2000 Great Songs #1454: Sheep

Pink Floyd's "Sheep" is the epitome of the album track. I adore 1977's Animals, probably one of the Floyd albums I still play the most frequently, but it's definitely the sort of work intended to be heard in a single sitting, and the 10-minute-plus "Sheep" doesn't necessarily work as a stand-alone song you throw onto a mixtape or listen to at the gym.

That said, even apart from its role in the overall opus, the song has a few elements that have always made it a personal favorite from a band with a deep and widely varied catalog. First, the way each line of the verse segues into a matching synth tone, to the point where you can't tell where the voice ends and the music begins, is a work of production genius. Maybe in the age where everything can easily be done with a computer it's no big deal; but as a young teen listening to this on headphones, it was the coolest-sounding thing I'd ever heard.

Second, what can I say about David Gilmour's song-closing guitar riff? The sound of that chiming five-chord progression is just absolutely thrilling to my ears. (I guess Gilmour liked it as well, as he repurposed it on the following year's eponymous solo album, adding it as a coda to the otherwise kinda grating blues-rocker "Cry From The Street.")

I also love that moment where the backwards-echo drums start up, as the song pivots from some introductory piano (sounding more like some quiet lounge jazz) into the first verse.

And finally, again as a kid getting into the record back in high school, I thought the twisted rewrite of Psalm 23 ("the Lord is my shepherd..."), which required a lyric sheet to decipher through the distorted vocals, was wicked-cool. Its goofy imagery of sheep being led to the slaughterhouse taking up karate and exacting their revenge is probably the closest the ever-so-serious concept-album-era-Floyd ever got to humor.

Lyric video:

With a creepy AI video:

Live 1977 (audio only) with extended jam:

Roger Waters live 2023:

Primus' Les Claypool:

Winston K, as part of a medley with the Grateful Dead's "Ripple":

Tribute act Brit Floyd:

Gilmour's "Cry From The Street," with repurposed "Sheep" coda:

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