How an album from '77 relates to the '08 election

Tuesday night marked perhaps the turning point in this election season and could mean a turning point in the nation's history. The voters in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont have gotten us a step closer to determining the Democratic nominee to face off against Republican nominee John McCain.

This election cycle has been one of the most controversial and hotly contested in recent memory. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are fighting tooth and nail to come out of a primary season that has seen turnout and fundraising numbers markedly higher than in previous years.

I may be making a stretch here, but this primary season so far has reminded me of the content of my favorite album, Pink Floyd's "Animals." This Orwellian album showcases a bleak life in England where the populace is broken into several categories, the Dogs, Pigs and Sheep. Each animal has its role in perpetuating this society.

The album has been somewhat overlooked over the years, in favor of the equally brilliant (but oft-overplayed) "Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Wall." This collection of five songs – two short pieces book-ending three long, sweeping tunes – is perhaps Pink Floyd at their finest.

Nowhere is David Gilmour's soaring guitar work, his patented technique of bending the strings to get every note possible out of them, better. Listen to the 17-minute opus "Dogs" to hear his many separate solos and try to tell me he is not one of the great guitarists.

Gilmour's touches are felt elsewhere on the album where he uses a vocoder on "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" to manipulate his voice and guitar much like Peter Frampton did on the well-known "Do You Feel Like We Do." Furthermore, my favorite riff of all time can be found right at the end of "Sheep." The music has reached its crescendo and Gilmour begins furiously strumming the chords as the epic part of the album comes to a close. The listener is taken to a pastoral sound scape of as the second part of the acoustic ballad "Pigs on the Wing" closes out the album.

I usually listen to music while I'm at home. When I'm at a loss of what to put on next, I can always turn to this album, one that was made in defiance to punk rock's claim that Pink Floyd was a dinosaur band. This album and is loud and angry and can always get the adrenaline going when it's turned up.

So the other night while using this album as a bit of background noise to CNN's election coverage on TV, it really struck me how well this album meshes with our current political situation.

Much like in George Orwell's communist satire "Animal Farm," the pigs are the rulers of all, becoming fat and happy on their way to the top. When thinking about Washington politics these days, people often envision the fat cats, getting rich off of lobbyist money while at the same time claiming to represent the people.

This election has seen "change" thrown around as a buzzword by not only Obama, but McCain and Clinton as well. These politicians want to see the end of special interest groups that help fund campaigns and get politicians in their back pocket.

Everyone agrees on the album that the Pigs need to be removed, perhaps nowhere better expressed than by Roger Waters on "Dogs" when he sings "Gotta admit, that I'm a little bit confused, sometimes it seems to me as if I'm just being used."

But the Dogs are seen as cutthroat people, stopping at nothing to get what they want.

Throughout Clinton's political career, both she and her husband, Bill, have been accused of firing up the so-called "Clinton Machine" to use scare tactics and dig up dirt on people that stand in their way. And we've certainly seen that happen over the last few months with Obama.

Finally we are brought to the Sheep. As has been perpetuated for a long time, sheep follow blindly whomever is in charge and will do all they can to support them. This election has seen this happen on both sides of the Clinton and Obama races.

Bolstered by what they believe would be an easier target to defeat, conservative talk show pundit Rush Limbaugh urged his listeners to act as "suicide voters" and cast their ballot for Hillary in order to help swamp the Obama momentum. I don't believe the ploy will work , but surely some of Rush's listeners are impressionable enough to cater to his whims without realizing the repercussions. I suppose that's representative democracy at its finest.

On the flipside, both people on the right and left (namely Hillary supporters) have accused Obama's base of being sheep-like in that they are part of a following that has some cultish attributes. Many Obama supporters have been decried for simply following the young senator from Illinois without knowing much about his policies. It is a popular belief -- again on both sides of the American political divide -- that voting for Obama is the "cool" thing to do.

I don't know how this election will end up seven months from now, when we (assumingly) will know our 44th president. But it just strikes me that an album painting an ugly scenario for English life in the late '70s -- itself based partly on a book published in 1945 -- can come back to be an allegory for politics in the United States during this troubled time. And it makes following this election roller coaster all the more enjoyable.

from NorthFulton.com

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