ( ...
").
The bootleg release ''From Abbey Road to Britannia Row: The Extraction Tapes'' (2014) includes a work-in-progress studio version of "Dogs." This version is closer musically to the official album version than the earlier "You've Got to Be Crazy" live versions, but it has distinct differences. Unlike the album version, it is sung almost entirely by Waters; Gilmour sings only the middle section ("And when you lose control..."). The synthesizer solo (with barking dog effects) is missing (accounting for the track's duration of just under 14 minutes, in contrast to the 17-minute version on ''Animals''), and some of the lyrics are different, most notably in the closing "Who was..." verse.
Live versions
The song was performed nightly during the 1977 tour. Gilmour would sing all but the last section and played his acoustic parts on electric guitar, making it easy to switch between lead and rhythm with his Telecaster played in D standard tuning. Some solos were different from the studio version and before the final guitar solo Gilmour would perform an extra solo. Waters would sing the "who was born in a house full of pain" section. Then for the last part, Waters would sing "breaking away from the pack" with Gilmour and Wright singing a round
Round or rounds may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* The contour of a closed curve or surface with no sharp corners, such as an ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, cant, or sphere
* Rounding, the shortening of a number to reduce the number ...
(similarly to performances on the 1974/75 Gotta Be Crazy tour) and both Gilmour and Waters singing the final "who was dragged down by the stone".
Waters regularly performed the song on his In the Flesh Tour, with Jon Carin
Jon Carin (born October 21, 1964) is a musician, singer, songwriter and producer who has been a longtime collaborator with the bands Pink Floyd and The Who, and the solo careers of David Gilmour and Roger Waters, Pete Townshend, Eddie Vedder, Kate ...
and Doyle Bramhall II
Doyle Bramhall II (born December 24, 1968) is an American guitarist, producer and songwriter best known for his work with Eric Clapton and Roger Waters. He is the son of the songwriter and drummer Doyle Bramhall.
Early life
Bramhall was born ...
replacing Gilmour on vocals and guitars, respectively. Waters also performed the song to open the second set of his Us + Them Tour
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
shows, with Dave Kilminster
David Kilminster (born 25 January 1962) is a British guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, producer and music teacher, who has toured as a sideman to several prestigious musicians, including progressive rock artists Steven Wilson and Roger Waters.
...
and Jonathan Wilson on guitars, and the latter on vocals. However, despite Wilson replacing Gilmour's role on vocals during this tour, the sample of Gilmour's voice echoing the word "stone" from the original studio recording was utilized on a backing track during the middle section.
Cover versions
Les Claypool's Frog Brigade
Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade (also known as The Les Claypool Frog Brigade) is a musical project with rotating personnel, led by American singer/bassist Les Claypool. The Frog Brigade was formed during a hiatus from Claypool ...
performed and released a live version of "Dogs" on the album ''Live Frogs Set 2
''Live Frogs Set 2'' is the second set of live recordings by Les Claypool's Frog Brigade, released on July 24, 2001. The album is a complete performance of the Pink Floyd studio album ''Animals''. It is introduced at the end of '' Live Frogs S ...
'' (2001). The entire album is a complete performance of Pink Floyd's ''Animals'' album, recorded in October 2000.
Personnel
*David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett. P ...
– lead vocals (first half), acoustic and electric guitar
*Roger Waters
George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. In 1965, he co-founded the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. Waters initially served as the bassist, but following the departure of singer-so ...
– bass guitar, lead and harmony vocals (second half), vocoder
A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation.
The vocoder was ...
* Richard Wright – Fender Rhodes electric piano, Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...
, Minimoog
The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...
, ARP String Ensemble
The Solina String Ensemble, also marketed as the ARP String Ensemble, is a fully polyphonic multi-orchestral synthesizer with a 49-key keyboard, produced by Eminent BV (known for their ''Solina'' brand). It was distributed in the United States by ...
, Farfisa organ
Farfisa (Fabbriche Riunite di Fisarmoniche) is a manufacturer of electronics based in Osimo, Italy, founded in 1946. The company manufactured a series of compact electronic organs in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Compact, FAST, Professiona ...
, harmony vocals (first half)
*Nick Mason
Nicholas Berkeley Mason, (born 27 January 1944) is an English drummer and a founder member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. He is the only member to feature on every Pink Floyd album, and the only constant member since its formation in ...
– drums, percussion
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dogs (Pink Floyd song)
1977 songs
Pink Floyd songs
Protest songs
Rock ballads
Songs written by David Gilmour
Songs written by Roger Waters
Song recordings produced by David Gilmour
Song recordings produced by Roger Waters
Song recordings produced by Richard Wright (musician)
Song recordings produced by Nick Mason