Animals (album)

Animals is a Pink Floyd album, recorded at the band's own Britannia Row Studios in London and released in 1977. It is a concept album, loosely reminiscent of George Orwell's famous book Animal Farm.

Table of contents

1 Track listing 2 Personnel 3 Commentary

Track listing

1. "Pigs On The Wing pt. 1" - 1:25 (Waters)
2. "Dogs" - 17:08 (Waters/Gilmour)
3. "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" - 11:28 (Waters)
4. "Sheep" - 10:20 (Waters)
5. "Pigs On The Wing pt. 2" - 1:25 (Waters)

Personnel

• Roger Waters - bass, vocals
• David Gilmour - guitar, vocals
• Richard Wright - keyboards
• Nick Mason - drums

Commentary

Through the central three songs, all 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. Pigs represent the corrupt politicians and moralists (with direct references to Margaret Thatcher and Mary Whitehouse). Those who do not fall into either of these two categories are sheep, who follow blindly, without any self-thought. These three core songs are bookended by a pair of love songs written by Waters: Pigs On The Wing parts 1 & 2.

Perhaps notably, Les Claypool's Frog Brigade covered the entire album in some concerts and eventually released a recording of this exact cover.