Original version recorded September 19 1968
Ukulele version recorded April 19th 2011
Written by George Harrison, John Lennon, Louise Harrison
Credited to George Harrison
Sharon Fogarty – recorder and whistle
Nora Garver – fiddle
Ann Borden – harp
with
Adair Mallory-vocals
Andy "Freakin" Mabe – the madman voice
Robert Kirk percussion and sound design
David Barratt Ukulele and bass
The Children of Winston Salem Choir : Meghan Phillips, Quinn Stallings, Peyton Smitherman, Connor Smitherman
Recorded by Robert Kirk at Treehouse Mobile Studio, Winston Salem, NC
Additional production and mix by David Barratt at The Abattoir Mobile outside Abbey Road Studios in London
ABOUT THE SONG
Charles Manson derived personal meaning from many songs of The White Album. "Piggies" was used in particular to justify attacks on the White establishment, with the lyrics "what they need’s a damn good whacking" reflecting the attacks on Blacks in what Manson envisioned would be an apocalyptic race war. During the murders of Sharon Tate, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, Gary Hinman and others, the words ‘political piggy’, ‘pig’ and ‘death to pigs’ were written with the victims’ blood on the walls. In the case of the LaBianca murders, knives and forks were actually inserted into the victims in reference to the lyric "Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon"
Our version includes additional verse written for the song in 1968 but omitted during the actual recording. It involved the "piggies" playing "piggy pranks" in order to achieve its rhyming couplet of "piggy banks." Harrison reinstated this verse in all live performances of the song in the 1990s. A version can be heard on his double album Live in Japan.
Yeah, everywhere there’s lots of piggies
Playing piggy pranks
And you can see them on their trotters
Down at the piggy banks
Paying piggy thanks
To thee pig brother
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Immigrant’s Daughter
Sharon Fogarty, Nora Garver and Ann Borden were brought together on a whim by an Irish whistle and pipe player from Dublin to get together to play traditional Irish music. Nora had been playing traditional fiddle for many years starting with American Old Time and progressing to Irish, then Scottish. Sharon and Ann both had extensive classical training and performance degrees from the University of the North Carolina School of the Arts. Sharon, a flute and whistle player, wanted to learn traditional music since her mother and husband are Irish and she has many close family ties with Ireland. Ann, a harper, had always had a passion for Celtic harp and she had even studied the Clasarch in Scotland, but it had been years since she had played Celtic music with other musicians . All three eagerly seized the opportunity to play traditional Irish music together. For a year Sharon, Nora and Ann met with the Irish traditional musician and are very grateful for what they learned from him, but circumstances were such that he had to leave the group. Sharon, Nora and Ann decided that they loved the music and playing together too much to let it go, so they continued meeting and playing traditional Celtic music, just the three of them. Three years and two albums later they are honing their sound and working on their own original music for the next album, experimenting with the fusion of Celtic, classical and world music. Most importantly, they have fun making great music together!
Based in the Triad of North Carolina, you can find out more about the Daughters and listen to or buy their albums ("The Winter Moon" and "Over the Whistle and Through the Strings") on their website which we welcome you to visit at www.immigrants-daughter.com.
Adair
Adair has a Beatles ticket from when her mom saw them at age ten, and is excited to have worked on this project! She is a trained classical singer, and is now studying for her MFA in sound design at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.