Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Piggies



Lately I've been reliving the day of my youth by listening to the Beatles during my daily commute. I must admit that I'm only familiar with their first few albums, and so the later ones hold some pleasant surprises for me. I don't recall ever hearing any lyrics suggesting spanking in the Beatles' repertoire, but yesterday I found one, in a song called Piggies.

Written by George Harrison for the Beatles White Album, it's the only Beatles song that contains a swear word. The line that contains both the spanking and the swearing was contributed by Louise, George's mother. The song was intended to be a social commentary on the middle class, but was later misinterpreted as an anti-police anthem.


Have you seen the little piggies crawling in the dirt?
And for all the little piggies life is getting worse,
Always having dirt to play around in.
Have you seen 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 styes with all their backing they don't care what goes on around,
In their eyes there's something lacking,
What they need's a damn good whacking.
Everywhere there's lots of piggies living piggie lives,
You can see them out for dinner with their piggie wives,
Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon.


Listen:




From Hermione's Heart

5 comments:

ronnie said...

Funny Hermione, I've been listening to the Beatles just lately as well.

Don't know any of the songs on this album. It surprised me when you said the spanking and the swear word came from John's mother. I always thought she was quite a staid women.

Thanks for sharing.

Love.
Ronnie
xx

Anonymous said...

It has been a while since I've listened to them. But I remember the song.

Paul said...

Hermione, nice on girl, I have everything they released.
They were most definitely, NOT PC.
Warm hugs,
Paul.

Anonymous said...

I have been whistling that song ever since I read this entry!

Hermione said...

Ronnie - I didn't think I knew any of the songs, but it turns out I did after all.

John's aunt was quite straight-laced, but this was George's mum.

Mick - I'm glad I could bring back memories.

Paul - No, they weren't.

Hugs,
Hermione