Hello. Well, after our last instalment, where amongst other
things we loved our dog, walked our dog,
taught an old dog new tricks, stayed in the doghouse and then in response the
dog dug up our back garden and started talking, its now time to look at the top
ten!
10 - Dirty Old Egg
Sucking Dog – Johnny Cash
Johnny’s dog is in in trouble for getting in the hen house
and stealing the eggs. Of course, its probably a metaphor for something far
more naughty – eg. somebody fooling around in someone else’s “hen house”.
For a bit of fun, check this one out – Johnny singing this
track on the Muppet Show. Poor Rowlf wasn’t quite expecting those lyrics!
9 - Three Legged Dog
– Cruel Sea
A groovy instrumental piece of music…very cool.
8 - Ol’ Red – Blake Shelton
Ol’ Red is the prison’s resident tracking dog. So confident
are the prison authorities in Red’s ability that they taunt the prisoners to
try and escape, knowing that Red will track them down in no time. But the prisoner who narrates this story has
other ideas. He gets the plum job in the prison, which is taking Red on a daily
walk. So he arranges for an accomplice on the outside to pen a female dog out
on the walking route, and what do you know it, Ol’ Red falls in love. The
prisoner then stops taking Red to see his companion for a few days, so of
course when he does escape, the expert tracking dog has other things on his
mind. Great story and a great track.
7 - Black Dog on My
Shoulder – Manic Street Preachers
The black dog is often used as a term to describe
depression, and I think that is what is going on in this track. Winston
Churchill famously described his depression struggles with the black dog
metaphor, and Churchill is name dropped in this track.
6 - Golden Retriever
– Super Furry Animals
I am not really all that familiar with the Super Furry
Animals, but many of my friends are fans, and I remember them playing this song
to me some time ago, and I loved it, it is just so damn catchy.
5 - Sleeping Dogs –
Merril Bainbridge
I am not ashamed to say that I like Merril Bainbridge’s
music. Interestingly, her big hit “Mouth”, a pop classic, is not really
representative of her music, which is sweet music, almost bordering on folk. This
one though is about as hard rock as Merril gets – and the borrowing of the Bee
Gees lyrics work well too (but don’t worry, she gave them credit)
4 - Like a Dog –
Powderfinger
A biting (pardon the pun) political protest song, this is
classic Powderfinger. From the Odyssey Number Five album.
And now we come to the top three, which stand well above the
others. You have no idea how many times I have switched the order around of
these three, really struggling to decide. I even considered awarding a three
way tie for the top spot, but thought that is a bit of a cop out. So here they are, the top three. And if I made this list again tomorrow, I dare say the order of these three would change again.
3- Black Dog – Led
Zeppelin
A regular in lists about the greatest rock riffs of all
time, I am not sure it really has much to do with a dog at all, but the title
is apparently a nod to a dog that wandered around the studio when they were
recording this album. Some classy rock right there!
2- Hey Bulldog – The
Beatles
Based around a piano riff, this rocker was originally
recorded for the Yellow Submarine movie, but I think it originally got cut from
the final movie. It’s a highly underrated Beatles track, with John providing
the lead vocals.
1 - Hound Dog – Elvis
Presley
Of course, there is nothing wrong with Big Mama Thornton’s
original version of Hound Dog, but then Elvis got his paws (sorry, couldn’t
resist) on this track, and turned it into this brilliant piece of rock and roll
that it is known as. Interestingly
though, many that are familiar with Thornton’s version still choose that as the
better version. In fact, I even seem to recall that Leiber and Stoller, the
legendary songwriters that penned the track were initially unhappy with Elvis’
versions, and were actually reluctant to work with him further – so some
persuasion was needed to get them onboard for the Jailhouse Rock movie, for
which they wrote many of the tracks.
So that is the top twenty dog songs. As always, your
feedback is most welcome……let me know, have I made a dog’s breakfast of this
list?
