Dr. Dog :: The Girl
I don’t know anything technical about music beyond what I learned in high school symphony band, but here goes my first effort writing about a song I like very much.
Dr. Dog is one of those bands I had to listen to a few times before I could even form an opinion about them. The Girl is the kind of song I didn’t even hear until about the third or fourth play. It’s steeped in what I’d like to call 80’s “dad pop”, easily getting lost amongst the folksy goodtime/bad-time 70’s throwback tracks that fill out the rest of We All Belong.
And so it begins with a jangly repetition of “one, two, one-two-three-four”, evoking those psychedelic Sesame Street number counting segments that feature rolling marbles and disco lights. What follows is gritty, dare I say… Don Henley gritty: the melody sways like a pendulum through lyrics like, “living dirty lies” and “break into the church to burglarize the father”. It sounds dangerous, almost sinister… until, by way of the chorus, the title “girl” in question appears and shines a light through the protagonist’s darkness. Usually a happy chorus plunked into what I think starts off as a perfectly good dirge pisses me off (i.e. every single hit by The Police), but this one’s chock-full of harmony and capped off by an awful yowl that brings you back down into the grime before things get too sugary.
After one of my favorite lines (“diggin’ up the dead and expecting them to dance, dance, dance”) leads into the second chorus, spare percussion and delicate piano tinkling gives way to a horn-like wail that jerks you into outer space. The guitar (and keyboard?) parts wrap around each other and slither into a sexy smooth riff that sounds like it belongs in a particularly dramatic episode of 21 Jump Street. It makes me want to slip on a jean jacket and step into the night with the seemingly hundreds of layered voices that enter and end the song with an anthemic march.
In conclusion, The Girl rules.
the Girl
Dr. Dog (homepage)
VJ said on thursday, february 28th, 2008
Barbara said on thursday, february 28th, 2008
This is a great song. no need to invoke Don Henley.
don said on thursday, february 28th, 2008
You have to admit that it has a sort of Dirty Laundry feel.
sincerely,
Don Henley
johnny said on thursday, february 28th, 2008
wow, never made the connection between dr. dog and sesame street. i guess it could be made for all puppets really. what comes to mind is dr. teeth and the electric mayhem maybe it’s the "dr." in the name, but for some reason this era of nostalgic "father music" (personally preferred to ‘dad pop’) has a relation for me to those late 70’s early 80’s puppets on television.
johnny said on thursday, february 28th, 2008
figured it out. he sounds like gonzo.
Gonzo - i’m going to go back there someday
- and-
joshua said on thursday, february 28th, 2008
Woah, that Gonzo song is a heartbreaker…
Here’s another brilliant one Gonzo — Dancing with Myself.
Kelly said on thursday, february 28th, 2008
Hey Johnny, I’ll "music" your father. yeah, I said it.
what?
kevin said on friday, february 29th, 2008
John Lennon integrates with Radio Head or a hidden track on Their Satnanic Majesties Requests. Very much like this one.
anika said on saturday, march 08th, 2008
those gonzo videos made my morning. now what can you do for the night?
This band always makes me smile. Something about them reminds me of sitting on a green shag carpet and listening to Sgt. Pepper’s on my parent’s 8-track.