It’s Time To Remember When Pink Floyd Performed With A Singing Dog
Pink Floyd only ever performed their song 'Seamus' once. But the story behind that concert is the stuff of legends.
Pink Floyd might well be the most dog-friendly band on the planet.
Not because their music is beloved by pooches. Or at least, I don’t think it is. A few minutes ago, just to see, I played my greyhound Ida a little snippet from ‘Money’, and she gave me that withering, disinterested look that greyhounds have down pat. No, dogs aren’t involved in the Pink Floyd story as listeners — they’re involved in the creative side.
See, the track ‘Seamus’ from the album Meddle features the titular dog — a Collie owned by Floyd associate Steve Marriott of the band Humble Pie — yapping away in the background. The band recorded it as something of an in-joke, a spoof of the classic blues style with a pooch in place of howling human musicians.
Safe to say, it didn’t go down very well. Floyd fans have repeatedly rated it the band’s worst song, and critics savaged it.
“I guess it wasn’t really as funny to everyone else [as] it was to us,” David Gilmour said of the song, in a fairly heartbreaking quote.
Given that backlash, the band only ever performed the song live once, as part of their acclaimed concert film Pink Floyd: Live In Pompeii.
For that performance, Seamus the Collie was replaced by a female Borzoi named Nobs. And holy heck does she kill the track. Nobs’ performance can be seen in full here, and is a perfect pick-me-up if you are having a tough or overwhelming day:
If you ask me, fans and critics were wrong. ‘Seamus’ is a lot of fun, and the live performance is only better. At the end of the day, more bands should have the audacity to record songs with our canine pals.