The clip posted above was the primary source for this lyric. The 8mm footage starts with one of my father's attempts to inculcate his sons in the cult of football, endemic to Columbus where the action takes place. Soon Fritz the dachsund is introduced; my father plays with him; brother Pat plays with him; then puppy Fritz is biting Pat who runs away. The footage ends with Fritz knawing on a rope.

In the lyric the narrator assumes Pat's persona; frightened and upset he wonders why he can't just kill and eat dogs like the Chinese were rumoured to do. Finally the narrator relates his resentment at the emotional burden of caring for an animal. In real life Pat became very close to his various dogs and I became the man resenting emotional dependencies.

I'm not quite sure when I wrote the song. I hear a beat-box in the mix of the solo version, borrowed from David Solmonoff (of Cult de Ghouls) after late '79 when he became my 10th Street flatmate. When the tune was taken up by Desi, Desi, and Desi it became a mainstay of our set, always used to close our performances. In live shows (especially at four or five in the morning at the A7 Club) we would occasionaly extend the thing to Grateful Dead-length while I wandered through a moshing audience doing skronk-guitar with a beer bottle. There might be a version on cassette somewhere.

A live recording was made of a version included me and Dennis DeMeo on guitars; unfortunately Byron wasn't with us by then. Mike McShane on drums and Fran Slater on bass also appear as usual. It was recorded with EV-legend Jerrry Williams at his 171A studio but it lacks the fire of club versions. You can hear it here.