The spacey middle section of Pink Floyd's "Dogs"

[Interstellar]

I think the main chord progression in Dogs (the one that's present in the main sung parts and in the spacey section) is brilliant (and it is used to great effect).

[happytheman]

The thing with Animals being underrated IMHO at least partially comes down to David Gilmour not playing anything from it live. The 80s/90s Pink Floyd shows didn't acknowledge the album at all and he still doesn't play anything from it in his solo shows. This is despite 'Sheep' being one of his greatest ever moments.

Gilmour has said he considered a selection from Animals for MLOR tour but figured for one Animals song he could do two others and give the fans more. I guess I'm like a lot of folks.. once Roger pulled out the full version of Dogs on his In the flesh tour that would have perhaps given Dave incentive to pull out Sheep for his solo tour..

[rael74]

Raving and Drooling - Dogs before they got bored of it.
It's far superior.

[Jubal]

It's good to just space out to(so to speak). There's no vocals or guitar just pure synth soundscape bliss for about four minutes. I wish they had other stuff like this and while they do have other cool instrumental passages I don't think they ever did anything else quite like it.

Have you never listened to
> Atom Heart Mother Suite
> Echoes
> Shine On You Crazy Diamond (both versions)?

Dogs is OK, if you can stand Roger's vocals.

[happytheman]

Raving and Drooling - Dogs before they got bored of it.
It's far superior.

Hard to argue that Rick had nothing to do with the development (or at least the flavoring) of these songs eh?

[proggy_jazzer]

Raving and Drooling - Sheep before they got bored of it.
It's far superior.

Fixed

[Adinfinitum]

Dogs is by far my favorite PF song. What an amazing track, from the interesting chord progression of the main section (guitar tuned down a whole step), to Rick Wrights innovative, interesting and great synth touches throughout the song, to that hauntingly beautiful guitar double tracked bridge section, to the middle synth solo with dogs barking, to both Roger's ( probably his best vox next to CNumb) and David's vocals. Wow. There is so many little details in Floyd songs - you can tell how meticulous they were when recording. As Rick W said "Ideas over technique"

[Digital_Man]

Have you never listened to
> Atom Heart Mother Suite
> Echoes
> Shine On You Crazy Diamond (both versions)?

Dogs is OK, if you can stand Roger's vocals.

Yep, I know all those. They are all great and all top five PF for me. I think Dogs is as good if not better than those you mentioned.

In case anyone is wondering, the reason why I singled out the middle section, and of course it wasn't meant to mean that only that part of the song is good, is because I remember a thread on here a year or two ago about a specific section of a Mike Oldfield track and that inspired me to come up with the idea of mentioning this particular part. But no, I'm not going to start a thread about the middle part of "Awaken" next(or the Gates of Delirium or Suppers Ready or whatever for that matter).

[GuitarGeek]

Gilmour has said he considered a selection from Animals for MLOR tour but figured for one Animals song he could do two others and give the fans more. I guess I'm like a lot of folks.. once Roger pulled out the full version of Dogs on his In the flesh tour that would have perhaps given Dave incentive to pull out Sheep for his solo tour..

The line I remember hearing was that they considered Sheep for the AMLOR tour, but they 86ed it because Dave felt he couldn't do justice to the vocal that way Roger had done. But yeah, I can see them thinking, "Gee, if we do that, we're gonna have to drop one of the Dark Side Of The Moon or Wish You Were Here songs...". Of course, they still did Welcome To The Machine, Us And Them, Money, and Echoes (at the start of the tour) and Shine On You Crazy Diamond (which I think was played as an encore early on the tour, then replaced Echoes after the first couple weeks), so the "The we could do two songs in place of that one" logic doesn't really hold up.

[GuitarGeek]

The thing I always thought was interesting was when they played Raving And Drooling live, in 74-75, they left in that synthesizer lick at the end of each line of the vocal in the verse sections which appears on the studio version of Sheep. But when they played in 77, that was left out.

I like the synth solos on Raving And Drooling, but the vocal sections have always felt unfinished to me, like it was only a first draft (which is basically what it is). I wish they had left the synth playing in when it morphed into Sheep, because you'd have the best of both worlds.

I also like the droning synth effect that kicks off Raving And Drooling. I forget which was the first version I heard, it might have been the LA Sports Arena show that circulated back in the 90's (the one where Roger throws a fit about the security personnel at the front of the stage hassling the fans), but I remember hearing the start of R&D, and hearing that droning synth swooping up and down, and then when the bass came in, I thought it somehow sounded like something out of A Clockwork Orange.

[GuitarGeek]

That's kind of drawing a line where someone isn't, and then suddenly "becomes'" mentally ill. Granted, the story is that Syd (actually Roger, as I prefer to call him) ate boatloads of acid during the initial Floyd heyday....and I see that as a sign of self-medication having been suddenly thrust into a limelight that he was not equipped to handle.
I believe he was a gentle, fragile guy who liked to play his guitar and hang out with his cats (oh Christ, it's me!).

We can discuss this until the sheep come home.

Perhaps so. I seem to recall reading in one of the books where someone said that he was probably not the right personality to be in a successful rock group, and that something probably would have happened, whether or not he had done acid.

BTW, another story I heard was at one stage, he had a roommate who liked to dose everyone. Reputedly, when you went to their flat, if you wanted anything to drink, you had to settle for tap water and you had to get yourself. So it seems possible some of the acid Syd was doing wasn't by his own volition, if that's true.

[GuitarGeek]

perhaps all the wonderful music on Animals gets forgotten due to the nasty, caustic, political soapbox ranting in the lyrics causing some to play it less often...

I think a lot of it is just that it doesn't get played on classic rock radio anymore, because of the length of the tracks. Also, as I recall, Animals didn't sell well at the time. It still went to number one in the UK and number three in the US (at least according to the Nicholas Schaeffner book), but I think even at the time, it didn't shift the number of units that Dark Side Of The Moon or Wish You Were Here had.

[BravadoNJ]

great song, but it has an disturbing abruptly ending that contrasted the intro. if it faded out the way it faded in and go one for another minute or so- it would have had more balance. genius lyrics, it pretty much summed up my (short) corporate career. i was never 'dog' enough.

[Progatron]

great song, but it has an disturbing abruptly ending that contrasted the intro. if it faded out the way it faded in and go one for another minute or so- it would have had more balance. genius lyrics, it pretty much summed up my (short) corporate career. i was never 'dog' enough.

I agree, it is the only complaint I have about the song. They did that a few times, the worst example being the end of "Run Like Hell".

[happytheman]

The line I remember hearing was that they considered Sheep for the AMLOR tour, but they 86ed it because Dave felt he couldn't do justice to the vocal that way Roger had done. But yeah, I can see them thinking, "Gee, if we do that, we're gonna have to drop one of the Dark Side Of The Moon or Wish You Were Here songs...". Of course, they still did Welcome To The Machine, Us And Them, Money, and Echoes (at the start of the tour) and Shine On You Crazy Diamond (which I think was played as an encore early on the tour, then replaced Echoes after the first couple weeks), so the "The we could do two songs in place of that one" logic doesn't really hold up.

Very true..

[JJ88]

The 80s/90s Floyd shows played it safe with the set-lists. 'Astronomy Domine' was really the only surprise IMHO. Gilmour's solo shows circa 2006 had all sorts of gems- Syd Barrett tracks, 'Fat Old Sun', 'Echoes' (throughout the tour), 'Wots...Uh The Deal', 'Arnold Layne', 'Remember A Day' etc.

[JKL2000]

got to think/hope that they'll announce the Animals Immersion box sometime next year.

Why do you think they're waiting till then, and why have they waited this long already? I hope you're right that they're releasing one.

[Halmyre]

What would they put on an 'Animals' immersion set, though? They already used 'You've Got To Be Crazy' and 'Raving And Drooling' to pad out WYWH.

[Digital_Man]

I just heard it on internet radio the other night. It dawned on me how much you hear the whistling and barking in the middle part. My family used to whistle that same way to get our dogs attention actually.

I think the only other PF song with as much dog sounds is "Seamus." Also, I like how these sounds are integrated into that section though. Anyway, there's also some cool stereo effects in there. I'm not an expert but there's some kind of panning or echo thing going on.

[Oreb]

For me "Dogs" is the best thing PF ever did. Unfortunately nothing else on Animals touches it.

[JJ88]

What would they put on an 'Animals' immersion set, though? They already used 'You've Got To Be Crazy' and 'Raving And Drooling' to pad out WYWH.

Yes, the options are somewhat limited. There's no film, no professional live recording and no outtakes that I know of. About all I can think of is that guitar bridge I think Snowy White put in for the 8 track tape version of 'Pigs On The Wing'...is that essential, really? (I've not heard it, but still.)

[bigbassdrum]

I now have a "Dogs" earworm, thank you very much!

Better than a heartworm !

[helix]

Why do you think they're waiting till then, and why have they waited this long already? I hope you're right that they're releasing one.

I have no idea or actual insight but thought that the Columbia Records preference would be for the Gilmour Rattle That Lock and Roger Waters Presents The Wall Live issues in 2015 and that they'd need some (another) sort of Pink Floyd historical release for 2016


as it does stand, the passing over of Animals is course stuck together with what they put on the WYWH Immersion set and it's a shame that there's a hole there. maybe they's remaster one of the full live In the Flash Animals shows. they could use the Animals promo film for the DVD. but yeah, it might stretch to thin

[Digital_Man]

For me "Dogs" is the best thing PF ever did. Unfortunately nothing else on Animals touches it.

I agree that nothing else on the album compares to it. It's sort of like "Supper's Ready" that way.

[GuitarGeek]

Yes, the options are somewhat limited. There's no film, no professional live recording and no outtakes that I know of. About all I can think of is that guitar bridge I think Snowy White put in for the 8 track tape version of 'Pigs On The Wing'...is that essential, really? (I've not heard it, but still.)

I don't know about "essential" but I think it's ludicrous that they've never used the 8-track version of Pigs On The Wing as a bonus track on anything. I think the only time it's ever been issued on CD was back in the early 90's when a quasi-legit overview of Snowy's career, which mostly had things from his solo records, his work with Thin Lizzy, I think there was a track or two from that Michael Moorcock record he played on, etc. It was called Goldtop, but I think it was only in print for a short time.