WRITTEN:
Written by Perry and Eric in late 1985. Perry supposedly wrote the lyrics for this song in mid '85 while he was still in Psi-Com.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS:
Steve in a '97 interview (Details 11/97)..."The original songs were written in the house on Wilton. I remember showing up when everyone got off work, going into the garage, and writing all those songs-- "Whores," "Pigs In Zen." It's like that moment when you fall in love."
A quote from Perry out of Dave Thompson's book... (it originally appeared in a magazine article, I assume.)
"I read the Gita, I read Black Magic Crowley, the Bible, anything I could get my hands on. If you want to talk about reaching nirvana, reaching Zen, well, the pig is closer than we are because the pig doesn't have material possessions. He fucks when he wants to, he eats when he's hungry, and he sleeps when he's tired. That's the whole point of Zen. That's exactly what pigs do... so, 'Pigs in Zen.'"
From the Words And Music interview, late '88...
Q: "How did "Pigs In Zen" come about?"
Perry: "I had a band previous to this that was involved with Hinduism. And they abstained from sex. And they abstained from meat. In other words, they abstained from enjoying themselves. Anything that would be in the nature of self-enjoyment, they abstained from. The only time they would have sex would be under the laws marriage and that would be to give pleasure to Krishna. It would be for Krishna and you would not be able to enjoy it yourself. And I just about had enough of that. And the band broke up and I was, at the time, really, really just angry about it all. Because I had a great band on my hands. I had great musicians and we really could've done something. It was a band with integrity. But this whole Krishna thing just got in the way completely. And it really split the band up. So I wrote "Pigs In Zen" because they were talking about reaching this state of nirvana where you're in a state of bliss and you don't need anything. Well, a pig doesn't need clothes. A pig-- he's exactly where they want to be. It's what's humans are striving for... to be pigs. And they don't realize it. That's what humans-- I mean, it's funny that they pull all these things in to make themselves happy but it makes them unhappy. Because all those things that they pull in... all these-- the more you grab in, it's like the more you lose-- the more you have at stake to lose. You know, every possession is yet another possession that you may lose. And a pig having none and just being happy... laying in the mud. And a pig shits, eats when it's hungry, and it has sex when it's horny, and it sleeps when it's tired. And it pays no bills. So there you have it."
LIVE:
* Played frequently throughout Jane's existance, though less and less often each year. Seldom in '91.
Perry would very often use the breakdown part for talking to the audience, usually about sex or war.
In '86 and '87, this song was commonly played directly after "Suffer Some" as a medley. Then in '88 through '91, almost always with "Bobhaus" as an intro.
In early '89 (2/89 - 5/89) Jane's occasionally would play a special jam for about 1 or 2 minutes during the breakdown part. In 1993, Porno For Pyros released a finished studio version of it on their first album as "Blood Rag".
* 1997: never played "Pigs" in it's entirety live, although at one show (Las Vegas, 11-24-97) they jammed about a minute of it acoustically before Perry stopped them and apologized to the crowd for teasing them when they had no intentions of playing the full song.
pigs
in the mud
the pig 