Reference to:
The Hanging Garden
A novel by David Wagoner
1980 Atlantic-Little Brown
Also referenced in 'The Hanging Garden'
From 'The Hanging Garden', the novel
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This is an example of how Robert Smith takes an inspiration from one or more sources, develops and augments it with his own unique profundity and clothes it in synaesthetic music to produce a marvel.
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At the recent Hyde Park Concert a straw poll with no scientific validity at all suggested Shake Dog Shake was the most anticipated song.
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A man hooks up with a woman who breeds dogs. They move to his newly bought country ranch of sorts where he is intending to breed dogs. He meets up with strange small town characters including a sinister guy who runs the dog pound. He eventually discovers the hanging garden with dogs and other animals hanged and left to rot.
He is discovered, runs away until he is caught:
p61
"Lying in the grass, shaking, he remembered the stink and terror of the war"
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He is injected witha sedative. He wakes in the dark with a taste in his mouth.
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p142 "His mouth tasted like iron which could have been blood yet there was an underlayer of bitterness in it... he didn't have enough saliva to spit with, and the idea of coughing made him afraid: his throat felt broken inside."
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Sick dogs
p56 "Why should he want to eat dirt?Sick dogs did that"
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Breathed Like Sick Dogs
p68 "But no-one was there, just four new dogs in cages, one lying on its side, eyes closed, panting unnaturally."
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p73 (referring to this dog) ""Four dogs in there" the Mayor said. "A sick one maybe...""
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p138 "In the dream he was hanging outdoors in bad weather"
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Read the rest of the novel to discover what happens to him.
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Shake Dog Shake, the song
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Ha ha ha
Wake up in the dark
The after-taste of anger in the back of my mouth
Spit it on the wall
And cough some more
And scrape my skin with razor blades
And make up in the new blood
And try to look so good
Follow me
Make up in the new blood
And follow me to where the real fun is
Ha ha ha
As stale and selfish as a sick dog
Spurning sex like an animal of god
I'll tear your red hair by the roots
And hold you blazing
Hold you cherished in the dead electric light
Your face
I'll never see you this way again
I captured it so perfectly
As if I knew you'd disappear away
Shake shake shake shake
Shake shake shake shake
Shake dog shake
Shake shake shake shake
Shake shake shake shake
Shake dog shake
You hit me again
You howl and hit me again
The same sharp pain
Wakes me in the dark
And cuts me from my throat to my pounding heart
My heart
My shaking heart
My howl my shake dog
Oh shake dog shake
Shake shake
Shake dog shake
But we slept all night in the virgin's bed
And dreamed of death
And breathed like sick dogs
We slept all night in the virgin's bed
And breathed like death
And dreamed of sick dogs
Shake shake
Shake dog shake
Wake up wake up wake up
Shake dog shake
Wake up wake up wake up
Shake dog shake
Wake up in the new blood
Make up in the new blood
Shake up in the new blood
And follow me to where the real fun is
Shake dog shake
Songwriters: Robert James Smith
Shake Dog Shake lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group