Your reasoning for putting off expanding your Pink Floyd journey sounds EXACTLY like mine.... Growing up I listened only to DSOTM...I think I never listened to other Floyd is because Dark Side is such an amazing album in my life I didn't want to be disappointed if other albums didn't have the same effect.... Man I had no idea what I was missing....😆
If you want to surprise yourself again, go with the full The Wall album. It is 90 minutes of constant shock how good and how different this album is to all you have listened to through your entire life. 3 years after album was released, there was a movie under the same title with whole music played from start to finish, in some places they changed and added a bit, but The Wall is just a story of Pink who faces schizophrenia. Don't want to spoil much, but yeah, that's a completely unique experience. Best to react to whole The Wall album is to divide it into 4 parts and make some pauses so you can upload it without being blocked for copyrights. Good luck man! I admire your reactions!
fisrt time i heard floyd i never stopped untill i had bought or heard everything thay did i was 11 when i first heard floyd new then this music was special. mibby its me but thay do somthing to ya canny explan mibby itys the internet but it was specal back then when ya discoverd proper music it just was never played on raido in the uk esp 80s early 90s
Really enjoyable reaction! 'Wish You Were Here' definitely should be next. The album that was released next after Dark Side. What's amazing is that, after the really high bar set by Dark Side, 'Wish you Were Here' didn't disappoint. Another Pink Floyd album of supreme quality throughout!!!
So glad you did this album (like I said before it's my favorite PF album) and that I could experience it with you. Looking forward to the next album, whatever it might be. ❤
Meddle It has one of the best songs I've ever heard on it "echoes" the rest of the songs are also really really good but that song is just mindbogglingly godly.
Have you listened to the full “The Wall” album? Also a total classic! You seem to only fully know “DSOTM,” from what you’ve said. The movie is especially amazing as well!
now that you have reacted to the album, relisten to Pigs on the Wing pt 1 then transition into David's solo which then transitions into pt 2....it is like it is meant to be that way...brilliant.
I encourage you to listen to the album Meddle. It was the album just before Dark Side of the Moon. It is awesome. The song Echoes is a trip through time on earth.
You are right. DSOTM is to be held responsible for other albums' low crowd followers. Listen to The Wall, Meddle, Live in Pompeii and Wish you were here.
To listen to Pigs On The Wing 1&2 together, check out the 8 track version, with a beautiful bridge by Snowy White: czcams.com/video/eQoVh-educY/video.html
ANIMALS Album: Animals - 1977 - Pink Floyd Text and Music composed by Roger Waters From this page of italian site Legendary Cover legendarycover.it/testi-traduzioni/pink-floyd/pigs-on-the-wing-part-1/ Pigs on the wing (Part 1) Sung and Played by Roger Waters If you didn’t care what happened to me And I didn’t care of you We would zig-zag our way through the boredom and pain Occasionally glancing up through the rain Wondering which of the buggars to blame And watching for pigs on the wing. Meaning of Pigs On The Wing (part 1) The eighty-five seconds of Pigs On The Wing (part 1) are the *antibodies needed to face up to* Animals, a forty-one minute journey that like every journey and every story has a beginning and an end. Start and end are separated by the three animals, Dogs, Pigs and Sheep, the three main subjects of this phenomenal horror factory. Three pieces longer than ten minutes, infinite, because the words are never enough to tell the Mephistophelic soul in the depths of contemporary society, and to sink with it. At the end of this album I felt sad, depressed or angry, but at the beginning of Animals I found some comfort and hope, because Pigs On The Wing, joining the two parts, is the only love song composed of Roger Waters (for Pink Floyd). Of course, he does it his way, Roger has never been too honeyed and he talks about love in the deepest sense of the term, not just as a love relationship. To face up to the reality described in this album, you need love. Take care of others, take an interest in what happens to them and trust that they too are interested in you. Waters' text is essential and speaks of union. In the bond and in the help there is the necessary strength to find shelter from evil, as the union of Pigs On The Wing 1 and 2 is the only moment of light in the dark of this album, two twin songs but substantially different. Pigs On The Wing (part 1) has an underlying question, hidden in the verse "If you didn't care what happened to me ..." As if to say: what would happen if we didn't care about each other? Life would be a wandering from suffering to suffering, zigzagging between malaise and fatigue. Occasionally you would raise your head to see the world around you, the rain would hit you in full, because if you are selfish and find yourself alone, the rainy days will never seem to end. You would ask yourself to no avail who is the culprit, unable to understand that the faults of others begin where your ability to fight them ends. And above all, most importantly, vital for survival, you would be perpetually in a state of alarm towards those who want to put you under. The powerful, enormous pigs who control everything and devour everything; unscrupulous people who will jump on your shoulders and sink to get you up, like a dog trying to climb the tallest tree; the sheep, with their deafening bleating in the middle of which nobody can hear you. All this malaise would be a ballast, like dragging a stone behind it, but it would mean being afraid of flying pigs and since flying pigs do not exist, then you would worry about nothing. Pigs On The Wing (part 1), with its unspoken question, so different from (part 2) which instead contains a clear statement, warns about the possible risk of being frightened by enemies that do not exist, when evil is much more real. So who's wrong? Who are the bastards to blame? Dogs, to begin with ...
DOGS Lyrics by Roger Waters Music by David Gilmour & Roger Waters Meaning of Dogs Dogs is not a song. It is an experience. In Animals, Pink Floyd's 1977 rant, dogs are social climbers. They have no qualms about getting as high as possible. Roger Waters refers to individuals who trample on values, friendships and feelings for money, power and prestige. David Gilmour sings the first verse, the beginning of the dogs' climb to success. Gilmour had written the music for Dogs in 1974 and called it, along with Waters, "You Got To Be Crazy". They must be insane, with the seed of insanity in their brains as well as a real need to get to the top to justify their actions. Dogs start in the shadows, they live "under the wind", that is, without risking anything and without being slowed down. When they get the chance they strike, like a dog bites a piece of meat by pure instinct. At that point they build the style necessary to maintain that position. Smile printed on the lips, confident gaze and belonging to important circles ("the club tie") to give even more security, as well as a vigorous handshake to communicate strength and character, everything is useful to be credible even when under the mask there is absolutely nothing. And people will believe it. He will make the mistake of turning his back on the dogs and they will take advantage of it, climbing roles, grinding power, going higher and higher. At this point in the song Gilmour gives the first proof of his state of grace in Animals. His guitar climbs the notes as dogs climb society. At the end of the solo, Gilmour gives out a hysterical laugh, to emphasize the madness of the individuals who are the subject of this song. continue ->
-> resumes The third verse tells the second phase, when the inevitable fate of dogs begins to change. They must defend privileges and positions of power. The test of time is unsurpassed for them too: the older they get, the harder it will be to lie. When you are at the top, the air becomes increasingly thin and the beast begins to gasp to find oxygen. In no time, dogs will be running out of clarity and energy. Then they will escape. They will come back down, resized in their role. They will hide, they will move away from the eyes of the enemies who hate them, and from those of the friends they have stabbed. Roger Waters uses incendiary words, almost wishing a disease to those who behave in this way. And the word "halo" is prolonged, as if it were the beginning of a long solitude, and fades into the acoustic guitar as we enter the heart of Dogs. Dogs' guitar line is one of the most vivid and raw musical images of their career, as well as one of the most elaborate. Gilmour starts slowly and the sound drags on, like a dog without energy trying to keep itself on its feet. Around 4:45 there is an abrupt stop with Richard Wright creating a surreal and suspended atmosphere with his minimaog and the barking of real dogs, produced with a vocoder and also sampled from the recording of Seamus, from Meddle. The song drops in rhythm, everything stops, the only sound is the alternation of quick barks of agitation and the long, continuous howls of pain. There is all the samples of a dog on the ropes, except the growl, an intimidating signal of strength that does not exist at the moment, because dogs are in the midst of fear and discomfort. In this atmosphere so surreal as to be almost tangible and dense, Gilmour bursts in and transforms the sound of his Telecaster into the visionary climax of the piece: the desperate bark of a dog. continue -> -> resumes Between 5:40 am and 6:45 am it's such a beautiful solo that it seems almost possible to see the dog's desperation begging for help. Or it could be that the impersonated dog laughs, a hysterical laugh without reason. The guitar alternates the distorted sound of single notes with higher ones, how sharp the pain can be, and then swoops back down with low notes that resemble sobs, if a dog could sob, but surely it can yelp (minute 6:15 ). It is an emotional ups and downs, the guitar entertains itself in its distortions and leaves open wounds. The dog lets out dry barks out of control, whimpers and screams as the fourth verse begins. The fourth verse is always sung by Gilmour and is the coup de grace. The previous instrumental section is discomfort and fear, because now the dogs are losing control and nearing the end. These people sooner or later reap what they have sown, which is nothing, and they will end up with nothing. A nothing that weighs a lot. Fear grows and their "bad blood turns to stone", that is, they are so saturated with evil that their blood seems to weigh much more. The evil caused to others has a weight in their consciences, but they do not notice it because they have become lifeless objects and their own blood has turned to stone. And the most significant phrase of the passage for me: A person realizes what he has done but it is too late to fix it. Accustomed to carrying the burden of one's actions, the weight is so great that it is impossible to get rid of it. His body got used to living with that weight as a conditioned reflex. It is like a stone tied to a foot that makes it sink, down, where no one can recover it. The word "stone" echoes for several minutes, a broken record signifying a constant and irreversible situation. Gilmour's voice pronouncing "stone" becomes more and more distorted until it loses the sound of a human voice. Wright creates dark and suspended atmospheres with a synthesizer solo that seems to carry the story in apnea, underground or under water, until the song resurfaces and recovers the rhythm with the acoustic guitar, to begin the penultimate verse, sung by Waters. continue -> -> resumes A different, more introspective verse. Waters could refer to the victims of these people, but also to the executioners themselves, the dogs, as if one of these subjects spoke in the first person: Even a ruthless businessman can feel confused, realizing that he has been manipulated by the same system that gave him power. And who drives it, a dog, moving invisible threads while remaining even more in the shadows? Who are the real holders of power? Pigs, of course, because as is clear from the first to the last verse of Animals, in the lyrics of Pigs On The Wing 1 and 2, even dogs need to find their shelter to protect themselves from "flying pigs" , as much as ordinary people. But dogs are the cogs that allow the power mechanism to work. They get bribed by chasing continuous improvements in their social status, at all costs. They do not question the legitimacy of pig power, but are instinctively driven to enrich themselves and to reach and maintain a position at the expense of others. They are the ones who legitimize power, knowing who he is but letting himself be bought. They remain victims of the system, because enrichment takes place by paying a moral and isolation price with others. Unless dogs are able to reach extreme levels of power, replacing pigs (or turning into pigs), for dogs sooner or later the knots will always come to a head, and when they do they will find themselves trapped. And the dog who will be lucky enough to understand it will find himself alone but will try to stay awake "Gotta stay awake", to avoid a complete brainwashing He will seek the clarity to resolve that situation that causes a "creeping malaise". The state of mind of not knowing what to do is seen as a labyrinth: The following verse is no longer in the first person but looks like a reproach. The dog who has managed to understand that he has been deceived seems to be talking to others who continue to hurt and give life to true power. Then only a dog that is no longer under the effects of greed and thirst for power, such as anesthesia, can define the other "deaf, dumb and blind", insensitive, just anesthetized, while living thinking that each person, like objects, they have a price, and therefore that every human being is expendable to reach an end. A dog who finally becomes aware of the reality in which he lives, no less tragic than that of his victims, understands that the pack of dogs does not want to hear, see and speak because otherwise their social status, made up of power and money, would be lacking. . But at the same time, they ensure that the real "winners", that is, those who have real power in their hands, continue to operate in secret: They are hidden, but the dogs' actions are also too exposed for those with eyes to see them: > There is no way out. Animals is a record that opens and closes with something looming for the future and even this song has no antidote. The only way out is to fulfill one's role in the social mechanism and try to fight it, as a dog can do by seeking shelter from the truly powerful. But there is no real exit. Before the last verse there is the most pressing section of the song, with the fastest Telecaster solo, as if someone were really urgently looking for a solution, a way out. continue ->
-> resumes But the rhythm drops abruptly and brings everything back to the beginning, in fact, the final part, sung by Waters with Gilmour who for the first time transforms the atmosphere from bland to merciless, tells the beginning, the genesis: how one becomes a "dog" in our society. The endless traumas of childhood and the tragedy of growing up in a family that causes pain. It trains you so much to feel pain that you will be numb to giving it to others once you grow up. This will be a pivotal concept in The Wall Those who have been taught not to perform actions that could harm them, such as spitting on a fan and getting wet with their own saliva. It is the silence of those who know who the power is and do not fight it. Those who are aware that with an action they could legitimize power but are afraid of hurting themselves, because they grew up like this and someone taught them to serve the powerful. Those who simply follow orders, like an automaton, without thinking whether it is right or wrong. Who wanted to rebel but was broken by those who had the task of educating him. Waters here calls them "trained personnel", but likely, as in The Wall, refers to parents, school and life experiences in general. In these contexts the will of a person, as well as his sensitivity to understand what reality he is living in, can be annihilated. People put under from the start, without freedom, to the point that they live with an invisible collar and chain, like dogs on a leash. They are people controlled by others but also free people who unconsciously live by self-limiting their freedom. Those who live carrying a burden for their whole life, as a metaphor of living a difficult life in the beginning, especially due to the faults and problems of others Those who tried to stand out from the crowd, fleeing the pack, but are taken back and brought back into the ranks. Here Waters' voice echoes for the first time with the use of a delay in the tape. Those who live as a stranger in their own home, once again the drama of being a stranger to their family can cause incalculable damage. Who, after so much effort and struggle, has been put in a position not to be a problem for anyone. The music becomes more and more pressing and everything, at this point, is a crescendo of drums, guitars that surmount each other, the voices of Waters and Gilmour that speak at a distance and arrive from all over, splitting up. You will hear about who asked for help but was found dead while waiting in vain for someone to answer him. And in the last sentence we understand that the entire last verse traces all the phases of a dog's existence, not just the beginning: after having spent a problematic childhood, made up of wrong teachings, he will live as he was trained, just putting himself a step below the powerful but to the side, within reach of corruption and favor from the upper floors. He will work by being patted on the back, he will understand that he was wrong, he will try to break away from the herd, they will catch him, they will break him, he will go home and no one will recognize him, crushed by the weight of his actions, he will ask for help, no one will listen to him, and will end up sinking into the its very existence. In Pink Floyd's Orwellian Animal Farm, dogs play a key role in the mechanism, a fatal role, but ultimately they are victims like others. Freely translated from this page of the site Legendary Cover: legendarycover.it/testi-traduzioni/pink-floyd/dogs ____________________________
PIGS PIGS (Three Different Ones) Composed by: Roger Waters Meaning of Pigs (3 Different Ones) The central song of Animals is not in the middle by pure chance but because it is about pigs: the center of power. Pigs are the real powerful in Pink Floyd's Orwellian Animals Farm. They control the sheep and also the dogs; the latter favor them with their wicked actions but at the same time they must be afraid of them, because apparently pigs can see everything and do everything, even fly. Pigs are the largest, those who have so much power in their hands that it is impossible to keep it all to themselves, for this reason they transfer it to the lower floors, to ensure, with this concession of prestige, their position on the throne possibly forever. Pigs are corrupt and corrupt, they eat far more than their stomach can ask for. But behind their greatness they are fake (charade). Roger Waters, author of the Pigs text, uses this word to mean a staging, a farce. It is not to be confused with our term charade which instead identifies a puzzle game made of riddles. However, it could be that the meaning of charade is connected to the riddle. Pig is always on stage, even when it shouldn't. His appearance is respectable and sometimes attractive, but under the mask he is dirty. It is the largest wheel of the cart, well oiled by the mechanisms that set the machine of power in motion. In the first verse, Waters does not get to be dangerously explicit (with lots of names) as in the other two, but the first pig probably takes in most of the men of power, the lobbies and those who move the puppets by placing themselves above everything, in every field. The image of a pig eating with his head stuck in the bin and meanwhile orders the others to dig, so that they work for him and provide him with more food, gives a good idea of the character. Pigs (3 Different Ones), unlike Dogs, is a more breezy, less claustrophobic song, which almost manages to find its own defense weapon in sarcasm. Each verse ends with "You're nearly a treat but you're really a cry" to underline how the narrow-mindedness of these individuals is so sad as to arouse laughter as a reaction, to exorcise everything with irony, as if it was a bad joke to laugh at, even though there is only to cry. The second pig is the figure of the politician, even in general, but there is speculation about his true identity because Waters is believed to be targeting the not yet British Prime Minister Margareth Thatcher. In 1977, the Iron Lady was just preparing to lead the UK but was already a fixture in British politics. The reference to the "old hag", English slang for "old witch" and to the "feel of the steel" suggest that she is above all the recipient of the second verse. Thatcher will become Prime Minister and the experience will mark Waters to the point of dedicating to her, in The Final Cut, another thought with a personalized dedication on The Fletcher Memorial Home. The third verse ... continue --->
... on The Fletcher Memorial Home. ---> reprise The third verse contains a direct, very heavy attack on the English activist Mary Whitehouse. Whitehouse was one of the most prominent personalities in England in the mid-1970s. Moral to the core and strongly conservative to the point of forging a lasting collaboration with Margareth Thatcher. Mary Whitehouse's social programs lashed out against all kinds of liberalism and permissiveness. On issues of interest to young people, with his activity he obscured many magazines that aimed to inform young people and children about the damage of censorship, drug use and sexual education. For her constant struggle against "obscenities", things related to sex that she saw as an obsession, Waters calls her unable to experience sexual pleasure, with tight lips that obviously are not the lips of the mouth, and terribly alone (cold feet proves that in bed she is so alone that her feet are frozen). Waters' thrust continues by asking her if by chance she was abused when she was a child: Followed by unmistakable panting. Mary Whitehouse is the object of by far the hardest attack in the song, because she is the representation of that latent and creeping power that is even more difficult to stem: the power and influence of the media and harmful activism. You can overturn a politician from his chair, but bad information is like an uncontrollable tide. Whitehouse wanted to block a certain type of free and scientific information, certainly at the basis of culture and progress, in favor of that of a religious nature, favoring many types of censorship. His aim at censorship arouses, perhaps, even more anger in Roger Waters for another news item. Mary Whitehouse had become famous in the early 1970s for her controversy with the magazine "The Little Red Schoolbook", a guide for young people on sex, drugs and adult attitudes. The magazine, which had started circulating in Denmark, was prosecuted for "obscenities" in 1971. Whitehouse said she was satisfied with the ban on that "revolutionary text" that would do "incalculable damage". Among other things, he declared these words: "... open rebellion against the 'system', be it school, parents or authority generally, was openly advocated, while children were constantly exhorted to collect evidence against teachers of alleged injustices or anything which was likely to enhance revolution." "... open rebellion against 'the system', be it school, parents or authority in general, was openly supported, while children were constantly urged to gather evidence against teachers of alleged injustices or anything that could strengthen the revolution " Does it remind you of anything? The struggle of children against the abuses of adults, the revolution against school and its power: one of the most important bricks of The Wall. Mary Whitehouse is saying that children shouldn't be pushed to gather evidence against adult abuse. It is, in practice, favoring a strict control of children by adults, by any means. The freedom of children, coming to be able to afford to accuse an adult, was for her to fight. The text was revolutionary because for the first time it would have taken some power away from the world of adults to give it to children, through knowledge and scientific and non-bigoted education. Whitehouse got in the way and blocked its diffusion, as if it were a heretical text, which is why Waters sees it as the third pig, so guilty and shameless that one cannot but call it by name. He accuses her of blocking what she sees as the "evil tide" You got to stem the evil tide and keep it all on the inside Favoring the opposite result, that is, keeping it all inside people, dormant, ready to let loose at any moment. Even Mary would almost make you laugh if there were no crying. Pigs (3 Different Ones) is another big track where David Gilmour uses a talk box on his Telecaster to achieve the pig grunt. They are excited and hungry lines, in the constant rhythm of this song that only comes to life when Pink Floyd is done with the Whitehouse. Then the song explodes, for the first time, definitely and suddenly, with drums, bass and Gilmour's guitar screaming, distorted and uncontrolled. A liberating and amazing solo, which sweeps everything away before slowly fading into the bleating of the sheep. Freely translated from this page of the site Legendary Cover: legendarycover.it/testi-traduzioni/pink-floyd/pigs-three-different-ones/ ______________________________
Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here" full album next. Suspect you'll be equally impressed. In fact I'm certain of it.
Wish You Were Here possibly next ?
Great reaction as always 👏
I think you'd love "Meddle" , the one before DSOTM (not counting the soundtrack album "Obscured by Clouds"1972)
Obscured by clouds is massively underrated. Great from beginning to end, but that opener is just otherworldly
Meddle is probably my 2nd favorite after Animals.
@@RESTITVTOR_TOTIVS_HISPANIAE Yes! Everyone says Animals is the most underrated album, but Obscured By Clouds is the true overlooked gem.
The final Cut....under rated. Must analyze the lyrics throughout. Its one of my faves.
Your reasoning for putting off expanding your Pink Floyd journey sounds EXACTLY like mine.... Growing up I listened only to DSOTM...I think I never listened to other Floyd is because Dark Side is such an amazing album in my life I didn't want to be disappointed if other albums didn't have the same effect.... Man I had no idea what I was missing....😆
Amazing album my friend, great breakdown, 30yrs ago I 1st listened to this, a very influential band for a you g guy 👌
Hi from the UK 🇬🇧👍
Echoes Echoes Echoes, an absolute must listen by Floyd .
Wish you were here for sure is another masterpiece was released between animals and dark side
If you want to surprise yourself again, go with the full The Wall album. It is 90 minutes of constant shock how good and how different this album is to all you have listened to through your entire life. 3 years after album was released, there was a movie under the same title with whole music played from start to finish, in some places they changed and added a bit, but The Wall is just a story of Pink who faces schizophrenia. Don't want to spoil much, but yeah, that's a completely unique experience.
Best to react to whole The Wall album is to divide it into 4 parts and make some pauses so you can upload it without being blocked for copyrights.
Good luck man! I admire your reactions!
fisrt time i heard floyd i never stopped untill i had bought or heard everything thay did i was 11 when i first heard floyd new then this music was special. mibby its me but thay do somthing to ya canny explan mibby itys the internet but it was specal back then when ya discoverd proper music it just was never played on raido in the uk esp 80s early 90s
Really enjoyable reaction! 'Wish You Were Here' definitely should be next. The album that was released next after Dark Side. What's amazing is that, after the really high bar set by Dark Side, 'Wish you Were Here' didn't disappoint. Another Pink Floyd album of supreme quality throughout!!!
So glad you did this album (like I said before it's my favorite PF album) and that I could experience it with you. Looking forward to the next album, whatever it might be. ❤
I concur - favorite album :)
Meddle It has one of the best songs I've ever heard on it "echoes" the rest of the songs are also really really good but that song is just mindbogglingly godly.
floyd are an albums band its gotta be in its entirety its how you realy feel floyd esp this album
Please do the entire Wish you were here album ☺️
The wall from the beginning to end is a must
Have you listened to the full “The Wall” album? Also a total classic! You seem to only fully know “DSOTM,” from what you’ve said. The movie is especially amazing as well!
Make “Wish you were here” your next album
You should check out Pink Floyd's Meddle album... so damn good
now that you have reacted to the album, relisten to Pigs on the Wing pt 1 then transition into David's solo which then transitions into pt 2....it is like it is meant to be that way...brilliant.
I encourage you to listen to the album Meddle. It was the album just before Dark Side of the Moon. It is awesome. The song Echoes is a trip through time on earth.
You definitely need to check out Deftones
yes please
You are right. DSOTM is to be held responsible for other albums' low crowd followers.
Listen to The Wall, Meddle, Live in Pompeii and Wish you were here.
You can really see how this moved into The Wall.
Atom Heart Mother Suite , orchestra, choir, cow and floyd
Yes, Final Cut, the Wall, Wish you were Here. David's solo stuff. There is a deep well of superior music from these guys.
i have a secret ... and it's a saucerful
Wish you were here.... Just do it.
To listen to Pigs On The Wing 1&2 together, check out the 8 track version, with a beautiful bridge by Snowy White: czcams.com/video/eQoVh-educY/video.html
ANIMALS
Album: Animals - 1977 - Pink Floyd
Text and Music composed by Roger Waters
From this page of italian site Legendary Cover
legendarycover.it/testi-traduzioni/pink-floyd/pigs-on-the-wing-part-1/
Pigs on the wing (Part 1)
Sung and Played by Roger Waters
If you didn’t care what happened to me
And I didn’t care of you
We would zig-zag our way through the boredom and pain
Occasionally glancing up through the rain
Wondering which of the buggars to blame
And watching for pigs on the wing.
Meaning of Pigs On The Wing (part 1)
The eighty-five seconds of Pigs On The Wing (part 1) are the *antibodies needed to face up to* Animals, a forty-one minute journey that like every journey and every story has a beginning and an end.
Start and end are separated by the three animals, Dogs, Pigs and Sheep, the three main subjects of this phenomenal horror factory. Three pieces longer than ten minutes, infinite, because the words are never enough to tell the Mephistophelic soul in the depths of contemporary society, and to sink with it.
At the end of this album I felt sad, depressed or angry, but at the beginning of Animals I found some comfort and hope, because Pigs On The Wing, joining the two parts, is the only love song composed of Roger Waters (for Pink Floyd).
Of course, he does it his way, Roger has never been too honeyed and he talks about love in the deepest sense of the term, not just as a love relationship.
To face up to the reality described in this album, you need love. Take care of others, take an interest in what happens to them and trust that they too are interested in you. Waters' text is essential and speaks of union.
In the bond and in the help there is the necessary strength to find shelter from evil, as the union of Pigs On The Wing 1 and 2 is the only moment of light in the dark of this album, two twin songs but substantially different.
Pigs On The Wing (part 1) has an underlying question, hidden in the verse "If you didn't care what happened to me ..."
As if to say: what would happen if we didn't care about each other?
Life would be a wandering from suffering to suffering, zigzagging between malaise and fatigue. Occasionally you would raise your head to see the world around you, the rain would hit you in full, because if you are selfish and find yourself alone, the rainy days will never seem to end. You would ask yourself to no avail who is the culprit, unable to understand that the faults of others begin where your ability to fight them ends.
And above all, most importantly, vital for survival, you would be perpetually in a state of alarm towards those who want to put you under. The powerful, enormous pigs who control everything and devour everything; unscrupulous people who will jump on your shoulders and sink to get you up, like a dog trying to climb the tallest tree; the sheep, with their deafening bleating in the middle of which nobody can hear you.
All this malaise would be a ballast, like dragging a stone behind it, but it would mean being afraid of flying pigs and since flying pigs do not exist, then you would worry about nothing.
Pigs On The Wing (part 1), with its unspoken question, so different from (part 2) which instead contains a clear statement, warns about the possible risk of being frightened by enemies that do not exist, when evil is much more real.
So who's wrong? Who are the bastards to blame?
Dogs, to begin with ...
DOGS
Lyrics by Roger Waters
Music by David Gilmour & Roger Waters
Meaning of Dogs
Dogs is not a song. It is an experience.
In Animals, Pink Floyd's 1977 rant, dogs are social climbers.
They have no qualms about getting as high as possible. Roger Waters refers to individuals who trample on values, friendships and feelings for money, power and prestige.
David Gilmour sings the first verse, the beginning of the dogs' climb to success. Gilmour had written the music for Dogs in 1974 and called it, along with Waters, "You Got To Be Crazy".
They must be insane, with the seed of insanity in their brains as well as a real need to get to the top to justify their actions.
Dogs start in the shadows, they live "under the wind", that is, without risking anything and without being slowed down. When they get the chance they strike, like a dog bites a piece of meat by pure instinct.
At that point they build the style necessary to maintain that position.
Smile printed on the lips, confident gaze and belonging to important circles ("the club tie") to give even more security, as well as a vigorous handshake to communicate strength and character, everything is useful to be credible even when under the mask there is absolutely nothing.
And people will believe it. He will make the mistake of turning his back on the dogs and they will take advantage of it, climbing roles, grinding power, going higher and higher. At this point in the song Gilmour gives the first proof of his state of grace in Animals. His guitar climbs the notes as dogs climb society. At the end of the solo, Gilmour gives out a hysterical laugh, to emphasize the madness of the individuals who are the subject of this song. continue ->
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The third verse tells the second phase, when the inevitable fate of dogs begins to change.
They must defend privileges and positions of power. The test of time is unsurpassed for them too: the older they get, the harder it will be to lie. When you are at the top, the air becomes increasingly thin and the beast begins to gasp to find oxygen.
In no time, dogs will be running out of clarity and energy. Then they will escape. They will come back down, resized in their role. They will hide, they will move away from the eyes of the enemies who hate them, and from those of the friends they have stabbed.
Roger Waters uses incendiary words, almost wishing a disease to those who behave in this way.
And the word "halo" is prolonged, as if it were the beginning of a long solitude, and fades into the acoustic guitar as we enter the heart of Dogs.
Dogs' guitar line is one of the most vivid and raw musical images of their career, as well as one of the most elaborate.
Gilmour starts slowly and the sound drags on, like a dog without energy trying to keep itself on its feet. Around 4:45 there is an abrupt stop with Richard Wright creating a surreal and suspended atmosphere with his minimaog and the barking of real dogs, produced with a vocoder and also sampled from the recording of Seamus, from Meddle.
The song drops in rhythm, everything stops, the only sound is the alternation of quick barks of agitation and the long, continuous howls of pain. There is all the samples of a dog on the ropes, except the growl, an intimidating signal of strength that does not exist at the moment, because dogs are in the midst of fear and discomfort.
In this atmosphere so surreal as to be almost tangible and dense, Gilmour bursts in and transforms the sound of his Telecaster into the visionary climax of the piece: the desperate bark of a dog.
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Between 5:40 am and 6:45 am it's such a beautiful solo that it seems almost possible to see the dog's desperation begging for help. Or it could be that the impersonated dog laughs, a hysterical laugh without reason. The guitar alternates the distorted sound of single notes with higher ones, how sharp the pain can be, and then swoops back down with low notes that resemble sobs, if a dog could sob, but surely it can yelp (minute 6:15 ). It is an emotional ups and downs, the guitar entertains itself in its distortions and leaves open wounds. The dog lets out dry barks out of control, whimpers and screams as the fourth verse begins.
The fourth verse is always sung by Gilmour and is the coup de grace.
The previous instrumental section is discomfort and fear, because now the dogs are losing control and nearing the end. These people sooner or later reap what they have sown, which is nothing, and they will end up with nothing. A nothing that weighs a lot. Fear grows and their "bad blood turns to stone", that is, they are so saturated with evil that their blood seems to weigh much more.
The evil caused to others has a weight in their consciences, but they do not notice it because they have become lifeless objects and their own blood has turned to stone.
And the most significant phrase of the passage for me:
A person realizes what he has done but it is too late to fix it. Accustomed to carrying the burden of one's actions, the weight is so great that it is impossible to get rid of it. His body got used to living with that weight as a conditioned reflex. It is like a stone tied to a foot that makes it sink, down, where no one can recover it.
The word "stone" echoes for several minutes, a broken record signifying a constant and irreversible situation. Gilmour's voice pronouncing "stone" becomes more and more distorted until it loses the sound of a human voice.
Wright creates dark and suspended atmospheres with a synthesizer solo that seems to carry the story in apnea, underground or under water, until the song resurfaces and recovers the rhythm with the acoustic guitar, to begin the penultimate verse, sung by Waters.
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A different, more introspective verse.
Waters could refer to the victims of these people, but also to the executioners themselves, the dogs, as if one of these subjects spoke in the first person:
Even a ruthless businessman can feel confused, realizing that he has been manipulated by the same system that gave him power. And who drives it, a dog, moving invisible threads while remaining even more in the shadows? Who are the real holders of power? Pigs, of course, because as is clear from the first to the last verse of Animals, in the lyrics of Pigs On The Wing 1 and 2, even dogs need to find their shelter to protect themselves from "flying pigs" , as much as ordinary people.
But dogs are the cogs that allow the power mechanism to work.
They get bribed by chasing continuous improvements in their social status, at all costs.
They do not question the legitimacy of pig power, but are instinctively driven to enrich themselves and to reach and maintain a position at the expense of others. They are the ones who legitimize power, knowing who he is but letting himself be bought. They remain victims of the system, because enrichment takes place by paying a moral and isolation price with others.
Unless dogs are able to reach extreme levels of power, replacing pigs (or turning into pigs), for dogs sooner or later the knots will always come to a head, and when they do they will find themselves trapped.
And the dog who will be lucky enough to understand it will find himself alone but will try to stay awake "Gotta stay awake", to avoid a complete brainwashing
He will seek the clarity to resolve that situation that causes a "creeping malaise". The state of mind of not knowing what to do is seen as a labyrinth:
The following verse is no longer in the first person but looks like a reproach.
The dog who has managed to understand that he has been deceived seems to be talking to others who continue to hurt and give life to true power.
Then only a dog that is no longer under the effects of greed and thirst for power, such as anesthesia, can define the other "deaf, dumb and blind", insensitive, just anesthetized, while living thinking that each person, like objects, they have a price, and therefore that every human being is expendable to reach an end.
A dog who finally becomes aware of the reality in which he lives, no less tragic than that of his victims, understands that the pack of dogs does not want to hear, see and speak because otherwise their social status, made up of power and money, would be lacking. . But at the same time, they ensure that the real "winners", that is, those who have real power in their hands, continue to operate in secret:
They are hidden, but the dogs' actions are also too exposed for those with eyes to see them:
>
There is no way out. Animals is a record that opens and closes with something looming for the future and even this song has no antidote. The only way out is to fulfill one's role in the social mechanism and try to fight it, as a dog can do by seeking shelter from the truly powerful.
But there is no real exit. Before the last verse there is the most pressing section of the song, with the fastest Telecaster solo, as if someone were really urgently looking for a solution, a way out.
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But the rhythm drops abruptly and brings everything back to the beginning, in fact, the final part, sung by Waters with Gilmour who for the first time transforms the atmosphere from bland to merciless, tells the beginning, the genesis: how one becomes a "dog" in our society.
The endless traumas of childhood and the tragedy of growing up in a family that causes pain. It trains you so much to feel pain that you will be numb to giving it to others once you grow up. This will be a pivotal concept in The Wall
Those who have been taught not to perform actions that could harm them, such as spitting on a fan and getting wet with their own saliva. It is the silence of those who know who the power is and do not fight it. Those who are aware that with an action they could legitimize power but are afraid of hurting themselves, because they grew up like this and someone taught them to serve the powerful.
Those who simply follow orders, like an automaton, without thinking whether it is right or wrong.
Who wanted to rebel but was broken by those who had the task of educating him. Waters here calls them "trained personnel", but likely, as in The Wall, refers to parents, school and life experiences in general. In these contexts the will of a person, as well as his sensitivity to understand what reality he is living in, can be annihilated.
People put under from the start, without freedom, to the point that they live with an invisible collar and chain, like dogs on a leash. They are people controlled by others but also free people who unconsciously live by self-limiting their freedom.
Those who live carrying a burden for their whole life, as a metaphor of living a difficult life in the beginning, especially due to the faults and problems of others
Those who tried to stand out from the crowd, fleeing the pack, but are taken back and brought back into the ranks. Here Waters' voice echoes for the first time with the use of a delay in the tape.
Those who live as a stranger in their own home, once again the drama of being a stranger to their family can cause incalculable damage.
Who, after so much effort and struggle, has been put in a position not to be a problem for anyone.
The music becomes more and more pressing and everything, at this point, is a crescendo of drums, guitars that surmount each other, the voices of Waters and Gilmour that speak at a distance and arrive from all over, splitting up.
You will hear about who asked for help but was found dead while waiting in vain for someone to answer him.
And in the last sentence we understand that the entire last verse traces all the phases of a dog's existence, not just the beginning: after having spent a problematic childhood, made up of wrong teachings, he will live as he was trained, just putting himself a step below the powerful but to the side, within reach of corruption and favor from the upper floors. He will work by being patted on the back, he will understand that he was wrong, he will try to break away from the herd, they will catch him, they will break him, he will go home and no one will recognize him, crushed by the weight of his actions, he will ask for help, no one will listen to him, and will end up sinking into the its very existence.
In Pink Floyd's Orwellian Animal Farm, dogs play a key role in the mechanism, a fatal role, but ultimately they are victims like others.
Freely translated from this page of the site
Legendary Cover:
legendarycover.it/testi-traduzioni/pink-floyd/dogs
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PIGS
PIGS (Three Different Ones)
Composed by: Roger Waters
Meaning of Pigs (3 Different Ones)
The central song of Animals is not in the middle by pure chance but because it is about pigs: the center of power.
Pigs are the real powerful in Pink Floyd's Orwellian Animals Farm. They control the sheep and also the dogs; the latter favor them with their wicked actions but at the same time they must be afraid of them, because apparently pigs can see everything and do everything, even fly.
Pigs are the largest, those who have so much power in their hands that it is impossible to keep it all to themselves, for this reason they transfer it to the lower floors, to ensure, with this concession of prestige, their position on the throne possibly forever.
Pigs are corrupt and corrupt, they eat far more than their stomach can ask for. But behind their greatness they are fake (charade). Roger Waters, author of the Pigs text, uses this word to mean a staging, a farce. It is not to be confused with our term charade which instead identifies a puzzle game made of riddles. However, it could be that the meaning of charade is connected to the riddle.
Pig is always on stage, even when it shouldn't. His appearance is respectable and sometimes attractive, but under the mask he is dirty.
It is the largest wheel of the cart, well oiled by the mechanisms that set the machine of power in motion.
In the first verse, Waters does not get to be dangerously explicit (with lots of names) as in the other two, but the first pig probably takes in most of the men of power, the lobbies and those who move the puppets by placing themselves above everything, in every field.
The image of a pig eating with his head stuck in the bin and meanwhile orders the others to dig, so that they work for him and provide him with more food, gives a good idea of the character.
Pigs (3 Different Ones), unlike Dogs, is a more breezy, less claustrophobic song, which almost manages to find its own defense weapon in sarcasm. Each verse ends with "You're nearly a treat but you're really a cry" to underline how the narrow-mindedness of these individuals is so sad as to arouse laughter as a reaction, to exorcise everything with irony, as if it was a bad joke to laugh at, even though there is only to cry.
The second pig is the figure of the politician, even in general, but there is speculation about his true identity because Waters is believed to be targeting the not yet British Prime Minister Margareth Thatcher. In 1977, the Iron Lady was just preparing to lead the UK but was already a fixture in British politics.
The reference to the "old hag", English slang for "old witch" and to the "feel of the steel" suggest that she is above all the recipient of the second verse. Thatcher will become Prime Minister and the experience will mark Waters to the point of dedicating to her, in The Final Cut, another thought with a personalized dedication on The Fletcher Memorial Home.
The third verse ... continue --->
... on The Fletcher Memorial Home. ---> reprise
The third verse contains a direct, very heavy attack on the English activist Mary Whitehouse.
Whitehouse was one of the most prominent personalities in England in the mid-1970s. Moral to the core and strongly conservative to the point of forging a lasting collaboration with Margareth Thatcher.
Mary Whitehouse's social programs lashed out against all kinds of liberalism and permissiveness. On issues of interest to young people, with his activity he obscured many magazines that aimed to inform young people and children about the damage of censorship, drug use and sexual education.
For her constant struggle against "obscenities", things related to sex that she saw as an obsession, Waters calls her unable to experience sexual pleasure, with tight lips that obviously are not the lips of the mouth, and terribly alone (cold feet proves that in bed she is so alone that her feet are frozen).
Waters' thrust continues by asking her if by chance she was abused when she was a child:
Followed by unmistakable panting.
Mary Whitehouse is the object of by far the hardest attack in the song, because she is the representation of that latent and creeping power that is even more difficult to stem: the power and influence of the media and harmful activism. You can overturn a politician from his chair, but bad information is like an uncontrollable tide.
Whitehouse wanted to block a certain type of free and scientific information, certainly at the basis of culture and progress, in favor of that of a religious nature, favoring many types of censorship.
His aim at censorship arouses, perhaps, even more anger in Roger Waters for another news item.
Mary Whitehouse had become famous in the early 1970s for her controversy with the magazine "The Little Red Schoolbook", a guide for young people on sex, drugs and adult attitudes. The magazine, which had started circulating in Denmark, was prosecuted for "obscenities" in 1971.
Whitehouse said she was satisfied with the ban on that "revolutionary text" that would do "incalculable damage".
Among other things, he declared these words:
"... open rebellion against the 'system', be it school, parents or authority generally, was openly advocated, while children were constantly exhorted to collect evidence against teachers of alleged injustices or anything which was likely to enhance revolution."
"... open rebellion against 'the system', be it school, parents or authority in general, was openly supported, while children were constantly urged to gather evidence against teachers of alleged injustices or anything that could strengthen the revolution "
Does it remind you of anything?
The struggle of children against the abuses of adults, the revolution against school and its power: one of the most important bricks of The Wall.
Mary Whitehouse is saying that children shouldn't be pushed to gather evidence against adult abuse. It is, in practice, favoring a strict control of children by adults, by any means.
The freedom of children, coming to be able to afford to accuse an adult, was for her to fight. The text was revolutionary because for the first time it would have taken some power away from the world of adults to give it to children, through knowledge and scientific and non-bigoted education.
Whitehouse got in the way and blocked its diffusion, as if it were a heretical text, which is why Waters sees it as the third pig, so guilty and shameless that one cannot but call it by name.
He accuses her of blocking what she sees as the "evil tide"
You got to stem the evil tide and keep it all on the inside
Favoring the opposite result, that is, keeping it all inside people, dormant, ready to let loose at any moment.
Even Mary would almost make you laugh if there were no crying.
Pigs (3 Different Ones) is another big track where David Gilmour uses a talk box on his Telecaster to achieve the pig grunt. They are excited and hungry lines, in the constant rhythm of this song that only comes to life when Pink Floyd is done with the Whitehouse. Then the song explodes, for the first time, definitely and suddenly, with drums, bass and Gilmour's guitar screaming, distorted and uncontrolled. A liberating and amazing solo, which sweeps everything away before slowly fading into the bleating of the sheep.
Freely translated from this page of the site
Legendary Cover:
legendarycover.it/testi-traduzioni/pink-floyd/pigs-three-different-ones/
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Dude! Please react to the album "wish you were here"
Meddle. Please listen to it.