"Sheep" (originally titled "Raving and Drooling") is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on the 1977 album Animals. It was written and sung by Roger Waters and performed live from 1974 to 1977. Waters has since played the song on solo tours.
Lyrics
Loosely inspired by the allegory of Orwell's Animal Farm, Waters' "sheep" represent the working class, who work blindly, following the "dogs" and "pigs" of society, without questioning the neoliberal capitalist structure they are exploited by, until they finally wake up and rebel against the dogs. The song was influenced by the political and economic turmoil of the time, in particular, the 1976 riots at the Notting Hill Carnival and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Waters felt that they were going to occur again, such as in Brixton and Toxteth.
The middle section of the song is a snarky parody of Psalm 23.
History
During their DSOTM tours in 1974, Pink Floyd played three new songs in the first half of the shows, followed by The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. The three new songs were "You've Got to Be Crazy" which later became "Dogs", "Shine On" and "Raving and Drooling" which later became "Sheep".
"Raving and Drooling" was originally a more jam-based song. While the basic motif was already in place — a held note from the vocalist (Waters) being crossfaded into the same note on a synthesizer, with various inhuman effects applied — Waters had yet to write anything for the sections repeating F♯7 and A7 ("You better watch out! There may be dogs about", and so on), and so these sections, while clearly part of the song structure, were rendered instrumentally. While Gilmour later stated that "Dogs" in its earlier incarnation as "You've Got to Be Crazy" simply had too many words for him to sing, "Raving and Drooling" appeared to suffer more from a lack thereof.
"You've Got to Be Crazy" and "Raving and Drooling" were originally planned to be on the album following the 1974 tours, Wish You Were Here, but Waters insisted the two songs did not fit with the themes of WYWH which he considered to be "absence".
Recordings
The song was recorded during April, May and July 1976 at the band's own Britannia Row Studios, Islington, London.