Source
r/pinkfloyd•
klompus

Why the change of perspective in the 5th verse of dogs?

Dogs is one of my favorite Pink Floyd songs and I've listened to it very often. When I was listening to it this afternoon (I live in Europe) I tried to make a sort of time-line of the things that are happening. I 'll try to keep it short but it's such a great and rich song, so that might be difficult. Anyway, I came to this:

The first three verses describe the career of the main character: he learns about the world (1st verse), he uses it to become successful (2nd verse) and in the end he retires (3rd verse).

The 4th verse is about his death I think.

And then we come to the verse that I'm uncertain about. All the previous verses where in the third person perspective but this one is in the first person, why do you think Roger did that?

I also noticed something about the last verse which might be really obvious to native English speakers but I never noticed it until today. All the lines begin with "who was" and this is might be an allusion to the way people often talk to dogs ("who's a good boy?!").

Posted Apr 28, 2015, 3:23 PM UTC

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xanoxthearcWish You Were Here•

I always thought David's verses were an older experienced person teaching someone younger about the harsh realities of the world and what's needed to survive, and Rogers verses are in the perspective of the younger individual responding to David's warnings and lessons.

9
klompusOP•

That makes sense as well. But how would you explain the 6th verse then (the one that starts with "deaf, dumb and blind")? It would seem unlikely that a younger person tells an older person that he's deaf, dumb and blind, especially if that older person has just taught the younger person about the harsh realities of the world.

2
Fried_Rich_Niche_Eh•

I thought that verse could have been spoken by an older person, saying that when the young one becomes deaf dumb and blind, they would keep on pretending...etc so it still works within that narrative.

3
xanoxthearcWish You Were Here•

I think any line/verse in first person is the young person and anything in third person is someone with experience

1
Yum_Kaax•

My instinct is that it means nothing and they just liked the lyrics that way. But one way to consider it is that as a dog the perspective can change. One day you are leading the pack, the next the pack is descending upon you. Makes sense for the perspective to shift.

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GroovingPict•

The way I see it, the "you" in the lyrics are the general "you" rather than the narrator talking to or giving advice to anyone specific. He is describing the corporate life, a life he is living, almost as if to an interviewer. So the perspective doesnt really change, in my view; this can all be part of the same "conversation" with my recently invented imaginary interviewer for example, or part of the same rambling to no one in particular. The last bit though (the several who wases) is obviously not part of that same monologue, but feels sort of "zoomed out" somehow, as if spoken by an outside observer who isnt necessarily a Dog.

I dont think the change of singers is significant here. They sometimes do it to create a dialogue (CN, where Roger represents one person and David is the main character replying), but sometimes it's just out of necessity or to create a specific mood (Hey You... you cant easily imagine David singing Roger's parts in that one (or vice versa for that matter) without it being quite a different song, atmosphere-wise). I think it's the same here.

Or I could be wrong about it all :P

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dredsinaWish You Were Here•

This is my own interpretation, and it's probably totally wrong, but I always saw the album as from the perspective of a Dog, aka Roger.

The lyrics from "Pigs on the Wing (Part 2)" make me think this -- "I don't feel alone/On the weight of the stone/Now that I've found somewhere safe/To bury my bone/And any fool knows a dog needs a home."

The first couple of verses of "Dogs", however, are sung by David. When Roger starts to sing, it becomes first person. In the next verse, the perspective changes back to third person, and I think it might just be the Dog saying what you've got to do to make it as a Dog. But it's still from a Dog's perspective.

1