Piggies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
“Piggies”
“Piggies” cover
Song by The Beatles
Album The Beatles
Released 22 November 1968
Recorded 19 September 1968
Genre Rock
Length 2:04
Label Apple Records
Writer George Harrison
Producer George Martin
The Beatles track listing

Side one

  1. "Back in the U.S.S.R."
  2. "Dear Prudence"
  3. "Glass Onion"
  4. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
  5. "Wild Honey Pie"
  6. "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill"
  7. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
  8. "Happiness Is a Warm Gun"

Side two

  1. "Martha My Dear"
  2. "I'm So Tired"
  3. "Blackbird"
  4. "Piggies"
  5. "Rocky Raccoon"
  6. "Don't Pass Me By"
  7. "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"
  8. "I Will"
  9. "Julia"

Side three

  1. "Birthday"
  2. "Yer Blues"
  3. "Mother Nature's Son"
  4. "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey"
  5. "Sexy Sadie"
  6. "Helter Skelter"
  7. "Long, Long, Long"

Side four

  1. "Revolution 1"
  2. "Honey Pie"
  3. "Savoy Truffle"
  4. "Cry Baby Cry"
  5. "Revolution 9"
  6. "Good Night"
For the animal, see pig. For the species in the Ender's Game series, see Pequeninos.

"Piggies" is a Beatles song from double-disc album The Beatles (also known as The White Album). It was written by George Harrison as social commentary on class and corporate greed.

Contents

[edit] Production

[edit] Instrumentation

Piggies features a Baroque-style harpsichord and string quartet — which take an unexpected turn at one point playing a blues riff.

Chris Thomas (producing in George Martin's absence on some of the 'White Album' sessions) played the harpsichord part.

[edit] Lyrical input

Harrison's mother provided the line "What they need's a damn good whacking",[1] and Lennon contributed with the line "clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon"[1].

[edit] Alternate lyrics

There was an additional verse written for the song in 1968 but omitted during the actual recording. It involved the "piggies" playing "piggy pranks" in order to achieve its rhyming couplet of "piggy banks". Harrison reinstated this verse in all live performances of the song in the 1990s. A version can be heard on his double album 'Live in Japan'.

Yeah, everywhere there's lots of piggies
Playing piggy pranks
And you can see them on their trotters
Down at the piggy banks
Paying piggy thanks
To thee pig brother

The original lyrics read "to cut their pork chops" (as heard on the Anthology 3 album). Lennon created the tape loop for the pig noises that were sampled for this song.

[edit] Track placement

"Piggies" is sandwiched between two other songs with animals in their titles ("Blackbird" and "Rocky Raccoon"). This was a deliberate decision on the part of Lennon and McCartney while preparing the sequencing of the songs for the album.[citation needed]

[edit] Interpretations

Though Harrison intended the song as social commentary, it was often misinterpreted as an anti-police anthem, due to the formerly common, but now seldom-used term "pig" which was used as slang for policeman.[citation needed]

[edit] Charles Manson family

Charles Manson interpreted many of the songs from The White Album to justify his murders, and took the phrase "what they need's a damn good whacking" to mean that he should attack the police.[citation needed] During the murders of Sharon Tate, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, Hinman and others, knives and forks were used to stab them because these utensils were mentioned in the song.[citation needed] The words 'political piggy', 'pig' and 'death to pigs' were written with the victims' blood on the walls.

[edit] Credits

  • George Harrison - Acoustic Guitar, Vocals and Arrangements
  • Paul McCartney - Bass and Backing Vocals
  • Ringo Starr - Tambourine
  • John Lennon - Backing Vocal, Tape Effects and Arrangements
  • Chris Thomas - Harpsichord
  • George Martin - Arrangements

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison; Joshua M. Greene; Bantam Books; 2006
v • d • e
The Beatles
George Harrison · John Lennon · Paul McCartney · Ringo Starr
Pete Best · Stuart Sutcliffe
Management
Production
Studio albums (U.K.)
Studio albums (U.S.)
EPs
Post-breakup albums
Compilations
Filmography
Videography
Discography
Related persons
See also