Animals (album)
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Animals 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 January 23, 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 year plus 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; however, some people thought that Animals was a flop in comparison to Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. To date, Animals has sold over four million copies in the US alone and seven million worldwide and is currently listed as Quadruple Platinum by the R.I.A.A..
A digitally re-mastered CD (sourced from the 1992 Shine On box set) was subsequently released on EMI in Europe in 1994 and on Columbia/Sony for North America in 1997. The 1992 remaster was then re-released on 25 April 2000 on Capitol Records in the US and EMI elsewhere, and is currently the most recent CD issue of the album.
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 programmes.
It is often considered one of the band's best albums in terms of guitarwork.
Track listing
All songs written by Waters except 'Dogs' by Waters/Gilmour- "Pigs on the Wing Part 1" – 1:25
- "Dogs" – 17:04
- "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" – 11:22
- "Sheep" – 10:24
- "Pigs on the Wing Part 2" – 1:25
Credits
- Roger Waters - Vocals, bass, acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, vocoder, tape effects, sleeve design
- David Gilmour - Guitars, bass, vocals, talkbox, synthesizer
- Richard Wright - Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes piano, Yamaha piano, ARP synthesizer, backing vocals
- Nick Mason - Drums, percussion, tape effects, sleeve graphics
- Snowy White - Lead guitar on "Pigs On The Wing" (8-track cartridge version only)
- Brian Humphries - Engineer
- Storm Thorgerson - Sleeve design
- Aubrey Powell - Sleeve design
- James Guthrie: Remastering producer
- Doug Sax: Remastering
Commentary
The album appears to be heavily inspired by George Orwell's Animal Farm as, through the central three songs, one of which is nearly 20 minutes long, the other two are over 10 minutes in length, Roger Waters equates all humans to one of three types of animals: dogs, pigs, or sheep. Dogs are used to represent the megalomaniacal businessmen who are finished by being dragged down by the very weight they needed to throw around. The song "Dogs" was originally titled "You Gotta Be Crazy" when performed live in 1974 and 1975. Pigs represent the corrupt politicians and moralists (with direct references to Mary Whitehouse, 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, and the 17:03 song "Dogs" was cut into two tracks.
Sleeve
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 had custom picture labels with drummer Nick Mason's writing for credits. Side one depicted a bird's eye view of a dog and the English countryside. Side two depicted a bird's eye view of a pig and sheep and the English countryside.
The Spitting Incident
The album was promoted by Pink Floyd's 1977 In The Flesh tour. The tour was grueling and made the band members miserable. As time went by, the nature of the concerts caused Roger to become detached from the audience and see himself as a superior figure. The final night of the tour, in Montreal, Canada, 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:"Oh, for fuck'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... Fuck 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 "Pigs (Three Different Ones)," Waters watched incredulously as one fan climbed the netting that separated the audience from the band and in disgust, Waters spat in his admirer's face. Gilmour then reportedly walked unnoticed off the stage disgusted and sat out the final encore. Afterwards Roger regretted what he had done, and lamented the separation between the audience and band. It was this which caused Waters to come up with the idea of the critically acclaimed album, The Wall.
It was also during an appearance on this tour that one of their massive props went astray. During their show at the LSU Assembly Center in Baton Rouge Louisiana, a giant inflatable pig that ran back and forth across the ceiling of the arena accidentally struck a fan in the head as it executed a turn at the far end of its travels away from the stage. The fan was uninjured.
Charts
Album - Billboard (North America)| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Billboard's Pop Albums | 3 |
External links
| Pink Floyd |
|---|
| Syd Barrett | David Gilmour | Nick Mason | Roger Waters | Richard Wright |
| Discography |
| Studio albums: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn | A Saucerful of Secrets | Ummagumma | Atom Heart Mother | Meddle | The Dark Side of the Moon | Wish You Were Here | Animals | The Wall | The Final Cut | A Momentary Lapse of Reason | The Division Bell |
| Soundtracks: More | Zabriskie Point | Obscured by Clouds |
| Live: Ummagumma | The Man and the Journey | Delicate Sound of Thunder | P*U*L*S*E | The Wall Live |
| Compilations: Relics | A Nice Pair | Works | A Collection of Great Dance Songs | Shine On | |
| | The Wall | Delicate Sound of Thunder | La Carrera Panamericana | P*U*L*S*E |
| Bob Klose | Steve O'Rourke | Alan Parsons | Storm Thorgerson/Hipgnosis | Live performances | Trivia | Pigs | Publius Enigma |
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