From TAP #49:
A Collection Of Great Dance Songs (An A-Z of Pink Floyd Songs)
Remember A Day (Wright) : From 'A Saucerful Of Secrets', sung by
the author. There is evidence to indicate that this track was
originally recorded (under the title 'Sunshine' [qv]) for
inclusion on 'The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn'. The track was
also released as a single in the US backed by 'Let There Be More
Light'. The Japanese reversed this pairing for their single
release.
Wright: "From every album we issue in America, a single is taken
and played on AM stations in order to sell the album.
None of the singles makes it, of course."
Reopening (Waters) : Generic title applied to 'Set The Controls
For The Heart Of The Sun' on the bootleg 'The Early Tours'.
Return Of The Son Of Nothing (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour) :
An alternative tag for 'Echoes' [qv] as performed in the spring
of '71.
Wright:"We went into the studios in January to put down a lot
of ideas and called them all bits of 'Nothing', which is
where the title comes from. It's 22 minutes long and is
a piece we can do live without any of the problems of
'Atom Heart Mother'".
Richard's Rave Up (Wright) : An unreleased track recorded in
February 1968. It is possible that this is a working title for a
track on 'A Saucerful of Secrets', but more plausibly an
instrumental later incorporated into the title song on that
album.
Andrew King: "You could never tell with Rick what number he was
playing; it always seemed to be the same. We used
to call it the 'Rick's Fry's Turkish Delight Lick'."
Round And Around (Gilmour) : An instrumental from 'A Momentary
Lapse Of Reason' and 'Delicate Sound Of Thunder'. At just over
30 seconds, the live version is the shortest track ever released
by Pink Floyd.
Run Like Hell (Gilmour, Waters) : From 'The Wall', sung by the
authors. Performed live on both 'The Wall' tours, it was
resurrected for Gilmour's '84 jaunt, his appearance at the
Columbian Volcano benefit (see Miles) and the Floyd's ;87-'89
trek. The latter yielded the different live versions that appear
on 'Delicate Sound Of Thunder' and the 'On The Turning Away'
singles; both of which feature vocals by Gilmour and Guy Pratt.
The song appeared in its own right as a single in the US and
Europe (backed by 'Don't Leave Me Now') and on various promo
releases (such as the 'Delicate Sound...' 12" [see TAP 35]).
Like 'Comfortably Numb', the music came from a demo recorded
around the time of Gilmour's first solo album.
Waters: "After 'Run Like Hell', you can hear an audience
shouting 'Pink Floyd!' on the left hand of your stereo,
and on the right hand side or in the middle you can hear
voices going 'Hammer!'. This is the Pink Floyd
audience, if you like, turning into a rally."
The track became the finale of Floyd's set at Knebworth '90 and
is to be found on the album and video (volume 3) of the event.
Roger Waters has (so far) had the last say by releasing an
appalling 'Potsdamer Mix' of the track on the CD and 12" of his
'Another Brick In The Wall pt 2' single.
Rush In A Million (Barrett) : An alternative title for the early
live piece 'One In A Million' [qv]. The mistake is caused by
Roger's introduction of the piece at the Star Club Copenhagen
13/9/67 when he laughed making 'one' sound like 'rush'.
San Tropez (Waters) : From 'Meddle', sung by the author.
Waters: "'Atom Heart Mother' 'Meddle' are half good. I like
'Atom Heart Mother' and 'Echoes' themselves, but we made
a right mess of it on the other sides."
Saucerful of Secrets, A (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour) : The
title track of Floyd's second album. As there is no record of
the piece having been recorded, 'Saucerful...' would appear to be
a compilation of various instrumentals - such as 'Richard's Rave
Up' [qv] - recorded in early '68. This seems to be backed-up by
Roger Waters' claim that they were given the last twelve minutes
of the album to do with as they pleased. Its earliest confirmed
appearance is on the BBC session of 25/6/68 under the title
'Massed Gadgets of Hercules' [qv] [see TAP 39]. The piece became
a mainstay of the Floyd's live set, performances varying from
under ten to over twenty minutes. Having appeared on "Ummagumma'
(where it was divided into four, titled parts: a) Something Else,
b) Syncopated Pandemonium, c) Storm Signal and d) Celestial
Voices [see TAP 46]) and in the film 'Live At Pompeii', the song
was eventually retired on the US tour of Autumn '72. The
'Celestial Voices' section was also performed as the final part
of 'The Journey' [qv], titles 'The End Of The Beginning' [qv]
[see TAP 39].
Waters: "'A Saucerful of Secrets' allowed you to think of
anything that you wanted and because it had echo, people
thought it was science-fiction; but it could be anything."
Wright:"We all believed it was going to be one of the best
things we'd ever put onto record - which I think it was
at that time... Parts of 'Saucerful' on 'Ummagumma' came
from the Birmingham gig, which we put together with the
Manchester stuff... but the stuff on the album isn't
half as good as we CAN play."
Mason: "It contains ideas that were all well ahead of the
period, and were very much a route that I think we have
followed... [Devices] like provoking the most
extraordinary sounds from a piano by scratching around
inside it."
Gilmour: "I still think it's great. That was the first clue to
our direction forwards, from there. If you take
'Saucerful of Secrets', the track 'Atom Heart Mother',
then 'Echoes' - all lead quite logically towards 'Dark
Side Of The Moon'."
Scarecrow, The (Barrett) : From 'The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn',
sung by the author. The track first appeared as the B-side of
the 'See Emily Play' single and subsequently reappeared on
'Masters of Rock'. For some reason Pathe News chose, in 1967, to
show a film clip of the Floyd messing about in fields to the
accompaniment of this track.
Wright: "Just listen to Syd's songs, the imagination he had. If
he hadn't had this complete breakdown, he could easily
be one of the greatest songwriters today. I think it's
one of the saddest stories in rock'n'roll, what happened
to Syd. He was brilliant - and such a nice guy."
Scream Thy Last Scream (Barrett) : The proposed (but later
scrapped) third Floyd single, sung by Syd Barrett. This track
was recorded by the band in August 1967 shortly after it was
announced as a possible follow up to 'See Emily Play'. The
public were given the chance to hear this classic as it was part
of the Floyd's live set in '67 and was also performed as part of
a BBC session in December of that year [see TAP 39]. It has also
been listed as 'Scream Thy Last Scream Old Woman with a Casket'
and the slightly shorter 'Old Woman with a Casket' [qv].
Scream thy last scream old woman with a casket,
Plan, plan your pointers, point your pointers,
Waddle with apples to crunchy Mrs. Stores,
She'll be scrubbing bottles of all fours...
Scream thy last scream old woman with a casket,
Fling your arms madly old lady with a daughter,
Flat tops of houses, mouses, houses,
Piddle and diddle, sitting fat...
Watching tele' 'til all hours silly child,
Fling your arms madly old lady with a daughter,
(Repeat 1st verse)
Scream thy last scream old woman with a casket,
Seabirds (Waters) : A song, recorded by the group for inclusion
in the film 'More', sung by the author. It was subsequently
omitted from the soundtrack album but can be heard in the
background of the film during a party scene. The sheet music and
lyrics for the piece did appear in 'The Pink Floyd Song Book'
published by Lupus Music Co. Ltd. in 1976.
Waters: "We did the 'More' soundtrack as a sort of personal
favour for Barbet [Schroeder]. He showed us the movie -
which he'd already completed and edited - and explained
what he wanted; and we just went into the studio and did
it. I don't really like working under that sort of
pressure, but it can help you by focussing your ideas."
Mason: "It was a good exercise, as Barbet Schroeder, the
director, was a really easy person to work with."
Seamus (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour) : From 'Meddle', sung by
Dave Gilmour. In the early 70's, the Floyd occasionally recorded
country and western pastiches for their own amusement; 'Seamus'
was presumably the product of one such session.
Gilmour: "I was lucky to have a very broad base of stuff that
the radio played and my parents played and my friends
liked. It went through very wide spheres of folk music
to show music to old acoustic blues - Leadbelly, Bill
Broonzy."
The track was used as the B-side of the Japanese 'One Of These
Days' single.
Second Cud(uncredited) : Alternative title applied to Floyd's
live blues workout on the 'Pictures of Pink Floyd Volume 1'
bootleg.
See Emily Play (Barrett) : Pink Floyd's second - and, until
'Another Brick In The Wall part 2', most successful - UK single;
reaching the Top 5 in Britain and the Top 40 in the USA. Sung by
the author, it was subsequently included on 'Relics', 'Masters of
Rock', 'Works', and the US and Japanese releases of 'The Piper At
The Gates Of Dawn'. Andrew King explained the idea behind the
song: "The Games for May concert was in two parts: there was a
Floyd set and a number of individual efforts. I think the
individual efforts came in the first half. They were basically
pre-recorded tapes; Roger and Rick got some together, but no-one
else did really because Syd was in the middle of writing 'See
Emily Play' which was like a theme song for that show - 'Games
for May' comes in the lyric. The released version was lyrically
altered a bit, but it was basically the same song."
Gary Brooker of Procol Harum was played the song as part of a
'Blind Date' singles review: "The Pink Floyd - I can tell by the
horrible organ sound. It's much better than 'Arnold Layne'."
Barrett: "Singles are always simple... The whole thing as the
time was playing on stage (but) obviously, being a pop
group, one wanted to have singles."
A different version of the song had to be recorded for the
Floyd's 'Top of the Pops' appearance - a performance that has
allegedly been wiped from the BBC archives. The surviving promo
(with Gilmour instead of Barrett) can be found on the
Rock'n'Roll: The Greatest Years - 1967' video [see review TAP
34].
Wright: "Although it sounds a bit gimmicky, hardly any special
effects were used. Take that 'Hawaiian' bit at the end
of each verse: that was just Syd using a bottleneck
through echo. The part that sounds speeded-up, though,
was speeded-up! John Woods, the engineer, just upped
the whole thing about an octave. On stage, we have to
cut that particular bit out, but then I don't think the
audience minds if our reproduction isn't 100% accurate...
"I don't think the success of 'See Emily Play' has
affected us personally. Sure we get more money for
bookings, but the next one could easily be a flop.
[Yep! - SF] When I first heard the playback in the
studio, I had a feeling it would go higher than it did,
but I'm not complaining."
David Bowie, who included a disastrous version of the song on
his 'Pin-Ups' album, commented: "Pink Floyd got a hit, and for a
few months they were moderately overground. And Syd just didn't
want any part of that, so he opted out. And I understood why. I
thought "Yeah, right, they're being accepted: nobody wants that'
(ironic laughter)."
From TAP #54:
A Collection Of Great Dance Songs (The Tracks That TAP Forgot)
Acoustic Pig (Waters) : Another bootleg listing for 'Acoustic
Dog' [qv] / 'Pigs on the Wing' [qv].
Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast (Waters, Mason, Gilmour, Wright) :
The sound effects were recorded in Nick Mason's kitchen.
Almost Gone (Waters) : Erroneous naming of the instrumental
reprise to 'Another Brick... pt 3' on two bootlegs of 'The Wall'
live.
Another Brick in the Wall pt 2 (Waters) : Russian flexi backed
with 'The Trial'
Any Colour You Like (Gilmour, Mason, Wright) : A b-side in
various territories that released 'Money' as a single. 'Any
Colour' is incorrectly listed in the 'Dark Side' guitar tablature
book as 'Breathe (Second Reprise)' [qv].
Arnold Layne (Barrett) : The b-side of 'Point Me At The Sky' in
Japan and of 'If' in Holland.
Biding My Time (Waters) : Roger played trumpet on the recording
as he did at gigs (reckons Dave W.)
Big Theme (Gilmour) : An instrumental from the 'La Carrera
Panamericana' film.
Bitter Love (Waters) : An alternative title for 'How Do You Feel'
[qv] or a joke by Laughing Rog because 'How Do You Feel' was
inspired by a bitter lemon drink, Gini.
Blues Improvisation (uncredited) : Title applied to a blues
instrumental on the 'Live In Denimark [sic] 1971' bootleg.
Blues Jam (uncredited) : Titles applied to a blues instrumental
on one of the 'Embryo' bootlegs.
Breathe In The Air (Waters, Gilmour, Wright) : The full title of
'Breathe' [qv] as listed on the album label and CD of 'DSotM'.
These also suggest the song is part two of 'Speak To Me' [qv].
Breathe (Second Reprise) (Gilmour, Mason, Wright) : Title given
to 'Any Colour You Like' [qv] in the 'DSotM' guitar tablature
book. The genuine 'Breathe (Reprise)' was added to the
performances of 'Breathe...' on the KAOS tour.
Brush Your Window : (uncredited) A bootlegger's title for 'One In
A Million' / 'Rush In A Million'[qv].
Careful With That Axe, Eugene (Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason) :
The b-side of 'Point Me At The Sky' in Italy. An early version
of the piece was used for the soundtrack of 'The Committee' [qv].
Carrera Slow Blues (Gilmour, Mason, Wright) An instrumental from
the 'La Carrera Panamericana' film.
Childhood's End (Gilmour) : The last Floyd song with lyrics not
by Waters until 'A Momentary Lapse'.
Come On Big Bum (Gilmour, Waters) : Title given to 'Comfortably
Numb' on set-lists for Gilmour's 1984 tour.
Committee, The (Pink Floyd) : Music written for the film 'The
Committee', consisting of a series of instrumental segments and
an early version of 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene'. Bootlegs of
this material are lifted from the film soundtrack and thus also
include dialogue.
Country Theme (Gilmour) : An instrumental from the 'La Carrera
Panamericana' film.
Cymbaline (Waters) : Sung by the author on the longer version
used in the 'More' film. This version has different lyrics.
Death of Sisco, The (Waters) : A song dropped from 'The Wall' at
Bob Ezrin's insistence. 'Sisco' may have been a journalist's
typographical error (see Newsweek feature, TAP 46). The word in
question may plausibly be either 'Disco' or 'Cisco'; 'The Cisco
Kid' being the hero of a series of Westerns from 1929-1950 (and
thus a possible cultural reference point a la 'Shane' in 'Pros
and Cons').
Divisions (Wright) : Title of 'The Violent Sequence' [qv] on the
'Water's Gate' bootleg label.
The Doctor (uncredited) : An alternative title ('Comfortably
Numb'?) or unreleased track from 'The Wall' sessions.
Dogs (Waters, Gilmour) : The lead vocals are shared by the
authors.
Dramatic Theme (Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason) : CD credit omits
Gilmour and Mason.
Eclipsed (Pink Floyd) : We no longer believe this to be a correct
title (see TAP 41 and Q&A, TAP 50), but would love to hear from
anyone who can prove otherwise. - Eds.
Education (uncredited) : An alternative title ('Another Brick in
the Wall pt 2' ?) or unreleased track from 'The Wall' sessions.
Electric Mind (Waters) : Title applied to 'Embryo' on the bootleg
'Big Pink'.
Eugene Axe (Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason) : Title of 'Careful
With That Axe...' on the 'Water's Gate' bootleg label.
Fearless (Waters, Gilmour) : The b-side of 'One Of These Days' in
the US and Italy.
Flaming (Barrett) : Sung live by Roger Waters in the 60s.
Free Four (Waters) : Single in Italy (b/w 'The Gold It's in
the...'), the US (b/w 'Stay') and Japan (b/w 'Absolutely
Curtains')
Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert (Waters) : Performed on the
KAOS tour, not just the '85 'Pros and Cons' jaunt.
Gnome, The (Barrett) : B-side of the US 'Flaming' single.
Goodbye Blue Sky (Waters) : Argentinean promo 7" (backed with
'Another Brick in the Wall 2').
The Gunner's Dream (Waters) : On 'Pink Floyd Hits' (the Brazilian
'A Collection Of Great Dance Songs') in place of 'One Of These
Days'.
Have A Cigar (Waters) : A single in the US, Japan, Italy and
France.
Have You Got It Yet ? (Barrett) : Manic track invented to confuse
the rest of the group (see Miles).
Hero's Return, The (Waters) : This also appears on the b-side of
'Not Now John', as well as part two.
Household Objects (uncredited) : Unreleased recordings using
household implements. A section using wine glasses can be heard
at the beginning of 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'.
I Am Quite Comfortable (Gilmour, Waters) : Title of 'Comfortably
Numb' on an untitled bootleg of 'The Wall'.
If (Waters) : Single in the USA (b/w 'Fat Old Sun') and Holland
(b/w 'Arnold Layne').
Improvisation (Waters) : Generic title for 'Sheep' on the 'A
Mysterie Called Floyd' bootleg.
Improvisation (uncredited) : Generic title for 'Fingal's Cave' on
the 'Around The Mystic' bootleg (see TAPs 48 and 49).
In G (uncredited) : Alternative title for 'Reaction In G' [qv].
Instrumental (uncredited) : The 'Mystery Tracks' bootleg uses
this title for both 'Reaction In G' and 'One In A Million' [qv].
Inter Over (Barrett, Waters, Wright, Mason) : Title of
'Interstellar Overdrive' on the 'Big Pink' bootleg.
Interstellar Overdrive (Barrett, Waters, Wright, Mason) : The
version intended for 'Ummagumma' was pressed onto acetates and
given to band members and friends. John Peel had a copy which he
loved until it was stolen. Another version appears on a French
EP.
Intro (uncredited) : Generic title of the opening piece in the
'Live at Pompeii' film - which is different from that on the two
video re-releases. It has no official title but is clearly from
the 'DSotM' sessions, as is the video intro.
Is Anybody Out There ? (Waters) : The dialogue on this track is
from an episode of the US western 'Gunsmoke', called 'Fandango',
viz:
Marshall Dillon: Well, we've only about an hour of daylight left;
better get started.
Miss Tyson: Is it unsafe to travel at night ?
Dillon: It'll be a lot less safe to stay here; your
father's gonna pick up our trail before long.
Miss Tyson: Can Lorka ride?
Dillon: He'll hafta ride. Lorka! Time to go! Shangra,
thank you for everything. Let's go.
Miss Tyson: Goodbye, Shangra.
Shangra: Goodbye, missy.
Miss Tyson: I'll be back, one day.
Shangra: The bones have told Shangra.
Miss Tyson: Take care of yourself.
Shangra: Marshall, look after my missy.
David Gilmour alleges that Bob Ezrin wrote part of this track.
It's Green (Waters) : Title of 'Green is the Colour' on the label
of the 'Water's Gate' bootleg.
It Would Be So Nice (Wright) : Appears on the 'Masters of Rock'
LP.
Jugband Blues (Barrett) : Exists in three official versions: the
familiar UK stereo; the UK mono (on which the middle section has
slightly more guitar and no vocals over the brass band); and the
stereo mix from the Canadian 'A Nice Pair'.
Jupiter's Eye (uncredited) : An apparently unique instrumental
from the 'Around the Mystic' bootleg.
Just Another 12 Bar (uncredited) : A live blues recorded in 1970
for the ill-fated 'Live in Montreux' album (see TAP 6 of Best of
6-10).
Learning To Fly (Gilmour) : Believed to exist in an unreleased,
alternative version with robotic vocals and acoustic guitar.
Look At My Heart, Mother (Mason, Gilmour, Waters, Wright, Geesin)
: Title of 'Atom Heart Mother' on the label of the 'Water's Gate'
bootleg.
Main Theme (Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason) : The CD writing
credit omits Mason.
Matilda Mother (Barrett) : The lead vocals are shared by Wright
and Barrett.
Mexico '78 (Gilmour) : An instrumental from the 'La Carrera
Panamericana' film.
Money (Waters) : Not "their biggest US chart hit" (TAP 45).
Seven years after 'Money' made #13, 'Another Brick 2' reached #1.
'Money' also appeared on an Iranian EP with songs by Led Zep and
Chicago.
Nile Song, The (Waters) : Single in France (backed with 'Ibiza
Bar'), Japan (B/w 'Main Theme') and New Zealand (b-side unknown).
One Of These Days (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour) : A single in
Japan (b/w 'Seamus').
On The Turning Away (Gilmour, Moore) : Believed to exist in an
unreleased, alternative version with "slightly different words
and ghastly singing".
Opening Tune (uncredited) : Title given by bootleggers to 'Stoned
Alone' [qv] and 'Instrumental' [qv].
Overture (uncredited) : Piece (a la the reprise on 'Another Brick
s' live?) recorded for, but omitted from, 'The Wall' movie.
Overture for Comfortably Numb (uncredited) : An alternative title
or unreleased track from 'The Wall' sessions.
Pan Am Shuffle (Gilmour) : An instrumental featured twice in the
'La Carrera Panamericana' film.
Pigs (Three Different Ones) (Waters) : On a 33rpm, Brazilian
(CBS) promo 7".
Pink (uncredited) : An unreleased, early live piece.
Power Touch (Barrett, Waters, Wright, Mason) : Bootlegger's title
for 'Pow R Toc H'.
Prophet (uncredited) : An alternative title or unreleased track
from 'The Wall' sessions.
Round And Around (Gilmour) : Believed to exist in an unreleased
longer version (about five minutes).
Run Like Hell (Gilmour, Waters) : Reissued on a CBS 3" CD in
1989, coupled with 'Comfortably Numb'.
Run Like Fuck (Gilmour, Waters) : A title given to 'Run Like
Hell' by Waters at a performance of The Wall.
Run Very Fast (Gilmour, Waters) : Alternative title for 'Run Like
Hell' on an untitled bootleg of 'The Wall'.
Small Theme (Gilmour) : An instrumental from the 'La Carrera
Panamericana' film.
Sorrow (Gilmour) : Believed to exist as an unreleased
instrumental.
Synth Theme (uncredited) : An alternative title or unreleased
track from 'The Wall' sessions.
Time (Mason, Waters, Wright, Gilmour) : Russian flexi (with
'Money', 'On The Run' and a Russian song) and French promo 7"
(backed with 'Breathe'). The term "quiet desperation" is from
Henry David Thoreau's 'Walden, Or Life in the Woods', "his 1854
account of... living off the land as nature intended" (the
original line being "The mass of men lead lives of quiet
desperation").
Us and Them (Waters, Wright) : Also appears on a Russian flexi
with 'Shine On' and two Russian tracks.
Variation (Wright) : An early 'The Great Gig In The Sky' on the
'Beyond The Stars', 'Dark Side of the Moon' and 'Coming of
Kahoutek' bootlegs (all: Rainbow 17/2/72).
From TAP #56:
A Collection Of Great Dance Songs (An A-Z of Solo Tracks)
Against The Odds (Wright) : From 'Wet Dream'.
Wright: "There's a lot of things in the songs... questioning
where my roots are, where I want to live, whether I
should be in England. It's all about this place in
Greece. 'Against the Odds' is about this village where
I originally went on holiday and not it's my second home."
Ain't No Sunshine (Bill Withers) : Performed at soundchecks on
David Gilmour's 'About Face' tour.
All Lovers Are Deranged (Gilmour, Townshend) : From 'About Face',
sung by Gilmour. A US 12" promo single couples this with 'Blue
Light'.
Gilmour: "I call it my heavy metal track... Mick Ralphs likes
that one."
American Bomber, The(Waters) : An instrumental from 'When The
Wind Blows'. The Russian Missile [qv] and The British Submarine
[qv] use the same theme.
Anderson Shelter, The (Waters) : An instrumental from 'When The
Wind Blows'.
And The Address (Mason, Fenn) : An instrumental from 'Profiles'
and the b-side for 'Lie For A Lie'.
4.30 AM (Apparently They Were Travelling Abroad) (Waters) : From
'The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking' and the b-side of the 'Pros
and Cons' single.
Waters: "I've written an explanation of what (Pros and Cons) is
about, although it was quite clear to me what was going
on. The narrative is by no means linear, however."
4.37 AM (Arabs With Knives and West German Skies) (Waters) : From
'The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking'.
Waters: "(The album is) 40 minutes of waking and dreaming, based
initially on a dream that I had some time before: a
specific dream about travelling in Europe where the
spectre of the resurrection of Nazism came to me and all
kinds of things like that... but basically it was just a
record about sex."
Attack, The (Waters) : An instrumental from 'When The Wind
Blows'.
Waters: "I thought 'When The Wind Blows' was brilliantly written
and filled a hitherto empty slot in English literature."
At the End of the Day (Mason, Fenn) : An instrumental from
'Profiles'.
Mason: "There is one track where we actually ended up using an
old eight-track. I think it's 'At the End of the Day';
we used some really old tape, a sort of original demo of
it, because we couldn't quite recreate the feel on later
attempts."
Baby Lemonade (Barrett) : From 'Barrett', the Peel Sessions EP
and French promo LP 'A Good Harvest'. It was also played for a
Radio One 'Sounds of the Seventies' session, broadcast February
1971, with 'Dominoes', 'Terrapin' and 'Love Song'. The name
'Baby Lemonade' was subsequently adopted by a "Glasgow buzzsaw
guitar outfit"
Birdie Hop (Barrett) : From 'Opel'. The title is rumoured to
refer to UFO co-founder John 'Hoppy' Hopkins.
Black Ice (Mason, Fenn) : An instrumental from 'Profiles'.
Mason: "I made 'Fictitious Sports' more as an exercise.
There's more longevity in 'Profiles'... it's strong
enough to be accepted as a 'proper' record."
Blue Light (Gilmour) : From 'About Face'. Also released as a
single, with no success. A US single couples instrumental and
vocal remixes of the track, by Francois Kervorkian, who later
worked with Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk among others (see DG
interview, TAP 15).
Gilmour: "'Blue Light' is in fact two separate tracks recorded
at the same tempo. Afterwards, neither was interesting enough
individually, so we just hacked them up with a scissors, made up
a new drum part and for the bass player to redo his part. It was
hundreds of pieces of 2" tape just stuck together. Bob Ezrin
suggested putting the bass parts on them.
There wasn't going to be a solo; it was just going to be a
fade-out. I was finishing the vocals on the last day of
recording before we mixed. For the amusement of Bob Ezrin and
the engineer in the other room, I made a silly speech, and they
left the tape running after the vocals ended. So that's mixed in
there slightly. Bob said, 'Now that you've got that silly speech
on there, maybe we should stick a little guitar solo on the end'.
So I said okay. Then we thought, how can we do it ? We were in a
mixing room. We didn't have any amplifiers with us, so we just
plugged a Rockman into the mixer. Those Rockmans are great.
'Blue Light' is not the lyric I'm proudest of on this record.
It's a signal for danger: on top of police cars there's a blue
light... I can't really illuminate on the song. It's a double
meaning really: everything in the song pertains to either a
girlfriend or to our illustrious leader, Margaret Thatcher... but
only in a vague way... not particularly deep and meaningful, that
one."
Bob Dylan Blues (Barrett) : An unreleased song recorded in 1970.
The lyrics boast: "I've got the Bob Dylan Blues / I've got the
Bob Dylan Blues / My hair and my hat's in a mess / but I don't
give a damn about that."
Body Transport (Waters, Geesin) : Epic silliness from 'The Body'.
Boo To You Too (Carla Bley) : From 'Fictitious Sports' sung by
Robert Wyatt and chorus.
Mason: "What I obviously hope is that people who are interested
in the Floyd might give it a listen, simply on the
grounds that it's relevant to the band."
Boom Tune (Barrett) : It has been speculated that this may be an
alternative title for 'Here I Go' [qv], in view of the latter's
line, "What a boom this tune".
Joe Boyd: "I was looking for a follow-up to the Purple Gang's
'Granny Takes A Trip' single and so I asked Syd to
give me a tape of his songs. He had some really
cheerful, melodic, wonderful tunes; one of which was
'Boom Tune', which the Purple Gang were definitely
going to do. But somehow it never happened, and I
lost the tape."
Breathe (Waters) : From 'The Body' and the 'Harvest Sweeties'
promo album. The song may have inspired the track of the same
name on 'Dark Side Of The Moon'.
British Submarine, The (Waters) : An instrumental from 'When The
Wind Blows'.
By Touching (Wright, Harris) : From 'Identity', sung by Dave
Harris.
Wright: "I know the criticism of computers is that they take the
soul out of music, but I don't see it. Music is an
expression of something inside of you. It doesn't
matter whether you play it on a piano or program it into
a computer as long as the result - the song - is the way
you want it to be."
Can't Get My Motor To Start (Bley) : From 'Fictitious Sports'
sung by Karen Kraft with spoken contributions from the band and
guests.
Mason: "Carla knows that I've got a particular weakness for cars
- an obsession shared with Mike Mantler, her husband. We
spent an awful lot of time, when we should have been
recording or engineering, talking about cars, so I think
she felt that was extremely well-suited!"
Cat Cruise (Wright) : An instrumental from 'Wet Dream'.
Chain Of Life (Waters) : From 'The Body'.
Clowns And Jugglers (Barrett) : An alternative version of
'Octopus' [qv] from 'Opel'.
Malcolm Jones: "He called it 'Clowns And Jugglers' and decided
to call it 'Octopus' later. I'd have preferred
it to be called 'Clowns And Jugglers' actually; I
think it's a much nicer title."
Barrett:"I thought the Soft Machine (three of whom play on this
track - Eds) were good fun."
Confusion (Wright, Harris) : From 'Identity', sung by Dave
Harris. Released as a single, with an extended mix on the 12",
but without any commercial success, so a planned video for the
song was scrapped.
Cruise (Gilmour) : From 'About Face' and the b-side of the UK
'Blue Light' single.
Gilmour: "I can't feel it in me to commit myself to nuclear
disarmament, but there are specific aspects of the
(anti-nuke) campaign I'd agree with. One is not having
cruise missiles in our country and particularly not near
where I live! But it would be immoral to expect
America to retain nuclear weapons in order to protect
us when we don't keep them to protect ourselves. It's
a difficult question."
Cry From The Street (Gilmour, E. Stuart) : From 'David Gilmour',
sung by Dave.
Cuts Like A Diamond (Wright, Harris) : From 'Identity', sung by
Dave Harris.
Dark Globe (Barrett) : From 'The Madcap Laughs'. Another
version, titled 'Wouldn't You Miss Me' [qv], appears on 'Opel'...
and Roger Waters sings it in the bath.
Peter Jenner: "I think Syd was in good shape when he made
'Madcap'. He was still writing good songs,
probably in the same state as he was during
'Jugband Blues'."
Malcolm Jones: "I always liked this one, actually."
Deafinitely(Gilmour) : An instrumental from 'David Gilmour' and
the b-side of the 'There's No Way Out Of Here' single. The US CD
inexplicably adds "It's" to the title.
Gilmour: "The basic writing is, I think, quite good (on the
album). I'm very happy with all the stuff. I could
have spent a lot more time honing the ideas down and
making it a bit more compact... but I really wanted to
get in and do it fast. I was only three weeks
recording it and it does show a little bit."
The song also appears on a four-track promo sampler for the
'David Gilmour' LP, along with "Mihalis', 'Short And Sweet' and
'So Far Away'.
Deep In The Blues (uncredited) : Instrumental performed by
Gilmour at the 1984 Guitar Greats show. A song of this title has
been recorded by Count Basie; further details welcome!
Dolly Rocker (Barrett) : From 'Opel'.
Dominoes (Barrett) : From 'Barrett'.
Gilmour: "The song just ended after Syd had finished singing and
I wanted a gradual fade so I added that (end) section
myself. I played drums on that, by the way."
Jerry Shirley:"Dave was with Syd trying to get a lead guitar
track, but Syd couldn't play anything that made
sense. In a brain wave, Gilmour turned the tape
around and had Syd play guitar to the tracks
coming at him backwards... The backwards guitar
sounded great; the best lead he ever played. The
first time out and he didn't put a note wrong."
Do Ya? (Bley) : From 'Fictitious Sports', sung by Robert Wyatt.
Steve Kincaid (manager, Our Price Records, London: "The Nick
Mason (LP) sleeve looks like a Picasso painting
and... reflects the sort of music that it is."
Drop In From The Top (Wright) : An instrumental from 'Wet Dream'.
Wright: "Doing this album has helped me get back my creative
energies for the next Floyd thing."
A French promo 12" couples this with Gilmour's 'No Way'.
4.58 AM (Dunroamin, Duncarin, Dunlivin) (Waters) : From 'The Pros
and Cons of Hitch Hiking'. The song briefly uses the chord
sequence from 'In The Flesh'...
Waters: "Actually that tune's not from 'The Wall', it's from
'Pros and Cons'. When we were recording 'The Wall', I needed a
melody suddenly because it was developing as a theatrical idea.
I thought: hang on a minute, there's one in 'The Pros and Cons';
you could take it out of its quiet self and treat it very
monolithically and bombastically and it would sound completely
different and it might work. So I tried it and it did work in
its new context, but for me it never lost its identity as this
quiet, dreamy tune that was the beginning of 'Pros and Cons'.
"Actually, I make the reference later on, in the middle of side
two, at the end of 'Dunroamin, Duncarin, Dunlivin', when the
truck driver is throwing the hero out of his cab. I get the
orchestra to play it and it resolves to E minor, so we actually
do play it once like 'In The Flesh', which is just... a joke...
for people who remember 'The Wall'."
Effervescent Elephant (Barrett) : An alternative title for...
Effervescing Elephant (Barrett) : From 'Barrett' and the Peel
Sessions EP. Apparently one of the first songs Syd wrote, it was
played at his appearance with Gilmour and Jerry Shirley at
Olympia on June 6 1970; a set that also included Terrapin, Gigolo
Aunt and Octopus.
Barrett: "(Performing) would be nice. I used to enjoy it; it
was a gas. But so's doing nothing. It's art-school
laziness, really."
5.06 AM (Every Stranger's Eyes) (Waters) : From 'The Pros and
Cons of Hitch Hiking'. Released (and, apparently, simultaneously
deleted) as a single, the song later enjoyed more prolonged
exposure on the KAOS tour.
Mason: "He played the demo tracks for us and we thought it best
he record it as a solo album. I suppose if we'd said 'Oh
please, please Roger, can we record it?', we probably
would have, but it was something he had to get off his
chest and I'm glad he did, even if (the LP) hasn't been
commercially successful."
Cherry Vanilla, the song's "waitress" (and the hitch-hiker on
'Apparently They Were Travelling Abroad' [qv], is a self-styled
'rock chick' who has previously worked with Andy Warhol, Bowie
and Vangelis, releasing two LPs of her own in the late 70s, on
RCA.
Eyes Of A Gypsy(Harris) : From the 'Identity' tape, the b-side
of the 'Confusion' [qv] and, in a dub edit, the 12" edition of
the latter.
Wright: "Musically, Floyd and Fashion (Dave Harris' former
band - Eds) were at opposite ends of the spectrum and I
suppose it was a bit odd at first when Dave said he
could remember going to Mother's in Birmingham to see us
perform when he was fourteen; but, from the moment we
actually started working together, we realised just how
close we were."
Fallout, The (Waters) : An instrumental from 'When The Wind
Blows'.
Feel (Barrett) : From 'The Madcap Laughs'.
Gilmour: "It was like one side of the album was six months' work
and we did the other tracks in two and a half days.
The potential of some of those songs... they could have
really been fantastic."
Folded Flags (Waters) : From 'When The Wind Blows', sung by the
author and Clare Torry.
Waters: "One of the problems with the whole of the political
structure - and particularly that of North America, born out very
much by Reagan - is that people enter politics because they want
to be rock stars or, in Reagan's case, film stars. He never
managed it so he became the President of the United States
instead...
"He'll do anything for a pat on the back from the electorate
and, by god, it works. They love him. An extraordinary thing is
that surveys conducted in the States now show that they do, 'Oh
no, I didn't agree with his policies; the guy's obviously an
idiot... but I like him and I'm gonna vote for him'. Which is
what I call the soap opera of state. I don't know Reagan
personally; he may very well be a nice chap... but he's senile."
4.56 AM (For The First Time Today 1) (Waters) : From 'The Pros
and Cons of Hitch Hiking', sung by the author and Madeline Bell.
4.39 AM (For The First Time Today 2) (Waters) : From 'The Pros
and Cons of Hitch Hiking'. The two halves appear on the b-side
of 'Every Stranger's Eyes', in correct numerical order.
Four Minutes (Waters) : From 'Radio KAOS', sung by the author and
Clare Torry.
Waters: "I don't know if you've ever been on an aeroplane that
you think is going to crash... I have. You just go to
jelly... but you do get off it, thinking 'God, that's
the last time I'm ever getting on a bloody aeroplane'."
Funky Deux (Wright) : An instrumental from 'Wet Dream'.
Get Back To Radio (Waters) : The b-side of the original 'The Tide
Is Turning' single.
Waters: "It wasn't like I had an idea: 'Oh I know, I'll write
this piece about this spastic Welsh kid who gets moved halfway
across the globe by the market forces.' I decided the time had
come to start writing some new material and the first one was
'Get Back to Radio'. It just popped out and it went: 'Like an
ember glowing in the dark, I had almost grown cold; frozen like a
soldier standing at the flag-pole; Like a player they all said
was too old; I had been tempted to hand in my key'... that was
the first verse. 'But I am not alone; I feel that you are with
me; I'll not be a packet of crap on MTV; I am a man; I will not
be a number; Get back to radio.'
"It's not on the record although it's central to the theme...
and KAOS all developed out of that."
Gigolo Aunt (Barrett) : From 'Barrett' and the Peel Sessions EP.
Gilmour: "We had baed 'Wouldn't You Miss Me' [qv], appears on 'Opel'...
and Roger Waters sings it in the bath.
Peter Jenner: "I think Syd was in good shape when he made
'Madcap'. He was still writing good songs,
probabld was lying down some kind of track before and
then having
him play over it. The third was him putting his basic ideas down
with just guitar and vocals and then we'd try and make something
out of it all.
"It was mostly a case of me saying 'Well, what have you got
then, Syd ?' and he'd search around and eventually work something
out."
Give Birth To A Smile (Waters) : From 'The Body'; the only entry
in this A-Z on which more than three members of the Floyd appear.
It also featured Roger's first significant use of female
background singers.
4.50 AM (Go Fishing) (Waters) : From 'The Pros and Cons of Hitch
Hiking'.
Going To Live In LA (Waters) : The b-side of 'Radio Waves'.
Played on the KAOS tour and once considered for inclusion on
'Amused To Death'.
Waters: "I don't want them to sit and think about (KAOS) deeply,
unless they want to... If people care to read the
lyrics and look at the map and follow the story and work
it out, then all well and good.
"It can mean lots of different things to different people, but
when I make a record, what I'm interested in doing is
moving people in the way I've been moved by other
people's records - and it doesn't have to be because
there's some significant political or sociological
comment in it."
Golden Hair (Barrett, James Joyce) : From 'The Madcap Laughs',
'Opel' and the b-side of the 'Octopus' single. The latter also
includes an instrumental version of the song.
Barrett: "I've got books lying around at home: Shakespeare and
Chaucer, you know. But I don't really read a lot.
Maybe I should."
Here I Go (Barrett) : From 'The Madcap Laughs'.
Malcolm Jones: "He wrote it, I seem to recall, in a matter of
minutes. The whole recording was done absolutely live, with no
overdubs at all. Syd changed from playing rhythm to lead guitar
at the very end and the change is noticeable. Syd, however,
would change like that often... that accounts for the 'drop'
during the solo, as Syd's rhythm guitar is no longer there!"
Hilda's Dream(Waters) : An instrumental from 'When The Wind
Blows'.
Hilda's Hair (Waters) : An instrumental from 'When The Wind
Blows'.
Waters: "The one that is the most successful is the scene at the
end of the film, where they die; which was the thing I had most
trouble with... in terms of the score. In fact, I should credit
one of the keyboard players, Matt Irving, who, when I was
starting to think about it, said to me - a very penetrating
remark - 'Remember Spinal Tap?' I tried to remember Spinal Tap,
where the guy is sitting by the piano and saying, 'This is a
little tune... and it's a sad song, and it's in D-minor, the
saddest of all keys'. That was our starting point, that D-
minor... it's a strange piece."
Holiday (Wright) : From 'Wet Dream'.
Home (Waters) : From 'Radio KAOS'.
Waters: "There are a lot of different concerns on this record
but the main one is the automation of humans: a soldier who has
to press a button and send the bomb flying. It's a thoughtless
process and that's what frightens me, really.
"Ian Ritchie, who produced the record, is quite distressed that
I didn't call (KAOS) 'Home', which for a long time was the
working title, because one of the things that the record is about
is what home is. Is home keeping out of the weather? Being
reasonably well-fed? Being safe? Is home doing those things in
the context of the family? We all think we understand what we
mean by the idea of home. But is home the most important thing
to a human being in the sense of belonging to a certain thing or
person? Having that sense of security and the feeling you are
not going to be moved on or blown to pieces? The feeling that
you have the right to a continuous existence within the context
of the society to which you belong from the moment you are born
to the moment you die in order to arrange yourself into a good
shape to die in?
"I don't know..."
Hope (Gilmour, Harper) : From Harper's 'Whatever Happened to
Jugula' album (Gilmour is only credited on the CD version). The
music is based on a song co-written by Pete Townshend and Gilmour
for 'About Face', which was eventually released as the title
track of Pete's 'White City' [qv] project. Unlike 'Hope', 'White
City' features Gilmour on guitar, although the former does have a
creditable DG impersonation by Roy Harper's son!
Hot River (Bley) : From 'Fictitious Sports', sung by Robert Wyatt
and Karen Kraft. A clear-vinyl promo 12" couples this with
'Can't Get My Motor To Start'.
Mason: "Apart from being a fairly nonsensical song, it's really
a Pink Floyd pastiche - as you might guess, if you listen
closely. It has all my favourite cliches of the last 14
years as far as the drum track's concerned; Chris
(Spedding) doing a slightly Dave Gilmour-style guitar;
and a vocal track lifted straight off 'Dark Side Of The
Moon' - apart from where it disappears underwater.
How Do You Do It (Wright, Harris) : From 'Identity', sung by Dave
Harris.
I Can't Breathe Anymore (Gilmour) : From 'David Gilmour'. The
song was performed at London's Roxy for a 1978 CBS promo video,
along with 'There's No Way Out Of Here', 'So Far Away' and 'No
Way' (see Q&A, TAP 50).
I'm a Mineralist (Bley) : From 'Fictitious Sports', sung by
Robert Wyatt.
I Was Wrong (Bley) : From 'Fictitious Sports', sung by Robert
Wyatt.
Mason: "Originally, I had arranged to go to America and make an
album using all sorts of material, but then Carla sent me
a cassette with some of her ideas. It was very different
from what she had done before and absolutely in line with
what I like. So I thought it would be much better to do
that than to struggle desperately to find things that
work together."
If It's In You (Barrett) : From 'The Madcap Laughs'.
Israel (Fenn, Peyronel) : From 'Profiles', sung by Danny
Peyronel.
Rick Fenn: "There was a time when we were considering it as an
entirely instrumental album, but we had 'Lie For A
Lie', which we wanted to go on, so we felt it needed
another song to balance it out."
It Is Obvious (Barrett) : From 'Barrett'.
Gilmour:"We always felt that there was a talent there; it was
just a matter of trying to get it out onto record so
that people would hear it and, of course, Syd didn't
make it any easier for us... It was very, very
difficult; not really very rewarding."
Just Before You Disappear (Barrett) : From the Barrett bootleg
'Melk Weg' (Milky Way). Anyone know what it is? [A careful
review of the RoIO database's entry for 'Melk Weg' has failed to
turn up this title - so perhaps it's even more mysterious than
I'd initially suspected! - SF]
Lafayette Railroad (Little Feat) : A favourite of Gilmour's,
which he apparently often performs at soundchecks.
Lanky (Part One) (Barrett) : An instrumental from 'Opel'.
Gilmour: "I've listened to 'Opel' and there's nothing on there
that really illuminates very much or gives very much to
anyone. I didn't approve of it, personally, but it's
not my choice."
Lanky (Part Two) (Barrett) : The unreleased continuation of the
above, consisting of a seven-minute drum track.
Late Night (Barrett) : From 'The Madcap Laughs'.
Barrett: "I always write with guitar. I've got this big room
and I just go in and do the work. I like to do the
words and music simultaneously, so when I go into the
studio I've got the words on one side and my music on
the other. I suppose I could do with some practice."
Let's Get Metaphysical (Gilmour) : An instrumental from 'About
Face' and the b-side of the UK 'Love on the Air' single.
Metaphysics ("That which comes after physics") is the branch of
philosophy whose object is to determine the real, or true, nature
of things, although the title itself refers to 'Physical' by
Olivia Newton John, for whom Gilmour was often mistaken. [Eh ?
What ? - SF]
Gilmour: "I wrote out the chord structure and made a demo with a
guitar line on it and I also recorded various melody lines that
had come into my head. Michael Kamen, in arranging, used some of
my melody lines and some of the guitar lines and incorporated
them into the string parts. We had a click track and the strings
were recorded first. We then did the guitar promptly afterwards.
"There's nothing like the sound of a real orchestra standing in
the room. Having a whole orchestra playing something that you
wrote and standing in that room when they play it is magic."
Let's Split (Barrett) : From 'Opel'.
Lie For A Lie (Mason, Fenn, Peyronel) : From 'Profiles', sung by
Dave Gilmour and Maggie Reilly. Released as a single with an
extended 12" mix.
Mason: "I think the single is a _real_ single, but there's a
problem in getting radio play over here. Let's face it,
Radio One is the only station that counts, and they
already have enough pressure on their playlists with
_real_ acts, like McCartney and Duran Duran, without odd
spinoffs from ageing dinosaurs!"
Living Alone (Barrett) : An unreleased song recorded in 1970.
The tape is believed to be owned by Gilmour (as is 'Bob Dylan
Blues').
Long Gone (Barrett) : From 'The Madcap Laughs'.
Love On The Air (Gilmour, Townshend) : From 'About Face', sung by
Gilmour. It was also released as a single and played at the Deep
End gigs.
Gilmour: "I asked (Pete) for help because I was running short of
time and even shorter of inspiration... I was very pleasantly
surprised when I got the cassette back for 'Love On The Air'. I
liked where he had put the line and how he had done the vocal. I
had heard the vocal line in a completely different place and
deliberately sent Pete a tape with no melody on it. It was just
a completed backing track with no lines on it at all and no ideas
as to what I thought the lyrics should be. He didn't have any
restrictions. Of course, in some places, which I intended to be
instrumental, he put words on. 'All Lovers Are Deranged' was the
same situation, only I changed the placing of his melody and
lyrics a bit."
Love Song (Barrett) : From 'Barrett'.
Love You (Barrett) : From 'The Madcap Laughs' and the Harvest
retrospective, 'Art School Dancing: The Harvest Story Volume 1'.
Malcolm Jones: "Lack of adequate rehearsal gave the Softs'
performances a rather ragged aspect, for which I must take
responsibility... although I must add that over the years the
erratic quality of these tracks has been what has endeared them
to Barrett fans. I can't help feeling, though, that the Soft
Machine themselves were not very proud of their contributions!"
Mad Yannis Dance (Wright) : An instrumental from 'Wet Dream'.
Wright: "I think most people would have expected me to do a sort
of keyboard extravaganza, maybe similar to what I did on
'Ummagumma'. I decided not to do that because there was
something in me that I wanted to get out. Certainly, in
the future, I would like to experiment with keyboards on
an album."
Maisie (Barrett) : From 'Barrett'. The title may have been
inspired by either the series of 'Maisie' films from the 30s and
40s, or the 'Perishers' cartoon strip!
Malta (Mason, Fenn) : An instrumental from 'Profiles'.
From TAP #57:
A Collection Of Great Dance Songs (An A-Z of Solo Tracks)
Mediterranean C (Wright) : An instrumental from 'Wet Dream'. The
title, of course, is a dreadful pun on "Mediterranean Sea".
Me Or Him (Waters) : From Radio KAOS.
Waters: "Actually, 'Me Or Him' is rather a confused song, I
confess; it's describing more Ben and Billy... Benny and
Billy (laughs), sounds like the flowerpot men. Benny
represents the conscious self and the ego. He's really
angry and getting pissed, smashing windows, teetering
about on motorway footbridges... he's the blundering
half of these twins. Billy is the unconscious and
within him lies the true feelings and within these
feelings lies the power."
Mihalis (Gilmour) : Instrumental from 'David Gilmour'.
Gilmour: "'Mihalis' is the name of my boat... It's Greek for
Michael. That's what it was called when I got it and,
in Greece, they say it's bad luck to change it..."
Milky Way (Barrett) : From 'Opel'.
Malcolm Jones: "He is pretty together there, isn't he?"
Molly's Song (Waters) : From the 'KAOS' project; sung live by
Doreen Chanter. At one point mooted for inclusion on 'Amused To
Death', it has so far only appeared on the b-side of the 'Who
Needs Information' US single (Details welcome - Eds).
5.11 AM (Moment of Clarity, The) (Waters) : From 'The Pros and
Cons of Hitch Hiking'.
Waters: "Certainly, it's partly about bad relationships with
women - it's also about good relationships with women.
That is the point of the whole thing and how it finishes
up is how I've finished up now: feeling good... but in
the past I've had bad times. I mean, however good a
relationship is, it's bound to feel bad some of the
time, unless you're very comfortably numb, or very
numbly comfortable."
Mumbo Jumbo (Mason, Fenn) : An instrumental from 'Profiles' and
the 'Lie For A Lie' 12" single.
Murder (Gilmour) : From 'About Face'. Performed at the Guitar
Greats show in 1984.
Gilmour: "It's just a frustrated rage when people commit
senseless acts like murder. Stealing someone else's
life away makes me very angry. For example, when John
Lennon got killed, I got incredibly angry. I still
feel it sometimes: the cunt! Why did he do that ?"
Near The End (Gilmour) : From 'About Face' and the b-side of the
US 'Love on the Air' single.
Gilmour: "'Near The End' is about being near the end of anything
you like, really; about life I suppose is what it is. Each of
the verses has a sort of double thing to it. The first verse is
like talking to the person who's listening to the record; 'Will
you just turn it over and start again?' means 'Will you just turn
the record over and play it again?'...
"The second one is about a girlfriend... the end of a
relationship, and the third one is about the end of your own
life, really: 'What once burned so bright is growing dim' is your
own life spark, I suppose.
"Everyone has a paranoia about getting old. No-one wants to
die. A lot of people say that I'm wrong... but I never believe
them.."
No Good Trying (Barrett) : From 'The Madcap Laughs'.
Malcolm Jones: "[This] was positively impossible! Syd had,
before the session, taken copy tapes... which I
presumed were to give to the musicians he was
booking to learn... I was wrong; he kept them!"
No Man's Land (Barrett) : From 'The Madcap Laughs'.
No Way (Gilmour) : From 'David Gilmour'. Yes way!
Octopus (Barrett) : From 'The Madcap Laughs' and released as a
single (just before the album), in December '69. The song also
appears on the 'Harvest Sweeties' promo LP and an earlier
version, entitled 'Clowns And Jugglers' [qv], appears on 'Opel'.
Old Faces (Gilmour, Roy Harper) : From Roy's 'The Unknown
Soldier' LP. Guitar on the track, which is very reminiscent of
'More', could be Dave.
Opel (Barrett) : From 'Opel'.
Waters: "What was so stunning about Syd's songs was, through the
whimsy and the crazy juxtaposition of ideas and words,
there was a very powerful grasp of humanity. They were
quintessentially human songs and that it what I've
always attempted to aspire to. In that sense, I feel a
strong connection to him."
Our Song (Waters, Geesin) : From 'The Body', rendered by the
authors.
Out Of The Blue (Gilmour) : From 'About Face'. Performed on the
'About Face' tour, the song also featured in Gilmour's set at the
1986 Columbian Earthquake gig.
Gilmour: "At some times I'm dealing with fairly depressing
topics, but, at the same time, my idea is the music
will be uplifting."
Peter Gunn (Henry Mancini) : Performed at soundchecks on Dave
Gilmour's 'About Face' tour.
Pink's Song (Wright, Juliette Wright) : From 'Wet Dream', sung by
Rick. The track is about neither Syd nor Floyd, but a tutor of
Rick's children. [That's why it's called "Pink's Song", eh? -
SF] The lyrics are by Rick's wife Juliette who, as Juliette Gale,
sang with Floyd forerunners the Abdabs/Sigma 6.
Playing Games (Gilmour, Roy Harper) : From Roy's 'The Unknown
Soldier' LP. The track features slide guitar which may or may
not be Mr. Gilmour's work.
Powers That Be (Waters) : From 'Radio KAOS', sung by the author
and Paul Carrack.
Waters: "This generation of Reaganite teenagers who are
rock'n'roll fans - what can you say? It upsets me that any
young, or old, people feel like that. That they can be conned
into thinking the bombing of Tripoli is a good thing. You only
have to look at it rationally for a minute-and-a-half to realise
that it did nobody any good at all except possibly Reagan. I
feel huge anger at the perpetration of such a monstrous piece of
terrorism purporting to be anti-terrorist. It's such
doublethink. Real George Orwell."
Private Person (Wright, Harris) : From 'Identity', sung by Dave
Harris.
Wright: "I'm not interested in electronics for (their own) sake;
if you turn this knob you get this sound - why it
happens I don't know."
Profiles 1-3 (Mason, Fenn) : Three instrumentals, on which the
score for the 'Life Could Be A Dream' film was based, from
'Profiles'.
Mason: "I've certainly enjoyed working with Rick... I think it's
useful and important to change the people you work with.
You get so stuck in certain patterns. You know: Roger
will do this and Dave will do that and... well, you can
go and make the tea, Nick!"
5.01 AM (Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, The) (Waters) : From 'The
Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking'. Released as a single, it "died a
horrible death", although Waters did consider a remixed version
to coincide with his second Hitch Hike around the US in 1985.
Waters: "Some of the ideas have come from my own dreams and also
there are bits and pieces of other people's dreams. In fact, the
third verse of the album's title track talks about standing on
the wing of an aeroplane, looking down at the Eastern Seaboard of
the United States and Yoko Ono being there, and telling me to
jump; that everybody's got to die some time and the manly thing
to do is to end it all now.
"That dream belongs to Andy Newmark, the drummer. He came in
one day and over lunch in the pub he told me about this dream and
I thought: 'That's a good dream, I'll try and fit that in
somewhere'. So I did."
Radio Waves (Waters) : The first single from 'Radio KAOS'. The
edited, 7" version and an extended remix both appear on the 12"
and CD singles. The track also appears on the 'Radio KAOS' video
EP, with 'Sunset Strip', 'Four Minutes' and 'The Tide Is
Turning'. This version is slightly different to the promo video
for the single.
Waters: "The lyrics are clearly ironic: 'AM, FM, weather and
news, our leaders had a frank exchange of views'; but
there was no irony intended in the music."
Raise My Rent (Gilmour) : An instrumental from 'David Gilmour'.
Gilmour: "Favourite guitar solos? I like what I did on 'Raise
My Rent'. That was sort of an excuse to go on a
twelve-bar blues."
Rats (Barrett) : From 'Barrett'.
Jerry Shirley said: "'Rats' in particular was really odd. That
was just a very crazed jam and Syd had this lyric
that he just shouted over the top..."
Barrett: "I don't buy many records... there's so much around
that you don't know what to listen to. All I've got at
home is Bo Diddley, some Stones and Beatles stuff and
old jazz records..."
4.47 AM (Remains of Our Love, The) (Waters) : From 'The Pros and
Cons of Hitch Hiking'.
Waters: "(The album) was a tribute to Bob Dylan's 'Sad-Eyed Lady
of the Lowlands'. I thought having one song through a
whole side of an album was terrific. It goes on and on
and on in a fairly quiet and boring way. I still like
some of it a lot. It's very easy in rock'n'roll to get
sucked into the idea that everything has got to be
accessible."
Rhamadan (Barrett) : An unreleased song, recorded in 1968.
Malcolm Jones: "This was a long, boring track, lasting about
eighteen minutes, which Syd (or at least, I have always
presumed it was his playing) had made... It featured
several conga drum overdubs, with no apparent theme or
direction."
Rhoda (Mason, Fenn) : An instrumental from 'Profiles'.
Rick Fenn: "We both write the pieces, but I suppose, because I
play the more melodic instruments, I possibly come up
with more thematically. Basically, we just toss
it all around together."
Rooftop In A Thunderstorm Row Missing The Point (presumably by
Barrett) : A poem published in Sydzine Terrapin [issue 9 - SF]
and an Italian book. The existence of a track of the same name
has been neither confirmed nor even rumoured.
Rooftop Song, The (Barrett) : An alternative title for the above.
4.33 AM (Running Shoes) (Waters) : From 'The Pros and Cons of
Hitch Hiking' and the 12" of the 'Pros and Cons' single. Live on
the 'Pros and Cons' tour, the song included a third verse:
"Ooh babe, where have you been?
Fragrant the feel and the flavour
of dark teenage skin
?Like the river's been rushing the?
I said when you go over
I wanna go back there again
Oh baby, sweet Fassbinder baby"
Russian Missile, The (Waters) : An instrumental from 'When The
Wind Blows'.
Sea Shell and Soft Stone (Waters, Geesin) : From 'The Body'.
Geesin: "I was getting on well with Roger as a human... I asked
him if he would like to join me. I dashed forth with me
goods and Roger did four songs. I actually did all the
fill-in bits, funny spluttering noises, then classical
cello and guitars; the strain nearly exploded my mind -
maybe it did explode my mind, but we did it."
Sea Shell and Stone (Waters) : A pretty ditty from 'The Body'.
Seems We Were Dreaming (Wright, Harris) : From 'Identity', sung
by Dave Harris.
4.41 AM (Sexual Revolution) (Waters) : From 'The Pros and Cons of
Hitch Hiking'.
Waters: "One of the great paradoxes of the design of human
beings is the disparity between the hopes and aspirations of men
and women... presumably based on the separate biological
functions in terms of human survival: that man has been designed
to go out and screw everything he can in order to populate the
world and that we should multiply and spread.
"It appears, from my limited experience, that, by and large,
women are far more interested in providing a safe place within
which to read children and, if possible, keep the hunter there,
hunting for them; which may all be very simplistic and I'm sure
that I shall be attacked by all kinds of women and probably men
too, all over the world, but... so what.
"Eating and sleeping and 'effing' are like 'it', really, at the
fundamental level. All the other intellectual, sociological,
anthropological, historical, der-der-der stuff is very
Interesting! and Exciting! and can be Elevating! and Challenging!
and all those things. But compared with making love, it's small
time."
Sh'boom (unknown) : From Nick Mason's 1984 'Life Could Be A
Dream' film, which takes its title from the song's lyric.
Originally a hit for the Crew Cuts in 1954, this version - by
Mason and Fenn - features 10cc's Eric Stewart on vocals.
She Was A Millionaire (Barrett) : Another unreleased version of a
song Syd had first recorded with Pink Floyd (see TAP's A-Z, issue
50). This one is believed to have been attempted during Syd's
penultimate set of sessions in June 1970. However, neither this
nor the Floyd's version has been released, officially or
otherwise.
Barrett: "Piper at the Gates of Dawn? That was very difficult in
some ways, getting used to the studios and everything.
But it was fun; we freaked about a lot. I was working
very hard then; there's still lots of stuff lying
around from then, even some of the stuff on Madcap."
She Took A Long Cold Look (Barrett) : From 'The Madcap Laughs'.
Gilmour: "I did those albums because I liked the songs; not, as
I suppose some might think, because I felt guilty
taking his place... I was concerned that he wouldn't
completely fall apart. The final remix of 'Madcap' was
all mine as well."
Short And Sweet (Gilmour, Roy Harper) : From 'David Gilmour'. An
earlier version appears on Roy's 'The Unknown Soldier'. A
Gilmour-free version in on Roy's 'Between Every Line' album, due
on CD from Awareness this year.
Roy Harper: "This is a celebration of life - the quality - on
whatever level..."
Gilmour: "(Roy's) one of those people who never wants to
compromise anything. He often takes things a lot further than I
personally would, in the way he performs, but I like it. I like
and admire the way he does things: his courage, getting up there
and doing it that way... his honesty and openness in the way he
puts over his own life on stage. I think he's very much more
talented than a lot of people who've been more successful than he
has; maybe because people are frightened of that sort of honesty
he puts over. I think it scares a lot of people off."
Siam (Bley) : From 'Fictitious Sports', sung by Robert Wyatt.
Mason: "(Siam) is sort of new wave 'King and I'."
So Far Away (Gilmour) : From 'David Gilmour'.
Gilmour: "That's a short moment in my life when I felt pretty
desperate... I had doubts as to whether or not to put it on, to
use it, because it felt a little too close to me, too personal
and that's a nervy thing to do. That's one of the things I find
it hard to do. But I've worked with other people and they've
played my their demo songs and there's been one or two of these
songs that have been like that - very close, personal - and I
say, 'No, I can't do it'. We haven't done it and the whole album
at the end has felt to me like they left something out that they
should have put in there. It's not anything for them to worry
about and no-one else is going to think the worse of you for it.
"John Lennon's a great example of someone who DOES do it and
Paul McCartney is a great example of someone who doesn't
(laughs). Paul McCartney always seemed... frightened of exactly
that, of letting anything of his true self out, which is a shame
because there probably is a true self in there somewhere." [Based
on Paul's two recent live albums, I'd say the problem is well
under control. Maybe Gilmour should take his own advice ? - SF]
Strange Rhythm (Wright, Harris) : From 'Identity', sung by Dave
Harris.
Wright: "The great thing about the Fairlight is that every time
you go back you learn something else. We had to get
control over it though, because it would have been very
easy just to have ended up making funny noises. We
spent several weeks sequencing and scripting everything,
but it was all worth it in the end."
Summer Elegy (Wright) : An instrumental from 'Wet Dream'.
Wright: "There is a lot of stuff that I do reject, not for
myself, but for the band... there are lots of things in
the Pink Floyd's music that I don't like - and I don't
like them because there's four of us doing them. It's a
compromise. Obviously, I do like a lot of the stuff
we're doing or I wouldn't be in the band."
Sunset Strip (Waters) : From 'Radio KAOS'. Released as a single
in Europe.
Waters: "I accidently tuned into FM radio station KMET. They
had this bizarre spot called The Fish Report which was a
strange, fanciful and very surreal sports fishing report
about the beaches in and around LA. It was complete
gibberish from the beginning to end: real Monty Python.
It made me realise my superior European overview of this
culture was quite wrong."
Swan Lee (Silas Lang) (Barrett) : From 'Opel'.
Peter Jenner: "I only did a couple of sessions (in 1968): it was
reasonably together in a fairly wacky way - at least there
were songs and things."
Terrapin (Barrett) : Originally from 'The Madcap Laughs', this
reappeared on the Peel Sessions EP, of which Strange Fruit's
Clive Selwood said: "It was difficult to find Syd, but once I'd
found his brother, who handles his business, that was fine... We
also had to have the approval - as we always do - of the other
musicians involved. We had to track down Jerry Shirley, who was
then working with the new version of Badfinger in the States, and
also ask Dave Gilmour. I understand that Syd himself is alive
and quite well, has a happy life, spends a lot of time working in
the garden and has a decent income from his songwriting
royalties. So he's probably got a better life than any of us!"
Of the five songs that Syd performed on the session, only
'Terrapin' came from the album that he was presumably supposed to
be promoting. The LP version is also on 'Picnic' and the BBC
version reappeared on the compilations 'Before the Fall' (UK) and
'Best of Peel Sessions Par Bernard Lenoir' (France).
There's No Way Out Of Here (Baker) : From (and sung by) 'David
Gilmour'. Told "It's hard to get a handle on what the instrument
really is" at the start, Dave replied: "Good. That was the
intention (laughs). It's a fuzz-tone-distorted guitar double-
tracked with a harmonica." An edited version was released as a
single, with no commercial success.
Gilmour: "Ken Baker is in a group called Unicorn that I produced
a couple albums for... It was a track on one of their
albums ['Too Many Crooks'] that I found suited my mood
when I was making my album; we tried it out and it
worked well."
Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid), The (Waters) : From 'Radio
KAOS', sung by the author and the Ponterdulais Male Voice Choir.
Also on 'The Wall Live in Berlin', sung by all and sundry. Both
versions were released as singles, the former with more success
than the latter.
Gilmour: "I listened to one side of it (KAOS), the first side,
then I heard 'The Tide Is Turning', which I liked, on
the radio. I haven't listened to the other side.
"It's not really to my taste, most of it. It's all
done with machines, too disco-ey for me. But I'm
obviously biased. You shouldn't really as me about it."
Waters: "Between Ian Ritchie and myself, we really fucked that
record up. We tried too hard to make it sound modern.
Also the part where Billy pretends that he's just
started the third world war I now find faintly
embarrassing, and I dislike the backing vocals on 'The
Tide Is Turning'."
Towers Of Faith (Waters) : From 'When The Wind Blows', sung by
the author and Clare Torry.
Waters: "(Clare is) just... magical."
True Story (Nick Laird-Clowes, Gilmour) : From The Dream
Academy's 'A Different Kind Of Weather' album, featuring Dave on
vocals, guitar and bass synth (see review, TAP 48). Renamed
'Angel of Mercy', the song was released as a single in August
1991, and reviewed by 808 State's Martin Price: "As soon as that
came on I thought it sounded like Pink Floyd and sure enough Dave
Gilmour has produced it". The six-minutes '12/8' mix of the
single adds only a backwards-tape intro and drum machine solo.
Two Of A Kind (disputed credit) : From the Peel Sessions EP,
officially credited to Syd Barrett but more likely to be the work
of Rick Wright (see Q&A, TAP 50).
Until We Sleep (Gilmour) : From 'About Face'.
Gilmour: "On the demos for the album, I played fretless bass
myself on all the songs because I like the sound and I
can play it enough to do demos... There is a Fairlight
synthesizer doing the bass part on 'Until We Sleep' but
other than that, it's all fretless."
Untitled (Barrett) : Probably an alternative title for 'Let's
Split' [qv], recorded in 1970.
Voices (Wright, Harris) : From 'Identity', sung by Dave Harris.
Wright: "Obviously, we hope to be successful, sell a few records
and go on the road..."
Waiting For The Drummer (uncredited) : A one-off, light-hearted
jam on the KAOS tour.
Waves (Wright) : An instrumental from 'Wet Dream'.
Wright: "I wanted to feature saxophone on this album because I
played the saxophone myself for a bit, but not successfully. The
music I first listened to that made me decide that I wanted to be
a musician was back in the days of Coltrane, Miles Davis and Eric
Dolphy. If you like, they are my heroes, funnily enough, and not
keyboard players.
"I liked the sound of the sax that the Floyd had, so obviously
I tried to get that kind of sound. I originally wrote 'Waves'
for the saxophone, and he (Mel Collins) played it so well that I
brought him onto another couple of tracks."
Waving My Arms In The Air / I Never Lied To You (Barrett) : From
'Barrett'.
Barrett: "I have lots of undeveloped things lying around. I'm
still basically like I've always been - sitting around
with an acoustic getting it done. I never get worried
about my writing."
Wervin' (Bley) : From 'Fictitious Sports', sung by Robert Wyatt.
Mason: "I don't feel that I'd like Pink Floyd to suddenly adopt
a rather jazzy style - it's just something I'd like to
investigate with some other musicians."
What's The New Mary Jane (Lennon) : A cacophonous Beatles outtake
reputed (by entrepreneurial bootleggers) to feature Barrett.
There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that this is so (see
the Beatles special, TAP 49).
White City (Townshend, Gilmour) : The title track of Pete
Townshend's 1985 video and album. The music developed from
Gilmour's contribution to Roy Harper's 'Hope' [qv].
Who Needs Information (Waters) : From 'Radio KAOS'; also released
as a single in the US.
Waters: "That's about the tabloid press and how they have ceased
to be about the dissemination of news information;
particularly the Murdoch press in England - newspapers
like The Sun and The Mirror. All you get is gossip,
tits and ass."
Wined And Dined (Barrett) : From 'Barrett' and 'Opel'.
Gilmour: "He would never do those songs twice the same, ever.
He'd change the chords and his way of singing them and
everything... extraordinary. But it would take forever with him,
because he just wouldn't do it the same twice, so he kept getting
it wrong. So you'd be lifting vocal lines off and moving them to
a different place on the tape and stuff. Just the method of
working was so difficult... and I don't think he had as many
good songs as we had for 'The Madcap Laughs'."
Wolfpack (Barrett) : Reputedly Syd's favourite track from
'Barrett'.
Barrett: "(The songs) have got to reach a certain standard and
that's probably reached in 'Madcap' once or twice and
on the other one only a little - just an echo of that.
Neither of them are much more than that."
Womb Bit, The (Waters, Geesin) : An instrumental from 'The Body'.
Word Song (Barrett) : From 'Opel'. Also known as 'Untitled
Words' or simply 'Words'.
Barrett: "It would be terrific to do much more mood stuff.
They're very pure, the words... I feel I'm
jabbering."
Wouldn't You Miss Me (Barrett) : An alternative version of 'Dark
Globe' [qv], from 'Opel'. A US promo 12" features this song on
both sides.
Waters: "If our hobby is to be interested in... whether Syd did
this or did that, or what colour shoes he wore on March 18th 1967
or whatever, who am I to say that's obsessive? Some people
collect stamps! It's better than watching Ninja Turtles on TV,
in my view. Being a Syd Barrett fan seems to me to be a
perfectly legitimate and reasonable way of spending your spare
time.
"He was a very interesting man. He wrote some fantastic songs.
There's a body of work; unfortunately it is complete. There
won't be any more, I don't think. He was a visionary, he was an
extraordinary musician, he started Pink Floyd... well, Syd and I
started the band together but if he hadn't been there, nothing
would have happened. I'd be working for an architect... I might
be my own boss by now - I probably would - but I would not be
doing the work that I'm doing, I don't think. He was the key
that unlocked the door to rock'n'roll for me."
You (The Game part II) (Gilmour, Roy Harper) : From Roy's 'The
Unknown Soldier' LP, with Dave on guitar and Kate Bush on vocals.
The track is a sequel to the Gilmour-starred 'The Game (parts 1-
5)' on Roy's 'HQ' album.
You Know I'm Right (Gilmour) : From 'About Face'. Performed on
the 'About Face' tour, the song was revived for Gilmour's cameos
at the Columbian Earthquake gig in 1986 and the Guitar Greats
concert in 1984.
Gilmour: "When I'd been in doing the original sessions, I had
the musicians booked for two weeks and we'd run out of stuff to
do after eight or nine days 'cause we'd cut it quicker than I
thought we would. You have to pay them for the time and I didn't
want to let them go away and keep all that money without me
having had them work.
"I was trying desperately to think of new tracks and things to
do, so I was running through this cassette and I picked out two
bits. It was the first bit and the sort of third bit, and I
quickly wrote another little bit to put in the middle. This is
in the morning at the studio before the others got there. When
they came in, I said, 'I've got another track to do', and that
was literally written, put together, as a track.
"I never demoed that one, which was one thing that was nice
about it. The feel of it is very nice, 'cause they weren't
trying to copy or emulate a thing that they'd already heard me
do."
Zip Code (Mason, Fenn) : An instrumental from 'Profiles'.
Mason: "If you think I'm going to get Phil Collins in just so I
can ponce about the front of the stage with a tambourine,
you're very much mistaken!"
From TAP #60:
A Collection Of Great Dance Songs (An A-Z of Pink Floyd Songs)
Another Brick in the Wall 2 (Waters) : Reissued on CD in
Columbia's Hall of Fame series in 1988, coupled with, as on the
'79 single, One Of My Turns. Appears on a Mexican 7" EP (with
The Happiest Days..., Stop, The Trial and Outside The Wall) and
Columbia double promo LP Hitline '80!
Another Brick in the Wall 3 (Waters) :
Waters: "That's the moment of catharsis. (Gleefully) Isn't that
where we break the TV sets?"
The Ballad Of Bill Hubbard (Waters) :
Jeff Beck: "I didn't know what the hell the album was about. He
did explain it to me, but I wasn't really listening. Anyway,
they flew the tapes in and Roger had said to Pat, 'Hit Jeff with
some chords that sound a bit ethereal.' Well, we just blazed
away for about fifteen minutes, had a cup of coffee and went
home. Forgot all about it. Next thing, it wound up as the lead
track..."
Brain Damage (Waters) : An early studio version (circa June 1972)
appears on the 'From The Other Side' bootleg CD.
Waters: "The grass mentioned in Brain Damage is the lawn behind
King's College Chapel (Cambridge). We did a May Ball there...
Went down quite well, everyone was so pissed."
Bring The Boys Back Home (Waters) : Movie version reappears on
Four Temas De Film: a 7" EP from CBS Brazil.
Waters: "This piece... developed a whole new life in Berlin.
That was pretty moving stuff, when there was this big Russian
marching band on stage and the big choir and the orchestra all
sawing away behind the wall and these huge projected images of
people of different nationalities, in different wars over the
years...
"Yeah, Bring The Boys Back Home. Not a bad idea. Still not a
bad idea. What are they doing out there? If we didn't all sell
Saddam Hussein arms, he couldn't invade Kuwait anyway. What's he
going to do it with? Scimitars and camels?"
Comfortably Numb (Gilmour, Waters) :
Gilmour: "We argued over Comfortably Numb like mad. Really had
a big fight; went on for ages. We recorded two versions..
"These things that seemed so important at the time, I can
hardly remember why one thought they were (laughs). I doubt if I
could even tell the difference these days. They were exactly the
same tempo; one was just a little looser - I'd call it a sloppier
version myself and I liked it slightly tighter..."
Waters: "...So when Ezrin and I went off to do vocal parts, Dave
spent a week recording the track... It came over on the 24-track
tape and Ezrin and I were both really expecting it to be great...
and we put it on and looked at each other and (yawns)... because
it was just awful - it was stilted and stiff and it lost all the
passion and life the original had.
"That became a real fight. It's most interesting that Ezrin
completely agreed with me. But Dave obviously felt very, very
strongly about it, and we ended up using the intro from the old
one, the first few bars from the new one. That's all we could do
without somebody 'winning' and somebody 'losing'... of course,
who lost, if you like, was the band, because it was clear... we
didn't feel the same way about music."
Gilmour: "While we were making The Wall, it seemed inevitable to
me that he would leave. I said to myself, 'There is really
little chance that we will stay together'."
Ezrin: "I fought for the introduction of the orchestra on The
Wall: the expansion of the Floyd's sound to something that was
more... 'filmic' is the word. This became a big issue on
Comfortably Numb, which Dave saw as a more bare-bones track, with
just bass, drums and guitar. Roger sided with me. So [the song]
is a true collaboration: David's music, Roger's lyric and my
orchestral chart."
Gilmour: "Roger and I had a real shouting match at this Italian
restaurant in North Hollywood. We'd gone there with Bob Ezrin to
have it out over something... probably Comfortably Numb, because
the only thing I'd really argue with Roger over was my own music;
with his music, I wouldn't bother to argue."
A 2 1/2 minute extract of Gilmour's demo for the track, from the
'David Gilmour' sessions, was played during his Radio One
appearance on 28/7/92.
Gilmour: "This was just something I wrote and plonked down on a
high-strung guitar one afternoon...
"The only thing that changed was that the verses I put it...
weren't quite long enough to take the phrase 'I have become
comfortably numb' and Roger said, Listen, I want to put one more
phrase in. Can we lengthen the verse by these few bars?"
In 'Scarfe on Scarfe', the cartoonist says: "As a child, I [had]
the most horrific nightmares... one recurring dream [was that] my
hands seemed to grow larger and larger, like giant balloons."
Waters, who knew Scarfe before The Wall, may have used this as
inspiration for the first chorus.
Waters: "I was in Philadelphia; I had terrible stomach pains...
I can't remember exactly when it was, but this idiot said, Oh, I
can deal with that, and gave me an injection of some kind. God
knows what it was, but I went (sound of hitting floor).
"That's not really what it's about, though. The song is
actually about the kind of living death condition that a lot of
people find themselves in when life seems unreal to them and they
can't work out why.
"I remember having a fever when I was a child and
characterising the recurrent feeling of numbness... it's not
numbness exactly. The thing about that delirium is that you
can't put your finger on it... you cannot describe the feeling
using words. It's a feeling that I think you get when you're
going crazy, probably: that everything suddenly is wrong.
"'My hands felt like two balloons': that doesn't adequately
describe the feeling of everything being too big or too small or
too... something. Everything is wrong...
"For Syd, it must have felt very like that... Apart from the
tangible, explainable manifestations of schizophrenia, like
hearing voices and all that stuff... there's the discomfort of
everything not being right. It must be almost beyond bearing..."
Ezrin: "When it came time to do the scenes like kicking the door
down to get Pink out of his hotel room, we literally kicked the
door in at one of the studios. We said: 'Is it OK? May we kick
your door in? We'll replace it.' They said 'Sure, fine', so we
kicked the door in."
Corporal Clegg (Waters) : The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film
(Plexus, 1983) claims that Captain Clegg, from Hammer's 1962 film
'Night Creatures', aka 'Captain Clegg', inspired this track.
Dogs (Waters, Gilmour) :
Gilmour: "I did one or two very nice, slightly different, guitar
solos on it that I was quite pleased with... Three-part, in some
cases; it's two-part in the melody sections, but the last line of
the first solo, I believe, is a three-part descending augmented
chord. Which is quite nice and I was very proud of it; I thought
it was very clever. Then Roger went and wiped it out, but
mistake, and I had to re-create it."
Don't Leave Me Now (Waters) :
Waters: "This isn't a confessional! I'm not going through kinda
'Ladies of the Canyon' (Joni Mitchell - Eds) mode... I pick and
choose from my experience... and if the songs are unnerving or
moving or whatever, great... I've done my job properly.
"However, I have been left, right; that bit I absolutely own up
to. So the anguish in Don't Leave Me Now is mine."
Gilmour: "My view of [The Wall] is more jaundiced today than it
was then. It appears now to be a catalogue of people Roger
blames for his own failings in life; a list of 'you fucked me up
this way, you fucked me up that way'."
Ecclesiastes (Wright) : Great Gig retitled on live '72 War In The
Head bootleg.
Fallen Angel (Waters) : The prototype for What God Wants (see TAP
58).
Fearless (Waters, Gilmour) :
Waters: "What's interesting about it, for me, is that it's
interesting musically: (hums riff). Funnily enough, that was a
tuning that Syd showed me. It's a really beautiful open G
tuning, for anybody who wants to tune their guitar: G-G-D-G-B-B."
Flaming (Barrett) : Warbling this on French TV's 'Tous en Scene'
(November 26, '68; repeated March '91), DG switched lines from
the second and third verses, then changed the final lines from
"Yippie, you can't see me, but I can see you" to "Hey-ho, here we
go, ever so high". Also performed by "Les Pink Floyds" (sic) for
this show were Let There Be More Light and Point Me At The Sky.
[Anyone who owns a copy of this (any format) is invited to
contact me. - SF]
Flight From Reality(Waters) : In late '75, Waters told Rock &
Folk, "I'm working on another piece, Flight From Reality, which
is very strange." It is not referred to anywhere else.
Golden Hair (Barrett, James Joyce) : Our entry for this in TAP 56
gave the impression that an instrumental take appears on the
Octopus single, when it in fact appears on the Opel album.
Have A Cigar (Waters) : Appears on the Columbia double promo LP
The Heavyweights.
Hey You (Waters) : "To say this was not played 'live' (TAP 55) is
ludicrous. Aside from the differences in performances, there is
the rehearsal tape (see TAP 38) where it's obviously live."
(Stuart Petty)
Waters: "Suddenly there's all this music and you can see lights
going on behind it, but you can't see what's happening.
That's what was good about it, in the show."
Gilmour: "Did I play the fretless bass on Hey You? Yeah. Roger
playing fretless bass? Please!"
Home (Waters) :
Waters: "I should never have made [Radio KAOS]. I love some of
the songs; Home is one of the best things I've ever written. The
Powers That Be is great. And it comes out icky-prissy, because
it's sequenced. I remember the producer saying one day, 'Oh no -
that sounds old-fashioned,' and alarm bells went off in my head."
Mason: "I actually thought Radio KAOS had some great tracks on
it and was a good record."
I Can Tell (Bo Diddley) : This is one of Bo's songs used by many
'beat groups', not just Floyd. Road Runner, another from their
'60s repertoire, is also a Diddley ditty.
Mason: "We probably realised there wasn't any future in
recycling R&B."
Gilmour: "You mean you realised you were never going to be any
good at playing it. They used to do a lot of Bo
Diddley covers; it was great (laughs)."
Mason: "We wanted to become famous Bo Diddley players. It was a
gradual transition, over many years, from the time when
we began playing improvisation like Interstellar
Overdrive, which were basically free-form Rhythm and
Blues, which we thought was intellectually OK."
Wright: "I guess we had all the usual influences. The music I
was into at the time was Miles Davis."
In The Flesh (Waters) :
Gilmour: "We had a Hammond organ player, Freddie Mandell, on In
The Flesh. Don't ask me why..."
Interstellar Overdrive (Barrett, Waters, Wright, Mason) : The
plethora of available renditions has defeated our planned guide
to the adventures of Interstellar Overdrive. 'Floyds of London'
(TAP 46) describes the version used for Piper and 'Tonight Let's
All Make Love In London'.
Gilmour: "I've never seen that film. It was before my time, in
'67. Ask Nick about that, he would know..."
Mason: "I don't know; I can't remember."
Gilmour: "Wasn't it a live version of Interstellar Overdrive?"
Mason: "No, that was 'San Francisco'."
We concur that the Interstellar on the 'San Francisco' film was
indeed a 1968 version, and not, as has been reported, the first
recorded version. The one found on a French EP sounds like an
edit from the mono Piper mix. This still leaves the version used
for the CBC radio interview, repeated as part of Capital's The
Pink Floyd Story; another puzzler which we entrust to future
Floyd watchers.
Is There Anybody Out There? (Waters) :
Gilmour: "There's a guy playing the Spanish guitar on Is There
Anybody Out There?. I could play it with a leather
pick but couldn't play it properly finger-style."
It's A Miracle (Waters) :
Waters: "We based it on the rhythm from the middle of Late Home
Tonight, where there's Graham Broad playing lots and lots of
drums with me shouting in the background, pretending to be a mad
Arab leader.
"We did a very uptempo version, and (Mr Chili Pepper) Flea
played a great bass line, but it wasn't right. Then Pat started
playing it on the piano in half-time, and I started singing it in
the tempo it now exists in. I put the cassette in the car and
got that buzz; I was blown away.
"I played it six times on the way back to the house and then
sat outside and played it three times more just because I adored
it. And two days later I got Jeff Porcaro in and he played those
drums, which were amazing. And that was that."
Just Before You Disappear (Barrett) : Bootleg title for Octopus,
from Syd's June '70 Olympia gig.
Late Home Tonight (Waters) :
Waters: "The pilot - it seems to me - is a victim as much as the
woman... Well, not so much (but) the pilot loses his
personality. It's as if he's suborned by the arms industry and
the politicians... who turn them into heroes and make them fight
in an unjust fight. It's because of the seductive, almost erotic
character of their hardware."
Learning To Fly (Jon Carin) : Appears on a CBS, 7" EP from
Bolivia, with On The Turning Away, One Slip and Sorrow. A 90-
second extract from Jon Carin's instrumental demo for the song -
eventually credited to Gilmour/Ezrin/Moore/Carin - was aired
during Dave's Radio One appearance on 28/7/92.
Gilmour: "This was right after Live Aid, to be exact... I got
Jon round to my home studio... to do some stuff with
me. I had to go down to the station to pick someone
up. When I got back, he'd done this so we pinched a
bit of it. Simple."
Let There Be More Light (Waters) : Amnesia strikes 'Tous en
Scene' again as DG mangles lyrics and moves his solo from the
Song's end to before the final verse.
Ian Anderson: "We [Jethro Tull] played the first Hyde Park
concert in 1968. Pink Floyd, minus their lights of course, were
top of the bill...
"We'd actually played support to the Floyd a year or so earlier
when Syd Barrett was in the band. They were genuinely amazing.
It wasn't their songs as much as the way they broke down all
musical and presentational barriers. I never did any drugs, so I
wasn't particularly interested in the psychedelic aspect of what
they were doing. But the way they seemed to mix rock and folk
and Eastern influences was fascinating. Very eclectic. It
prompted me to pick up an instrument again."
Like A Rolling Stone (Dylan) : A 100-second extract only (so
Gilmour could "sell the bootleg myself") from this home demo was
played during his Radio One appearance on 28/7/92.
Gilmour: "The sort of thing you get up to late at night in your
own recording studio... I bought, for one of my kids, one of
those little Casio calculator things... They've got a little
music set-up, and one of the rhythms on it, if you slowed it
right down... turns into that sort of reggae rhythm. You just
press a button and hold down one chord...
"I stuck it down on a tape machine and sang on it. I think I
added a little bit of organ and maybe reinforced the bass a
little bit. That's all it is. There's nothing else on it - it's
just for a laff.
"Peter Barnes, our music publisher, did suggest to me that I
should put it out as a single under another name for fun, but..."
On the Radio 1 show, DG cited Dylan's To Ramona (from 'Another
Side of Bob Dylan') as his favourite love song.
Molly's Song (Waters) : The US 7" on which this appears (with
introductory dialogue from Jim Ladd and Billy) in on Columbia,
#38-07617, in a generic sleeve.
Money (Waters) : Appears on 'Quadrafile', a limited edition
(5000) double LP produced for the quadraphonically-inclined Hi-Fi
News & Record Review readers, in 1976.
A 100-second extract of Waters' demo was played during
Gilmour's Radio One appearance on 28/7/92.
Gilmour: "It's Roger playing a double tracked acoustic guitar
and singing Money over the top...
"We created a 4/4 progression for the guitar solo and made the
poor sax player play in 7/4. It was my idea to... become dry and
empty for the second chorus of the solo. I really wanted to make
a dramatic statement with each of the three solos."
Mother (Waters) :
Gilmour: "The timing follows: Mo-ther-do-you-think-they'll-drop-
the-bomb? How many beats is that? Nine. It was
very, very difficult to get it to work... You've got
to find a way of floating through it, which (drummer)
Jeff Porcaro did immediately."
Waters: "There was a keyboardist and Lee Ritenour and Jeff. His
father Joe played the military snare in Bring The Boys
Back Home."
On The Run (Gilmour, Waters) :
Waters: "That was just a Synthier and then you turned it up and
it went from going ch-ch ts-ts to du-du-du-de-de-le. 'Hey! That
sounds good - record it!' It's a bit like those young groups
now, who I have no interest in at all... that get a Roland 808
out of the box, plug it in and it goes bum-petek, bum-bum
petek... 'Oh wow! We're a band!' Then they talk over it and
it's called music..."
Alan Parsons: "One of my contributions was to add the footsteps
to On The Run. There were no band members present - it was just
me with my assistant engineer, Peter James. Poor Peter [ran]
back and forth while I recorded him. I remember instructing him
to do things like 'breathe harder' (laughs)."
One Of My Turns (Waters) :
Gilmour: "I got a rhythm player in on One Of My Turns because I
couldn't think of a good part to play. Lee Ritenour
played that part on the last half of that."
The groupie sequence was originally performed by Roger. It was
re-recorded by a girl Bob Ezrin "found" in LA.
One Of These Days (Pink Floyd) :
Gilmour: "For some reason, we decided to do a double track of
the bass. You can actually hear it if you listen in stereo. The
first bass is me. A bar later, Roger joins in on the other side
of the stereo picture. We didn't have a spare set of strings for
the spare bass guitar, so the second bass is very dull-sounding
(laughs). We sent a roadie out to buy some strings, but he
wandered off to see his girlfriend instead."
One Slip (Gilmour, Manzanera) :
Phil Manzanera: "I know Roger, not as well as I know Dave, but
I've always got on well with him. To be honest, though, after
recording with Dave, I don't think Roger would want to work with
me! I think he gets a lot of criticism from people who don't
really listen to his music.
"When I first arrived in the UK, I went to see Dave, who had
just joined Floyd, and asked if he could give me some advice on
how to get into a band... They were mixing Dark Side of the Moon
at the same time as we were recording Roxy Music's first album in
their studio."
Perfect Sense 1 (Waters) :
Waters: "PP Arnold was recommended to me by one of the other
singers. I remembered her from some musicals she had done and I
told her: Why don't you come and do a session with me? She was
supposed to do the backing, but I suggested she should do the
lead on this part of the song. She agreed, and did it
beautifully."
Piggy Got Stoned (uncredited) : A "really messy, guitar-focused,
instrumental" of dubious authenticity found on a bootleg tape,
'Pink Floyd: Early Freakout Demos'. (Andrew Pask)
Waters: "We don't want people to be stoned out of their minds
all the time when they go to hear us. We'd like to
induce an experience without drugs. Anyone is free to
have that kind of experience."
Pink Jungle, The (Barrett, Waters, Wright, Mason) : Alternative
title for Pow R Toc H, as played in The Journey, may have been
inspired by 1968 adventure-comedy of the same name, starring
James Garner.
5.01 AM (The Pros And Cons Of Hitch-Hiking) (Waters) : The UK 12"
/ US promo 12" versions are longer (5:25) than the LP cut (4:38)
and have an alternative, laid-back, country-ish guitar solo after
"all men must die". Other unique features include a sax solo and
a later fade.
Rats (Barrett) : Ex-Mr Chili Pepper, John Frusciante: "... unless
you've heard Rats I can't really explain what it's about. It's
mainly acoustic, this riff, but when he comes in with the
vocal... It's wild. Real fugitive sound, ya know ?"
The Riot Sequence (Wright) : Alternative title for Us and Them's
prototype, The Violent Sequence [qv].
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (Waters) :
Waters: "I managed to get hold of a book of Chinese poetry from
the late T'ang period - and I just ripped it off. Except for the
title: I've no idea where it came from. It came from... within
me.
"I'm glad it did, because I got a letter many years ago from a
woman whose child had died of cancer. This kid... had listened
to this song a lot, towards the end, and it had, in some strange
way, really comforted her... I find that, obviously, very
touching. I don't know where it came from, and so her connection
with it is probably as strong as mine was..."
Karl Dallas has identified the title as a quote from William S.
Burroughs.
Sheep (Waters) : The 23rd Psalm was originally read by Nick
Mason, but the recorded version is by Floyd roadies. Live '77,
this borrowed the bass line and 'Dr Who' keyboard improvisation
from One of These Days.
Shine On You Crazy Diamond(Waters, Gilmour, Wright) :
Waters: "'Steel breeze'? Well, Syd was seriously cut up by the
winds that were wafting in through those early days of
rock'n'roll. That's all. He was carved by it."
Smiles For Miles (Waters) : A song recorded for, but rejected
from, Amused To Death.
Sorrow (Gilmour) :
Bob Ezrin: "We hired a 24-track truck and a huge P.A. and
brought them inside the LA Sports Arena... We piped Dave's
guitar tracks out into the arena and re-recorded them in 3D. So
the tracks that originally came from a teeny little Gallien
Krueger and teeny little Fender... sound like the Guitar From
Hell."
Speak To Me (Mason) :
Waters: "God, I resent giving that to him [Nick] now. 'Cause he
had nothing to do with it... it was like a gift. It
was alright at the time."
Time (Mason, Waters, Wright, Gilmour) : Early studio version, on
'From The Other Side', described thus: 'No solo lead guitar after
"starting gun" [or] Breathe reprise".
The Trial (Waters, Ezrin) : During the judge's bit, Rog yells 'Go
on judge, sit on it!'. (Stuart Petty) [Actually, I've always
heard 'Go on judge, shit on him!', because he does shortly
afterwards... Wasn't this a thread on Echoes at one point ? -
SF]
Waters: "Christ! What a brilliant idea [The Wall] was. It
hangs together so well... The Trial scene still grabs me."
Ezrin: "One of the great things about working with Pink Floyd is
the excessive nature of the individuals involved... So when we
moved to France, we didn't get hotel rooms: we bought a town
(laughs)... We didn't, _they_ did. Each one of them went out
and got these huge manors in the country and they all had the
fastest cars. There were Ferraris flying all over the place and
fabulous, beautiful people dropping in at all times. So it was
really quite something; it was real, jet-set living."
Us And Them (Waters, Wright) :
Gilmour: "We wanted to put it on Zabriskie Point, on the
sequence where they're having the riots and the police beating
heads on UCLA campus; the counterpoint between that slow, rather
beautiful music and this violence going on was great. We thought
that really, really worked.
"We couldn't understand it when Antonioni said: 'Ees not
quiiite riiight for thees beet'.
"... So [the music] had been around for three years. That was
when three years was three years (laughs). They seem to whiz by
so fast these days."
Early studio version, on 'From The Other Side', is described
thus: "Sax solo at the beginning has a different ending... no
echo on the voice... sax continues under the voice into the
second verse... On the record the sax is the same take just
mixed in and out."
Alan Parsons: "It was literally a fight to get the delay effect
on Us And Them. We spent a tremendous amount of time hooking up
Dolby units and realigning machines at the wrong speed to
accomplish that effect. Us And Them was all done with tape
delays, because digital delays didn't exist then. All these
things took hours to set up."
The song is quoted in Bret Easton Ellis' novel 'The Rules of
Attraction', with appropriate credits.
Watching TV (Waters) :
Waters: "I had been watching the pictured taken from [Tiananmen]
Square, in the days leading up to the massacre, and I was struck
by how articulate they were - at least, the ones who spoke
English.
"It was interesting to see... the flowering of the new
individual freedom within the repressive nature of the Communist
regime. So when they murdered them, it was a cruel blow and I
wept. I was terribly upset...
" I went to the studio, picked up the guitar and I wrote the
song... I described this one, specific girl because what was
important about our connection with the event (was that) TV
enabled us to relate to the individual. If you read it in a
paper, you see a certain number of students were killed. But
because you've seen their faces, spectacles and the girls who are
pretty...
"That way I described it in kind of sexual terms in the song,
it forced a personal connection between us watching TV and her
dying in the Square." (Time for your medication, Rog - Eds).
The "Welcome to the jukebox jamboree" soundbite is taken from
John Waters' film, Cry Baby.
Welcome To The Machine (Waters) :
Waters: "What's more interesting about it, rather than its
content, is the use of the VCS3 which was one of the original
synthesizers - and that with the tape delay on it. All those
machine-like noises in the background were generated by this
particular synthesizer, one of which I still have, I'm happy to
say... and I use it to this day, because it's an analog machine
that makes sounds that non of the new, digital synthesizers will
make, because it's so technically simple. I thought that was
great. I love that rhythmic effect. It was kinda breaking new
ground, musically.
"The song? Oh, it's all that stuff about buying guitars and
punishing your ma and all that stuff, yeah ? Well, there you go.
It's kind of self-explanatory. We don't have to talk about those
lyrics, _surely_."
What God Wants (Waters) :
Waters: "It's the same bass line as Another Brick... listen to
it."
Beck: "Roger had been chasing me for several months... but then
he caught me on a good day when I was around town and he said,
'Look, you don't have any obligation - I'll rent a studio for you
for two hours... you can go along and listen, with just an
engineer to play you the tapes.'
"I heard What God Wants and I loved it, so I made the
commitment... I enjoyed it, I really did... Roger's a good
musical director.
"But when he put me on, the thing was nowhere near completed or
in any shape where you could say 'Ah, I know exactly what's
needed.' He would play me only pieces where he wanted guitar. I
think he tried to prevent me from getting too blown away by the
majesty of the whole album, y'know ?"
Wish You Were Here (Waters) :
Waters: "It's the only song I co-wrote with David that I do; no
other song that I do when I'm doing gigs was co-written (er,
Comfortably Numb? - Eds)... But I love that song so much; not
least his riff...
"It still brings tears to my eyes... It's so important
everyday in my life and, in my view, in everybody's life -
because we fail to make the connections that we ought to."
The intro's orchestral tidbit is from Tchaikovsky's 4th
Symphony. As for the dialogue, who knows ?