The Intriguity of One of Pink Floyd's Peak Albums

 In the 1970s, Pink Floyd have been one of the most notorious leaders of the prog rock scene blending experimentals and electronics along the way. During this time, they have released some of their most successful works. 

But one of the "outliers" in this period has got to be their 1977 LP, Animals. Recorded for the majority of 1976 at their Britania Row studio, the album was very organized and experimental in nature.

What makes it special?

As with 1975's Wish You Were Here, 1977's Animals includes a song to "bookend" the album, Pigs on the Wing. The majority of the LP was written by Roger Waters who even sang on most of it - except for the first half of Dogs where David Gilmour sings.

The image below shows the album's cover. Designed by Floyd long-timer, Storm Thorgerson, and conceived by Roger Waters, the cover depicts an inflated flying pig between chimneys above the Battersea Power Station. This makes a reference to the doubting statement "If pigs could fly." 
An image of the Battersea Power Station in England, where a giant pig can be seen flying between its left chimneys.

The album's material

Based on George Orwell's Animal Farm, the album uses three animal kinds: pigs, sheep, and dogs, as a metaphor of the socio-political lifestyles in the UK in the mid to late 1970s, and is a criticism of capitalism. 

Dogs are depicted as the working class group. That song is notorious for being built around Dm inversions, and follows a chord structure very unusual for Floyd. The track also features a vocoder being used to simulate the sounds of barking dogs, and even a howl from one of Floyd's earlier recordings, Seamus. The song from one that had been carved a few years back, by the title of the opening line, "You've got to be crazy," which was also the name of Floyd's 1974-75 tour.

Pigs are depicted as being politically conciencious, and the song is particularly directed at educator Mary Winehouse, who spoke against liberalism. At the top of the spectrum, Sheep are depicted as the higher-ups who ultimately defeat the dogs. Like with Dogs, there is a vocoder during this song, reciting Psalm 23. 

Now about that cover

Storm Therogren, leader of designing firm Hipgnosis, presented several ideas to the band towards the end of recording in the fall of 1976. One such idea, was an image of an older child entering his parents' bedroom to find them "having sex like animals." Seeing as how this could be vulgar, Gilmour and Waters rejected the idea.

Having lived near the Battersea Power Station at the time, which would be shut down soon, Waters saught the assistant of German company Ballon Fabrik, and Australian artist, John Shaw for help. Specifically, the former were notorious at making the Zeppelin airship as seen on Mothership (below.).
A black and red drawing of a zeppelin

On the morning of December 2, 1976, a balloon was tied between two buildings pumped with helium. There was also a watchman ready to fire if the balloon blew up to warn everybody. The next day, Floyd manager, Steve O'Rourge, failed to hire the watchman and the ballon expanded and blew up in what was really thought to be a flying pig. This was a big cause for alarm as the "pig" flew over London's Heathrow Airport so much so that the rest of the day's flights immediately had to be cancelled! 

No singles

Much to fans' disappointments, due to the lengthy compositions, no singles were issued from this albumm. However, the band did tour in support of it from 1977-78. Billed as the In The Flesh Tour, the tour featured Thin Lizzy's Snowey White assisting on guitar. 

The whole album was performed on a nightly basis, but Gilmour noteably sang all of Dogs - except the final few bars. Waters, who was unable to sing Have a Cigar, having lost his voice to making Shine on You Crazy Diamond, sang on Have a Cigar, with Gilmour providing harmony vocals. 

Spit in the fan

Whether due to the line in Dogs, "Who was trained not to spit in the fan," or not, during their final show at Montreal's Ollympic Stadium, there was a group of excited fans in the front rows making Waters so nervous that he had to spit into one of them! This nervousness quickly grew contagious with the rest of the band and in 1978, Waters told producer Bob Ezrin how he longed to build a wall between himself and the crowd, which ultimately led to Floyd's most ambitious project yet, 1979's The Wall.

It should also be noted that this is the last "official" album with keyboardist Rick Wright. Due to royalty issues, Wright was minimally involved after Animals. Although he was invited for the 1980-81 The Wall tour, Wright has left since, only reuniting with Floyd for their 2005 LIve 8 Show. 

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