Today we begin thinking about ‘Sheep. This will no doubt take several posts to complete as there are many examples from classical, popular and modern music.
“Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)” is a popular song written by Irving Berlin and used in the 1954 film White Christmas. It is commonly performed as a Christmas song, although the lyrics make no reference to the December holiday. The song arose from a personal experience of Berlin when his doctor suggested he try “counting his blessings” as a way to deal with insomnia brought on by stress. The best-known recordings were made by Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby — who both appeared in the film
“Sheep” is a song by English band Pink Floyd, released on the album Animals in 1977. It was originally titled “Raving and Drooling” and performed live on tours in 1974. It was written by bassist Roger Waters. “Raving and Drooling” was originally a more jam-based song. While the basic motif was already in place—a held note from the vocalist (Waters) being crossfaded into the same note on a synthesizer, with various inhuman effects applied—Waters had yet to write anything for the sections repeating F♯7 and A7 (such as “You better watch out! There may be dogs about”, and so on), and so these sections, while clearly part of the song structure, were rendered instrumentally. While Gilmour later stated that “Dogs” in its earlier incarnation as “You’ve Got to Be Crazy” simply had too many words for him to sing, “Raving and Drooling” appeared to suffer more from a lack thereof. Ian Peel, a musical columnist for The Guardian, noted the resemblance of “Sheep” to the Doctor Who theme, due to its bassline and sound effects
“And Dream of Sheep” is a song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on her fifth studio album Hounds of Love. First track of The Ninth Wave Suite suite. Kate travelled to Dublin in the spring of 1984 for extended studio sessions for ‘And Dream Of Sheep’ and ‘Jig Of Life’. Donal Lunny recalled later that Kate asked him to play the single whistle note at the end of the track over and over again for three hours, in search of just the right ‘bend’ in the note. She Bush recorded a video of ‘And Dream Of Sheep’ in 2014, to be shown during the Before The Dawn shows in London, 2014. She spent three days in a special tank at Pinewood Studios. In the video, Bush is in a lifejacket floating in water, looking up at the camera as if waiting to be rescued, singing the song live.
“Sheep Go to Heaven” is a single by American alternative rock band Cake from their 1998 album Prolonging the Magic. The song’s title references the parable of The Sheep and the Goats from Chapter 25 of the gospel of Matthew. The music video for “Sheep Go to Heaven” is animated, and features members of Cake dressed as a KISS cover band, playing in a sports bar. A disgruntled employee of a greeting-card company enters the sports bar with a machete, and massacres the crowd, sending the band to Heaven. Later, the employee is convicted, executed, and sent to Hell. The video was directed by Mark Kornweibel.
“Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums” is a promotional single by the American band A Perfect Circle, off of their third studio album Emotive. While the album primarily consists of cover songs, this track, along with the lead single “Passive”, were the only two original recordings. Containing many lyrical similarities with the track “Pet”, from the previous album, Thirteenth Step, lead singer and lyricist Maynard James Keenan described the track as a continuation of the song. While the former refers to addiction, “Counting Bodies” focuses on political agendas.
