'' is a 1977
Concept Album by
Pink Floyd , loosely reminiscent of
George Orwell 's famous book ''
Animal Farm ''. It was recorded at the band's own
Britannia Row Studios in
London .
Originally released on
23 January 1977 in the UK on Harvest Records, and released on
2 February 1977 in the United States and Canada on Columbia Records.
Although Animals quickly reached #3 on The Billboard US Album charts in 1977, it quickly fell off the charts due to the fact it had three unusually long songs and a heavy bass sonic quality which kept the album from getting radio play. Due to this, the album was on the charts for only a few months, as opposed to the Dark Side of the Moon's 30 plus year chart run and Wish You Were Here staying on the charts for over a year. However, when Animals was remastered for the 1992 Pink Floyd box set ''
Shine On '', the sound of Animals was fresh and still startling as compared to other albums from 1977. It went Gold on
12 February 1977 and Platinum on
10 March 1977 in the US which was good but some saw as a flop compared to ''
Dark Side Of The Moon '' and ''
Wish You Were Here ''. To date, Animals has sold over four million copies in the US alone, seven million worldwide and is currently listed as Quadruple Platinum by the
R.I.A.A. .
A digitally re-mastered
CD was subsequently released in Europe 1994 on EMI and in 1997 in for the rest of the world on Columbia/Sony. The 1997 remaster was then re-released on
25 April 2000 on Capitol Records in the US and EMI outside the US.
It marked the first-ever appearance of the
Pink Floyd Pig .
For the
8-track version of Animals, guitarist
Snowy White was brought in to play a short guitar solo which would combine "Pigs on the Wing, Part One" with "Pigs on the Wing, Part Two" into one whole song; "Dogs" was split between two programs.
#"
Pigs On The Wing Part 1" (Waters) - 1:25
#"
Dogs " (Waters/Gilmour) - 17:04
#"
Pigs (Three Different Ones) " (Waters) - 11:22
#"
Sheep " (Waters) - 10:24
#"Pigs on the Wing Part 2" (Waters) - 1:25
- David Gilmour - Guitar s, Bass , vocals, talkbox, Synthesizer
- Roger Waters - Vocals, bass, acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, Vocoder , tape effects, sleeve design
- Richard Wright - Hammond Organ , Fender Rhodes piano, Yamaha Piano , ARP synthesizer, backing vocals
- Nick Mason - Drums , Percussion , tape effects, sleeve graphics
plus
The album appears to be heavily inspired by , who, at the time, was making considerable efforts to censor Pink Floyd's music, because of their political overtones). Those who do not fall into either of these two categories are sheep, who follow blindly, without any self-thought. ("Sheep" was originally called "Raving and Drooling" when performed live in 1974 and 1975).
The three core songs are bookended by a pair of love songs written by Waters for his then-wife Caroline: "Pigs on the Wing, Part 1" and "Pigs on the Wing, Part 2". Both are in stark contrast to the misanthropic middle three songs, and suggest that companionship can help us overcome our flaws. And while the casual listener may ignore these two songs for the most part they are keys to the album, summing up the album's entirety in their short 1:25 second spans. Waters also refers to himself as a dog in Part 2. For the
8-track Cartridge release, which looped, Parts 1 and 2 were linked by a guitar bridge performed by
Snowy White .
The giant,
Helium -filled
Pig seen on the cover was actually flown over
Battersea Power Station for the photo shoot. On the first day of shooting, a marksman was on hand in case the pig broke free. On the second day of shooting however, photography commenced before the marksman had arrived. Ironically, a gust of wind broke the pig free of its moorings. Because there was no-one to shoot the pig down, it sailed away into the morning sky, with the photo crew watching in horror. A passenger plane reported the pig, causing all the flights at
London Heathrow Airport to be delayed. A police helicopter was sent up to track the pig, but was forced to return after following the pig to an altitude of 5,000 feet. A warning was sent out to pilots that a giant, flying pink pig was loose in the area. The CAA lost radar contact on the pig near Chatham in Kent, at a height of 18,000 feet and flying east towards Germany. It finally landed in a farmer's field (without any damage), where the farmer was angry because it scared the sheep. The resulting pictures were not deemed suitable, and the final image is a composite of the power station picture from day one and the pig from day two. While Roger Waters had never intended for a composite picture to be used, it was the cloud coverage over Battersea Power Station that ensured a superimposition would be necessary.
Similar inflatable pigs have since featured in Pink Floyd concerts.
The album was promoted by Pink Floyd's 1977 ''In The Flesh'' tour. One night of the tour in Montreal, Waters was starting to sing "Pigs on the Wing" and an audience member set off a firecracker near to the stage. He stopped singing and shouted out:
--'s sake. Stop letting off fireworks and shouting and screaming. I'm trying to sing a song." The crowd cheered at this. "I mean I don't care. If you don't wanna hear it, you know... F
- you! I'm sure there's a lot of people here who ''do'' want to hear it. So why don't you just be quiet... If you wanna let your fireworks off, go outside and let them off out there. And if you wanna shout and scream and holler then do it out there but... I'm trying to sing a song that some people want to listen to. ''I'' want to listen to it!"
He then continued with the song, but things went downhill from there, and during "Money," Waters watched incredulously as one fan climbed the netting that seperated the audience from the band and in disgust, Waters spat in his admirer's face. It was this incident which caused Waters to come up with the idea of the critically acclaimed album, ''
The Wall ''.
-
Billboard (North America)
