G Rated Comments About the Relevance of Pink Floyd’s Animals Album:


It was a favorite album of mine, back then, for the music.

I had no idea how telling it was, at the time. But I get the gravity of it all, now … both, as a piece of art and also a statement about where we were headed as a society.

Wondering how long this thread can stay up. Hopefully, for a while …


General ground rules apply: please abide by Audiogon’s house rules of conduct, so we can enjoy it.

Please keep it G rated enough so we can hear some hilarious comments. Not that the situation is hilarious or anything about it at all.

So let’s be civil. And let this be an exercise in remaining light hearted.

 

128x128tunefuldude

Great Album, but it's partly a musical interpretation of Animal Farm by George Orwell, which was published in 1945. Which, as stated on Wikipedia, is based on events of the Spanish Civil war 1936, and the 1917 Russian revolution. So anywhere from ~89 to ~116 years ago. There's also The  Lord of the Flies published 1954 which has a similar theme . So what is the statement? 

I was optimistic during the 1960's and 70's (which were much harder then today to be optimistic) and I still am. My father lived through the 1930's and 1940's, which were even harder to be optimistic. Better to be optimistic then to live being scared all the time of change and the future. You cannot stop either, although some people have always tried to stop it (I am referring to the Industrial Revolution mostly). The latest fear is AI. It's always something. Can't live your life that way. That's not living, it's basically slowly dying.

Only thing that got me depressed lately was when John Prine died for no good reason. Luckily we still have his music. Apologies if this isn't hilarious.

@deadhead1000 not looking for hilarity ... just a light hearted take on how our current state of affairs in the US for sure, but also worldwide.

 

It is, indeed, a bit like Animal Farm by the late, great George Orwell. It's taken me a bit, but yeah, for sure I'm seeing it unfold right before my very eyes.

So many great lyrics on the album, that work so well with their music.

@deadhead1000 

"Don't ever become a pessimist... a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events."

--Robert Heinlein

The link to Animal Farm is hardly tenuous at best, the only common denominator is animals. There is absolutely no link to Lord of the Flies.

Animals is seething with hate and misplaced trust after Floyd were scammed and forced to become tax-exiles, after being the unwilling victims of a complex scam perpetrated by the venture capitalists Norton Warburg, run by Andrew Warburg.

Basically it's about losing one's faith in human nature "and the people that you lie to, when they turn their back on you, you'll get the chance to put the knife in".

Animals also reflects the band's despondency with the majority of the population that just - suck it up - Sheep.

Whitehouse is not "The White House" but a fervent morality campaigner of the day in Britain - Mary Whitehouse.

The conceptual roles of Dogs, sheep and pigs is a pretty cynical yet powerful analogy for the dark model of human civilization these days and pretty much always.

Think yin/yang. There is a dark and bright side to everything and we all get choose how we play the game. Star Wars took that concept and brought it home for many.

Loved “Animals” when it came out and it has aged well.

I’m a dog lover. Pigs ain’t kosher….not for me. Sheep are fine down on the farm and just want to be left alone

 

 

 

 

 



Loved “Animals” when it came out and it has aged well.