The Story Behind the Song
For a decade or more, I did most of my writing on the piano. My guitars were borrowed by children and never returned, which was okay with me. I had a piano and had gotten halfway decent at “bluffing” accompaniments to the songs I wrote.
Then, one day in 2016, I got a job offer in Nebraska, which I accepted. Shortly thereafter, Terry and I sold our baby grand to help pay for our move halfway across the country.
For my first birthday, after arriving in Nebraska, Terry gave me a wonderful acoustic guitar. I had gone over six months with no musical outlet, and I was amazed at how quickly my fingers found the chords and rhythms of the guitar again. Soon, I was creating songs, just like the old days before we bought our first piano.
One night, I was in the spare bedroom where I kept my guitar, and our two doggies, Lily and Sadie, sneaked into the room to keep me company. I started amusing myself by singing to them about all of their idiosyncrasies.
I remember one verse, in particular, that didn’t make it into the final draft of the song, that referenced the common misconception that Shih Tzus are stupid animals. It went:
I’ve got me two doggies,
As dumb as a tree.
I’ve got these dumb doggies,
But at least I don’t have three.
I left that verse out because I learned as a Shih Tzu owner that they are not a dumb breed of dog. They are just very opinionated, stubborn and enormously routinized. On the positive side, they are very, very affectionate and that compensates for a lot of idiosyncrasies… Besides, eventually, we got a third one so that verse really didn’t work anymore.
Originally, The Doggie Blues had like eight verses, four refrains and a dozen variations. Over the next couple of years, I eventually pared it down to the verses I thought worked the best, which is what we recorded. (You can thank me in the COMMENTS section.)