Bark Side of The Moon: When Nobs the dog joined Pink Floyd in 1971
Some vocal performances are so impressive, so transcendental and sublime that they allow the listener a taste of the numinous. Today, I’d like to pay tribute to perhaps the most dizzying vocalist of the 1960s. No, it’s not Robert Plant, Janis Joplin or Aretha Franklin. I am, in fact, talking about Nobs the Dog, an Irish wolfhound who once performed ‘Seamus’ by Pink Floyd while having her belly rubbed by Richard Wright.
‘Seamus’ was inspired by the German Shepherd of Humble Pie and Small Faces frontman Steve Marriott. David Gilmour agreed to look after the dog while its owner was on tour in the United States, at which time Pink Floyd were in the studio recording their sixth studio album Meddle. Seamus had a rare gift for music, having previously provided BBs (that’s background barks) on The Small Faces’ 1968 track ‘The Universal’.
During one recording session in which Seamus was present, the dog started howling along with Pink Floyd’s instruments, convincing them to write a twelve-bar blues number for Seamus to howl over. The band later overdubbed additional instrumentation and a vocal track by Gilmour. Many have cited ‘Seamus’ as the worst Pink Floyd of all time, clearly missing the joke. “It wasn’t really as funny to everyone else [as] it was to us.” Gilmour later said in defence of the track.
For obvious reasons, Pink Floyd were unable to play ‘Seamus’ Live as much as they would have liked, performing it just once for their Live at Pompeii concert documentary. The film was captured over four days in the October of 1971 and features behind-the-scenes footage of the band’s incredible performance at the ancient Roman amphitheatre in Pompeii. The band performed ‘Seamus’ for the “Mademoiselle Nobs” scene in which David Gilmour demonstrates his harmonica skills alongside a wailing dog called Nobs.
Owned by Madonna Bouglione, the daughter of circus director, Joseph Bouglione, Nobs the dog was a sleek Borzoi who had been bought to the studio by Madonna at the request of the band. Shot outside Paris, the footage shows Nobs lying on her side while Richard Wright holds a microphone to her muzzle.
Sing on, Nobs. Sing on.
