You gotta be crazy, you gotta have a real need
You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you're on the street
You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed
And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight
You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking

And after a while, you can work on points for style
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake
A certain look in the eye and an easy smile
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to
So that when they turn their backs on you,
You'll get the chance to put the knife in

You gotta keep one eye looking over your shoulder
You know it's going to get harder, and harder, and harder as you get older
And in the end you'll pack up and fly down south
Hide your head in the sand,
Just another sad old man
All alone and dying of cancer

And when you loose control, you'll reap the harvest you have sown
And as the fear grows, the bad blood slows and turns to stone
And it's too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around
So have a good drown, as you go down, all alone
Dragged down by the stone (stone, stone, stone, stone, stone)

I gotta admit that I'm a little bit confused
Sometimes it seems to me as if I'm just being used
Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise
If I don't stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this maze?

Deaf, dumb, and blind, you just keep on pretending
That everyone's expendable and no-one has a real friend
And it seems to you the thing to do would be to isolate the winner
And everything's done under the sun
And you believe at heart, everyone's a killer

Who was born in a house full of pain
Who was trained not to spit in the fan
Who was told what to do by the man
Who was broken by trained personnel

Who was fitted with collar and chain
Who was given a pat on the back
Who was breaking away from the pack
Who was only a stranger at home

Who was ground down in the end
Who was found dead on the phone
Who was dragged down by the stone

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Lyrics submitted by Demau Senae, edited by BIRDDUDE830, DanVitaleRocks

Dogs Lyrics as written by Roger Waters David Jon Gilmour

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Songtrust Ave

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Dogs song meanings

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I've always considered 'Animals' to be one of their weaker albums... it's basically an album full of rejected material from 'Wish You Were Here'. 'Dogs' and 'Sheep' originally had different titles and were originally intended to be part of that album.

The whole 'Animal Farm' concept thing didn't come in until later, and it always seemed to me to be a fairly half hearted attempt to make a bunch of unrelated songs look like they fit together... and it doesn't really come off, for me.

Anyway, Dogs was written at around the same time as 'Have A Cigar' off 'Wish You Were Here', and is basically about the same thing - greedy, hollow, upper level management types who care only about money nothing else. And they will happily lie, steal, cheat and betray their colleagues in order to get what they want.

I love how, at the start of the song, the 'suit' is portrayed as this ultra cool character who's in complete control of his life, but as the song progresses it's revealed that he's actually really insecure and not very happy.... until eventually he dies a fairly unhappy man.

I love the line 'who was found dead on the phone'... I think it's hilarious, that black sense of humour that runs through 90% of Pink Floyd's stuff but no one seems to pick up on. When you've heard of all the studies of management executives going to see specialists to manage their stress levels, and the high rate of heart attack and related afflictions in people in the corporate world... I mean, if their job is that bad, why not quit and do something else?

But it's that fear of being perceived as a failure if they're not wearing an expensive suit and pulling in a six figure salary. That need to somehow elevate themselves above the unwashed masses... as if they need that prestige to convince themselves that they're worthwhile people.

I think it's funny... these people work themselves to death for a coporation that's only going to turf them out on their arse the minute they hit retirement age. And yet this type of work is still considered to be the epitome of vocational choices in the Western world.

Now <i>that's</i> Orwellian :-).

And although I think the album doesn't quite work as whole, I should point out that this is one of my favourite Floyd songs... it's bloody fantastic.

I've always considered 'Animals' to be one of their weaker albums... it's basically an album full of rejected material from 'Wish You Were Here'. 'Dogs' and 'Sheep' originally had different titles and were originally intended to be part of that album. The whole 'Animal Farm' concept thing didn't come in until later, and it always seemed to me to be a fairly half hearted attempt to make a bunch of unrelated songs look like they fit together... and it doesn't really come off, for me. Anyway, Dogs was written at around the same time as 'Have A Cigar' off 'Wish You Were Here', and is basically about the same thing - greedy, hollow, upper level management types who care only about money nothing else. And they will happily lie, steal, cheat and betray their colleagues in order to get what they want. I love how, at the start of the song, the 'suit' is portrayed as this ultra cool character who's in complete control of his life, but as the song progresses it's revealed that he's actually really insecure and not very happy.... until eventually he dies a fairly unhappy man. I love the line 'who was found dead on the phone'... I think it's hilarious, that black sense of humour that runs through 90% of Pink Floyd's stuff but no one seems to pick up on. When you've heard of all the studies of management executives going to see specialists to manage their stress levels, and the high rate of heart attack and related afflictions in people in the corporate world... I mean, if their job is that bad, why not quit and do something else? But it's that fear of being perceived as a failure if they're not wearing an expensive suit and pulling in a six figure salary. That need to somehow elevate themselves above the unwashed masses... as if they need that prestige to convince themselves that they're worthwhile people. I think it's funny... these people work themselves to death for a coporation that's only going to turf them out on their arse the minute they hit retirement age. And yet this type of work is still considered to be the epitome of vocational choices in the Western world. Now <i>that's</i> Orwellian :-). And although I think the album doesn't quite work as whole, I should point out that this is one of my favourite Floyd songs... it's bloody fantastic.

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ch0ganon December 16, 2004 Link
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@ch0gan

the album in general is about the roles people will fall into while tripping balls. The dogs get satisfaction out of the kill and conflicts for the thrill of the game. This attracts the pigs who are able to usually get something out of it and will act for themselves alone. And like in the song sheep they sit around pretending that nothing is wrong until by the end of the night the traps have been woven too tight and little sanity remains.

DECEPTICLEon September 29, 2012