Mister: Billie Holiday's Canine Soul-Mate

Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan and nicknamed Lady Day) loved dogs and had many during her life, including a poodle, a Great Dane, Chihuahuas and a wire-haired terrier, but the one who really captured her heart was a boxer named Mister.

Billie Holiday and her dog Mister

Billie Holiday, considered one of the best jazz vocalists of all time, lived a hard life of childhood poverty, early sexual abuse, racism, difficult relationships with men, depression and addiction before dying at a young age of 44 from heart and liver problems. Despite her troubles, she did find joy in her music and with her dogs, "her only trusted friends."

Mister, Holiday's favorite dog, would accompany her to Harlem's most glamorous clubs where he would eat plates of thick steak and keep fans at a polite distance while she performed. She would knit sweaters for the pampered pooch, cook for him, cloak him in a mink coat and take him on midnight walks.

In May 1947, Holiday was arrested for possession of narcotics and was sentenced to prison in West Virginia, having to leave Mister behind. When she was released in March 1948, the two were reunited. She didn't think Mister would recognize her but, according to her autobiography, when she got off the train to greet him, "He not only recognized me, but in a flash he leaped at me, kicked my hat off, and knocked me flat on my can in the middle of that little station. Then he began lapping me and loving me like crazy." Unfortunately, a woman in the crowd thought the dog was attacking her and screamed for help, causing a crowd to gather, including reporters - messing up her plans to reenter society quietly.

I am not sure when Mister passed away.

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Martha: Inspired Paul McCartney

Martha My Dear, a song on the English rock band's only double album The Beatles (aka the White Album), was named after Paul McCartney's beloved sheepdog.

Martha & Paul McCartney

In 1966, Paul McCartney, who grew up without a dog, decided it was time to have one for his new home in London. He chose an Old English sheepdog, named her Martha, and the two quickly developed a strong bond. Paul recalls, "She was a dear pet of mine. I remember John being amazed to see me being so loving to an animal. He said, 'I've never seen you like that before.' I've since thought, you know, he wouldn't have. It's only when you're cuddling around with a dog that you're in that mode, and she was a very cuddly dog."

In 1968, Paul wrote Martha My Dear, and many assumed it was about a woman. However, according to Paul, he made the lyrics general enough so they could be heard as a message to a woman or dog. "It's a communication of some sort of affection, but in a slightly abstract way. 'You silly girl, look what you've done,' all that sort of stuff. These songs grow. Whereas it would appear to anybody else to be a song to a girl called Martha, it’s actually a dog, and our relationship was platonic, believe me."

Martha, my dear
Though I spend my days in conversation
Please, remember me
Martha, my love
Don't forget me
Martha, my dear

Hold your head up, you silly girl
Look what you've done
When you find yourself in the thick of it
Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you
Silly girl

Take a good look around you
Take a good look you're bound to see
That you and me were meant to be
With each other
Silly girl

Hold your hand out, you silly girl
See what you've done
When you find yourself in the thick of it
Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you
Silly girl

Martha, my dear
You have always been my inspiration
Please, be good to me
Martha, my love
Don't forget me
Martha, my dear

Martha passed away in 1981 at the age of 15.

Strider: Robert Plant's Blue-Eyed Merle Dog

Strider, Robert Plant's collie with blue eyes and a mottled merle coat, was the inspiration to Led Zeppelin's song Bron-Y-Aur Stomp.

Robert Plant and his dog Strider

In 1970, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp - as well as most of the other songs on Led Zeppelin's third album Led Zeppelin III - was written by Robert Plant, the lead singer of the English rock band, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones at a small 18th century cottage known as Bron-Yr-Aur (meaning "breast of gold" in Welsh - as in a hillside of gold) in the wilderness of Wales. This folk-rock song is about Robert Plant walking in the countryside with his dog Strider:

Ah caught you smiling at me,
That's the way it should be,
Like a leaf is to a tree, so fine
Ah all the good times we had,
I sang love songs so glad
Always smiling, never sad, so fine

As we walk down the country lanes,
I'll be singing a song, hear me calling your name
Hear the wind within the trees,
Telling mother nature 'bout you and me

Well if the sunshine's so bright,
Or on our way it's darkest night
The road we choose is always right, so fine
Ah can your love be so strong
When so many loves go wrong
Will our love go on and on and on and on and on and on?

As we walk down the country lanes,
I'll be singing a song, Hear me calling your name
Hear the wind within the trees,
Telling mother nature 'bout you and me

My, my la de la come on now it ain't too far,
Tell your friends all around the world,
Ain't no companion like a blue eyed merle
Come on now well let me tell you,
What you're missing, missing, 'round them brick walls

So of one thing I am sure,
It's a friendship so pure,
Angels singing all around My dog is so fine
Yeah, ain't but one thing to do
Spend my nat'ral life with you,
You're the finest dog I knew, so fine
When you're old and your eyes are dim,
There ain't no old shep gonna happen again,
We'll still go walking down country lanes,
I'll sing the same old songs, hear me call your name

When performing live, Robert Plant was known to shout out "Strider!" following the song's final line "Hear me call your name" - you can hear it in the video below.

Bron-Y-Aur Stomp (Live at Earls Court 1975)

Peps: Richard Wagner's Favorite Music Critic

Wilhelm Richard Wagner, a 19th century German composer and animal lover, would take advice from his dog Peps when composing his music, including his famous 1845 opera Tannhäuser.

Minna, Richard Wagner's first wife, holding Peps

Richard Wagner noticed that his dog Peps, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, had a strong appreciation for music, and would respond differently to melodies depending upon their musical keys. According to Wagner's biographer, Peps constantly sat near his master at the piano and would sometimes howl piteously into his face, suggesting the music did not suit him. If it didn't suit Peps, it didn't suit Wagner. Some critics commented that Peps was the only critic Wagner ever listened to.

When Peps became ill with little life left in him, Wagner scarcely left his dog's side - even putting off important work. After Peps passed away, the composer wrote to his friend Praeger: "He died in my arms on the night of the ninth, passing away without a sound, quietly and peacefully. On the morrow we buried him in the garden beside the house. I cried much, and since then I have felt bitter pain and sorrow for the dear friend of the past thirteen years."

Sir Edward Elgar and His Much Wanted Dogs

Sir Edward Elgar, the famous English composer, loved dogs and had a spaniel named Marco before getting married. It would be a long time before he would own another.

Edward Elgar with his dogs Marco, Mina and Meg

In 1889, at the age of 31, Sir Edward Elgar married Caroline Alice Roberts. Unlike Elgar, Alice could not stand dogs and forbade them in the household. Although he could not have a dog of his own, he did enjoy spending time with a bulldog named Dan who belonged to his friend George Sinclair. In fact, Dan is portrayed in his Variation XI of the Enigma Variations. The variation portrays the dog falling into the River Wye, his paddling upstream and his triumphant bark when reaching land.

When Alice passed away, after 30 years of marriage, Elgar (who was devastated by his wife's death) was finally able to own a dog. Actually, he got three - another spaniel named Marco and two terriers named Meg and Mina.

The dogs were almost always at his side, and when they couldn't be, Elgar would often keep in contact with them. When celebrating his 70th birthday, he wished a good night to his dog(s) during a live radio broadcast. On another occasion, when dining at a fancy Club, he received an urgent phone call. When he took the call, fellow diners could hear loud barking from the background and Elgar firmly telling someone to stop biting the cushions.

According to The animal writer Rowland Jones c. 1930, "At tea-time the three dogs [Marco, Mina and Meg] line up in front of Sir Edward, who sits on the arm of a couch and gives them sweet biscuits and cake. At a word they simultaneously rise up like soldiers and stand at attention. A friend of Sir Edward's calls them The Three Musketeers because of this trick."

I am not sure how long each dog lived, but it is said Sir Edward Elgar lived the last 14 years of his life with dogs.

Musicians

Adam MacLay: Studio portrait of six musicians with instruments, ca. 1900s

 

Ben Shahn: Street musicians, Maynardville, Tennessee, 1935

 

Eva Besnyö: Gypsies, 1931

 

Harris & Ewing: Woman being serenaded, 1940

 

James McAllister and family, outside, with musical instruments, New Zealand, 1912

 

Lafayette Studio: Betty Coed and the Debs, 1939

 

Oxford College Mandolin Club, 1917

 

Paul Stang: A portrait of two of Paul Stang's sisters - 

Jørgina Stang with the guitar and Marie Stang with the fiddle

 

Russell Lee: Cajun musicians at fais-do-do at 

National Rice Festival. Crowley, Louisiana, 1938

 

University of Kentucky, WHAS band, 1933

 

William Rittase: Pianist and Violinist, October 1939

Musicians

Adam MacLay:  Outdoors portrait, three unidentified men 

playing violin, flute and large harp, Christchurch, 1905-26

 

Ben Shahn: Mrs. Mary McLean, Skyline Farms, Alabama, 1937

 

Charles Elliott Gill: Musicians gathered at the Russell home, 1905-10

 

Frank Denton: Five members of the Dixieland Jazz Orchestra, ca. 1930s

 

John Vachon: Meeker County, Minnesota. Music supplied by 

two Meeker County farmers for dance at crossroads store, 1942

 

Lydia and William Williams with their banjos,

Carlyle Street, Napier, New Zealand, ca. 1890

 

National Photo: Two Afro-American men, outside of stable, with Kazoos 

in their mouths, one of them seated on hay bale and playing guitar, 

the other playing homemade string instrument

 

Russell Lee: Farmer and his brother making music, Pie Town, New Mexico, 1940

 

Russell Lee: The band at the Savoy Ballroom, Chicago, Illinois, 1941

 

William Gottlieb: Jack Teagarten