BATTLE OF THE BANDS: It’s a DOG vs CAT Battle Showdown! This is ROUND ONE…

SAY WHAT?? You read that right. It’s the first ever DOG vs CAT Battle of the Bands TOURNAMENT. You’re going to want to get a front row seat for this one because it’s about to go down with ROUND ONE.

So what the heck is this Dog v Cat Battle of the Bands Tournament anyway? Well, I honestly can’t remember exactly how it all came together but Mary over at Jingle Jangle Jungle started it all. We were chatting about her idea for a cat vs dog battle and you know me and dogs: I’m gonna jump all over something that has to do with dogs so I said “Hey, whaddya think of us teaming up together on this idea?” and she shot right back that she was just thinking the same thing so Voilà, we now have a major event on our hands. 

This will be a THREE ROUND BATTLE culminating in a Championship Title Fight. Simply put: In today’s Round One, I’m pitting two Dog songs against each other and Mary is pitting two Cat songs against each other. The First Round will feature harder edge song versions (think Hard Rock).

Round Two will be on August 1st where we’ll both be doing it again, me doing Dog songs and Mary doing Cat songs, except this time it will be the softer sounding versions (Soft Rock type).

Round Three on August 15th will feature battles with the winners from Rounds One and Two duking it out, Hard vs Soft: so it will be a battle of a Hard-Rock Dog song vs a Soft-Rock Dog song here at my place and a Hard-Rock Cat song vs a Soft-Rock Cat song battle over at Mary’s place.

The Championship Title Fight — on September 1st — will be taking place exclusively at Mary’s Jingle Jangle Jungle where the Ultimate Showdown will happen:

DOG versus CAT!

Just how this tournament will end is anyone’s guess at this point. Gamblers: have your bookies on speed-dial to place those bets. This will be a showdown for the record books! And it is sure to spark those age-old debates: Who is better, dogs or cats? Oh boy, buckle your seatbelts because this could get crazy!

Okay, so that’s as simple as I could make it. By nature I’m a word person. Mary made a great chart that will be updated as the Tournament progresses. Here’s where we are now:

Without further ado, here is my ROUND ONE BATTLE to choose the HARD-ROCK DOG SONG winner. Contenders are Ted Nugent’s DOG EAT DOG vs Led Zeppelin’s BLACK DOG

Contender #1: DOG EAT DOG by Ted Nugent

Written by the Motor City Madman himself, this song from Ted Nugent’s second solo album Free-For-All (1976) was inspired by the 1967 Detroit riots:

Sabotage in the downtown streets

Police cars overturned

Can’t do nothing to beat the heat

And if you don’t you’ll get burned



Nugent isn’t taking a side, but looking at the riots from the perspective of a citizen who gets caught up in them. “It’s necessary to keep authority in check to some extent, but not always,” he told Sounds. “A lot of times riots are just stupidity in action. A lot of times I can’t tell you whether they are righteous or stupid and there may be occasions of both.”

Ted Nugent didn’t sing on many of his early tracks, and on this one, Derek St. Holmes did lead vocals. Nugent would often introduce the song, making it clear that he was the alpha dog in this outfit. Big surprise there, right?

In the last verse, Nugent sings:

Kamikaze from the hundredth floor

Swan dive to the street

He couldn’t handle this madness no more

He craved that sweeter meat



This represents people who can’t cope in the dog-eat-dog world and turn to suicide. “What it implies is that ain’t nobody eatin’ this dog,” he said. “I’m a part of that city world, I was for many years and I was able to deal with it and take nourishment.”

Oh brother! Listen, no matter your view of Ted Nugent, he did turn out some good music, in my opinion. I grew up on Nugent tunes, I saw him in concert twice in the 70s and although I can’t stand the guy today, I do really like a lot of his music from back then. This is one of those songs that are part of the soundtrack of my life so I thought it only fitting to include his Dog Eat Dog in this Round One battle. Here is the Hard Rock Dog Song contender #1:

 

Contender #2: BLACK DOG by Led Zeppelin

“Black Dog” is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin, the opening track on their fourth album Led Zeppelin 4 (1971), which became the band’s best-selling album. (Note: The album itself is technically untitled, with symbols on the cover instead of words., but since it was their fourth album, it became known as Led Zeppelin 4).

A wide range of musical styles show up on the set, with “Black Dog” exemplifying the blues-rock that was the bedrock of the band’s sound. It was released as a single in the United States and in Australia with “Misty Mountain Hop” as the B-side, reaching number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 10 in Australia.

Music sociologist Deena Weinstein calls “Black Dog” “one of the most instantly recognizable [Led] Zeppelin tracks.”

In this song, Robert Plant is singing about a woman who appeals to his prurient interests, but is clearly no good for him – he tells himself he’d rather have a “steady rollin’ woman” come his way.

Robert Plant explained in an interview with Cameron Crowe: “Not all my stuff is meant to be scrutinized. Things like ‘Black Dog’ are blatant, let’s-do-it-in-the-bath type things, but they make their point just the same.”

The title does not appear in the lyrics, and has nothing to do with the song itself. The band worked up the song at Headley Grange, which was a mansion in Hampshire, England. Headley Grange was out in the country, surrounded by woods. A nameless black Labrador Retriever would wander the grounds, and the band would feed it. When they needed a name for this track – which didn’t have an obvious title – they thought of the canine and went with “Black Dog.”

The Retriever, despite his advanced age, was still sexually adventurous, like the song’s protagonist who reiterates his desperate desire for a woman’s love and the happiness it provides. As Plant explained to a 1972 concert audience:

Let me tell you ’bout this poor old dog because he was a retriever in his early days, and the only thing he could ever find in his late days was his old lady who lived two houses away from where we were recording. And he used to go see the old lady quite regularly, but after he’d “boogied” and everything else he couldn’t get back. And we used to carry him back.

Here is our Hard Rock Dog Song contender #2:

 

IT’S TIME TO VOTE FOR THE HARD ROCK DOG WINNER! Which hard-rock dog song do you like best? And tell me why. THEN be sure to go check out the other half of Round One in the Dog v Cat Battle of the Bands Tournament : Mary’s hard-edge Cat-Fight battle over at Jingle Jangle Jungle.

And when you’re done with that, be sure to check out the other cool battles that are happening this week. You can get links to all the other participants in the sidebar at Stephen McCarthy’s Battle of the Bands page. 

 

UPDATE NEWS FLASH: Before I forget, if anyone still even cares: here are the results from my battle last month. Before I announce that though, let me formally apologize to you all. I completely dropped the ball on this one. I put all that time into putting together a combined battle of two electonic versions and two acoustic versions of Train’s “Drops of Jupiter” and you all came over, listened to four cover versions and voted not once but twice…and then I never showed back up to tally the results and declare the winners. Shame on me! I am truly sorry about that. That is not how this is supposed to go. My only explanation is that life (or should I say Life with a capital L) got in the way and I never made it back to that battle post to even read the comments, let alone reply to the comments and then deliver the results…until just now. Hey, maybe no one really gives a shit anymore but I feel bad so, to all of you, my sincere apologies. And now, let me (finally) fill you in on the results!

The song was Drops of Jupiter by Train and the battle contenders were:

In the Electronic version category: Anthem Lights vs Matt McAndrew

In the Acoustic version category: Jess Moskaluke vs Boyce Avenue

And the winners are:

ANTHEM LIGHTS with 6 votes (over Matt McAndrew with 4 votes)

BOYCE AVENUE with 7 votes (over Jess Moskaluke with 3 votes)

btw, I really enjoyed all four of these contenders but I voted for Anthem Lights – their version just grabbed me more and the richness of their instrumentation pushed them over the top for me; and I voted for Jess Moskaluke – only three of us voted for her and many of you thought her voice was annoying. I can see that, but I liked her voice and her style and for sure I really enjoyed the piano over the guitar in her version. But she didn’t win. You all brought it home for Boyce Avenue (who I also liked a lot).

I know it was a month ago, but I really enjoyed putting that battle together. I hope you all enjoyed participating in it and I will definitely not drop the ball on any future battles. Thanks for your patience and your understanding on that one.

NOW PLEASE JOIN MARY AND ME IN WHAT WE THINK WILL BE A FUN DOG v CAT BATTLE TOURNAMENT! Give us your votes!

And remember to come back on AUGUST 1 for ROUND TWO of this fun and funky Battle of the Bands! 

I’ll post the results from my ROUND ONE Hard-Rock Dog v Dog battle in 7 days…

As always, thanks for participating and ROCK ON my friends!