Thoughts about the meanings of _Animals_ songs


From: ntaal@dutiba.twi.tudelft.nl
Subject: From Scott Frank:Animals
To: echoes@tcs.com (The Pink Floyd mailing list)
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 13:09:28 +0100 (MET)

Hi, this is a text by Scott Frank,
I'm posting this as is, with no additions to it,
except for a few NOTEs,
clearly marked [1] etc...
Have fun, enjoy

__o/________________________________________________________________________
  o\
                  Animals: What Does It Mean ?

                         by Scott Frank



Some of my favorite Animals quotes:

(said of "Raving and Drooling (aka Sheep)")
     "Roger's venomous lyrics depicted violence, anger and a
growing displeasure with the human race in general."
                            - Ron Fleischer  1991

"Animals is a song suite that deals with subjects like
loneliness, death, and lies."

"Somehow you get the impression that this band is being
metamorphosed into a noodle factory"
                         - Rolling Stone 3/24/77

"But on Animals the lack of anything musically or lyrically
significant really shows."
                           - Down Beat 5/5/77

"Nobody could ever accuse Pink Floyd of understatement."
                            - Rolling Stone 6/30/77

     Animals, as you know, is really just three very angry songs
sandwiched between two love songs to Carolyne (Roger's second
wife).  These three middle songs are about (in Roger's words),
"the pressures which are anti-life".  One of these songs even
goes so far as to include a seriously altered version of the
Lord's Prayer.  This of course led to the album's being banned
occasionally.  There was even some talk about Pink Floyd being
"Satan's Music" because of this "hidden" verse.
     Whenever I hear "Dogs", I always think of a used car
salesman, but I suppose it could refer to anyone that sells
something to someone else (insurance salesman, politician, etc.) 
The first three verses tell what a good salesman does and how he
does it.  The fourth verse refers to this salesman in old age
reflecting back on his life, unsure how well it was spent.  The
fifth and sixth verses seem to be the salesman's thoughts of
depression, paranoia, social position, etc brought on by his age. 
The seventh verse is a bit more of the same, but with a more
dehumanizing (pathetic) bent to it.  (There's a great deal self-
pity and pain.)

     "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" is a rather straight forward
song.  It basically picks out three types of people that Roger
doesn't like much and ridicules them.  The first type "big man,
pig man" is in my mind a slave driving "big wheel" from the early
1800's type guy.  A really fat guy with a whip in one hand and a
pork chop in the other.  The second type "rat bag" seems to me to
be a really unpleasant female.  Possibly the type that seem to
feel its their personal obligation to make men suffer.[1]  The third
type "Whitehouse" the "proud town mouse" is very obvious.  If you
don't get it, I'm not going to tell you.

     "Sheep" is the ultimate "be politically aware or die" song. 
It says quite clearly that the majority of people don't care
what's really going on in the world.  These people therefore
blindly accept whatever the government tells them and die
promptly in a war as a result.

     "Pigs On The Wing pt 2" suggests that even if you have a
large burden to bear, much comfort can be taken in love.  This
song, sadly, didn't go over at all well in concert and was
promptly dropped from all future shows.  This song is also the
first time Roger ever acknowledges that the company of a female
might be a pleasurable thing occasionally. [2]

END OF TEXT
My notes:
[1]	During the KAOS tour, Roger was presented with the following question:
	"When you sing the second verse of Pigs,
	 do you think of Margaret Thatcher ?"
	" I confess that ,from time to time ,I do.
	 And then roger said some vagueries about the 1st verse reminding him
	 of quite somepeople different,
	 but he wouldn't go into that again.
	 Probably he was referring to DG &co

[2] I'm not sure, but I allways thought that IF was a kind of lovesong as well

