I love my dog. He’s a very sweet animal and a great watch dog. He also started his life in a puppy mill and thus was a little inbred. The upshot is that he has a host of skin and food allergies that require me to cook up batches of dog food for him. Part of my routine every Sunday is to cook up a mess of “dog stew” as we call it around the Casa de Freak. And as I was shredding the sweet potatoes this time I started thinking about the place of dogs in music. And I came up with these songs.

Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra “Black Dog” (Led Zeppelin)
Let’s enjoy one more overplayed classic rock nugget, shall we? There are plenty of Led Zep covers out there but this is the only one I know of by a swing band. And swing it does.

Alejandro Escovedo “I Wanna Be Your Dog” (The Stooges)
I’ve heard Alejandro play many times with many different bands. Hearing him play Iggy Pop with a band featuring a cello and a violin rocking it this hard completely blew me away.

Butthole Surfers “Underdog” (from the cartoon Underdog)
It really sounds like Underdog is coming to kick your ass, doesn’t it? The cartoon and its theme song were parodies of other superhero cartoons and that’s probably why I liked it so much as a kid. Even at a tender age I was really into parody, satire and irony.

Beck “Diamond Dogs” (David Bowie)
Beck is an artist I have a weird relationship with. There’s plenty of stuff he does that I just don’t care for. And then there’s the stuff like the whole One Foot In The Grave album that makes me think that he’s a genius. This song falls somewhere in between but it’s still very nice.

Groovegrass Boyz “Salty Dog Blues” (Traditional)
I remember first hearing this song on the old Andy Griffith Show. I had no idea what a salty dog was or why somebody would want to be one, but I liked it all the same. I’m still not sure about the whole salty dog thing.