We've had threads like this over at CP.
Dog Years is one of my favorite songs off of T4E, and primarily because of the lyrics.
I believe the reason that most people don't like the lyrics, or think they're corny, is because they don't really "get it." I don't mean that as an insult, I just mean that Neil makes a lot of vague references and plays on words that you have to think about in order to really grasp. In that sense, if there is anything wrong with the song, it's the obscurity of the word plays, not the lyrics themselves.
For anyone who cares, I'll give the same "interpretation" of the lyrics as I once gave on a Dog Years thread over at CP. This, of course, is merely MY interpretation of the lyrics. You may think I'm full of dog shite....
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"In a dog's life
A year is really more like seven
And all too soon a canine
Will be chasing cars in doggie heaven"
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This stanza is pretty self-explanatory. It begins the extended metaphor that Neil creates in the rest of the song. I agree that "doggy heaven" kind of sucks.
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It seems to me
As we make our own few circles 'round the sun
We get it backwards
And our seven years go by like one
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In this stanza, Neil is making the very real observation that our lives go by very quickly, and if we aren't careful, the years will just pass us by.
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Dog years - It's the season of the itch
Dog years - With every scratch it reappears
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The "season of the itch" is a very obscure reference to the movie "The Seven-Year Itch", which is about the way that people tend to get the "itch" for something new in their relationships every 7 years or so. So it's an obscure reference and it plays on the 7 years/1 year "dog years" theme.
"With every scratch it reappears" is simply saying that when something goes wrong in our lives (i.e. a "scratch"), it makes us itch for something new.
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In the dog days
People look to Sirius
Dogs cry for the moon
But those connections are mysterious
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I love this stanza. "Sirius" is the dog star. So it's a clever reference to the dog star, which fits the "dog years" theme, and it is also a pun that sounds like "people look too serious." In other words, in these dog days, people are way too serious and don't cut loose enough, and they also "look to Sirius", meaning they look for answers in astrology and in the spirit/religion realm.
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It seems to me
While it's true that every dog will have his day
When all the bones are buried
There is barely time to go outside and play
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More word plays using dog metaphors. "When all the bones are buried, there's barely time to play" is saying that by the time we've done all the crap we have to do (i.e. burying our bones), there's no time to do the things we want to do. It can also be read as a play on words...."when the bones are buried" could be a reference to when we're dead. In other words, when we're dead, we'll be sorry we spent so much of our lives working and not playing.
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Dog years - It's the season of the itch
Dog years - With every scratch it reappears
Dog years - For every sad son of a bitch
Dog years - With his tail between his ears
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The "sad son of a bitch" phrase is also really clever, I think. It rhymes the word "itch", which we've already pointed out is a clever, if not obscure, reference to the 7-Year Itch, and it also is a play on words by itself, with "son of a bitch" being a reference to a dog. "Tail between his ears" is rather enigmatic and does seem to be an attempt to merely rhyme the word "reappears." However, I think it's an obscure reference to someone having his "head up his ass", as it were, which would fit with the theme of the "sad son of a bitch" who has no time to go out and play.
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I'd rather be a tortoise from Galapagos
Or a span of geological time
Than be living in these dog years
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Tortoises live extraordinarily long lives....in the news recently a tortoise just died who had been born around 1750. A span of geological time is many thousands of years. So he's saying here that he'd rather live immortally than be living this life where the years go by so quickly.
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In a dog's brain
A constant buzz of low-level static
One sniff at the hydrant
And the answer is automatic
It seems to me
As well make our own few circles 'round the block
We've lost our senses
For the higher-level static of talk
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A dog doesn't have a very well-developed brain...it functions basically on instinct. Neil then goes on to say that we live like this too...running on auto-pilot, forgetting to stop and smell the roses, too busy to just sit down, face-to-face, and talk.