Pink Floyd's "Seamus"
"Seamus" is a unique, forgotten classic by one of rock's most enduring groups, Pink Floyd. Track five on their 1971 release, Meddle, the song itself is a simple twelve bar blues with some tasty acoustic bottleneck and piano riffing with each other. David Gilmour takes the lead vocal. What makes it unique is that it features a dog named Seamus on background and occasionally lead vocals.
Now there have been songs that featured dogs before. The fadeout to the Beach Boy's "Caroline No" on the classic, Pet Sounds, features a train whistle and a dog barking. Henry Gross of Sha Na Na fame did a song called "Shannon" that was about Carl Wilson's dog being swept out to sea never to be seen again. It was a real tearjerker, but I liked the song. On Yellow Submarine, there is barking on "Hey Bulldog," but I think it's John or Mal Evans...maybe Ringo. I'm not certain.
It doesn't sound like a real dog.
There are unsubstantiated rumors and myths regarding the session. One is that Seamus, a Russian Wolfhound, belonged to Steve Marriot who happened to be in the studio at the time. As a joke, they placed headphones on the dog and played him some music, which he seemed to like. When they patched a tone generator in and played the dog specific notes, he tried to match them with his howl. By playing the notes of the melody in sequence to the dog, the dog became a vocalist...of sorts.
If it's true, it was a brilliant experiment with outstanding results. I can't think of another tune like it. It may be truly unique in the history of rock. I've been playing this track to my dogs for years with varying results. The ears have gone up on some, but the others were indifferent.
There are the barking dogs doing "Jingle Bells" every Christmas, but they are annoying to hear more than once a year. Besides, they had a whole choir, Seamus was a solo act.
Let's face it, singing dogs never caught on.
To learn more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamus_(song)
http://www.pinkfloydonline.com/discography/meddle/
Posted by Martin Rots at 12/6/2009 8:44 AM 
Categories: The Musicians
Tags: Russian Wolfhound music Christmas Hey Bulldog singing dogs Seamus dog named Seamus John Evans Steve Marriot barking dogs Jingle Bells tone generator headphones on the dog Meddle Shannon Carl Wilson dog vocalist David Gilmour Henry Gross of Sha Na Na history of rock 1971 whole choir Ringo Pink Floyd acoustic bottleneck and piano Pink Floyd Seamus dog barking Beach Boy Caroline No Yellow Submarine Henry Gross dog specific notes Pet Sounds Mal Evans
Categories: The Musicians
Tags: Russian Wolfhound music Christmas Hey Bulldog singing dogs Seamus dog named Seamus John Evans Steve Marriot barking dogs Jingle Bells tone generator headphones on the dog Meddle Shannon Carl Wilson dog vocalist David Gilmour Henry Gross of Sha Na Na history of rock 1971 whole choir Ringo Pink Floyd acoustic bottleneck and piano Pink Floyd Seamus dog barking Beach Boy Caroline No Yellow Submarine Henry Gross dog specific notes Pet Sounds Mal Evans
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