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Who let the dogs out

Posted by Smokey Stover on July 27, 2006

In Reply to: Who let the dogs out posted by pamela on July 27, 2006

: : : There is a song titled Who let the dogs out.What's the meaning? Anyone can tell me? Thanks!

: : I'm not ready to ascribe a "meaning" to the song, made popular by the Baha Men. So I'll just copy the lyrics. It's just a raucous party song, but some one may care to provide an explication. Keep it clean, if you can.

: : Who Let The Dogs Out (Baha Men) Lyrics

: : Who let the dogs out
: : (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : (woof, woof, woof, woof)

: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)

: : (woof, woof, woof, woof)

: : When the party was nice, the party was jumpin' (Hey, Yippie, Yi, Yo)
: : And everybody havin' a ball (Hah, ho, Yippie Yi Yo)
: : I tell the fellas "start the name callin'" (Yippie Yi Yo)
: : And the girls report to the call
: : The poor-dog show down

: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)

: : I see ya' little speed boat head up our coast
: : She really want to skip town
: : Get back off me, beast off me
: : Get back you flea-infested mongrel

: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)

: : I'm gonna tell {Hey, Yippie, Yi, Yo}
: : To any girls calling them canine {Yippie, Yi, Yo}
: : Tell the dummy "Hey Man, It's part of the Party!" {Yippie Yi, Yo}
: : You fetch a woman in front and her man's behind {Yippie, Yi, Yo}
: : Her bone runs out now

: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)

: : Say, A doggy is nuttin' if he don't have a bone All doggy hold ya' bone, all doggy hold it
: : A doggy is nuttin' if he don't have a bone All doggy hold ya' bone, all doggy hold it

: : Wait for y'all my dogs, the party is on
: : I gotta get my girl I got my my mind on
: : Do you see the rays comin' from my eye
: : What could you be friend
: : That Benji man that's breakin' them down?
: : Me and My white short shorts
: : And I can't seek a lot, any canine will do
: : I'm figurin' that's why they call me faithful
: : 'Cause I'm the man of the land
: : When they see me they doah-ooooo(howl)

: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
: : Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)

: : -------

: : Several commentators (Maureen Dowd included) have associated the title of the song with Bush foreign-policy, equating "Let the dogs out" with "Let slip the dogs of war," as in Marc Antony's speech in Shakespeare's Julius Caessr:

: : And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
: : With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
: : Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
: : Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;
: : That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
: : With carrion men, groaning for burial.

: : SS
: : Ate was a Greek female mythological character devoted to evil and mischief.

: This s ong caused a sexual harrassment complaint at my workplace. Trainers who teach some of the students to measure noise levels and test hearing protection use pop songs as the sound. This song was considered by our admin staff to be extremely sexist, since they said it was about men aggressively complaining about ugly women arriving at a party, when they wanted good looking ones. (It wasn't helped by the mysogynsist video clip, which had women in very short skirts kicking at a camera which was low on the ground). I was the final word on whether it was banned or not. I must confess that, in making this decision, I never considered foreign policy or "the dogs of war" so - and may the Baha Men forgive me if I'm wrong - I agreed that it was about sex and ugly women, if only because that was what the trainer who chose it as the song told me it was about the first time he played it, despite his subsequent accusation that "I read too much into things". Right or wrong, that's the common interpretation. Pamela

SS: I'm surprised that either you or the trainer in question could make out a clear enough sense from this song to call it sexist. After reading your comments, I can see the possibility that the author could be using dog in the sense of bad date/ugly woman; or at least that some feminist has so interpreted it. (See "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.") I encountered that meaning of dog in college. At a few parties I heard boys commenting that "My date is a dog." I'm not sure that looks were the only criterion for being a dog, but perhaps so. I've heard the song in question only once, performed live at a wedding reception. If the song denigrates women, that seemed not to be evident to any of the women there, including a few who were hair-triggered feminists, nor to any of the men.

Is it really sexist to acknowledge that there is such a thing as an ugly woman? There is a Calypso song with the refrain: "So take an ugly woman for to be your wife, You'll be a happy man for the rest of your life."
SS

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