Dogs Must Be Carried is a comedy music group specializing in parodies and original comedy songs. Ostensibly, the group is writer and producer Richard Cray (born July 18 1969, London) assisted by other uncredited musicians. The group is best known for its contributions to the Comedy 365 podcast and for its debut CD, All of Us are Stars but Some of Us are Aiming for the Gutter, released in May 2006.

Career

Cray started recording tracks under the pseudonym Dogs Must Be Carried by himself at home in 1998. Despite not being a trained or particularly competent musician, he'd previously worked in radio and had dabbled in home recording since its inception in the early 80s. These, combined with a love of both comedy and music stretching back to early childhood, all contributed to the low-fi ethos of his early recordings.

After a few years, it became obvious that using a wider range of instrumentation might prove fruitful, and Cray approached several friends to help out, primarily with guitar work. One such friend was Jeremy Wray, who suggested recording an Anglicized version of Liam Lynch’s United States of Whatever. Written, recorded and mixed in little over three hours, the resulting track, United Kingdom of Whenever, received substantial airplay in the UK and US for a comedy song, most notably from Christian O'Connell, Steve Lamacq and Dr. Demento, but was not commercially released at the time.

In 2005, Cray approached comedy producer Brian Luff with a CD compilation of Dogs Must Be Carried tracks to help programme a fledgling internet radio venture. In a matter of weeks, this venture became the Comedy 365 podcast, with which Dogs Must Be Carried is still involved to this day. As of March 2007, his work has been heard in 22 shows by over 140,000 listeners. <!-- Needs more than just "libsyn.com" homepage as a source to cite listenership -->

Subsequently, Luff invited Cray to co-produce Sketch Club, his weekly stage show on the London fringe circuit, in August 2005.

The Debut Album

At the height of interest in Comedy 365, a decision was taken to commercially issue some of the most popular Dogs Must Be Carried tracks. The resulting debut CD, All of Us are Stars but Some of Us are Aiming for the Gutter, was issued in May 2006 on Cray’s own Flibbertigibbet Gramophone Label. It contained parodies of Bob Dylan, Roxy Music, The Smiths, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young and T. Rex, amongst others.

Its tracklisting was:<br />
1. United Kingdom of Whenever<br />
2. Possibly 5th Street<br />
3. Bra and Pants<br />
4. Simon Cowell is Killing Music<br />
5. Thank You For Being a Cunt<br />
6. Pan's People<br />
7. She Kissed Me (and it Felt Like a Punch)<br />
8. Molly<br />
9. Oscar's Wild<br />
10. Cashmere<br />
11. Vultures<br />
12. Let's all Pretend it's Christmas<br />
13. Way Downtown<br />
14. Stupid Stupid Eighties<br />
15. Song in the Key of E<br />
16. Gloopy Love<br />
17. Amoeba Woman<br />
18. The Hemel Hempstead Trepanning Society<br />
19. Heavy Metal Luv<br />
20. Obligatory Hidden Bonus Track<br />

Future

With Sowerby and Luff’s recent departure to PodShow, Cray is due to take over the day-to-day scheduling and administration of Comedy 365 in May 2007. He aims to record new material later in the year, as well as edit and produce submissions from other contributors from the UK, US and Canada. However, there are currently no plans for a follow-up CD.

Cray also continues to be a regular “techie” on the London fringe, assisting and advising both new and established comedians with their audio-visual requirements, and has recently begun talks regarding a return to radio in a voluntary production and presentation capacity.

Notable Work

CDs

All of Us are Stars but Some of Us are Aiming for the Gutter (2006)

Podcasts

Comedy 365 (2005-) (Contributor)

The Sowerby and Luff Show (2007-) (Contributor)

Live

Sketch Club (2005-2006) (Co-producer)

Margo Crabstick's Edinburgh Diary (2006) (Co-writer, Funny Women finalist)

The Revolution Will Be Accessorized (2006) (Audio producer)

The Scarlet Pimps (2006-) (Audio producer)

50 Minutes of Fame (2007) (Audio producer)

Radio

Packed Lunch (1987-1989) (writer, producer and presenter)

The Pickle Programme (1990) (writer, producer and presenter)

TV

Shoot the Writers! (2004) (writer)

Online

The Liar (2004-2005) (contributing writer)

Trivia

There are currently 185 songs in the group’s repertoire. 20 of these appear on the debut CD, and another 35 are currently in rotation on Comedy 365. The remainder are either considered to be too poor in sound quality to be made available or use samples or quotes that may be too expensive to clear for use on podcasts. There are also about 30 cover versions of songs performed in unusual styles, but these were recorded for private purposes and are unlikely to see the light of day.

Two of the tracks have taken on another life on Comedy 365: an instrumental version of Simon Cowell is Killing Music introduced latter episodes of Sowerby and Luff’s Big Squeeze, whereas Gloopy Love was covered by the show’s hosts as a Christmas treat for subscribers in 2005 and 2006.

The backing track on the CD’s closer, Obligatory Hidden Bonus Track, is an arrangement of the British national anthem played on a cheap domestic organ, which was recorded in Westminster Abbey in 1986, just days before the marriage of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. The vocals were overdubbed in 1999.

All of the group’s recordings are made on a Tascam 488 Mk II portastudio and with a limited amount of outboard equipment. As commercial releases had never been originally intended, the debut CD’s 20 tracks were digitally remastered. The decision not to re-record these tracks for commercial release was both a financial and artistic one, partly inspired by the low-fi attitude embraced by artists like Half Man Half Biscuit and East River Pipe.

The co-writer of United Kingdom of Whenever, Jeremy Wray, is the brother of Simon Wray, drummer with the indie pop group My Life Story.

The group does not function as a live unit, and therefore does not tour.

Cray was a volunteer at cable radio station Radio Thamesmead (now Time 106.8), eventually becoming its commercial producer prior to the station’s full FM launch as RTM Radio in 1990. He spent two periods at the station, leaving in 1993. He also presented more than 250 programmes during his seven-year tenure, including a series of 16 late night comedy shows entitled The Pickle Programme in the station’s first year on FM.

In 1982, Cray appeared in Eagle magazine’s photographic comic strip Thunderbolt and Smokey! as Colin ‘Thunderbolt’ Dexter. He also appeared in a television commercial to promote the second issue.

References

External links

Dogs Must Be Carried’s website

Richard Cray’s blog

Comedy 365