Maps of Music

Animals (1977)

Where the lyrics of Animals take you, and where it was really made.

The cover pig once broke its moorings and flew over Heathrow before landing in Kent.

Key places

Where the album was made (1977)

Recording site Britannia Row Studios — Pink Floyd converted this former church hall block into a studio in 1975. The band recorded and produced Animals here from April 1976 into early 1977. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Battersea Power Station on the cover (1977)

Album cover Battersea Power Station — The cover shows an inflatable pig floating between two chimneys of this power station. Waters chose a view of the building, which was nearing the end of its useful life in 1976. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Animals: tenth studio album by Pink Floyd
• Released 21 January 1977 on Harvest Records in the UK and on Columbia Records in the US
• Concept album focused on the sociopolitical conditions of mid-1970s Britain
• Lyrics loosely based on George Orwell's Animal Farm, with society shown as dogs, pigs and sheep
• Cover concept by Roger Waters, designed by Storm Thorgerson
• Pink Floyd released no singles from the album

Background

• Continues the long-form songs of earlier albums such as Meddle and Wish You Were Here
• Developed from a collection of unrelated songs into a concept
• Partly a response to the punk rock movement
• Pink Floyd bought the Britannia Row building in 1975 and converted it into a studio
• Animals was promoted through the In the Flesh tour, which began on the release day

Recording

• Produced by the band at their new studio, Britannia Row Studios, throughout 1976
• Recording took place at Britannia Row between April 1976 and early 1977
• Engineered by Brian Humphries, a previous Floyd collaborator
• All tracks except Dogs were written by Roger Waters; Dogs was co-written by David Gilmour
• Richard Wright contributed less than on previous albums, and it was the first Pink Floyd album without a writing credit for him
• Snowy White recorded a solo on Pigs on the Wing, omitted from the vinyl release

Cover

• Shows an inflatable pig floating between two chimneys of Battersea Power Station
• Hipgnosis offered three ideas, but the final concept was designed by Waters
• A 12-metre pig balloon was built by Ballon Fabrik and Jeffrey Shaw
• The balloon broke free of its moorings and flew over Heathrow before landing in Kent
• The pig image was later superimposed onto a photograph of the power station taken by Howard Bartrop

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in 1965 by Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright; David Gilmour joined in 1967.
• Among the first British psychedelic groups, gaining an early underground following at the UFO Club.
• Known for extended compositions, sonic experiments, philosophical lyrics and elaborate live shows.

Members

• Nick Mason on drums (1965–present).
• Roger Waters on bass and vocals (1965–1985), becoming the primary lyricist after Barrett's departure in 1968.
• Richard Wright on keyboards (1965–1981, 1987–2008), who died in 2008.
• Syd Barrett on vocals and guitar (1965–1968), who died in 2006.
• David Gilmour on guitar and vocals (1967–present).

Career

• Concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979) made them one of the best-selling acts of all time.
• Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982) won two BAFTAs.
• Reunited with Waters for Live 8 in 2005; the last studio album The Endless River came out in 2014.
• Released 'Hey, Hey, Rise Up!' in 2022 in protest of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• Sold over 250 million records; inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2008.

Reception

At release

• NME called the album one of the most extreme, relentless and iconoclastic records of its time
• Melody Maker's Karl Dallas described it as an uncomfortable taste of reality
• Rolling Stone's Frank Rose found the 1977 Floyd bitter and morose, and saw the message as pointless and tedious
• Robert Christgau of The Village Voice gave the album a B+ rating and found the negative reaction overly cynical
• Critic Mike Cormack called it the band's punk album, and said it was largely undigestible by radio

Reappraisal

• Initially received mixed reviews, with more favourable reviews gained in later years
• Many consider it one of Pink Floyd's greatest albums
• Mason's 2004 autobiography Inside Out suggested the harshness came from a workmanlike mood in the studio
• Gilmour later said it was not one of the band's creative high points

Records

• Reached number 2 on the UK Albums Chart and number 3 in the US
• Pink Floyd overtook ABBA for the most weeks on the UK Albums Chart in 1977, at 108 weeks, according to The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums
• Certified quadruple platinum in the US on 31 January 1995
• The 2022 reissue reached number 21 on the Billboard 200, its highest position since March 1977

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Algie, the balloon, was inflated with helium and manoeuvred into position on 2 December 1976, with a marksman ready to fire if it escaped.
• After the balloon broke loose, the pig flew over Heathrow, causing panic and cancelled flights; pilots also spotted it in the air.
• A cheaper, explosive inflatable pig replaced the original at each In the Flesh performance, and on one occasion an oxygen-acetylene mixture caused a massive and dangerous explosion.
• The album's picture labels continue the theme, with side one showing a dog and side two a pig and sheep in the same setting.
• Waters' agitation with audiences during this tour inspired their next album, The Wall (1979).
• Mason's handwriting was used as a typeface throughout the packaging.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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