Anarchy99
Footballguy
Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 54
UCR Ranking (out of 167 songs): 42
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 37
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): 25
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 49
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
Vulture Ranking (54 out of 165 songs): Waters kicks off Animals with an 85-second deliberately acoustic number, apparently written from the point of view of two of us sheep, hating each other and watching the “pigs on the wing” overhead. His sarcasm on Wish You Were Here was somewhat tempered by the loving nature of the title song and Shine On — not to mention having Roy Harper sing on Have a Cigar. But by the time of Animals, there’s something off here; his vocal is highly unsubtle, and he’s too obviously relishing in the images. The casually strummed acoustic guitar and his natural vocals contrast too sharply with the electronics that will follow. This is the closing track on Animals, a reprise of the first song: just 90 seconds of strummed acoustic guitar and a few short lines. More on Animals later, but I want to say this: Waters is a smart guy and I don’t want to be glib criticizing his conceptions. But I don’t understand the narrator’s voice here. He’s happy he has a place to “bury [his] bone,” so he has to be a dog. Is he a dog? I didn’t get that from part one. In that one, the characters don’t care for each other, and in this case they do, which I guess is a sign of resignation as they watch the pigs fly above. What this song is really about, however, is songwriting royalties. The two little Pigs on the Wing snippets on Animals — basically the same song with different words, 90 seconds each, nothing more than Waters playing a casual acoustic guitar and singing — are credited to Waters alone as songwriter. Accordingly, they represented two separate tracks on the album when it came to songwriting (or “publishing” or “mechanical” royalties) separate from the royalties the band as a whole made from the record. Waters probably took home 3 cents per album sold for each track he wrote, so he would have made a total of 6 cents per album just for these two basically identical little ditties. Now let’s look at Dogs, which is credited to Waters/Gilmour, and lasts for 16 minutes. That would have given Gilmour about a penny and a half per album sold. Animals sold 12 million copies worldwide, meaning Waters the songwriter might have taken away three-quarters of a million dollars just from the two little Pigs on the Wing snippets, compared to about $90,000 for Gilmour for his work on the epic Dogs. Drummer Nick Mason, in his highly honest, highly enjoyable autobiography, says that inequities like these contributed to the resentment the band felt toward Waters. (Waters, of course, might have argued and no doubt did that it was his songs that drove the record sales that kept the rest of the band in English manor houses.)
UCR Ranking (42 out of 167 songs): It’s no secret that love songs are not Floyd’s (and certainly not Roger Waters’) strength. Animals’ acoustic bookends don’t celebrate love as much as classify it as a better alternative to the miseries of modern life. Sonically simple (just voice and guitar), Part 1 can be praised for its brevity and lightness in introducing the album’s gloomy concept. Part 2, although sounding nearly identical to its first half, gets the edge because of how expertly Waters wraps up this dense, complicated album. Love conquers his dog-like ways and the clouds part to reveal something akin to hope. A happy ending on a Pink Floyd album? When pigs fly.
Louder Ranking (37 out of 50 songs): Even measured against the prevailing punk scene, 1977’s Animals was spitting-mad. Strange, then, that the Floyd’s brutal swipe at Britain’s social order should open – and close – with the purest love songs that Waters ever wrote, serenading new girlfriend Carolyne Anne Christie on acoustic guitar. “There was a certain amount of doubt as to whether that song was going to find its way onto the album,” considered the bassist. “But otherwise, it would just have been a sort of scream of rage."
WMGK Ranking (25 out of 40 songs): Part 1 opens Animals, and Part 2 closes it. Each version features just Roger Waters singing and playing acoustic guitar. Part 1 asks what would happen “If you didn’t care what happened to me, and I didn’t care for you.” Thankfully, Part 2 ends the very dark album on an optimistic note: “You know that I care what happens to you/and I know that you care for me too,” which is about as romantic as Waters ever gets. And he realizes that even in a heartless world, if you have someone to love, you “don’t feel alone.” Because “any fool knows a dog needs a home… a shelter from pigs on the wing.”
The pain lingers on for @PIK95 as we hit up another offering from The Wall.
UCR Ranking (out of 167 songs): 42
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 37
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): 25
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 49
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
Vulture Ranking (54 out of 165 songs): Waters kicks off Animals with an 85-second deliberately acoustic number, apparently written from the point of view of two of us sheep, hating each other and watching the “pigs on the wing” overhead. His sarcasm on Wish You Were Here was somewhat tempered by the loving nature of the title song and Shine On — not to mention having Roy Harper sing on Have a Cigar. But by the time of Animals, there’s something off here; his vocal is highly unsubtle, and he’s too obviously relishing in the images. The casually strummed acoustic guitar and his natural vocals contrast too sharply with the electronics that will follow. This is the closing track on Animals, a reprise of the first song: just 90 seconds of strummed acoustic guitar and a few short lines. More on Animals later, but I want to say this: Waters is a smart guy and I don’t want to be glib criticizing his conceptions. But I don’t understand the narrator’s voice here. He’s happy he has a place to “bury [his] bone,” so he has to be a dog. Is he a dog? I didn’t get that from part one. In that one, the characters don’t care for each other, and in this case they do, which I guess is a sign of resignation as they watch the pigs fly above. What this song is really about, however, is songwriting royalties. The two little Pigs on the Wing snippets on Animals — basically the same song with different words, 90 seconds each, nothing more than Waters playing a casual acoustic guitar and singing — are credited to Waters alone as songwriter. Accordingly, they represented two separate tracks on the album when it came to songwriting (or “publishing” or “mechanical” royalties) separate from the royalties the band as a whole made from the record. Waters probably took home 3 cents per album sold for each track he wrote, so he would have made a total of 6 cents per album just for these two basically identical little ditties. Now let’s look at Dogs, which is credited to Waters/Gilmour, and lasts for 16 minutes. That would have given Gilmour about a penny and a half per album sold. Animals sold 12 million copies worldwide, meaning Waters the songwriter might have taken away three-quarters of a million dollars just from the two little Pigs on the Wing snippets, compared to about $90,000 for Gilmour for his work on the epic Dogs. Drummer Nick Mason, in his highly honest, highly enjoyable autobiography, says that inequities like these contributed to the resentment the band felt toward Waters. (Waters, of course, might have argued and no doubt did that it was his songs that drove the record sales that kept the rest of the band in English manor houses.)
UCR Ranking (42 out of 167 songs): It’s no secret that love songs are not Floyd’s (and certainly not Roger Waters’) strength. Animals’ acoustic bookends don’t celebrate love as much as classify it as a better alternative to the miseries of modern life. Sonically simple (just voice and guitar), Part 1 can be praised for its brevity and lightness in introducing the album’s gloomy concept. Part 2, although sounding nearly identical to its first half, gets the edge because of how expertly Waters wraps up this dense, complicated album. Love conquers his dog-like ways and the clouds part to reveal something akin to hope. A happy ending on a Pink Floyd album? When pigs fly.
Louder Ranking (37 out of 50 songs): Even measured against the prevailing punk scene, 1977’s Animals was spitting-mad. Strange, then, that the Floyd’s brutal swipe at Britain’s social order should open – and close – with the purest love songs that Waters ever wrote, serenading new girlfriend Carolyne Anne Christie on acoustic guitar. “There was a certain amount of doubt as to whether that song was going to find its way onto the album,” considered the bassist. “But otherwise, it would just have been a sort of scream of rage."
WMGK Ranking (25 out of 40 songs): Part 1 opens Animals, and Part 2 closes it. Each version features just Roger Waters singing and playing acoustic guitar. Part 1 asks what would happen “If you didn’t care what happened to me, and I didn’t care for you.” Thankfully, Part 2 ends the very dark album on an optimistic note: “You know that I care what happens to you/and I know that you care for me too,” which is about as romantic as Waters ever gets. And he realizes that even in a heartless world, if you have someone to love, you “don’t feel alone.” Because “any fool knows a dog needs a home… a shelter from pigs on the wing.”
The pain lingers on for @PIK95 as we hit up another offering from The Wall.
