How the 'Pigs on the Wing' 8-Track Version Changed the Bookends of 'Animals'

Roger Waters always intended the two short acoustic songs called “Pigs on the Wing” to act as bookends for Animals. Part 1 opens the album, Part 2 closes it, and in between you get the three long, angry centerpieces (“Dogs,” “Pigs (Three Different Ones),” “Sheep”). That was the plan from the start—Waters wrote them as a pair, a simple love song against the cynicism of the rest of the record.

The 8-track cartridge version forced a pragmatic change. That format had four programs with two tracks each, and you couldn’t fit both short songs on separate programs without leaving dead space. So the band recorded a single continuous version that linked Part 1 and Part 2 with a guitar solo played by Snowy White, the tour guitarist. That solo basically bridges the whole album—the song plays uninterrupted, then the three long tracks, then the solo fades