Pigs (Three Different Ones): David Gilmour's Talk Box and the Satirical Grunt

The talk box — a guitar effect that pipes the instrument’s sound through a tube into the player’s mouth, allowing them to shape it with their vocal tract — is what gives the solo in “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” that unmistakable porcine squeal. David Gilmour used a Heil Voice Box, running his guitar through a fuzz pedal and then the talk box, to create a series of wailing, oinking, and snorting sounds that feel both human and animal. The effect made the guitar literally “talk” like a pig, especially during the long solo section, where the notes seem to gripe and groan.

Lyrically, the song was Roger Waters’ attack on three types of pigs — the ruthless capitalists, the moral crusaders, and the warmongering politicians. The most direct target was Mary Whitehouse, a British censorship advocate, who is named in the second verse: “You fucked up old hag / Ha, ha, charade you are.” The “three different ones” are all figures Waters saw as “big pigs” oppressing the working class, and the talk box’s grunting pushed that sneering contempt into something almost playground-mocking. It’s one of the few moments where the music literally becomes the insult.