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.