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


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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  • +3
    General Comment

    I'm just going to try to explain my interpretation of this song in general, you clould probably write a whole essay about each line so i'm not gonna bother with that (if i would then it will definitely become tl;dr...)

    The first two verses are probably things that "dogs" should do if they want to become "succesfull". This is probably said by a "pig" because they are dogma's that should not be doubted. Because "dogs" are thaught (by "pigs") that this is the right way to life their lives, they believe it and start living like the pigs told them to do.

    The third and fourth verse is probably about what will happen to you when you start living like a "dog". The 4th is my favourite verses so i'll elaborate a litte bit here. In the 4th verse "you" are becoming heavier and heavier (you reep the harvest= more weight, blood turns into stone = more weight, you can'tloose the weight you used to throw around = the more of a dick you were in your career the more weight you'll have in the end) all this weight (=guilt, resentment, loneliness) causes you to drown (= get depressed).

    The 5th verse is the doubts that dogs have during their careers. But they resolve this doubt by convincing themselves that they are doing the right thing.

    The 6th verse explains how the dogs convince themselves about doing the right thing. They pretend that no person is perfect and that no one has a real friend (just like themselves). Dogs think that they will be done/happy/rewarded if they become the best. In order to become the best they have to isolate (=kill/hinder) the winner (= the person who is the best at this moment).

    The 7th, 8th and 9th verse should probably two equally long verses (including the final repetition of the last line). The 7th verse is about how pigs manipulate dogs into their servants and who they choose as servants. The pigs choose the insecure/scarred(=born in a house full of pain) and weak/dumb (trained not to spit in the fan) (if you spit in a fan your spit will fly back in your face) so they could order them around (told what to do by the man) and tame to their liking (broken by trained personnel). When they are done with their training (=the first two verses aswell) they reward the dog (given a pat on the back) for his obedience (collar and chain)

    The last verse is about the consequences of the training for the dogs. The dogs become selfish (breaking away from the pack) and their family starts to hate them (only a stranger at home). This makes the dogs realise that they weren't the ones opressing, they were oppressed themselves (ground down = being oppressed). The egocentric behaviour of the dogs made them so alone that no one was around when they died (found dead on the phone). In the end the dogs are suffering because of the system they kept in place themselves (dragged down by the stone).

    Well, it still turned out to be quite a long story... Luckily PF fans are usually very patient.

    CarelessEugeneon February 18, 2014   Link

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