Pig

"Pig" is the twelfth track on the deluxe edition of The Red Album.
===Appearances===
*Leaked online
*Weezer (The Red Album) (Deluxe, 2008)
*Alone X: The Red-Raditude-Hurley Years (2020)
==Overview==
:::—Interview with The Harvard Crimson, 2006Riesman, Abe J. "Rivers' End: Weezer’s frontman speaks out on women, Expos, what he’s writing now, and his marriage to a Japanese girl" The Harvard Crimson. 26 April 2006. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2006/4/26/rivers-end-in-early-1995-a/
"Pig" is first known to have been demoed in 2006. Like other songs written during the era (such as "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived), "Pig" eschews the band's typical verse-chorus structure. Though Cuomo has not commented on the song's inspiration, Cuomo (a lifelong vegetarian) mentioned in a June 2006 interview that he was struck by the cruelty of the eponymous character in the novel . "Like there's so little feeling of compassion or regret that he has to kill the animals to survive. I'm not sure what to make of it yet. The way he describes it is so cold[...] It never occurred to him that the suffering of the animals is something to worry about or to feel sorry about[...] Maybe there's something in me that's reacting to this and that maybe other people wouldn't notice it.""Alt Rocker Finds Inner Peace" Beliefnet. June 2006. https://www.beliefnet.com/entertainment/music/2006/06/alt-rocker-finds-inner-peace.aspx The track that follows "Pig" on The Red Album, "The Spider," similarly conveys a empathy for animals, through the metaphor of a dying spider in a drain.
Cuomo first mentioned the existence of "Pig" in an interview with The Harvard Crimson in April of 2006. A year later, in April of 2007, Cuomo's acoustic demo was anonymously leaked by Cuomo to music blogs,Raftery, Brian. "Leak Of The Day: Rivers Cuomo Takes A Trip To The Animal Farm" Idolator. 9 April 2007. https://www.idolator.com/250650/leak-of-the-day-rivers-cuomo-takes-a-trip-to-the-animal-farm the first new song by Cuomo heard by fans since the release of Make Believe in 2005. The demo's MP3 metadata indicated that the song was the twelfth track on an 18-track demo titled Deliverance at Hand!, which fans would later discover was a collection of Cuomo's demos in contention for Weezer's planned sixth album.
Prior to the release of The Red Album, Cuomo teased on Myspace that the album's debut single would be about a "four-legged pink farm animal," likely a deliberate misdirect to lead fans to believe the song would be "Pig," instead of the actual single, "Pork and Beans." A full-band recording of "Pig" was ultimately released as a bonus track on Red's deluxe version. The studio version of the song forgoes the demo's use of harmonica in favor of synthesized strings. This version also adds sound effects for the "whiplash sound" and claps mentioned in the lyrics.
At least three of the babies named in the song (Gina, Shannon, Gabe) share names with Cuomo's half-siblings (Gina Cuomo and Gabe Cuomo) and step-brother (Shannon Cuomo).
==Personnel==
*Rivers Cuomo – lead guitar, lead vocals, backing vocals
*Patrick Wilson – percussion
*Brian Bell – rhythm guitar, keyboard
*Scott Shriner - bass guitar
==Audio==
*YouTube (North America)
*YouTube (International)
==Lyrics==
Image:Weezer Weezer (The Red Album) 27.jpg|Red lyric sheet.
Image:20-21.png|Lyric sheet from the Deliverance at Hand! booklet.
Image:22-23.png|Lyric sheet from the Deliverance at Hand! booklet.
When I was a baby I was so happy.
I played with my friends in the mud.
Wilbur and Jack and Otis and Beatty,
We were a gang, you gotta believe me.
Momma would scold us if we got too rough
She didn't care, she was proud of us.
I ran around and talked to the animals,
Tellin' 'em stories of savage cannibals.
Then I got older and noticed a girl.
At first I was sure I didn't exist to her.
I sulked around but I didn't know why.
Then she put her cheek on my shoulder and I
Was lookin' at her and she was lookin' at me.
We started to smile - it was our destiny.
Tina was her name, she was my cutie-pie.
I forgot about the things that I used to like.
I spent all my time followin' her around.
My friends all made the whip-lash sound.
But they understood, they was happy for me
And everyone clapped when I asked her to marry me
And she said "yes" and we felt so fine.
We lost track of the passin' of time.
Before I knew it, we had our own babies:
Gina and Shannon and Keebie and Gabe
But now I've got to die.
I've lived a good life - I've got no complaints.
I'd like to thank farmer Pete
For bringing me scraps of food that I could eat.
He always had a smile on his face.
He didn't want to think of this day.
It's finally here.
It's finally here, oh.
Oo-oo, they called me Pig.
Oo-oo, they called me Pig.
When I was a baby I was so happy.
I played with my friends in the mud.
==Known recordings==
==See also==
*List of Weezer songs
*List of Rivers Cuomo songs
==References==
==External links==
*Teenage Victory Songs entry for "Pig"
Category:Weezer songsCategory:Rivers Cuomo songs
Category:Bonus tracks
Category:Songs that appeared on the 4 and 5 Star Demos of Rivers Cuomo list
Category:Featured song
Category:Songs on Weezer (The Red Album)Category:Songs on Alone X: The Red-Raditude-Hurley Years