Animals, a album with actually very little in terms of what came before. The most I can tell you is this. Two songs that had been around since the
Dark Side of the Moon tour were further developed for this. These songs, originally called "Raving and Drooling" and "You've Got to Be Crazy" were developed into "Sheep" and "Dogs" respectively. With their deal up with EMI, you know, the one they signed waaaay back before
The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn? The one that gave them free studio time? That was gone. So instead, Pink Floyd bought a three-story block of church halls at 35 Britannia Row in Islington to compensate. That was.. smart? I guess?
But
Animals is an reactionary album, it seems. Pink Floyd responding to the criticism from two completely different ways, as well as their own criticism. Okay, let's clear things up a bit. The criticism that Pink Floyd was receiving was from the conservative figures like Mary Whitehouse (Who is the only Pig identified in the song 'Pigs'), and the Punk Rock movement, who considered Pink Floyd "old fashioned" and most of Progressive Rock "Arty Farty bullcrap." Mr Waters would not have this at all, and so it was the start of Waters feeling like he had to take over to get things done. To quote Richard Wright, "Animals was a slog. It wasn't a fun record to make, but this was when Roger really started to believe that he was the sole writer for the band. He believed that it was only because of him that the band was still going, and obviously, when he started to develop his ego trips, the person he would have his conflicts with would be me."
It's reflected in the writing credits. Every song has Waters writing credits with only Dogs having a co-writer in the form of David Gilmour. Gilmour said to Mojo in 2008 that "Roger's thing is to dominate, but I am happy to stand up for myself and argue vociferously as to the merits of different pieces of music, which is what I did on Animals. I didn't feel remotely squeezed out of that album. Ninety per cent of the song "Dogs" was mine. That song was almost the whole of one side, so that's half of Animals."
Returning to help engineer this album was Brian Humphries, who worked on
Wish You Were Here. The band had discussed employing another guitarist for future tours, and Snowy White was therefore invited into the studio. When Mason and Waters accidentally deleted one of Gilmour's solos, Snowy White was asked to record one for 'Pigs on the Wing'. Although his performance was omitted from the vinyl release, it was included on the eight-track cartridge version. So I'll talk about it here for a little bit. It's actually a really good solo, it's a great bridge for what became split into parts.
Before I get into my actually feelings for the album, let us discuss the album cover, shall we? Every day on his way to work, Roger Waters passed a power station known as the Battersea Power Station, which was by then approaching the end of its useful life. He decided on using this as the basis for the album cover. The band commissioned German company Ballon Fabrik (who had previously constructed Zeppelin airships) and Austrian artist Jeffery Shaw to construct a Pig shaped balloon, about 30 feet in size and move it to Battersea Power Station whilst it was filled with Helium by December 2nd. However, bad weather meant nothing happened the first day, and Pink Floyd's manager Steve O'Rourke forgot to book a marksman to shoot the pig down for the second day if it escaped. Guess what? It escaped, landed in the county of Kent (i live in this county <3) and was recovered by a rather cross farmer whose cows had been scared by the pig balloon. They got it back, but their early testing shots proved to be the best so the band superimposed the pig onto it and that's your cover.
One last thing about the cover is that during the 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony, it received a little nice shout out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=7tm7NWsxRRc#t=85Animals(1977)
Pigs On The Wing (Part 1)
Dogs
Pigs (Three Different Ones)
Sheep
Pigs On The Wing (Part 2)
I'll start with the opening bread of 'Pigs on the Wing (Part 1)'. It's a cool opener, if a bit misleading for what you're actually going to get, with it's cool and lovey dovey tone (as the songs were written about Roger Waters then girlfriend.) Really, there's not much to talk about here, it's a love song, but then we get into 'Dogs'. The theme of album is loosley based of Orwell's "Animal Farm", and 'Dogs' is there to tell you that we're getting a bit angry in this album. It's got a good build up, and I actually think this is one of Gilmour's best vocal performances in the entirety of Pink Floyd's career. It's got anger, it's got the edge that the song needs, and his guitar performance helps build this song up even more. The last vocal passages, sung by Waters, is a great singalong bit, but also demostrates something else. Mason had stated he enjoyed working on
Animals more than
Wish You Were Here, and I feel like you can tell that during this last section of 'Dogs'. The version, if you have the
Wish You Were Here immersion set, 'You've Got To Be Crazy' isn't much different to the actual song.
'Pigs (Three Different Ones)' is the most synth I have heard in a Pink Floyd song. It's got that unique sound that makes it stand out from the rest of the Pink Floyd discography, and the buildup yet again is great. The lyrics only mention one person by name, Mary Whitehouse, but supposedly one of the other Pigs is Mrs Thatcher, who Roger Waters would actually start to hate in about two albums time. This is a good song, but I don't know, I never seem to go out of my way to listen to it much.
'Sheep' however, is in my top 5 Pink Floyd songs. The bass, just the vocal delivery, the piano, the way it rocks and shucks and drags you through well trodden corridors! Like Gilmour on 'Dogs', this is Roger Waters best vocal delivery. Just, that madness in that voice makes it that much better. Plus that reworking of Psalm 23 on the song by Waters. It's incredible. Then, the last piece of bread, 'Pigs on the Wing (Part 2)' is quite a mood whiplash, I'm not entirely sure what was up with that.
Topic: Pink Floyd Discography thread v. 'On An Island, end V1' (Read 33753 times)
