The Dogs of War

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"The Dogs of War" is a song by Pink Floyd from their 1987 album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason. It was the third US single from the album. Live versions have an extended intro, an extended middle solo for the saxophone, a guitar and sax duel and a longer outro as compared to the album version. The track was a minor rock radio hit in the US and reached #16 on MTV's Video Countdown in May 1988.

"The Dogs of War" describes how politicians orchestrate wars that the public does not know about. The song also suggests that the major influence behind war is money.

A Pink Floyd fanzine ran a poll in the late 1980s asking its readers to rate the best and worst Floyd songs ever. "The Dogs of War" topped the list of worst songs.^{[citation needed]}

Composition

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Musically, the song follows a twelve-bar blues structure in C minor, only with significantly different chord changes. A standard blues song in C minor would progress as C minor, F minor, C minor, G (Major or minor), F minor, and back to C minor. "The Dogs of War", instead, progresses thusly: C minor, E flat minor, C minor, A flat seventh, F minor, and back to C minor. All minor chords include the seventh.

Singer David Gilmour often approaches the C minor chord by singing on the diminished fifth, G flat, before descending to the fourth, minor third, and root. This melody is also compatible with the next chord, E flat minor, in which G flat is the minor third. It also appears in the A flat seventh chord, as the dominant seventh.

The majority of the song is in a slow 12/8 time. After a bluesy guitar solo, the song switches to a fast 4/4 tempo for the saxophone solo. This is not unlike what happens in "Money", a minor-key blues-based song from The Dark Side of the Moon, in which a saxophone solos over the song's predominant 7/4 tempo before switching to a faster 4/4 tempo for the guitar solo. "The Dogs of War" also imitates "Money" in its ending sequence, with a "call and response" between Gilmour's voice and his guitar.

Video

The video for the track composed of the backdrop film directed by Storm Thorgerson which depicted German Shepherds with yellow eyes running through a war zone plus a live recording and concert footage filmed during the band's three night run at the The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia in November 1987 directed by Lawrence Jordan (who has directed concert films for Rush, Mariah Carey and Billy Joel). Videos for "On the Turning Away" and "One Slip" were also filmed from this concert where the video for The Dogs of War was filmed.

Personnel on studio version

• David Gilmour – Guitar, Vocals and Vocalisations

with

• Tony Levin – Bass
• Scott Page and Tom Scott – Saxophone
• Carmine Appice – Drums and Percussion
• Jon Carin – Keyboard and Effects
• Colin McPhee – Synthesisers
• Bill Payne – Organ
• Darlene Koldenhaven, Carmen Twillie, Phyllis St. James, Donnie Gerrard – Backing vocals

Personnel on live versions

• David Gilmour – Lead Guitar, Vocals and Vocalisations
• Nick Mason – Drums and Percussion
• Rick Wright – Organ and Synthesizer

with

• Guy Pratt – Bass
• Tim Renwick – Rhythm Guitar
• Jon Carin – Keyboards and Effects
• Gary Wallis – Percussion
• Scott Page – Saxophone
• Margret Taylor, Rachel Fury, Durga McBroom, Roberta Freeman (video version) and Lorelei McBroom (video version) – Backing vocals

Cover version

Slovenian industrial group Laibach covered the song on their album, NATO (1994).