Black Dog on My Shoulder

I'm the first one to comment? Cool. I love this song. :)

The first time I heard this and read the lyrics, I thought it was stupid, and one of the Manics' worst pieces. I liked the tune, but at the time, the lyrics meant nothing to me. Then I read in an interview/article somewhere that Winston Churchhill called his depression a "black dog", and that's where the song title came from. Now I feel dumb for not looking deeper into it, as the Manics almost always have a deeper, sometimes implied, meaning.

Winston Churchill suffered from Bipolar disorder, and his depression was described by him as his black dog. "Winston Churchill, can you hear my voice?" basically says it all.

I feel that the line "Winston Churchill, can you hear my voice" is a bit too forced to work in this song. He obviously wanted to leave a clue as to what the song was about. The problem is that the clue is not likely to lead anyone to the answer, but if you know about the Churchill Black Dog quote it is not necessary to include the line. A bit like using a hammer instead of using subtlety like the rest of the song.

The song kind of reminds me of the phrase "hair of the dog that bit me" as well - when he sings "there's a black dog on my shoulder again" it implies a sense of continuity, as if he dislikes the black dog/depression, and yet still keeps coming back to it.

well, I never knew about winston churchill and his depression, so actually the winston churchill line did help me to learn a bit more knowledge about the man.

my appreciation and love for these lyrics have increased so very much in the past couple of years. i really hope it's not an underappreciated song.

My favourite song off the album. Also: "Does it matter if you really ever know?" Can that be about anything other than Richey?

Until I learned the Winston Churchill depression thing, I thought it was about anorexia.

"Licking my neck and saying she's my friend" "I'm playing with it but it's gone to my head" "My dilemma but not my choice" And such.

I read a bizarre folklore tale about black dog apparitions that supposedly appeared to people in times of trouble as either warnings or as protectors. These stories go back a long way, so I suppose the black dog labelling of Churchill's condition was related to that. The song was to me the most obvious on the album as far as meaning goes... The depressive is anticipating his imminent down swing, or he's 'seen he ghost of the black dog' as those folklore stories stated.

This song is about depression, nothing more and nothing less. There are several references that point this out.

"Black Dog on my shoulder", yes. Winston Churchill referred to depression being the black dog on his shoulder, and this has to many become a way of referring to the illness.

"My mouth is so dry" Dryness of the mouth is a common symptom associated with the use of SSRI and other anti-depressant mediciation.

"Double vision the way it is", again, another common symptom of this medication.

Isn't there a Led Zeppelin song called Black Dog? The two could be similar?