March of the Pigs
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| “March of the Pigs” | |||||
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Cover art from the US March of the Pigs CD single
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| Single by Nine Inch Nails from the album The Downward Spiral |
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| Released | February 25, 1994 | ||||
| Format | CD, 9" vinyl | ||||
| Recorded | 1993 Pig Beverley Hills, California, USA |
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| Genre | Industrial rock | ||||
| Length | 27:16 (US) 31:46 (UK) |
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| Label | nothing/TVT/Interscope/Atlantic(US) nothing/Island (UK) |
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| Producer | Trent Reznor, Flood | ||||
| Nine Inch Nails singles chronology | |||||
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Cover artwork for disc one of the U.K. "March of the Pigs" CD single
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Cover artwork for disc two of the U.K. "March of the Pigs" CD single
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"March of the Pigs" is a song written by Trent Reznor. It was released in 1994 as the first single from The Downward Spiral (1994), the then-forthcoming second full-length album by Reznor's band Nine Inch Nails. As the band's seventh official release, the single is known as halo seven in their system of "halo numbers."
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[edit] The song
"March of the Pigs" has one of the most unusual meters of any song to enjoy popular radio play, alternating three bars of 7/8 time with one bar of 4/4 (8/8 with the eighth not getting the beat) time. In effect, this is a 15/8 time signature. The song has a BPM rate of 269. [1] The song's high energy, segued by two piano breakdowns, has made it a staple of NIN's live concert performances.
The song has been released as a track for the video game Rock Band on February 26, 2008 for Xbox 360 and on February 28 for PlayStation 3. It is available as a standalone download or as part of the 'Nine Inch Nails' song pack (also including "The Perfect Drug" and "The Collector").
A cover version of "March of the Pigs" has been recorded by Mae.
[edit] Music Videos
After abandoning a more elaborate version before filming could be completed, Reznor and the live band assembled for the then-impending "Self Destruction Live" concert tours (featuring drummer Chris Vrenna, keyboard player James Woolley, guitarist Robin Finck and bass guitarist Danny Lohner) regrouped with director Peter Christopherson to film a stripped-down, minimalist music video for the song. The video, released in March 1994, features the band performing the song live in front of a white wall backdrop, with Reznor moving around aggressively, pushing the other bandmembers and their instruments, and repeatedly tossing his microphone away. Throughout the video, stagehands visibly move into the frame to reset the equipment he knocks over, handing Reznor a microphone each time he needs to start singing again after an instrumental section. The video uses the live performance version of the song recorded at the video shoot, rather than synchronising the footage to the studio-recorded version from the album as most music videos do. This video was the last video to be played on MTV2's Increase the Beat, on Memorial Day weekend 2002. At 269 BPM, it had the fastest tempo of the 400+ videos that were played that weekend.
Portions of the earlier, uncompleted video are included on the Closure DVD disc image file that appeared on file-sharing network The Pirate Bay in December 2006; this file is believed to be a leak of a completed but (so far) officially unreleased deluxe DVD reissue of the band's 1997 VHS/laserdisc long form music video Closure. In this version of the video, the band performs the song in a red cave-like set with water at their feet, and a midget appears.
Live performance videos of "March of the Pigs" are included on each of the band's live releases: Closure, And All that Could Have Been, and Beside You in Time.
[edit] The single
The American "March of the Pigs" CD single contains two mixes of the title track, two remixes of its fellow The Downward Spiral track "Reptile," and "A Violet Fluid," a non-album instrumental track. In the UK, the single was released as a two-disc (each sold separately) CD single, adding a censored radio edit of "March of the Pigs" and "Big Man With a Gun" from The Downward Spiral. The disc art for this single features a curled-up millipede, an image that was later used on the cover of the single "Closer to God".
Thirteen years after its release, it debuted at #9 and peaked at #6 on the Canadian Singles Chart.[2]
[edit] US CD
- Nothing Records / TVT Records / Interscope Records / Atlantic Records 95938-2
- TVT Records / Interscope Records INTDM-95938 (Reissue)
[edit] Track listing
- "March of the Pigs" – 2:54
- "Reptilian" ("Reptile" remixed by Dave Ogilvie) – 8:39
- "All the Pigs, All Lined Up" – 7:25
- "A Violet Fluid" – 1:05
- "Underneath the Skin" ("Reptile" remixed by Dave Ogilvie) – 7:13
[edit] UK CD (disc one)
- Island Records CID 592 854 001-2
[edit] Track listing
- "March of the Pigs (clean version)" – 2:54
- "All the Pigs, All Lined Up" – 7:25
- "A Violet Fluid" – 1:03
- "Big Man With a Gun" – 1:36
[edit] UK CD (disc two)
- Island Records CIDX 592 854 003-2
[edit] Track listing
- "March of the Pigs (LP version)" – 2:54
- "Underneath the Skin" – 7:14
- "Reptilian" (remixed by Ogilvie) – 8:39
[edit] References
- ^ BPMs for each track printed on the disc. Nine Inch Nails. March of the Pigs. USA: Nothing/TVT Records/Interscope/Atlantic Records 95938-2, 1994.
- ^ "JAM! Music SoundScan Charts", Canadian Online Explorer, 2007-06-17. Retrieved on 2007-06-24.
[edit] External links
- March of the Pigs at nin.com, the official website
- March of the Pigs (halo) at the unofficial NinWiki
- Halo 7 at NIN Collector
- discogs.com: March of the Pigs (US CD5")
- discogs.com: March of the Pigs (US 10")
- discogs.com: March of the Pigs (UK 2xCD5")
- discogs.com: March of the Pigs (UK 7")
