Sic 'Em Pigs

Album: Hallelujah (1969)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Sic 'Em Pigs" is a statement from the most militant perspective of the '60s counterculture. Popular history presents that era as one of flowers, peace, and free love, but that was only part of the story. Segments of the counterculture were explicitly invested in the literal, violent overthrow of the American political system. Their slang for cops was "pigs." This is a song against the "pigs" - specifically against the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

    The song includes a direct threat:

    Grab your guns, fire bombs too
    City Hall, they're gonna
    Gonna get you too
    Sic 'em freaks on you


    The final verse mocks the LAPD:

    Are you looking for a way to serve God and country?
    Your chance has come
    We are now recruiting trainees for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
    If you are big, strong and stupid, we want you
    Please call 626-9511
    Remedial courses are available for the culturally deprived
  • Canned Heat co-founder Bob Hite wrote the song. He also did the vocals.
  • The song is a play on "Sic 'Em Dogs On," a tune that bluesman Bukka White recorded on May 23, 1939. Canned Heat took the original as a base, added instrumentation (White's version is just him singing and playing acoustic guitar) and changed the lyrics. Canned Heat did the same thing with "On The Road Again."
  • "Sic 'Em Pigs" was included on Canned Heat's fourth studio album, Hallelujah. It was also the B-side to the "Poor Moon" single released exclusively in Europe and the UK. Both songs were recorded during the Hallelujah sessions, but "Poor Moon" wasn't included on the album until the 2001 CD release.

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