“Hog Calling Contest” is a fast, gospel-inspired song that fittingly features hog calling. While it carries much of the blues/country/boogie stylings of Flight b741, it also shares many stylistic similarities with praise breaks.
The lyrics (sung primarily by Stu, Ambrose and Cook) create a chaotic scene involving airplane travel and swine, and they play around with a number of famous phrases and idioms relating to pigs: “sweat like a pig,” “lipstick on a pig,” “happy as a pig in mud,” “go the whole hog,” “when pigs fly,” “don’t cast pearls before swine” and “you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.” Beyond these, the band gets into other recognize phrases like “when hell freezes over” and “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings,” as well as the Aesop fable The Tortoise and the Hare. All of it comes together to create a chaotic picture where convention is turned on its head.
According to director Guy Tyzack, the song came out of an improvised jam. “While recording Flight b741, we occasionally had these ultra-inspired tune-up/warm-up jams. Of course, we were never actually recording during these moments though. Lost to time. Except one time; This time. We learnt to record these moments; ‘Daily Blues’ came together this way too. But ‘Hog Calling Contest’ retains a unique unhinged-ness that only comes when you’re fooling around with your mates and you don’t think you’re being recorded. Happy in mud!”
Recording sessions for the song can be seen in ”Oink Oink” Flight b741: The Making Of…. The band does hog calls at 5:56. Cavs, Cook, Joey, Lucas and Stu singing backing vocals for Ambrose’s section can be found at 6:11. Footage of the band singing Cook’s section can be seen at 9:42. In the end, the song was performed by Ambrose (harmonica/vocals), Cavs (drums/percussion/vocals), Cook (organ/vocals), Joey (bass/vocals), Lucas (piano/vocals), Stu (guitar/vocals) and guest Sam Joseph (pedal steel). The ASCAP ACE Repertory lists that the entire band received songwriting credits.
The song was released without any announcement as the second single from Flight b741 on July 23rd, 2024 alongside ”Oink Oink” Flight b741: The Making Of…. The digital single featured both “Hog Calling Contest” as well as the previously released “Le Risque.” The song would also be featured as part of the single for “Field of Vision.” “Hog Calling Contest” was released as the fifth song on Flight b741 on August 9th, 2024.
“Hog Calling Contest” was first teased during “The Bitter Boogie” on 2024-05-27. That said, it wouldn’t make a live debut until their show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on 2024-09-08. It did not feature the “b741” intro and was played in the key of E instead of the studio version’s key of F.