TheBeatlesOnline

Harrison later referred to Piggies as a "social comment," it's a humoristic observation of the establishment and the upper classes. It's worth noting that George himself came from a working class background, as did Paul and Ringo, but Pigges, like Taxman, is a humouristic account, perhaps with a dash of self-irony. Harrison started writing the song in 1966, it was finnished two years later, with lyric assistance from Lennon and Harrison's mother Louise, who contributed with the line "damn good whaking."

Sadly, serial killer Charles Manson, leader of the Manson family, made the song notorious in 1971 by painting "pig," "pigs" or "piggy" in his victims' blood. One of the victims was also stabbed with knives and forks, allegedly a reference to the last verse of the song.

The recording of Piggies took two days and 12 takes, and some interesting little details were added. Paul's bass line, for instance, managed to evoke the sound of a pig grunting.

Lennon, meanwhile, created a tape loop of pigs snorting and grunting, using a tape from Abbey Road sound effects collection. It's possible that the loops were used in combination with human voices imitating pigs.

The use of hapsichord was pure improvosation. This had been set up in the studio for a classical recording. However, when the Beatles saw this instrument, they wanted to use it too.

In between the recording of Piggies, Harrison was playing through one of his other new compositions; Something.

Piggies

Have you see 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 in

In their sties with all their backing
They don't care what goes on around
In their eyes there's something lacking
What they need's a darn good whacking

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 bacon

One more time