Animals is a Pink Floyd concept album, recorded at the band's own Britannia Row Studios in London and released on January 23 1977 in the UK on Harvest Records and then released on February 2, 1977 in the US and Canada originally on Columbia Records. It is a concept album, loosely reminiscent of George Orwell's famous book Animal Farm. A digitally re-mastered CD was subsequently released in 1994 in the UK on EMI and in 1997 in the US on Columbia. The 1997 remaster was then re-released on April 25, 2000 on Capitol Records in the US. Animals reached #3 on The Billboard US Album charts in 1977. It went Gold on February 12, 1977 and Platinum on March 10, 1977 in the US. It has sold four million copies in the US alone to date, seven million worldwide and is currently listed as Quadruple Platinum by the R.I.A.A..

Track listing

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

Personnel

• Roger Waters - bass, vocals, acoustic guitar on Pigs on the Wing
• David Gilmour - guitars, 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.

The three core songs are bookended by a pair of love songs written by Waters for his then wife Caroline: Pigs On The Wing parts 1 & 2. The message of these two songs is that as long as people have love, they can shelter themselves from the evils of the world spoken about in the middle three songs. Waters also refers to himself as a dog in part 2. For the 8-track cartridge release, which looped, parts one and two were linked by a guitar bridge performed by Snowy White.

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

Sleeve

The giant, helium-filled pig seen on the cover was actually flown over Battersea Power Station for the photo shoot, but (supposedly) broke free. This has been confirmed by the art director. For about an hour, all hell broke loose. Military and passenger planes reported the pig, causing all the flights at London Heathrow Airport to be delayed. It finally landed in a farmers field (without any damage), where the farmer was angry because it scared the sheep! The resultant pictures were not deemed suitable, and the final image is a composite, created in the darkroom.

Similar inflatable pigs have since featured in Pink Floyd concerts.

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

External link

• Lyrics and trivia
• Detailed review