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| versions = Piggy<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]]'')<br>Ghosts Piggy

}}'''"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]].". 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. ===Meaning===According to the Filter biography on their official website, former live guitarist [[Richard Patrick]] reportedly received the nickname "Piggy" while in Nine Inch Nails. 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 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' has nothing to do with the Tate murders or anything like that, I’m not going to say what it is about, but 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 admit to that."</blockquote>

Characterized by its very simplistic structureand 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:

'''''Running Time: 4:02''''' "Piggy" was remixed by Rick Rubin for the 1995 remix album ''Further Down The Spiral''. It features Dave Navarro of [[Jane's Addiction]] on guitar and [[samples ]] "Put Your Love in My Tender Care" by the Fatback Band. This remix was also featured on 2004's 2nd CD of the 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of ''The Downward Spiral.'' Featured first on the [[Dissonance]] tour, it is one of the only remixes ever played live, and was revived for the [[Wave Goodbye Tour|NIN|JA 2009]] tour.

"Piggy" has become a popular song in Nine Inch Nails live shows, played seemingly on a nearly regular basissince 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. Starting on the [[Fragility]] tour, Reznor began singing "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.