My dog Luffy is probably my greatest musical influence. He’s always there, at my feet. He seems to have very strong musical tastes. He likes upbeat funk, like the Pointer Sisters, or Rick James or the Jackson Five. He has no interest in rock and roll, and hates Karlheinz Stockhausen so much he will scratch at me until I turn it off. But his favourite song has always been Dark Star by the Grateful Dead, which I would play to him to calm him during thunderstorms or fireworks. As I write this, Luffy has just turned fifteen years old. For a while his hearing seemed to be getting worse, and the vet has confirmed that he’s pretty much deaf at this point. So this is a song for a dog who can no longer hear it, sadly.