Roger Waters Debuts Anti-Trump Presentation of ‘Pigs’ During Tour Rehearsal
Roger Waters hasn't always been terribly subtle about getting his message across — and it looks like fans who turn out for his upcoming 2017 tour will see him in typically emphatic form.
Waters worked out the last few wrinkles in the stage presentation for this show during a recent rehearsal staged for "friends and family," and as depicted in the footage above, this year's edition of "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" finds the Pink Floyd co-founder putting a thoroughly timely — and provocative — spin on a number from the band's classic catalog.
As detailed in Rolling Stone's report, the audiovisual component of the "Pigs" performance offers Waters an opportunity to vent his negative feelings toward the Trump administration via a series of confrontational graphics, including images of the President doctored to show him in a variety of guises — including a cross-dresser, a Klansman and (of course) a pig.
As Waters told Rolling Stone earlier this year, he sees "Pigs" as a fitting forum to attack his target. "The first verse fits Trump really well. You know, 'Big man, pig man/Ha-ha, charade you are.' And the stuff about, 'Down in the pig mine' and 'Pig stain on your fat chin,'" he pointed out. "It's about gluttony, and Trump is a glutton for his own self-love. He's also a philistine and deeply insensitive. He shouts it from the rooftops. Unfortunately, because he's been elected as president of the United States, it has emboldened him in the view that people are impressed by him."
Waters' explicitly anti-Trump presentation of "Pigs" follows a recent art installation he created to express a similar point of view, and dovetails with the sociopolitical overtones in Waters' new album, the upcoming Is This the Life We Really Want?. Check out the video for first single "The Last Refugee."
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