Piggies: Difference between revisions

''[[Record Mirror]]'' remarked that the [[birdsong]] effects of "Blackbird" were replaced by "snorts and grunts" on "Piggies", which the reviewer described as "a society beef (or pork if you like)" in the style of folk singer [[Roy Harper (singer)|Roy Harper]].<ref>{{cite magazine|title=The Beatles: ''The Beatles'' (''White Album'') (Apple)|author=Uncredited writer|magazine=[[Record Mirror]]|date=16 November 1968}} Available at [http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-beatles-ithe-beatles-white-albumi-apple-2 Rock's Backpages] (subscription required).</ref> Writing in ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', [[Jann Wenner]] considered the song to be "an amazing choice to follow 'Blackbird'", given the contrast between the two pieces – "'Blackbird' so encouraging, 'Piggies' so smug (though accurate: 'what they need's a damn good whacking'). Ha!" Wenner paired it with Starr's "[[Don't Pass Me By]]", as lesser tracks beside the "superb numbers" found elsewhere on the album, but added that "on their own, they're totally groovy."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/review-the-beatles-white-album-186863/|title=Review: The Beatles' 'White Album'|first=Jann S.|last=Wenner|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|date=21 December 1968|page=10|access-date=26 June 2019}}</ref> Alan Smith of the ''[[NME]]'' praised the melody and the use of classical instrumentation, and described the song as "a telling piece about modern life" and "a fascinating piece of humorous cynicism".<ref name="Smith/NME">{{cite magazine|first=Alan|last=Smith|title=Beatles Double-LP in Full|magazine=[[NME]]|date=9 November 1968|page=3}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|Smith also referred to "Piggies" when, having derided Lennon's "[[Revolution 9]]" as representing the album's "bad and ugly" elements, he wrote: "For most of the rest, God Bless You, Beatles! Thank you for Rocky and his Gideon Bible, and George's oink-oink piggies, and the blackbirds singing ..."<ref name="Smith/NME" />}}

 

{{Main|Helter Skelter (Manson scenario)}}

Prosecutor [[Vincent Bugliosi]] claimed [[Charles Manson]] interpreted several songs on ''The Beatles'', including "Piggies" as an inducement the [[Manson Family]],{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|pp=115–16}} to carry out a [[Tate-LaBianca murders|series of murders]] in Los Angeles in August 1969.{{sfn|Doggett|2007|pp=305–06}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.goldminemag.com/article/cover-story-the-white-album-artistic-zenith-or-full-of-filler-part-iii |author=Goldmine staff|title=The White Album: Artistic zenith or full of filler? Part III |work=[[Goldmine (magazine)|Goldmine]]|date=16 October 2008|access-date=24 May 2016}}</ref>{{sfn|Turner|1999|p=160}}{{sfn|Clayson|2003|p=256}}{{sfn|Doggett|2007|pp=305, 394}}{{refn|group=nb|According to witnesses{{who}} at his 1971 trial, the same line was a favourite of Manson's and frequently quoted by him before his incarceration.{{sfn|Turner|1999|p=160}}}}