Pink Floyd: Animals!

Sean Trane wrote: lazland wrote: The investment scandal had nothing to do with Animals. I never said it did, but it sure as hell happened before, during and after its recording. Therefore it was in the background and most probably affecting the bleak mood.

Just incredible. Wish I could hear it for the first time again.

Never was convinced it was a worthy follow-up to WYWH. There are some soft spots on the album that nullify the strength of two relatively solid tracks.

Guldbamsen wrote: It’s been a while since I last span it but suffice to say that it has been one of my favourite Floyd albums ever since I heard it some 25-30 years ago. I do tend to listen to it live over a bootleg merely named ‘Pink Floyd Plays The Animals’. I believe it’s from Toronto and the band is playing all of Wish You Were Here and Animals...but with the aggression of a band who were hanging on by the fingernails. Especially Gilmour sounds like a man possessed.

I wish they had a good recording of one of those shows so they could release a live album from, what I imagine to be, the ultimate Pink Floyd tour. Or even better, if there could only be a video release of such a thing.

I side with the minority here in saying Animals isn't the peak of Pink Floyd's discography. DSOTM and WYWH are masterpieces to me, not Animals, nor The Wall which followed. Dogs, the track, certainly is a masterpiece to me, but I've never been a fan of Sheep, nor the two acoustic tracks which open and close the album. Visually I've never been more impressed with the presentation of Dogs on the Us and Them, Roger Waters DVD. Incredible production. I wish I had attended the live concert to see it for myself. Basically the lyrics of Animals don't appeal to me. There's a lot wrong with Capitalism and you can argue there was a lot wrong with Donald Trump's tenure as president of the US, but do we have to put up with Roger's diatribe about Capitalism all the time, especially coming from someone who has made all his money from Western Democracy Capitalism? Music should separate itself from the left and right polemics of the world and be more general in criticizing the injustices of the world. Marillion have done it so much better on their last two albums, which have a far more humanistic egalitarian approach to the world's injustices. Bob Dylan is another who does it so much better. For the record Farmer Brown represents Capitalism in George Orwell's Animal Farm and the Pigs are the communists who take over the farm and the draft horse represents the poor exploited workers who are used by whatever political system is running the country.

Edited by iluvmarillion - December 30 2020 at 19:59

iluvmarillion wrote: I side with the minority here in saying Animals isn't the peak of Pink Floyd's discography. DSOTM and WYWH are masterpieces to me, not Animals, nor The Wall which followed. Dogs, the track, certainly is a masterpiece to me, but I've never been a fan of Sheep, nor the two acoustic tracks which open and close the album. Visually I've never been more impressed with the presentation of Dogs on the Us and Them, Roger Waters DVD. Incredible production. I wish I had attended the live concert to see it for myself. Basically the lyrics of Animals don't appeal to me. There's a lot wrong with Capitalism and you can argue there was a lot wrong with Donald Trump's tenure as president of the US, but do we have to put up with Roger's diatribe about Capitalism all the time, especially coming from someone who has made all his money from Western Democracy Capitalism? Music should separate itself from the left and right polemics of the world and be more general in criticizing the injustices of the world. Marillion have done it so much better on their last two albums, which have a far more humanistic egalitarian approach to the world's injustices. Bob Dylan is another who does it so much better. For the record Farmer Brown represents Capitalism in George Orwell's Animal Farm and the Pigs are the communists who take over the farm and the draft horse represents the poor exploited workers who are used by whatever political system is running the country.

Edited by tigerfeet - December 30 2020 at 20:22

tigerfeet wrote: iluvmarillion wrote: I side with the minority here in saying Animals isn't the peak of Pink Floyd's discography. DSOTM and WYWH are masterpieces to me, not Animals, nor The Wall which followed. Dogs, the track, certainly is a masterpiece to me, but I've never been a fan of Sheep, nor the two acoustic tracks which open and close the album. Visually I've never been more impressed with the presentation of Dogs on the Us and Them, Roger Waters DVD. Incredible production. I wish I had attended the live concert to see it for myself. Basically the lyrics of Animals don't appeal to me. There's a lot wrong with Capitalism and you can argue there was a lot wrong with Donald Trump's tenure as president of the US, but do we have to put up with Roger's diatribe about Capitalism all the time, especially coming from someone who has made all his money from Western Democracy Capitalism? Music should separate itself from the left and right polemics of the world and be more general in criticizing the injustices of the world. Marillion have done it so much better on their last two albums, which have a far more humanistic egalitarian approach to the world's injustices. Bob Dylan is another who does it so much better. For the record Farmer Brown represents Capitalism in George Orwell's Animal Farm and the Pigs are the communists who take over the farm and the draft horse represents the poor exploited workers who are used by whatever political system is running the country. Pink Floyd were never really openly about being political in their early incarnation, they were more about making social commentary on society at the time. You are correct though, from Animals forward until their split, you could hear the driving force of politics in Roger Waters lyrics and then even more so when he was unleashed unto his solo career.  However, to me both Animals and the Wall are also masterpieces. They both have a different sound and production to WYWH and DSOTM, and I like to see some changes in a band as they mature.

moshkito wrote: Hi, I STILL prefer the original versions of the album during the time of the later DSOTM tours ... "Raving and Drooling" was a far out space rocker (for lack of better description) and then "Gotta Be Crazy") was the other big piece ... both went through massive changes until the album was released much later as "Animals" ... AND it was also missing the original cover which Hipgnosis had created according to the Hipgnosis book. To me, the difference between something that is more ... "free" and better live, to something that became MANIPULATED to (supposedly) make it better, was quite strange and hypocritical in my estimation ... the best writers work on their instinct, not on their ideas ... because ideas change every hour on the hour, so to speak ... and changes would make that original completely different. For me, "Animals" is the perfect example of over abuse in the originality and creativity which the band had showed before ... for the sake of some kind of "meaningful" bullcrap! It really became a "Roger Waters" album, not a PF album!

I think we see whatever we want to in the music, and it speaks more about our interpretations OF it, than the artist's intentions...even if they're accurate.