Background

Background

Animals is based approximately on George Orwell's political fable Animal Farm. Various castes in society are represented as different types of animals (dogs as the businessmen, sheep as the powerless pawns, and pigs as the ruthless leaders). Although this album attacks capitalism,^[3] in the book various animals (mainly pigs, sheep, dogs, etc.) represent different roles assumed by individuals in a communist society.

David Gilmour and Roger Waters' "Dogs" (which had the working title of "You Gotta Be Crazy") and "Raving and Drooling", a Waters song which would later become "Sheep", were created at the same time as "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", and originally intended for Wish You Were Here. Their creation process was similar to the method the band used during the late 1960s and early 1970s. They would adapt and expand their compositions by performing them live, and later in the studio find a more coherent form and concept for the whole album, with Waters writing the lyrics.Animals was the last Pink Floyd album created in this way, as the subsequent The Wall and The Final Cut, were primarily conceived by Waters and worked out in the studio with some input from Gilmour.

Although Richard Wright did not contribute much compositionally, he had some influence on the arrangement of the songs, including solo playing on "Dogs" and "Sheep". As with "Welcome to the Machine" and "Wish You Were Here" on Wish You Were Here, Waters wrote "Pigs on the Wing" and "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" to harmonize the other songs conceptually. His dominance in the writing credits and the discrepancy with the actual creation process are directly related to the increasing tensions within the band.^[4]

The three core songs are bookended by a pair of love songs written by Waters for his then-girlfriend Carolyne: "Pigs on the Wing 1" and "Pigs on the Wing 2".^[5] For the 8-track cartridge release, which looped, Parts 1 and 2 were linked by a guitar bridge performed by Snowy White(subsequently available on White's 1996 album Goldtop: Groups & Sessions), and 17-minute long "Dogs" was cut into two tracks.

This album represents the time during which it is generally claimed that Waters began to impose himself creatively on the rest of the band. And while it is true that about 90 percent of the album's writing credits belong to Waters, the song that Gilmour shared half the credits for carried almost half the duration of the album. Speaking of Animals in an interview in the October 2008 edition of Mojo, Gilmour said, "Roger's thing is to dominate, but I am happy to stand up for myself and argue vociferously as to the merits of different pieces of music, which is what I did onAnimals. I didn't feel remotely squeezed out of that album. Ninety per cent of the song 'Dogs' was mine. That song was almost the whole of one side, so that's half of Animals."^[6].

The giant, helium-filled pig (referred to as the Pink Floyd Pig) seen on the cover was actually flown over Battersea Power Station for the photo shoot under the direction of Storm Thorgerson. On the first day of shooting, a marksman was on hand in case the pig broke free. However, according to Thorgerson, this was considered an "insurance problem", and the marksman was not hired for the second day of shooting. On 3 December 1976, during the second day, a gust of wind broke the pig free of its moorings. Because there was no one to shoot the pig down, it sailed away into the morning sky. A police helicopter was sent up to track the pig, but was forced to return after following the pig to an altitude of 5,000 feet. A Royal Air Force Chipmunk aircraft of 1 Air Experience Flight was also "scrambled" from RAF Manston to assist. The CAA lost radar contact on the pig near Chatham in Kent, at a height of 18,000 feet and flying East. It finally landed in a farmer's field, without much damage. They then repaired the pig, and flew it up for a third time. The resulting pictures were not deemed suitable on their own (as the clear, blue sky from day three was thought to be much less evocative), and the final image was made as a composite of the power station picture from day one and the pig from day three.

The album had custom picture labels, using drummer Nick Mason's handwriting as a typeface, as did the lyrics on the liner sleeve. Side one's label depicted a fish-eye lens view of a dog and the English countryside. Side two's was similar, but featured a pig and sheep instead of the dog.

Originally released on Columbia Records in the U.S. and Harvest Records in the UK, Animals was then remastered in 1992 for its inclusion on the Shine On box set. The remaster was subsequently released on its own by EMI in 1994. In 1997, Columbia Records issued an updated remaster in the United States, Canada, Australia, South America and Japan. Animals was again re-released in April 2000 by Capitol Records in the US, and on the EMI label in Japan, Canada, South America and Australia again using the 1992 Shine On remaster along with the artwork from the 1994 EMI Europe reissue. It continues to sell extremely well and is one of the best selling albums of Pink Floyd's time.