Back a short while ago I decided to take on the untakeonable (yeah I know it’s not a word) and review Floyd’s superb classic “Dark side of the moon”. It occurred to me afterwards that it was quite possibly a waste of time: after all, who has not heard that album? But then Briks came along and announced that not only had he never heard that album, he had never heard any Pink Floyd! So I began to rethink, and this is what I’ve come up with.
Running in sort of tandem --- though not really --- with my “Classic albums I have never heard” journal, these will be reviews of albums everyone has, or should have, heard, but they will be written for those few --- or perhaps many --- who have not had the pleasure. I will therefore approach them speaking to those people, so if you know these albums backwards keep your
sniggers to yourself; nudge your partner if you must, but be aware these reviews are not directed at you, you who have seen it all and heard it all. These are for those who have yet to partake and who, just maybe, through these words may find they’re attracted to listen to the album and discover it for themselves. Somewhere out there, believe it or not, there are people who have never heard “Hotel California”, “Bat out of Hell, “Led Zeppelin IV”, “Paranoid” and a whole host of others. And it’s quite possible they may never do.
So these reviews are for those lost souls, in the hope they may find their way into the light and share the glory of these classic albums with the rest of us, and finally, once and for all, be able to truly call themselves part of the human race.
And as it was reviewing Floyd's “Dark side” that gave me this idea, we’ll kick off with them.
Animals --- Pink Floyd --- 1977 (Harvest)
Of course, this section could be filled up with Floyd albums alone. “The wall”, “Wish you were here”, “Meddle”, even “The final cut” has to in my opinion go down as a classic of the age, if only because it was the last hurrah of Roger Waters. And if you look at the discography of the band, this album comes smack bang between two serious classics itself, with “Wish you were here” released two years prior and the awe-inspiring “The Wall” two years after it. So a triumvirate of classics, you might say.
One thing about Floyd albums has always been their iconic album covers. I mean, you can not know who the band are and still recognise the sleeve of “Dark side”, “Wish you were here” or “The Wall”, and their tenth album was no exception. Working as ever with Hipgnosis and the late, lamented Storm Thorgerson, the album cover was in fact more the brainchild of Waters, but realised and created by Hipgnosis. When you look at it first, as I did all those years ago, you really only see the dour towers of Battersea Power Station, then your eye is drawn to the shape floating high in the sky just to the left of the picture, between the first and second chimney stacks. It’s a pig.
With a name like “Animals” it will be no surprise to find that the five songs on the album are all about, well, animals. But drawing inspiration from George Orwell’s literary political satire masterpiece, “Animal farm”, Waters gives each animal the characteristics of societal classes, so that pigs are obviously the rich and powerful, dogs their henchmen and enforcers, and sheep are the vast mass of humanity who just accept things and move right along, never questioning, never trying to effect change; keeping their heads down in case someone notices them.
Bookended by two simple love songs, the rest of the album (the other three tracks) are all long ones, the shortest coming in at just over ten minutes and the longest at over seventeen, each of which take one of the animals as their subject matter. Between the five they tell a story of political and class struggle which, unlike Waters’s later opus “The Wall”, has a relatively happy and upbeat ending. And it’s very much his concept; he writes all the lyrics and sings all but one of the tracks. This, and the next album, show his tightening grip on the band which would result in his leaving them altogether in 1985. It would probably be fair to call him a control freak, and yet you can’t argue that the albums from where he began taking the reins, from “Dark side” up to and including “The final cut”, stand as the very best in an impressive discography. So maybe he can be excused for being such a tyrant. Maybe. Still, for this album he not only wrote the lyrics, sang and played guitar as well as bass, but also designed the sleeve: little bit overkill? Nevertheless, you can’t say this isn’t a classic.
A simple acoustic love song gets us underway, as “Pigs on the wing part 1” opens the album, deceptively uncomplicated and mundane but still with that Pink Floyd edge to it. Waters does his usual great job on the vocals with an almost fatalistic yet emotion-filled performance. As songs go on the album it’s almost the shortest, and leads into “Dogs”, the only track on the whole album that features any contribution (other than his usual excellent guitarwork) from Dave Gilmour. On this he helped write the music and also shares part of the vocal with Waters, but to be honest much of the power of the song revolves around Rick Wright’s superb keyboard work, particularly the opening organ. Sublime solos from Gilmour of course as he sings about the rough and tough dogs, who live hard and uncompromising lives ---
”You’ve gotta keep runnin’” he advises,
”Gotta keep lookin’ over your shoulder/ It’s gonna get harder/ As you get older.”
There’s a nice little instrumental section then that reminds me of much of the work on “Shine on you crazy diamond”, mostly the opening sections, then some heartfelt guitar interplay between Gilmour and Waters, then it slows down into an almost acoustic vein with the sound of dogs barking and baying --- perhaps slightly unoriginal, but Floyd almost wrote the book on originality so you can forgive them this obvious step, and anyway it fits in well with the overall feel of the piece. Another, more powerful solo from Gilmour as Wright keeps a nice piano line going under the melody, then the vocal becomes a duet as Waters joins in, which really helps to solidify the atmosphere of the song. The creed of the Dog surfaces as we’re told
”You have to be trusted by the people you lie to/ So that when they turn their backs on you/ You’ll get the chance/ To put the knife in.” Usage of what would become classic Waters devices like the mention of “the stone” and the repeated echoing fading last word which would crop up again later in both “The Wall” and “The final cut”.
A deep, atmospheric instrumental passage as Wright takes over on the synthesiser, the barking dogs back but never too loud, always in the background, like you often might hear in a neighbour’s garden a few houses away, close enough to annoy but not enough to worry you. Squealing, screeching guitar again reminiscent of some of “Shine on” turns the tune a little manic, a little unhinged in places while Wright steadily and carefully keeps the synth melody striding gracefully forward. Then as the screeching guitar fades back a little Waters’s acoustic comes in with a reprise of the opening melody line and it’s he who takes the solo vocal for the second half of the song (well it’s eleven minutes into a seventeen-minute song, but this is still reckoned to be the second part) and you can hear some of the elements which would go to inform the lyrics and themes of the next album as he asks
”If I don’t stand my own ground/ How can I find my way/ Out of this maze?”
Another fretburning solo from Gilmour as the organ comes back in and then it stops for a moment as guitar takes over, before Waters brings back the “stone” theme for the conclusion of the song as he sings
”Who was fitted with collar and chain/ Who was given a pat on the back/ Who was breaking away from the pack/ Who was only a stranger at home/ Who was ground down in the end/ Who was found dead on the phone/ Who was dragged down by the stone.”
“Pigs (Three different ones)” opens with an almost electronica synth and quiet guitar before Gilmour kicks it up a little with some heavier riffs as Nick Mason’s percussion punches its way in and the song becomes something of a rocky blues tune. Waters’s vocal is mostly quite low-key and restrained on this: he doesn’t snarl angrily or roar as he has been known to do. Around the fifth minute Gilmour takes over with some nice guitar licks which takes us well into the seventh, where Wright’s organ comes into its own, then the vocal comes back in the eighth, as Waters rails against Mary Whitehouse, the self-proclaimed protector of decency and morality who was a thorn in the sides of TV producers during the seventies and eighties, and became synonymous with the nanny state and interfering nosy parkers who have nothing better to do with their time than try to force everyone to conform to their skewed and outdated moral values. No, I wasn't a fan.
More superb soloing from Gilmour takes us out and into “Sheep”, where some gorgeous Fender Rhodes from Wright opens the song, Waters’s bass then walking along and bringing the feel of a stride/boogie rhythm before his vocal, angry and frustrated again, bursts forth and the song springs to life, rocking along at a great lick, Wright exchanging his Fender for a Hammond. I've always found this to sound a little like “One of these days” off “Meddle”. Not exactly, but the bass line is similar and I hear a lot of the basic melody here. Anyway Gilmour cuts in now with some fine riffs before Waters throws in a bass line that would recur later in part on “Goodbye cruel world” to some extent and then Wright spreads synthesiser goodness all over the track before Gilmour again cuts loose. We’re now approaching minute five.
Waters’s bass takes over in about the sixth, almost solo and carrying the melody as Floyd desecrate the Lord’s Prayer in a way that would not be attempted again until Marillion recorded “Forgotten sons” almost ten years later:
”He maketh me to hang on hooks/ In high places and converteth me to lamb cutlets”...
As the mindless sheep finally turn on the dogs and kill them ---
”Bleating and babbling we fell on his neck with a scream” --- Gilmour lets loose again and Wright’s organ follows him every step of the way. Fading out on guitar we’re into the closer, the reprise of the opener, “Pigs on the wing (Part two)”, another simple, short acoustic song that uses the very same melody as the first part but with different lyrics, and brings to an end a seminal and classic album by one of the greatest progressive rock bands of all time.
TRACKLISTING
1. Pigs on the wing (Part one)
2. Dogs
3. Pigs (Three different ones)
4. Sheep
5. Pigs on the wing (Part two)
What can you really say in conclusion about a classic album? One of three, maybe four if you include “The final cut”, concept albums released by Floyd between the years 1973 and 1983, “Animals” not only shows the band growing and stamping their own identity on their music and on the progressive rock scene in general, but foreshadows dark clouds on the horizon, as tensions within the band build and grow to a point where Roger Waters’s almost megalomaniacal control over Floyd would lead to him departing for a solo career, leaving Gilmour to take the helm and pilot them through what would turn out to be their last two albums. I personally like both “A momentary lapse of reason” and “The division bell”, but it’s fair to say that neither was a patch on the clutch of classic albums they released over this ten year period.
As the saying goes, they don’t make them like this anymore!