March of the Pigs is a song by Nine Inch Nails from their second studio album, The Downward Spiral (1994). It was released as single album on February 25, 1994 as the album’s lead single.
The video, released in March 1994, features the band performing the song live in front of a white wall backdrop, with Reznor moving around aggressively, pushing the other band members and their instruments, and repeatedly tossing his microphone away.
Throughout the video, stagehands visibly move into the frame to reset the equipment he knocks over, handing Reznor a microphone each time he needs to start singing again after an instrumental section. The bulk of the video appears to be filmed in one long take, with the camera zooming and panning continuously.
When Reznor appeared as a guest programmer on the ABC Rage TV program, he explained that they just kept playing the song over and over to the point of exhaustion to get the final take. The video uses the live performance audio of the song recorded at the video shoot, rather than synchronizing the footage to the studio-recorded version from the album as most music videos do. This version of the song is also included on the “Closer” cassette single.
Portions of the earlier, uncompleted video are included on the Closure DVD disc image file that appeared on file-sharing network The Pirate Bay in December 2006; this file is believed to be a leak of a completed but (so far) officially unreleased deluxe DVD reissue of the band’s 1997 VHS/laserdisc long form music video Closure. In this version of the video, the band performs the song in a red cave-like set with water at their feet, and a person with dwarfism appears.
Tracklist:
- March of the Pigs
- Reptilian (Reptile remixed by Dave Ogilvie)
- All the Pigs, All Lined Up (March of the Pigs remix)
- A Violet Fluid
- Underneath the Skin (Reptile remixed by Dave Ogilvie)
Credits
Producers: Flood (1 to 3), Trent Reznor
Written by: Trent Reznor
