Dog Years: Background

“The title comes from the novel of the same name by Gunther Wilhelm Glass. People look to Sirius, the Dog Star constellation named after the hunting dog of Orion in Greek mythology. The line ‘every dog will have its day’ originated in [a 1863 children’s book] Water Babies by Charles Kingslay.”—Robert Telleria, Merely Players

“‘Dog Years’ is not Neil at his best. No surprise, given that he was somewhat hung over when penning it. It sure does rock, though.”—Martin Popoff, Contents Under Pressure

“Certainly the listener is welcome to take it just as a piece of throwaway foolishness. Even the story of its writing is kind of amusing, because it was right when we got together for the first time, the three of us, after quite a long break apart. We did a little celebrating the first night and the following day I was a bit the worse for wear, and a little dull-witted, and I thought, ‘Gee, I don’t think I’m going to get much done today, but I’m a professional; I’d better try.’ So, I sat down all muzzy-headed like that and started trying to stitch words together—that’s what I was there for, after all. ‘Dog Years’ is what came out of that type of mentality and born out of observations over the years, too, and looking at my dog, thinking, ‘What’s going through his brain?’ and I would think, ‘Just a low-level zzzz static: food, walk. When I look at my dog that’s how I see his brainwaves moving.” (T4E Premiere)—Neil in Merely Players

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