The Pig Song
Lyrics
Oh, I'm just a pig in the sun
Friend to everyone
When the sun shines high
In the eastern sky
I sing [pig snorting noises]
Pig life is the life for me
Diligent but free
Do my work then rest
Sing a song when pressed
That goes [pig snorting noises]
May we all live long on the Earth
Come to learn what true friendship is worth
Friends since birth
From the depths of our girth
We sing [pig snorting noises]
Banter
- I don't mean to get technical on you, but there's something fucked up about the guitar. How much is it bothering you. [yelling] Maybe it's just in my monitor. It's a little crackly. Brandon, should I switch to electric? [crowd yells] You're not Brandon! [tuning happens, audience yells for pigs] Which pig song do you mean? There are several songs about pigs. [laughing] I feel like you probably meant Pigs That Ran Straightaway Into the Water, maybe I'll play that, but I'm gonna go over to the piano and play you the Pig Song. 'Cause I never get to play the Pig Song. Haven't thought about it in awhile. Some of you, who aren't the most blessed fanatics who know all the bootlegs, are wondering what is the Pig Song. When I, about 11 years ago, I was about to say I had a child, I didn't have a child, my wife had a child. I became a father. And so, when you have a baby, two things happen. A lot more than two things happen, but. One thing is that people start asking "are you gonna write a children's record, now," and I go, do I look basic to you? Do I look like every other singer songwriter who ever lived, who suddenly is like, I've been a dad for six months, and now I have a lot of insight. Nah, man, the Mountain Goats don't go out like that. But I did sit at home writing songs for my son, 'cause I'm also not basic in that way. Like, you know, it's really fun to write these songs for my son, and he would get really excited about them, and he had, this is a long story, if you need to use the bathroom or something, I won't be hurt. It's fine. Because it would be very weird to be hurt for you using the bathroom. Talk to a therapist about that. But, um, there was a little book, a little crackly book, it had a story in it, but you're reading to an infant, you're really only practicing reading to a child. The infant doesn't care what you say. You could be making nonsense noises or reciting recipes. Or Grateful Dead lyrics. As I did. Now my son knows all of the Grateful Dead songbook. He goes to school. And I had him fooled for a few years, he would sing [sings] "drivin' that train/feelin' no pain", which was my version of the song, the second line is in fact "high on cocaine" which is what he sings now and I'm very proud. He also got in a lot of trouble for watching a Crowbar video once at school, which was great. Video called Symmetry of Black, has marble statues with blood running down their eyes, I was so proud. But this obook that he had, it was called, well I don't know what exactly - it didn't have a title, it just had a pig. On the front. And it was the story of pinky the pig, three pages. 'Cause it's not really a book. It's a crackly thing that's designed to entertain infants. You have a story on it to read, so you won't be sitting there going 'here, see this thing that crackles' and maybe feel cruel. So the story goes: 'big, bigger, biggest, three pigs in a row. Pinky is the smallest. But oh, how he'll grow. red, redder, reddest, three apples ready to eat. pinky has the biggest apple, oh what a treat.' I don't remember the third part, because it was a bad narrative, but I did start to write a piece that wouldn't be published called "towards a hermeneutics of Pinky the Pig". Anyways, I was thinking about pigs. And I had a son. And I had a piano. And I wrote this. (2023-10-03 The Belasco)
- You want a story? Well. [inaudible audience] For those of you who like to think about the inside of my brain, what the inside of my brain did there was first it thought about this book that my infant son had when he was an infant, and the books that you give to the infants that are mainly for them to sort of begin circling the general concept of 'book'. So they're like three pages long, and they have something that crinkles inside, because it's a baby. And the baby, my friend Steve a long time ago said, babies are always on acid. You have a copy of the book and the baby's like whoooooooaaaaa. So we got a three page book that crinkles, called Pinky the Pig. And the story of Pinky the Pig, well, I'm still working on my monograph about it, which is called "Toward a Hermeneutics of Pinky the Pig". So that was what I thought about when you asked for a story. Pinky the Pig has three strophes, the first one is big bigger biggest, three pigs in a row, pinky is the smallest, but oh, how he'll grow. red, redder, reddest, three apples in a row - no, three apples ready to eat. pinky has the biggest apple, oh, what a treat. happy, happier, happiest, which pig has the widest smile? pinky of course, he's the happiest by a mile. And I feel the book ends - well yes, I'm not sure we should applaud at Pinky the Pig. I support Pinky in his efforts, but the more I think about Pinky's brethren, the two other buddies whose names we don't even learn, who are denied the biggest apple, and who are explicitly said to be less happy, while pinky, to whom I wish all good things, should be concerned with lifting his brothers up. I'm gonna try to play this, you probably heard it if you went to the solo shows before lockdown, but I've never tried it on guitar. This is sort of the companion piece to 'The Hermeneutics of Pinky The Pig'. (2023-10-06 August Hall)
Live Performances
Footnotes