Pigs on the Wing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Pigs on the Wing"

Song by Pink Floyd
from the album Animals
Released	January 23, 1977 (UK) February 2, 1977 (US)
Recorded	April-May 1976
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	1:25 (Each)
Label	Harvest / Capitol
Writer(s)	Roger Waters
Producer(s)	Pink Floyd
Animals track listing
"Pigs on the Wing 1" "Dogs" "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" "Sheep" "Pigs on the Wing 2"

"Pigs on the Wing" is a two-parted song by the progressive rock band Pink Floyd from their 1977 concept album, Animals, starting and wrapping up the album. According to various interviews, it was written by Roger Waters as a declaration of love to his wife.

[edit] Composition

The song is divided in two parts, which are the first and last tracks of the album. Both are in stark contrast to the album's middle three misanthropic songs, and suggest that companionship can help us overcome our flaws. The casual listener may ignore them for the most part; however they are keys to the album, summing up the album in its entirety in their short 1:25 time spans. Also, it is believed that Roger Waters refers to himself as a "dog" in Part 2: "Now that I've found somewhere safe to bury my bone, And any fool knows, a dog needs a home, A shelter, from pigs on the wing."

The songs are constructed simply and feature no instrumentation besides a strummed acoustic guitar played by Waters.

On the 8-track cartridge release (which looped), Parts 1 and 2 were linked by a guitar bridge performed by Snowy White. Snowy would play the guitar solo at the end of part 2 in live performances on the 1977 Animals tour which also included drums, rhythm guitars and keyboards. On the last US leg of the performances, David Gilmour would play bass guitar instead of electric rhythm guitar like he did on the European and first US legs of the Animals tour.