Animals by Pink Floyd

Their last album — before they were ‘told what to do by the man.’

Animals by Pink Floyd was first released in 1977. It is, arguably, the last of their classic albums. Okay, some people may list the forthcoming The Wall as a bona fida classic. And I would not argue with them. Although it is less of a Pink Floyd classic, and more of a Roger Waters’s masterpiece. Other than notable exceptions, such as Comfortably Numb, The Wall is a Pink Floyd classic, in name only. So, I stick to my original contention. Animals was the last in a glorious run of Pink Floyd classics, that, personally, I would start from Atom Heart Mother and then Meddle before moving on to Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and finally, Animals — the Syd Barrett conception of the band was another beast all together and of a different type of brilliance.

Animals seems as fresh to me now as it ever was. I can happily listen to the album again without smelling the moth balls of age. And yet 1977 was another era that has now vanished into the past. It predates Thatcher at Number 10, The Falklands War and an army of ghosts that may continue to haunt us.

Listening to Animals again, with the benefit of hindsight, you have a sense of Roger Waters…