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| versions = Piggy<br>Piggy (Radio Edit)<br>Piggy (Instrumental)<br>Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)<br>Piggy (''[[Closure]]'')<br>Piggy (''[[And All That Could Have Been (halo)|And All That Could Have Been]]'')
| live = [[Further Down The Spiral Tour]] through present
}}'''"Piggy"''' is the second track from the 1994 album ''[[The Downward Spiral (halo)|The Downward Spiral]].'' . It is one of the many songs to include the phrase "[[Nothing Can Stop Me Now|nothing can stop me now]]."
The drum solo featured in the last half of the song is actually performed by [[Trent Reznor]] himself. Initially, it was a drum test being used as a placeholder in the song, but he liked it too much to replace it. Evidently, a [[Nine Inch Nails music videos|music video]] was planned for the song, but the idea was scrapped before anything could be attempted.[http://nothing.nin.net/ninfaq.html]
<blockquote>One evening the day before some studio time with Trent I took a girlfriend to a [[Skinny Puppy]] gig. I was watching the sound check and Ogre was on the mic shouting "WHITE PIGGY" over and over, I found it really funny. When I got back to the studio and we were setting up, I keep doing an impersonation of Ogre and after a few minutes Trent shouted to me "Hey Piggy, shut up and play some chords man!", and the name stuck after that.</blockquote>
As well, "Piggies" is a song on The Beatles' 1968 self-titled (or 'white') album, a noted influence on Charles Manson, who scrawled the word "pig" in blood on the front door of the [[Le Pig|Sharon Tate mansion]] wherein he and his 'Family' killed Tate and several others on August 8, 1969. The mansion was also where Reznor recorded ''The Downward Spiral'' in 1993-4 and Reznor kept the Tate door when he moved to [[Nothing Studios]] in New Orleans. However, Reznor debunked rumors of song connections to the Tate murders in an interview[http://www.nin-pages.de/2003_Metal_Hammer_April_english.htm]:
<blockquote>I had "Piggy" written long before it was ever known that I would be in that house. "[[March of the Pigs (song)|March of the Pigs]]" has nothing to do with the Tate murders or anything like that, I’m I'm not going to say what it is about, but it’s it's not about that. Yeah, the name of the studio being "Pig", that was a definite bad taste joke. It was written on the front door at one time, I’ll I'll admit to that.</blockquote>
==Appearances==
Characterized by its very simplistic structure and quasi-jazz style, "Piggy" contains a simple set of drum and other percussion loops with only bass and organ accompaniment, joined by piano and noise loops in the latter half. Though heavily debated, the album version of "Piggy" is the first of several songs on ''The Downward Spiral'' to incorporate the famous "Downward Spiral Motif." While this version of the motif does not contain the final "five note measure" found on other songs such as "[[Closer]]" and "[[The Downward Spiral (song)|The Downward Spiral]]", the structure remains relatively the same. Played by the organs on the second verse, the notes to this short variation of the motif are as follows:
<br>
[[Image:Piggy_Organ_Motif_Tab.JPG|The motif as played by the organs on "Piggy"."]]
The chaotic, extended drum solo/outro was happenstance. Reznor explained more in a 1994 interview with ''Keyboard Magazine''[https://www.theninhotline.com/archives/articles/manager/display_article.php?id=548]:
===Piggy (''And All That Could Have Been'')===
A professionally recorded live version appears in video and audio on ''And All That Could Have Been.'' . Reznor gives the microphone away to audience members to sing the "nothing can stop me now" refrain in the latter half of the song, and his ending piano solo segues directly into the performance of "[[The Frail]]"."
==Live==
"Piggy" has become a popular song in Nine Inch Nails live shows, played seemingly on a nearly regular basis since its debut on [[1994/08/27 Rochester, NY|August 27, 1994]]. During live shows Reznor will frequently venture into the crowd during this song with a microphone and invite fans to sing along. Reznor usually sings "hey motherfucking pig" before the line "there's a lot of things that I hoped you could help me understand".
Reznor performed a new version of "Piggy" on piano with a string quartet at Neil Young's 2006 [[Bridge School Benefit]] concert. This was most likely the inspiration for the "Ghosts Piggy" arrangement that was used in 2008's [[Lights In The Sky Tour]]. It features [[Justin Meldal-Johnsen]] on upright bass and Reznor on shaker and marimba, usually segueing directly from "[[19 Ghosts III]]" via Reznor's shaker playing as it slows from the quicker tempo to match that of "Ghosts Piggy"." Its title is sourced from tour setlists.
==Lyrics==