Some Animals [Algunos Animales]

Lyrics:

All around me people calling my name
Everybody knows that fame’s the name of the game
I was a clean slate waiting to be written upon
I was looking for the good time
Now it ain’t so much fun

I had an iron fist hidden in a soft leather glove
Was the darling of the critics
Now there ain’t so much love
When you claw your way up
There ain’t no going back
Not for me at least baby
‘less it’s in a body bag, you see

Orwell was wrong there’s none more equal than me
I am the ultimate predator
The shark in the sea

I was slowly sinking
Into the thoughts that I’d been thinking
I was slowly drowning
Everyone around me could surely see

Some animals are more equal than others…

I am not an animal

Music by Dave Ryder and Dan McHugh. Lyrics Dave Ryder. Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Recording and lyrical notes:

The lyrics and sound effects are obviously referencing Orwell’s Animal Farm, but there are other symbolic undercurrents going on here as well: during the 70′s (the time period this song takes place in) the slang for cops included “pigs”. In Homer’s Odyssey, Circe was the witch who turned Ulysses men into swine – in our story PROJECT CIRCE is the FBI operation secretly* infiltrating street gangs with undercover agents, allegorically transforming perceived gang members into “pigs”.

To sort of change the subject, me and Q are fans of Pink Floyd whose Animals mascot The Flying Inflatable Pig was the subject of a fierce legal battle when the Floyd split up, with Roger Waters retaining the rights to the Pig. So what did Gilmour and Mason do? They stuck a pair of large testicles on their version of the pig to differentiate from Roger’s version! Roger said in this interview (where he sounds remarkably like Mongrove), “…My one pathetic victory was that they had to put testicles on the pig. If the pig had been exactly the same as the pig that I designed, I could have stopped them using it. Fuck them.”

I wonder if they see the irony of the situation, that they were now guilty of exhibiting the exact same moral terpritude they claimed to abhor on Animals – a scathing critique of the worst aspects of capitalism!

_{* Most FBI agents are unaware of the existence of PROJECT CIRCE – only top-level officials within the organization with a need-to-know are aware of it, and only a small percentage of them are in the loop on day-to-day operations. A partial list of the FBI and GOPES involved include:
Leon Napole – FBI Director and administrator of CIRCE. He inherits the job when the former director (Mr. Jones) takes early retirement after accusations of drinking too much.
Molotov – Napole’s right hand man: small, fat and white. Radio expert, handles communications with Cat Morgan (Calypso), who secretly despises him.
Carlos Pilkington – Liason to GOPES, he is given very little information, and occasionally disinformation. Suspected of being a Cartel informant.}

Big Pig, by Jack Daniels.

I can almost hear this noble specimen singing Old Major’s anthem:

Rings shall vanish from our noses,
And the harness from our back,
Bit and spur shall rust forever,
Cruel whips no more shall crack.

Orwell was rejected by a number of publishers, some of who were unwilling to offend the Russians (they were our allies at the time) as seen in this rejection memo to Orwell: “…Another thing: it would be less offensive if the predominant caste in the fable were not pigs. I think the choice of pigs as the ruling caste will no doubt give offence to many people, and particularly to anyone who is a bit touchy, as undoubtedly the Russians are.”

When he finally found someone willing to publish, he wrote a preface which complains about self-imposed British self-censorship (it wasn’t included, and to this day most publishers still decline to publish it). I feel much of it is still relevant (in a broader context) today, particularly:

“This kind of thing is not a good symptom. Obviously it is not desirable that a government department should have any power of censorship (except security censorship, which no one objects to in war time) over books which are not officially sponsored. But the chief danger to freedom of thought and speech at this moment is not the direct interference of the MOI or any official body. If publishers and editors exert themselves to keep certain topics out of print, it is not because they are frightened of prosecution but because they are frightened of public opinion. In this country intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy a writer or journalist has to face, and that fact does not seem to me to have had the discussion it deserves.”

Amen.