Piggies

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Piggies is a song off The Beatles' 1968 self-titled album. It was written mainly by George Harrison, with lyrical contributions from John Lennon and Harrison's mother, Louise. It was credited solely to Harrison.

Contents

Writing

George Harrison first started working on Piggies in 1966, the same year he wrote Taxman. Like Taxman, it was written as a social commentary song. The song wasn't recorded by The Beatles until 1968. Before then, the song had underwent some revisions, such as new lyrical contributions from John Lennon and Louise Harrison, George's mother. Harrison commented, "Piggies is a social comment. I was stuck for one line in the middle until my mother came up with the lyric, 'What they need is a damn good whacking' which is a nice simple way of saying they need a good hiding. It needed to rhyme with 'backing,' 'lacking,' and had absolutely nothing to do with American policemen or Californian shagnasties!" Lennon contributed the line "Clutching forks and knoves to eat their bacon." When a demo was recorded at Kinfauns, Harrison's home in Esher, the line was slightly different, replacing 'bacon' with 'pork chops.' Another verse was cut from the song, but it was reinstated in live performances after The Beatles broke up. These lyrics can be heard on his 1992 album Live In Japan.

"Everywhere there's lots of piggies
Playing piggy pranks
You can see them on their trotters
Down at the piggy banks
Paying piggy thanks
To the pig brother"

Recording

The earliest known recording of Piggies is an acoustic demo from late May 1968, at Kinfauns, Harrison's home in Esher. An edited version of this demo can be heard on Anthology 3. Studio recording of the song began on September 19, 1968. The harpsichord on the song was played by producer Chris Thomas. Thomas recalls, "All four Beatles were there for the session and we were working in [studio] number two. I wandered into number one and found a harpsichord, not knowing that it had been set up overnight for a classical recording. So we discussed wheeling the thing into number two but Ken Scott said, 'No, we can't, it's there for another session!' So we moved our session into number one instead. George Harrison agreed that my harpsichord idea was a good one and suggested that I play it. This I did, but while George and I were tinkling away on this harpsichord he started playing another new song to me, which later turned out to be Something. I said, 'That's great! Why don't we do that one instead?' and he replied, 'Do you like it, do you really think it's good?'" Eleven takes of the basic track of Piggies were recorded, with Chris Thomas on harpsichord, George Harrison on acoustic guitar, Paul McCartney on bass, and Ringo Starr on tambourine. According to Thomas, Paul McCartney also played a new song later to be known as Let It Be in-between takes during this session, though it would not be attempted by the full band until January 1969. On September 20, Harrison recorded his lead vocals, which were artificially double-tracked during the lines "play around in" and "damn good whacking." Also during this session, John Lennon assembled a tape loop of pigs snorting from the sound effects collection at Abbey Road Studios. Engineer Stuart Eltham recalled, "There's a tape called Animals And Bees (volume 35) which includes pigs. It's from an old EMI 78 rpm record and The Beatles may have used a combination of that and their own voices. That always works well - the new voices hide the 78 rpm scratchiness, the original record hides the fact that some of the sounds are man made." The song was finished on October 10, when an eight-piece string section arranged by George Martin was overdubbed.

Recording Sessions

Charles Manson Interpretation

Even though the song was obviously about businessmen, mass murderer Charles Manson misinterpreted the song. Manson and his murdering "family" believed that black people would rise up and kill all white people, but he and his followers would be saved using a set of "clues" found in the Book of Revelations and The "White Album." Manson interpreted Piggies to be a metaphor for doomed white people. After the murder of Sharon Tate, "family" member Susan Atkins wrote the word "Pig" in blood on the front door of the murder scene. The next day, after the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca with knives and forks, Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkel wrote "Death to pigs" on the wall in their blood.

LOVE Mix

A portion of Piggies is used in a mix on the 2006 Beatles remix album LOVE. Though it wasn't designated it's own mix, a harpsichord-and-cello section of Piggies was included on a mix of Strawberry Fields Forever.

Personnel

The Beatles

Guest Musicians

Production

Available Versions

The Beatles

George Harrison

Known Unavailable Versions

All songs are completely available on any release, legitimate or bootleg, unless otherwise noted

A (%) indicates an overdub, edit piece, or basic track available only as part of another recording. The overdub, edit piece, or basic track by itself has not been released.

Available On

Beatles Albums

George Harrison Albums

Cover Versions

Source

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