Piggies (Harrison)
Quotes
“Piggies is a social comment. I was stuck for one line in the middle until my mother came up with the lyric, ‘What they need is a damn good whacking’ which is a nice simple way of saying they need a good hiding. It needed to rhyme with ‘backing,’ ‘lacking,’ and had absolutely nothing to do with American policemen or Californian shagnasties!” – George”
“All four Beatles were there for the session and we were working in [studio] number two. I wandered into number one and found a harpsichord, not knowing that it had been set up overnight for a classical recording. So we discussed wheeling the thing into number two but Ken Scott said, ‘No, we can’t, it’s there for another session!’ So we moved our session into number one instead.
“George Harrison agreed that my harpsichord idea was a good one and suggested that I play it. This I did, but while George and I were tinkling away on this harpsichord he started playing another new song to me, which later turned out to be Something. I said, ‘That’s great! Why don’t we do that one instead?’ and he replied, ‘Do you like it, do you really think it’s good?'” – Producer Chris Thomas
Personnel
- George Harrison – lead and harmony vocals, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
- John Lennon – tape effects, backing vocals
- Paul McCartney – bass, backing vocals
- Ringo Starr – tambourine
- Chris Thomas – harpsichord
- Henry Datyner – violin
- Eric Bowie – violin
- Norman Lederman – violin
- Ronald Thomas – violin
- John Underwood – viola
- Keith Cummings – viola
- Eldon Fox – cello
- Reginald Kilby – cello
Release history
- The Beatles (1968)
- Anthology 3 (1996) [demo]
- The Beatles Anniversary Edition (2018) [2018 stereo mix]
- The Beatles Anniversary Edition (2018) [demo]
- The Beatles Anniversary Edition (2018) [take 12 instrumental backing track]
