Pigs

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"Pigs (Three Different Ones)" is a song from Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals. In the album's three parts, "Dogs", "Pigs", and "Sheep", pigs represent the people whom Roger Waters considers to be at the top of the social ladder, the ones with wealth and power; they also manipulate the rest of society and encourage them to be viciously competitive and cutthroat, so the pigs can remain powerful.

Summary

The song's three verses each presents a different "pig", the identity of which remains a matter of speculation^[1] as only the third verse clearly identifies its subject as morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse.^[2] This contributed to Whitehouse's negative image of Pink Floyd, whom she thought to be promoting sex and drugs.^{[citation needed]}

Halfway through the song, David Gilmour uses a Heil talk box on the guitar solo to mimic the sound of pigs. This is the first use of a talk box by Pink Floyd.^[3] Gilmour also plays bass guitar—which, unlike the bass in many Pink Floyd songs, does elaborate syncopated riffs and ad-libs throughout the song, and does two solos—one before the first verse, another before the third.

In some cassette tape versions of the album, this song was divided into two parts after the first verse, in order to minimise the total length of tape.^{[citation needed]}

Live versions

The normal length of the song performed live is roughly 17 minutes (some would top out at 20 minutes), compared with the album length of 11 minutes and 28 seconds. Live renditions basically followed the album version with few notable differences: an extra guitar solo was played after the second verse, the talk-box solo on guitar was substituted for a Minimoog solo and to the coda were added a quiet Hammond-led section and a crescendo reprise of the guitar solo with aggressive drumming.

When played on the 1977 tour, Roger Waters shouted a different number for each concert. This purportedly has the purpose of identifying bootleg recordings.^[4]

In 1987, Waters performed a shortened version of the song, featuring only the first two verses and shorter guitar solos between them as part of an extended Pink Floyd medley.

Musicians

• David Gilmour – guitars, bass guitar, talk box
• Roger Waters – lead vocals, guitar, tape effects, vocoder
• Richard Wright – Hammond organ, ARP String Synthesizer, grand piano, clavinet
• Nick Mason – drums, percussion (cowbell)

Recording date(s): April and May 1976 at the band's own Britannia Row Studios, Islington, London.^[5]

References

1. ^ According to one interpretation, the first verse's "pig man" refers to businessmen in general (but see Dogs), whereas the second verse indirectly refers to conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, leader of the opposition at that time. See Song review at Allmusic.
2. ^ Blake 2008, pp. 243–244
3. ^ "Animals: Trivia and Quotes". BWP. http://www.pinkfloyd-co.com/disco/animals/animals_trivia.html. Retrieved 27 September 2010. 
4. ^ Tarquini, Stefano. "The Roger Numbers Game". http://digilander.libero.it/pinkside/inglese_roger_game.htm. Retrieved 27 September 2010. "The drummer [Nick Mason], through his agent and friend, Ben Sutton, has answered me that the numbers shouted from Waters in "Pigs" were to identify the bootlegs recordings (literally in the letter: "The numbers in Pigs that you mentioned were ... to identify bootleg recordings!")." 
5. ^ Fitch, Vernon. The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (3rd edition), 2005. ISBN 1-894959-24-8