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The latest version of this document can always be found on
http://www.meddle.org/
Section 5 (of 10) : After Syd, Before the Dark Side
More early singles
Point Me at the Sky
When the group sang the song on their 14 Jan 1969 Top Gear performance, found on many RoIOs, they used a slightly different second verse. While the original goes: If you survive 'til two thousand and five I hope you're exceedingly thin Because if you are stout you will have to breathe out > to let the people around you breathe in
on the Top Gear performance they sang:
Careful With That Axe, Eugene
Well, there used to be an interesting story that explained both the identity of the protagonist and how Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead lost his right-hand ring finger. However, it turns out that the story isn't exactly true (Garcia is missing the finger, but his brother's name is not Eugene, it's Tiff.)
Here are two more possibilities:
"Careful with that Axe, Eugene" was the flip side of "Point Me at the Sky." Some people believe that PMatS starts off with the line
Also, R. Brigham Lampert uncovered the following:
The 1968, 1969 tours
After the departure of Syd Barrett, the group toured the UK
and Europe, sometimes (e.g. 1june1968) playing 3 concerts in
one day.
Memorable concerts were their appearance at the First International Pop Festival in Rome in may 1968 (3 songs and an interview have been recorded for posterity). The 2 concerts they gave in Amsterdam at 23may1968 (since these are 2 of the only 3 complete concerts of which recordings exist). The first free concert in Hyde Park and their concert on 28dec1968 (which was also recorded for posterity) in the Margriethallen in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
"Set lists"
Gathering from the set lists that are known, the 1968 shows were based around tracks like Interstellar Overdrive, ASOS, Set The Controls, Careful with that Axe Eugene, Astronomy Domine and Let There Be More Light.
In 1969 the band did their first concept tour with the The Man and The Journey concerts, see the section on "The Man and The Journey", but played a more standard set list as well.
Ummagumma
"What does 'ummagumma' mean?"
[From David Schuetz and Steven Dobbs:] "Ummagumma" was a slang term for knockin' boots. (Knockin' boots of course being a slang term for doing the Wild Thang; which is, of course, slang for having sex.) Of course, Rock and Roll was a slang term for -- you get the picture. So, looked at that way, the album "Ummagumma" could simply mean "Rock and Roll."
The pronunciation of _Ummagumma_ also seems to be a little up in the air, BTW. On the BBC Omnibus Pink Floyd special, Nick Mason pronounces it "oo-mah-goo-mah," but there's also a RoIO where Roger announces a song from "uh-ma-gum-a."
"Album art"
The album seen leaning on the wall in some pressings is the soundtrack to "Gigi." It was deleted in US pressings due to copyright ownership problems. The US pressing had a "Special Buy" label on the cover.
The picture on the back is taken at Biggin Hill airfield. The roadies on the picture are Alan Stiles (the same referred to in Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast) and Pete Watts (an interview with him is in one of the song books, and is available on at http://ultra.gawth.com/~rjones/floyd.
On the _Ummagumma_ album cover, the last "reflection" in the wall is of the cover to _A Saucerful of Secrets_.
The "Jude" listed alongside Waters is Judy Trim, Roger's first wife.
"MFSL release"
MFSL had announced their plans to release Ummagumma on their ultrasound series, but later withdrew those stating that the quality of the master tapes were below quality. Unconfirmed rumors have it that Pink Floyd withdrew their permission because they were going to rerelease Ummagumma themselves.
Other Ummagummas"
Specialized Bicycle Components makes a series of tires with a grayish, ultra-grippy, ultra-soft rubber compound they call UmmaGumma. It is used for the company's "extreme application" tires.
"Live recordings"
[Thanks to Glenn Povey and Ian Russel's excellent book] Contrary to what the album itself lists, Ummagumma was recorded at 3 live venues:
"Original intention"
The original intention of the band was to include those songs as a sort of "farewell" gesture. They would release the live version of those songs, and then stop playing them. However with the popularity of the album, the public kept wanting to hear the songs from Ummagumma live, and so they stayed in their set lists.
"Interstellar Overdrive"
A version of Interstellar Overdrive was also recorded and mixed with the intention of being included on the album, but was eventually not included. John Peel received an acetate of it, which he liked very much, but this was stolen. What happened to it is unknown. RoIOs (or tapes) boasting to include this rare version are usually just sporting the version from the BBC sessions.
"The studio side"
The idea behind he studio side was to give each member half a side to do his thing, and do it all by himself (play all the instruments, write his own lyrics &c). Nick Mason probably cheated as the flute is most likely played by his wife.
"Several Species"
First off, what *is* a Pict?
Aye an' a bit of Mackeral settler rack and ruin
ran it doon by the haim, 'ma place
well I slapped me and I slapped it doon in the side
and I cried, cried, cried.
The fear a fallen down taken never back the raize
and then Craig Marion, get out wi' ye Claymore out mi pocket
a' ran doon, doon the middin stain
picking the fiery horde that was fallen around ma feet.
Never he cried, never shall it ye get me alive
ye rotten hound of the burnie crew.
Well I snatched fer the blade O my Claymore
cut and thrust and I fell doon before him round his feet.
Aye!
A roar he cried
frae the bottom of his heart that I would nay fall but as dead,
dead as 'a can be by his feet; de ya ken?
...and the wind cried back.
Mike Merriam
Aye an' a bit of Mackeral (Fagger, wreck'n) fear
Ran it doon by the (haim)
And I (flew).
When I (slapped) me,
And I flopped it doon in the shade,
And I cried, cried, 'n cried.
The fear o' fallen down 'a taken, ne'er back t' raise.
And then cried Mary,
And I took that weighted claymore right out of (---),
And ran doon, doon the mountain side,
And back unt' the fiery horde that was fall'n round y' feet.
Never, I cried,
Never shall ye take me alive,
Y' rotten hound and the (----- --rew).
Well I (snapped fore) the blade o' my claymore,
Cut and thrust,
And I fell down before him.
Right at his feet. Aye!
A roar, he cried,
Fr' the bottom of his heart,
That I would nay fall
But as dead,
Dead as I can, by feat
(D' ya ken?)
And the wind cried Mary.
Also, from Adam Winstanley: Regarding Several Species... the most recent edition of the Amazing Pudding has a short piece on that. [Editors note: This was TAP number 8, published before Echoes existed] Waters does most of it but if you have one of those old record players that can do 16rpm you can hear Gilmour in the middle somewhere ("This is pretty avant-garde isn't it...") and if you speed it up to 78rpm you can hear "bring back my guitar." Ron Geesin isn't on the track although he parodied it on a track called "To Roger Waters, Where-ver You Are."
Actually, Roger Waters does all of it himself. The weird sounds are obtained by playing human voices back at various speeds, whereas the drumming sounds are created by Water drumming with his hands on his body and a table (or something similar).
There has been some discussion on Echoes whether the Ron Geesin track actually is a parody on this track or not. The jury is still out on that one.
"Sysyphus"
On Rick Wright's Sysyphus you can hear the opening melody of Silent Night, Holy Night.
Sysyphus, more commonly spelled as 'Sisyphus,' was a figure of Greek mythology who was punished by being made to roll a rock up a hill for all eternity.
More
"Alternate names"
On the Capitol pressing of the More LP (SW-11198), the record (not the sleeve) has following titles for "Up The Khyber" and "Quicksilver": Up The Kyber (Juke Box) Quicksilver (Water- Pipe)
"Up The Khyber"
It has been speculated that the song "Up The Khyber" was meant to accompany a scene of anal sex in the movie. 'Khyber' is Rhyming Slang for arse. Full details were given by David King in an article on the movie More in BD number 40.
"Cymbaline"
It's notable that "Cymbaline" is a self-referential song: "...will the final couplet rhyme?" The final couplet in fact is the only one that doesn't...
The song "Cymbaline" was first performed live as "Nightmare" in The Man and The Journey suite.
During the middle of the song, the nightmare would begin; the walking of ghostly footsteps across the floor, the opening of a creaking door, etc.
All this presented a great opportunity for Floyd to show off their sound system, the famous Azimuth Coordinator. So even after they stopped playing The Man and The Journey, the would still play the nightmare segment of the song. In addition to their normal quadraphonic setup, they would (location permitting) also set up speakers on multiple levels -- on balconies and such. They would then, using a joystick control, send sounds up and down stairs, around the audience, and all about the concert hall.
The movie version of this song has slightly different lyrics and is sung by Roger Waters, whereas the album version is sung by David Gilmour.
The movie version has the line "Standing by with a book in his hand/ it's an easy word to rhyme" instead of "Will the tightrope reach the end?/ Will the final couplet rhyme?".
"The Man And The Journey"?
What are "The Man And The Journey"?
[With much help from Adam Winstanley and others]: In fact several concert recordings exist of The Man and The Journey and many people probably possess RoIOs of these pieces without realizing it. The Man and The Journey were two parts of "More Furious Madness From The Massed Gadgets of Auximines" and consisted of several well-known Floyd tunes linked into a concept piece as follows:
PART ONE: THE MAN (representing a day in the life of a man)
Daybreak ("Grantchester Meadows")
Work (Sawing, Hammering in a I<musical> fashion)
[the band was served afternoon tea on stage at this point]
Afternoon ("Biding My Time")
Doing It (instrumental) ("Grand Vizier's Garden Party, pt. 3")
Sleep
Nightmare ("Cymbaline")
Daybreak (reprise)
PART TWO: THE JOURNEY
The Beginning ("Green is the Colour")
Beset By Creatures of the Deep ("Careful with that Axe, Eugene")
The Narrow Way ("The Narrow Way, pt. 3")
The Pink Jungle ("Pow R Toc H")
The Labyrinths of Auximines ("Moonhead")
Behold the Temple of Light
The End of the Beginning ("Saucerful of Secrets" -- final part)
Do any recordings exist ?
Officially, no. However, the following shows are known to be recorded and are circulating on tape:
"Biding My Time"
There has been some debate as to who actually plays the trumpet during Biding My Time. Conrado Daws and Karl Magnacca settled this by providing the following information:
Rick Wright did, at least during live performances. We have a picture of him playing it in a "The Man"/"The Journey"-era concert, and, during the trumpet portion of the song, you can hear Roger-esque bass but no keyboard.
(This despite what you might have read in TAP.)
"So who or what is Auximines/Auximenes?"
No one knows. Dave Gilmour said in an interview that it might have been someone from Greek mythology, but he didn't know for sure.
Intrepid Echoesians have searched the 'Net, searched libraries, talked with experts (or at least teachers of ancient Greek) and more, and have come up with nothing solid.
There is a Belgian (mining) company called Auximines.
Atom Heart Mother
"Atom Heart Mother Suite"
The "Atom Heart Mother Suite" is a side-long instrumental split into six different, named parts. Most of the divisions are marked by a return of the main theme of the piece, played by everybody (group and orchestra).
Beyond this, there is some controversy over where each section starts and ends. The EMI and MFSL versions of the disc have index markers; they are essentially the same on both discs (give or take a few seconds), and are given below. Many Echoesians, however, are somewhat unsatisfied with these divisions, and so have developed an alternative indexing scheme. This is also given below, along with an explanation...
| Section Title | EMI/MFSL Index | Echoes |
|---|---|---|
| a. "Father's Shout" | 05:20 | 02:59 |
| b. "Breast Milky" | 10:09 | 05:22 |
| c. "Mother Fore" | 15:26 | 10:11 |
| d. "Funky Dung" | 17:44 | 15:25 |
| e. "Mind Your Throats Please" | 19:49 | 17:44 |
| f. "Remergence" | ..end | ..end |
The first part, naturally, is "Father's Shout," with all the weird sounds, horses, and ends with the motorcycle.
The second part, "Breast Milky," starts off as a duet for organ and viola; and gradually includes drums, guitar, and the rest of the orchestra. (2:59)
Then "Mother Fore" begins. This section is a quiet choral section, with mostly chorus and organ. (5:22)
"Funky Dung" has a lot of guitar, strong bass, and that weird choir singing things that sound vaguely like "toast....coffee...yeah...." or "saa saa saa saa saaa.....brrrrrrrrrroooooooooonnnn." (10:11)
"Mind Your Throats Please" is the strange (like it's not all strange?) part that begins with alternating organ notes. After the slower beginning with organ and such, a section that echoes has been calling the "Overload" section begins, with lots of out-of-sync voices and sounds; sounding a bit like the Beatles' "Revolution 9." This is either part of "Mind Your Throats" or "Remergence," depending on whose opinion you ask. (15:25)
"Remergence," then, is the climactic final section, where the main theme gradually "re-emerges." (17:44)
As you can see, the main argument lies in the question of the lengths of "Father's Shout" versus "Remergence." I guess this just goes to show how subjective some of these things can be...
"Other AHM suite tidbits"
In the AHM Suite, there are two voices that can be clearly heard:
The title track was named during the sessions for the BBC radio show, when the track needed a name, and Ron Geesin suggested to Roger Waters that he'd look through The Evening Standard and see if he could find a title in there. The paper carried an article about a pregnant woman with a pacemaker, headlined ATOM HEART MOTHER, and the rest (as they say) is history.
The track has been announced by the band as:
"CD art"
The Atom Heart Mother EMI CD had a simple fold-open booklet, with a picture of cows, and the track list and credits.
The remaster has 24-page booklet with all the lyrics and lots of photos; milking machines, boots, a piano, a man snorkeling, and, of course, a "psychedelic breakfast." Picture disc is of a cow. Also includes a card of "Breakfast Tips" to go along with "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast"; one recipe is for a "Traditional Bedouin Wedding Feast," the other is in German:
Ingredients:
100 grams Cow Brain
Oil, Salt, Pepper
1 Onion
1 Egg
Some Parsley
Preparation:
First rinse the brain and peel off the skin, which the butcher
often leaves on!
Heat oil in pan and add chopped onion.
Then add the brain and cook. Add the egg and scramble.
Add salt, pepper, and parsley to taste.
Enjoy!
"Who is Alan?"
Alan is Alan Stiles, a roadie of Floyd's back then. Alan's Psychedelic breakfast is named after him, and it's his voice you hear on the track. The kitchen sounds were recorded in Nick masons kitchen. The band was never very happy with this piece, which might explain why it was performed live only a few times. During the live performances the band was served tea on stage (this section is missing from the only known RoIO recording of this song). Early British pressings of the album had the sound of the water dripping from the tap continue into the trail-off groove in the record, allowing some turntables to play dripping water forever (or until someone turns it off, whichever came first).
The song is divided into three named sections:
| a. "Rise and Shine" | 00:00 |
| b. "Sunny Side Up" | 04:22 | c. "Morning Glory" | 08:17 |
Zabriskie Point "What is Zabriskie Point?"
The title Zabriskie Point refers to a mountain Peak in Death Valley, one of the hottest places on earth.
"Is the movie any good?"
"Zabriskie Point" (1970): [from Toapher] I'm the first one to admit that Z Point is not your mainstream, top quality movie, but that does not mean that it's not worth seeing. It does move rather slowly and the plot is not what I would call riveting. But what's important is to understand the era in which it was made. The movie was filmed in 1969. This was near the peak of civil unrest in this country [the US]. While the acting might not be academy award material, the movie is a very accurate portrayal of the trials and tribulations of the youth subculture. We tend to look back at the 60's in a very romantic light, but the truth is that it must have been a *very* difficult time for everyone. Z Point tries to shed some light on that aspect of the era, rather than just portray it in the "Summer Of Love" way.
In addition, there is a sub-plot that pervades the movie. The words to "Crumbling Land" indicate that The Floyd were aware of this and understood what that sub-plot was about. The female lead worked for a group of land developers who were working on creating a community in the desert. They were trying to take a piece of land that was not capable of sustaining human life and transforming it. This required robbing resources from nearby ecosystems, destroying the natural habitats on the site, and polluting an otherwise clean area. The "famous" sex scene that took place at Zabriskie Point itself was a celebration of the natural beauty and purity of the undisturbed landscape.
Available as soundtrack and on video: VHS (NTSC/PAL)
"What is this rereleased soundtrack I keep hearing about?"
The soundtrack has recently (1997) been rereleased by Rhino records, with the addition of four previously unreleased Pink Floyd tracks:
What happened during the soundtrack recordings?
The story behind this movie soundtrack in a nutshell: Pink Floyd were asked by Michael Antonioni to make the soundtrack for his movie Zabriskie Point, the band was for two weeks in Rome, slept late, drank beer, wine and went into the studios around 9 PM, and work until 7 or 8 in the morning. No matter what they did, Antonioni did not like the result: "Eeeeeets very beautiful, but eeets too sad."
After two weeks of this, Antonioni called a halt to the sessions, and picked three (of the reported eight) completely finished tracks, one of which (Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up) was a remake of Careful, and was probably the reason the band was asked by Antonioni.
The final soundtrack contained music by The Kaleidoscope, The Grateful Dead, Patti Page, The Youngbloods, Jerry Garcia, Roscoe Holcomb, and John Fahey.
The Glory Tours
The 1970-1971 tours were the last tours where the band allowed
themselves a bit more freedom on the set lists they played.
"early 1970"
The early 1970 tours were the last tours without a more or less standard set list for all shows, and as a result show some rarely played songs.
Sadly only 3 shows (18jan1970 Croydon, 23jan70 Paris (radio broadcast) and 11feb70) have surfaced of the first 2 months of 1970, all of which are worth checking out for the rarity of some of the performed songs (Sysyphus, main them from More, the violent sequence).
Starting with the European tour (march 1970) the set lists started converging to a more or less standard set of songs, though variation in both songs and song order was still common.
"Rest of 1970"
The (common) set list for the 1970 shows was:
The Embryo was later added to the set list.
Starting with the American tour (26sep70 and onward) IO was dropped from the set list and replaced with Fat Old Sun.
The North American tour was called Atom Heart Mother world tour (26sep70 to 23oct70) the tour of the UK (11-22dec70) was referred to as Atom Heart Mother goes on the road.
The 1970 shows feature a number of shows during which AHM was performed with band and orchestra, to whit:
A Title given by an (apparently) heard-of-hearing person to the track Embryo on the Pictures of Pink Floyd ROIO (most likely taken from a Nov 1970 show, and not the Royal Albert Hall as suggested on the ROIO itself). Before the Embryo is an improvisational jam (sometimes referred to as Corrosion) at the end of which there is Pictish ranting, during which Roger introduces Mr. Nicholas Mason on drums. While it may seem unlikely for anyone to mishear this, if you have actually heard this RoIO (as we have) it's not too unlikely.
"Early 1971"
Also in 1971 a number of performances included a full brass and choir on AHM, to whit:
| 17jan71, | London | |
| 25feb71, | Munich | |
| 26feb71, | Offenbach | |
| 3apr71, | Rotterdam | |
| 12jun71, | Lyon | |
| 1jul71, | Ossiach (which is in Austria, not West Germany) | |
| 18sep71, | Montreux | |
| 19sep71, | Montreux |
Set lists for these show was more or less the same as the late 1970 shows. Green Is The Colour was dropped from the set lists, A blues jam (often called Blues, Pink Blues or Blues Jam by imaginative ROIO makers) was occasionally performed and after 22apr71 Echoes (under its working title Return Of The Son Of Nothing) was added, resulting in a set list like:
Meddle
"One Of These Days"
The voice in the middle of "One of These Days" is Nick Mason, and he says "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces."
At about 3:00 or so, there's a faint organ riff that sounds a lot like the Dr. Who theme to a lot of people.
Also, (based on a posting from Scott Eberline)
In the Westwood One broadcast of Waters' Quebec performance of _Radio KAOS_, a member of the audience asked Waters who it was he wanted to cut into little pieces. Apparently this brought back fond memories for Waters, who replied that it was an English disk jockey named Jimmy Young. The song was meant as a personal attack. The band used to play bits and pieces of Jimmy Young's radio show spliced together in a completely nonsensical manner, immediately before playing "One of These Days".
However I (Gerhard) have never heard a RoIO where this happened before OOTD. On the other hand, on the Sheffield 22dec70 show you can hear this tape segment during Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast, and during the British Winter tour of 1974 this tape segment came before Raving and Drooling, though not on all shows.
Also on the One of These Days demos that are in circulation you can hear a similar tape loop.
The opening bass is double tracked, with Dave Gilmour playing in one channel, and Roger Waters playing in the other.
"Fearless"
The chanting you hear at the end of "Fearless" is from a football (or soccer, if you're American) game in Liverpool. It's "You'll Never Walk Alone," originally from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Carousel." A really popular cover of "You'll Never Walk..." was done by Gerry and The Pacemakers, and it was this version which was "adopted" as the sort of anthem for the Liverpool team, and is even engraved over the gate at their home stadium. The recording on _Meddle_ is sung by Liverpool's loyal fans, and includes:
"Seamus"
Seamus is named after Seamus, the dog of Steve Marriot. The inspiration for this song came when the band noticed how the dog started to howl when someone played the harmonica.
"Echoes"
Echoes is considered by many Pink Floyd fans to be the best Pink Floyd song ever written. Echoes started out as a collection of 36 unrelated musical ideas, which led to the tracks working title "Nothing, parts 1-24." (This title despite the fact that there were actually 36 bits of music involved.) Further development of those ideas led to a working title of "The Son Of Nothing." When the band felt the piece was ready to go on the road, it was named (in true B-monster movie fashion) "Return of the Son of Nothing."
"Looking Through the Knotholes..."
Tim Banks offered these remarks:
I am listening to an episode entitled "The 50 Pound Cure". At the beginning of the episode, the following silliness is taking place:
<various wails, moans and laments fading to the background...> "By Jove!! It's a merry, singing funeral!! Ha Ha Ha. Ah, don't take it so hard, folks. It's only a trial one for Eccles! And now, for an encore, I'll sing a little song entitled, 'LOOKING THROUGH THE KNOTHOLE IN GRANDMA'S WOODEN LEG'."
There was also an old Bugs Bunny Loony Tunes cartoon in which Bugs was playing a song called just that on a banjo.
They don't have to. Dave Ward (with help from Sohnosuke Imai, Ian Russel and Vernon Fitch) provided the following timeline:
22 April 1971 -- first live performance. It's called "Return of the Son of Nothing." The song retains this name until August 1971.
late July 1971 -- the first verse ("planets meeting face to face") is dropped from the song. I'm not sure offhand of the exact date it was first played without that verse.
??? 1971 -- Waters proposes the title "We Won the Double" after his favorite team, Arsenal, wins the league title and FA Cup. (Not sure of the date. I think it's been discussed here though.)
6 August 1971 -- On the Japanese tour the song is referred to as Echoes (see below)
27 August 1971 -- Mixing of the song is completed.
17 October 1971 -- A quad mix album of "Echoes" is played for press at the Roundhouse, but the quad mix is never released.
30 October 1971 -- "Meddle" is released in the US
5 November 1971 -- "Meddle" is released in the UK
15 November 1972 -- Waters introduces Echoes as "Looking Through the Knothole in Granny's Wooden Leg" in Boblingen, Germany
16 November 1972 -- Waters introduces Echoes as "The March of The Dambusters" at Frankfurt, Germany
"What were the early lyrics for Echoes?"
[Original transcription done by Matt Denault, with the assistance of bear, Ray O'Hara and me, I later made some minor corrections to Matt's transcript ]
The Floyd, in their pre-_Animals_ days, often performed as-yet unrecorded tracks in concert ("Murderistic Woman," DSotM, "Raving and Drooling", etc.) These would often undergo significant changes before appearing on albums, and "Echoes" is such a case.
The opening verse of "Echoes" originally had a "space" theme, and several RoIOs exist with these lyrics. One is from the 5 June 1971 Berlin show, available on "Lost in the Corridors" and "Mauerspecte" (which, BTW, has been known to be defective many times, so try before you buy). Another is from a few weeks later; 20 June 1971, at Rome. Neither of these recordings is all that great in terms of sound quality, but taken together we're pretty sure of the following...
Ever might this once relent
And give us leave to shine as one
Our two lights {singing better} <-- these two lines are
{Than one light can} pretty garbled [1]
And in that longing to be one
The parting {suns shine as one} [2]
I'll see you've got to travel on
And on and on, around the sun
Keep in mind when comparing the above to a version you might have on a tape from a different date, that it is very well possible that the lyrics changed from show to show before Roger settled on the lyrics we have come to know and love.
The above transcription makes some sense in relation to the rest of the song -- which survived unchanged -- if you take the whole third verse ("cloudless everyday...") to be about sunlight.
There were also some earlier transcriptions of the lyrics done by the people I mentioned above, which I used as aids. These are available at
Roger Waters has stated that Pink Floyd music was "about inner space, not outer space" and became annoyed with the "space" image Pink Floyd had been labeled with due to their earlier songs (Astronomy Domine, Interstellar Overdrive, Set the Controls and Point Me At the Sky.Even though the lyrics have changed, in both cases the first verse still conveys a feeling of alienation.
"Is it summery or submarine?"
This used to be a topic of much heated discussion on Echoes way back when.
Okay. We'll get into one particular about this song, and hopefully that will help keep the noise level down. Does the line say "Everything is green and submarine" or "Everything is green and summery?"
Proposition: It says "submarine."
Supporting evidence: [thank you, Dean Hebert]
10 : What was played at the BBC shows
What was played on the BBC sessions
In 1970 and 1971 Pink Floyd played at John Peels BBC show. The
exacts dates and performance details for these shows have been
shrouded in confusion for years, and has been given wrongly in
numerous publications (including the BBC - In Session Tonight
and earlier versions of this document.).
These shows include some of the best and most popular "live" performances of early Floyd material. Recently some Floyd fans have done a lot of effort resulting in 2 CD-R RoIOs (Mooed music, and Meddled) which contain the best and most complete recordings of these shows
The Fat Old Sun is missing from the BBC transcription discs, and is only available because Floyd fans recorded the radio show all those years ago. The quality of this track is therefore less on the Mooed music ROIO. Most common RoIOs omit this song altogether.
Note
Although rumor has it that a special broadcast was made on the AM (Medium Wave), which featured One Of These Days, Fat Old Sun, The Embryo and Echoes. If this is true, I'd like to receive a tape of this show ;)
With the exception of the aforementioned Mooed and Meddled RoIOs, all RoIOs I've come across of these shows are incomplete to varying degrees, some are audibly mastered from vinyl and/or are a combination of both shows.
Obscured By Clouds
Obscured By Clouds, soundtrack to the movie La Vallee,
recorded in less than 2 weeks (23-29feb 1972 and 23-27mar1972)
in Chateau d'Herouvile in France. This came in the middle of
the band's UK and Japan tour, where they were premiering the
piece that would finally become Dark Side of The Moon.
"Differences between the movie and album versions"
The differences between the movie and album are much less for OBC than they were for More, the only differences are in the lyrics to Free Four
[Thanks to Geoff Rimmer (grimmer@nyx.cs.du.edu) for this one.] I don't remember seeing this in the FAQ or on the mailing list, so for those who haven't rushed out and bought the video of "The Valley Obscured By Clouds" (Warner Home Video. Cost me $69.95 + POSTAGE!). Here are the lyrics of Free Four in the film version:
| (fades in ...) | |
| Are the deeds of a man in his prime | |
| You shuffle in the gloom of a sick room | |
| And talk to yourself as you die | |
| And life is a short warm moment | |
| And death is a long cold rest | (*) |
| You get your chance to try | |
| In the twinkling of an eye | |
| In eighty years with luck | |
| Or even less | |
| So take my advice | } |
| And cut yourself a slice | } This is roughly the same |
| And try not to make it too big | } tune as "So all aboard for |
| 'Cos things are hard to grow | } the American tour... |
| And I can tell you | } you may find it hard to get |
| 'Cos I know | } off" |
| It's better not to make yourself sick. | } off" |
| (jumps horribly to the following...) | |
| He was buried like a mole in a foxhole | |
| And everyone's still on the run | |
| And who is the master of foxhounds | |
| And who says the hunt has begun? | (*) |
| And who calls the tune in the courtroom | (*) |
| And who beats the funeral drum? | (*) |
| The memories of a man in his old age | |
| Are the deeds of a man in his prime | |
| You shuffle in the gloom of a sick room | |
| ... (fades out) |
[Note that the film has dialogue over the top of the music, and this version isn't available without the dialogue, at least not that we know of.]
The running order of the Obscured By Clouds tape is wrong
Because of the peculiarities of 8-track machines, an album had to be divided into four roughly equal sections for an 8-track release. This frequently necessitated rearranging the order of the album tracks. When cassettes came along a few years later, record companies often used the 8-track masters they had made to make the cassettes, because they were already nicely subdivided. This is the origin of the change in running order on the OBC cassette.
The original running order was as follows:
| Obscured by Clouds | |
| When You're In | |
| Burning Bridges | |
| The Gold it's in The... | |
| Wot's...uh the Deal | |
| Mudmen | |
| Childhood's End | |
| Free Four | |
| Stay | |
| Absolutely Curtains |
| Obscured by Clouds | |
| When You're In | |
| Burning Bridges | |
| The Gold... | |
| -> | Free Four |
| -> | Mudmen |
| -> | Childhood's End |
| -> | Wot's ... |
| Stay | |
| Absolutely Curtains |
This song is that last song that has sole writing credits for Dave Gilmour, until Sorrow on the AMLoR album.
This song has only been performed live a few times
Free Four
"The master of foxhounds"
The following is culled from the www.mfha.com web site: (Masters of Foxhounds of America):
The person who beats the funeral drum determines the pace of the funeral procession.
Absolutely Curtains
The tribe chanting at the end of the song is the Mapuga tribe.
Relics "Relics on LP"
Relics exists with a variety of different cover art designs:
It is now commonly available on CD, as part of the remasters series, but for a long time this CD was the most sought after CD in the Floyd catalog.
The remastered CD has new cover art, based on a 3-D model built to resemble Nick Mason's drawing.
Until the release through the remasters series, Relics had been available in Europe for a short while (making it an excellent trading item for those overseas trades) and for a longer while in Australia under the Axis label.
The "Axis" CD had the old coins cover.
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| | | | |goodbye| | | | |
___|_______|_______|_______|_______|/______|_______|_______|_______|_______|
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|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|____
End of echoes Digest / FAQ section 5 of 10