Changes

According to the Filter biography on their official website, former live guitarist [[Richard Patrick]] reportedly received the nickname "Piggy" while in Nine Inch Nails. As well, "Piggies" is a song on The Beatles' 1968 self-titled (or 'white') album, a noted influence on Charles Manson, who scrawled the word "pig" in blood on the front door of the Sharon Tate mansion wherein he and his 'Family' killed Tate and several others on August 8, 1969. The mansion was also where Reznor recorded ''The Downward Spiral'' in 1993-4. Whether or not Patrick or the Tate murders are directly related to this song is unknown, though Reznor kept the Tate door when he moved to [[Nothing Studios]] in New Orleans. ===The Drum Solo===The drum solo featured in the last half of the song is actually Reznor himself. Initially, it was a drum test being used as a placeholder in the song, but he liked it too much to replace it.

Characterized by its very simplistic structure, "Piggy " contains a simple set of drum and other percussion loops with only bass and organ accompaniment, joined by piano and noise loops in the latter half. Though heavily debated, the album version of "Piggy " is the first of several songs on ''The Downward Spiral'' to incorporate the famous "Downward Spiral Motif." While this version of the motif does not contain the final "five note measure" found on other songs such as "[[Closer]] " and "[[The Downward Spiral (song)|The Downward Spiral]]", the structure remains relatively the same. Played by the organs on the second verse, the notes to this short variation of the motif are as follows:

"Piggy " has become a popular song in Nine Inch Nails live shows, played seemingly on a nearly regular basis. During live shows Reznor will frequently venture into the crowd during this song with a microphone and invite fans to sing along.