Monday, April 11, 2011

"Prairie Dog"

Song: "Prairie Dog Hole"
Artist: Floyd Dixon
Search Term: "Prairie Dog"

It's tough for me to really get into a jaunty cowboy blues number that's about a horse being put down because he's broken his leg. I have no trouble with songs about any number of tragedies befalling humans, because I tend to think we have it coming, but songs about unhappy or unlucky animals just strike me as somehow unjust. (Unless there's a larger message or grace note to the song, like Neko Case's "People Got a Lotta Nerve" or the Handsome Family's "Snowball.") Replace the horse with an infant, though, and this song would be tickety-boo, as far as I'm concerned!

I really don't know enough about this kind of music to be able to describe it well, unfortunately; Dixon was apparently primarily a blues artist, but to me this song sounds more like the loping piano jazz of Fats Waller, so I can't tell you what the proper classification should be. It's a sprightly strut of a tune, and the musicians do seem to be getting their jollies. (The guitarist kicks off his solo with a quick "shave and a haircut," for instance.) I doubt I'll ever listen to it again, though. That poor fictional horse.

No comments:

Post a Comment