Pigs on the Wing

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"Pigs on the Wing" is a two-part song by the progressive rock band Pink Floyd from their 1977 concept album, Animals, starting and wrapping up the album. According to various interviews, it was written by Roger Waters as a declaration of love to his then-love, Carolyne. This song is significantly different from the other three songs on the album, "Dogs", "Pigs", and "Sheep" in which the other songs are dark, whereas this one is lighter-themed.^[1]

Composition

The song is divided into two parts, which are the first and last tracks of the album. Both are in stark contrast to the album's middle three misanthropic songs, and suggest that companionship can help us overcome our flaws. The casual listener may ignore them for the most part; however they are keys to the album, summing up the album in its entirety in their short 1:25 time spans. Roger Waters apparently refers to himself as a "dog" in Part 2: "Now that I've found somewhere safe to bury my bone/And any fool knows, a dog needs a home/A shelter, from pigs on the wing." Another allusion is found in the line "So I don't feel alone, or the weight of the stone," which refers back to the dogs being "dragged down by the stone".

According to Nick Mason, and confirmed by Waters, it is a love song directed towards Waters' new wife at the time, Carolyne. She was really the only one Roger's friends had ever met who could hold her own in an argument with him; according to Mason you had to be very good with semantics to win an argument against him. Waters wrote the song because that's all he had been looking for all along: someone who could stand up to him, an equal.

The songs are constructed simply and feature no instrumentation besides a strummed acoustic guitar played by Waters.

On the 8-track cartridge release, the song order was changed, and Parts 1 and 2 were played back-to-back at the beginning of the album. They were linked by a guitar bridge performed by Snowy White. Snowy would play the guitar solo in live performances on the 1977 Animals tour. On the last US leg of the performances, David Gilmour would play bass guitar instead of the electric rhythm guitar he played on the European and first US legs of the Animals tour.

The complete version of the song, including the instrumental bridge, was re-released on Snowy White's Goldtop compilation album in 1995.

Personnel

• Roger Waters — music, lyrics, acoustic guitar, vocals
• Snowy White — guitar solo (8-track version only)
• Richard Wright — Hammond organ (8-track version only)

Cover versions

A cover version of "Pigs on the Wing" was released by Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade on the album Live Frogs Set 2.

See also

• Flying pig
• Pink Floyd live performances (Roger Waters was playing "Pigs on the Wing Pt. 2" when he made his infamous "Oh for fuck's sake..." speech.)

References