The Dogs of War

Lyrics:

Dogs of war and men of hate
With no cause, we don't discriminate
Discovery is to be disowned
Our currency is flesh and bone

Hell opened up and put on sale
Gather 'round and haggle
For hard cash, we will lie and deceive
Even our masters don't know the webs we weave

One world, it's a battleground
One world, and we will smash it down
One world ... One world

Invisible transfers, long distance calls
Hollow laughter in marble halls
Steps have been taken, a silent uproar
Has unleashed the dogs of war

You can't stop what has begun
Signed, sealed, they deliver oblivion
We all have a dark side, to say the least
And dealing in death is the nature of the beast

One world, it's a battleground
One world, and we will smash it down
One world ... One world

(One world)
(One world)

The dogs of war don't negotiate
The dogs of war won't capitulate
They will take and you will give
And you must die so that they may live

You can knock at any door
But wherever you go, you know they've been there before
Well winners can lose and things can get strained
But whatever you change, you know the dogs remain

One world, it's a battleground
One world, and we will smash it down
One world ... One world

 

"The Dogs of War" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd from their thirteenth studio album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987). It was released as a promotional 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, reaching #16 on MTV's Video Countdown in May 1988 and No. 30 on the Mainstream Rock charts.

"The Dogs of War" describes politicians orchestrating wars, suggesting the major influence behind war is money.

Composition

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 Cm, Fm, Cm, G (major or minor), Fm, and back to Cm. "The Dogs of War", instead, progresses in this way: Cm, E♭m, Cm, A♭7, Fm, and back to Cm. All minor chords include the seventh.

Lead vocalist David Gilmour often approaches the C minor chord by singing on the diminished fifth, G♭, before descending to the fourth, minor third, and root. This melody is also compatible with the next chord, E♭m in which G♭ is the minor third. It also appears in the A♭7 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 (1973), 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.

Music video

The music 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 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 at this concert.