Bein' Your Dog

Patrick Smith at Bugs and Cranks notes the contradiction that is Luke Scott:

When Orioles left fielder Luke Scott came to the plate in the fourth inning of yesterday’s Opening Day loss to Tampa, the Camden Yards PA system pounded out an unmistakable few bars of Iggy and the Stooges’ 1969 song “I Wanna Be Your
Dog.”

We’re still learning about Scott. He came to Baltimore as part of the trade that sent Miguel Tejada to Houston. He’s said to hit with some power, cranking out 18 homers last year. And during spring training, fans learned that Scott is the holder of a permit to carry a concealed firearm. Oh, and he’s a born again Christian.

Smith also wonders a bit about the song:

I’ve never been able to figure out what exactly is so lewd about “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” but there’s something vaguely creepy about it. I love it, of course.

For what it's worth, I think the lewdness is a function of the lyrics' very vagueness. If Iggy said exactly what "being your dog" entailed, we'd have some insight as to what he considers to be the degradation so clearly implied by the song. That wouldn't be all that effective though, because after forty years of watching Iggy Pop rage across the landscape, he's lost a lot of his ability to shock us.

By leaving it open to interpretation, however, we all get to form our own ideas of degradation and self-humiliation. And well, we're not supposed to dwell on that kind of thing in polite society. The song's blank slate forces us to get a few ideas, though, and you know what? Smith's right: it's vaguely creepy . . . but I love it of course.