So... Do you like Piggies? Some do, some don't.
I've read this (with which I strongly disagree):
"In his book Revolution in the Head, music critic Ian MacDonald describes "Piggies" as a "bludgeoning satire on straight society", dismissing the song as "dreadful" and "an embarrassing blot on (Harrison's) discography."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piggies
First of all, there isn't a song, not one, of which any of the guys (J, P, G or R) should be ashamed of, not even Revolution No 9.
Revolution No 9 is Yoko Ono's best song in the Beatles!
OK, I'm joking - but J & Y loved to make noises (being madly in love) and Revolution 9 is the result of J&Y harmony.
(I'm not saying the song itself is a harmony - it is chaos!)
Back to Piggies... It would be better to say:...
Author Walter Everett refers to the lyrics as involving an "Orwellian comparison of pigs to socially horrid though outwardly refined tyrants."[5] Pink Floyd (who were working on A Saucerful Of Secrets at the same time), later released Animals in 1977, also about Orwell's social comparisons.
I like the music, but let's take a closer look at the lyrics.
In the first verse we have the main characters mentioned - piggies playing in the dirt:
Have you seen the little piggies
Crawling in the dirt?
And for all the little piggies
Life is getting worse
Always having dirt to play around in2nd:
Have you seen the bigger piggies
In their starched white shirts?
You will find the bigger piggies
Stirring up the dirt
Always have clean shirts to play around inAgain - stuff already mentioned in the first verse, with a bit of variation - basically, pigs playing in the dirt.
Two lines stick out - starched white shirts, clean shirts.
OK - a little bit unusual - pigs wearing shirts. But, then, some people choose pigs for their pets and we've all seen some pets like dogs or cats being dressed in some outfit.
Also, 'Piggies' could be a song for children (like 'Yellow Submarine' or 'All Together Now') - it is not a song mentioned for children, as we'll see it in the end, but I just mention this possibility.
3rd:
In their styes with all their backing
They don't care what goes on around
In their eyes there's something lacking
What they need's a damn good whackingThey don't care what goes around - so, they just think of eating and sleeping.
Last two lines - well, things get serious here - pig's eyes lacking of something and they deserve whacking.
Again, a bit strange (like with those lines about shirts).
If the things were not quite clear before, here we have it cleared, in the last verse:
Everywhere there's lots of piggies
Living piggy lives
You can see them out for dinner
With their piggy wives
Clutching forks and knives to eat their baconPigs living piggy lives... Pigs and their
wives... eating their
bacon!
PIGGIES
JOHN 1980: "I gave George a couple of lines about forks and knives and eating bacon."
OK, it is not a great discovery that 'Piggies' is a song about people - I just wanted to show how the lyrics are composed.
(The word piggies/y is repeated seven times in this song /running just 2:04/ - but that's for achieving funny effect - piggy lives, piggy wives....
(If George wished, he could use other words: hog, boar, swine...)
A nice song with a social commentary.