Tymon Dogg

Tymon Dogg
Background information
Birth name	Stephen Murray[1]
Also known as	Timon, Step Murray
Born	1950 (age 65–66) Formby, Lancashire, England[2]
Origin	London, England[2]
Genres	Folk, Punk, Rock, World
Instruments	Violin, guitar, piano, Harmonium, viola, shawm
Years active	1967–present
Associated acts	The Clash, The Mescaleros
Website	tymondogg.com

Tymon Dogg (born Stephen John Murray) is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Dogg's career started early with shows at the Cavern and Peppermint Lounge in Liverpool when he was 15. As well as pursuing a solo career, he collaborated with many bands and musicians including The Clash, and was a member of Joe Strummer's last band, The Mescaleros.

Career

Dogg moved to London at 17, signed to Pye Records (under the name Timon) and recorded a single, "The Bitter Thoughts of Little Jane" featuring Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.^[3] Moving to Apple Records, Dogg recorded tracks produced by Peter Asher featuring Paul McCartney on piano and James Taylor on guitar. Dogg then toured with The Moody Blues and worked closely with Justin Hayward to produce many tracks, "Now She Says She's Young" being released as a single in 1970.^[4]

Dogg became part of London's early 1970s underground scene. Moving into a squatted property in Westbourne Grove, Dogg made a living playing in folk clubs and busking with house mate Joe Strummer.^[5][6] Dogg regularly played at the Charlie Pig Dog Club with the 101ers and when Joe Strummer joined The Clash Dogg was invited to contribute tracks on Sandinista! and Combat Rock.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Other notable housemates from that time included all female punk band The Slits. In 1978, Dogg moved to the North East of England with artist Helen Cherry.^[10] Dogg released Battle of Wills during the 1980s. In 2000, Dogg met up with Joe Strummer again at the Poetry Olympics curated by Michael Horovitz. The two performed an impromptu set of songs together, with Lily Allen in her début stage performance as backing singer.^{[11][12][13][5]}

Shortly afterwards, Dogg joined Strummer's band, The Mescaleros, and the two worked together until Strummer's death in 2002 producing songs such as "Mondo Bongo" and "Johnny Appleseed".^[10] Dogg has continued to write and record his music. In 2010 Cherry Red Records released a compilation of songs from 1967 – 2009 called The Irrepressible Dogg Dogg and Thin Man Press produced a CD of Dogg's soundscape settings of extracts from Louis Aragon's A Wave of Dreams in 2012.^[14]

Discography

Solo recordings

With Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros

Guest appearances

References

Further reading

• Gilbert, Pat (2005) [2004]. Passion Is a Fashion: The Real Story of The Clash (4th ed.). London: Aurum Press. ISBN 1-84513-113-4. OCLC 61177239. 
• Gray, Marcus (2005) [1995]. The Clash: Return of the Last Gang in Town (5th revised ed.). London: Helter Skelter. ISBN 1-905139-10-1. OCLC 60668626. 
• Green, Johnny; Garry Barker (2003) [1997]. A Riot of Our Own: Night and Day with The Clash (3rd ed.). London: Orion. ISBN 0-7528-5843-2. OCLC 52990890. 
• Gruen, Bob; Chris Salewicz (2004) [2001]. The Clash (3rd ed.). London: Omnibus. ISBN 1-903399-34-3. OCLC 69241279. 
• Leigh, Spencer (1975). The Last Trumpet. tymondogg.net. Retrieved 24 February 2008. 
• Needs, Kris (25 January 2005). Joe Strummer and the Legend of the Clash. London: Plexus. ISBN 0-85965-348-X. OCLC 53155325. 
• Topping, Keith (2004) [2003]. The Complete Clash (2nd ed.). Richmond: Reynolds & Hearn. ISBN 1-903111-70-6. OCLC 63129186. 
• Joel Whitburn (15 April 2007). The Billboard Albums: Includes Every Album That Made the Billboard 200 Chart. Record Research Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-89820-166-6. 

External links

• Tymon Dogg – The Godfather of Anti-Folk fan site
• Tymon Dogg & The Quikening's Myspace page
• Bio at Strummernews
• RateYourMusic page