Pink Floyd All the Songs
Page 20
Production
In a 2006 interview, David Gilmour declared that “But… all my playing is rooted in the blues.”51 And he certainly proves it on “More Blues,” which is something of a rarity in the Pink Floyd catalog. With the exception of “Seamus” on the 1971 album Meddle, which was the group’s second “official” blues (an acoustic track whose electric counterpart, “Mademoiselle Nobs,” can be heard in the movie Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii), never again (leaving aside “Love Scene [Version 6],” an outtake from the soundtrack to Zabriskie Point) would the English quartet so wholeheartedly embrace this particular musical genre. Throughout the 2:13 length of this track, pride of place is given to the guitarist’s Fender Stratocaster. He plays with feeling, and his phrasing, which involves a lot of string bending, takes on a cosmic dimension—his notes exploding with long and intrusive reverb. His guitar sound is clear, with only minor distortion, and he succeeds in producing a credible performance that expresses Stefan’s feelings, faced with Estelle’s physical and mental decline, to great effect.
To tell the truth, the originality of this blues number is largely down to the rhythm section, in particular Nick Mason’s no more than sporadic interventions that enable Gilmour’s guitar to truly breathe. Roger Waters delivers a bass line that is equally remarkable in the sense that it does not systematically support the drums, but plays along either with or without them. Rick Wright accompanies on the organ. Although discreet, his playing provides indispensable harmonic support and contributes inimitable color with his Hammond M-102. The track comes to an abrupt end at 2:10 with the sound of a tape recorder being switched off.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
Despite their status as an iconic progressive (and psychedelic) rock band, in the seventies Pink Floyd used to regularly improvise on the twelve-bar blues at the end of their shows. This is borne out by the bootleg More Blues, recorded at the concert of November 21, 1970, at the Montreux Casino. The bootleg includes a version of this number that goes on for more than nine minutes as well as another “Just Another 12 Bar Original” that has never been included on an official release.
Quicksilver
Roger Waters, Rick Wright, David Gilmour, Nick Mason / 7:14
Musicians
David Gilmour: electric lead guitar (?)
Rick Wright: vibraphone, organ
Roger Waters: gong (?)
Unidentified musicians: sound effects
Recorded
Pye Studios, London: early February 1979
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer: Brian Humphries
Genesis
Quicksilver is the name by which mercury was once known. Alchemists attributed astonishing powers to the element, not least the capacity to marry the material with the spiritual. Was it this esoteric dimension that inspired the four members of Pink Floyd when creating “Quicksilver”? Maybe so. The song occurs twice in the movie More: first of all after Estelle suggests that her lover try heroin at their house by the sea, and for the second time while the couple are tripping on LSD.
“Quicksilver” is therefore a drug song. It is also, and above all, an atmospheric improvisation in which different psychedelic moods intermingle against a background of avant-garde music and musique concrète, an improvisation that recalls certain passages of A Saucerful of Secrets. Renamed “Sleep” and reduced in length by some three minutes, “Quicksilver” would be reused in the two-part musical suite The Man and the Journey.
Production
The tone is set with the very first notes of this track; the 7:14 of “Quicksilver” can only be described as nightmarish. The intro immediately plunges the listener into a heavily worked sequence of sound effects including some kind of grille (or the strings of a piano) over which a stick is dragged or rubbed. The recording is slowed down and steeped in harrowing reverb. A gong is then heard (struck by Roger Waters?), sounding much like the one on “Main Theme.” The sound is oppressive: it moves around the stereo image and reemerges in successive waves throughout virtually the whole of the piece. “Quicksilver” gives pride of place to Rick Wright, who initially plays a vibraphone with a crystalline, ethereal sonority that contributes a pleasantly space-like or otherworldly dimension. He then adds some Farfisa organ (played through the Binson Echorec), creating a lugubrious, dissonant counterpoint to the floating, aerial mood. Toward the end of this sequence, David Gilmour apparently picks up his Stratocaster and produces slide effects with a bottleneck used close to the bridge of his guitar (around 6:32). The purpose of writing “Quicksilver” was to evoke the torment of hard drugs, and in this it succeeds extremely well.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
Quicksilver is also the name of a major Californian acid rock band, the Quicksilver Messenger Service, founded in San Francisco in 1964 by singers Dino Valente and Jim Murray and the guitarist John Cipollina. The name Quicksilver was chosen because the band’s founding members were born under astrological signs influenced by the planet Mercury.
A Spanish Piece
David Gilmour / 1:05
Musicians
David Gilmour: acoustic guitar, classical guitar, voice
Recorded
Pye Studios, London: early February 1969
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer: Brian Humphries
Genesis
“A Spanish Piece” was the first number in the Pink Floyd catalog to be credited to David Gilmour alone. It is a flamenco-style instrumental that is heard in the movie More when Stefan, upon arriving in Ibiza, sets off in search of Estelle and ends up at the hotel… Roger Waters explains: “We were told one bit had to be coming out of a radio in a Spanish bar, so we had to do something that suggested that. In the middle of it, David tried to make the sort of speech noises you’d expect to hear.”52 The album version indeed includes a number of spoken phrases, such as: Pass the tequila, Manuel/Listen, gringo, laugh at my lisp and I kill you/I think/Ah this Spanish music, it sets my soul on fire. All of these words were suppressed in the movie version, which seems to differ from the album track musically too, featuring an alternative guitar solo. Is this the “Spanish Music” listed on the original box of one of the master tapes seen in Paris during the 2003 Pink Floyd exhibition?
Production
David Gilmour would later explain that he had taken his inspiration for “A Spanish Piece” from the flamenco clichés familiar to every budding guitarist. His composition is based around the E and F chords that are typical of this particular musical style. The rhythm part is played on an acoustic guitar (the Levin LT 18?) with metal strings. Gilmour can also be heard tapping the soundboard of his instrument in order to mark the beat in the golpe manner. This percussive effect was probably overdubbed. He then plays an initial guitar solo with plentiful reverb, delivering entirely convincing licks and phrases with tremolo; for this he uses a classical guitar (Levin Classic 3?) with nylon strings. He wraps up his improvisation with a second guitar solo. David Gilmour is no Paco de Lucía, but this short sequence creates the perfect illusion.
It is amusing to note that Gilmour adopts a Mexican accent and speaks of tequila even though the scene takes place on Ibiza, in Spain.
Dramatic Theme
Roger Waters, Rick Wright, David Gilmour, Nick Mason / 2:17
Musicians
David Gilmour: electric lead guitar
Rick Wright: organ
Roger Waters: bass
Nick Mason: drums
Recorded
Pye Studios, London: early February 1969
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer: Brian Humphries
Genesis
The instrumental entitled “Dramatic Theme” is heard just before the denouement of the movie More. Having by force of circumstance become a barman, Stefan sees Estelle in the arms of Ernesto Wolf. Upon returning to their place, his anxiety only increases as he awaits his girlfr
iend. In order to calm down, he decides to have another shot of heroin…
Production
“Dramatic Theme,” which brings the album More to a close, is actually a variation on “Main Theme.” Although the tempo is slower (112 bpm as opposed to 136), the key is the same (G minor). Roger Waters plays more or less the same bass hook, inspired by “Let There Be More Light” from A Saucerful of Secrets, and Nick Mason delivers a similar drum part, merely replacing his toms with a rimshot on his snare drum. Rick Wright provides harmonic support with reasonably discreet pads on the Farfisa organ. The superb tune he plays on “Main Theme” is noticeably different here, however, and what’s more virtually inaudible; it can just be made out at the back of the mix. This time it is David Gilmour who leads the dance on his white Stratocaster. He improvises throughout this sequence, alternating string bends and whammy bar. His guitar is strongly colored by long and ample reverb, but also by the Binson Echorec, which, by way of a conclusion, he overloads with feedback at the end of the track (from 2:00). The sound he creates with his subtly distorted (courtesy of his Fuzz Face) Stratocaster is spacey and ethereal.
“Dramatic Theme” is one of the three titles on the album whose master tape was exhibited at the Cité de la Musique in Paris in 2003 (the other two being “Main Theme” and “Ibiza Bar”). Let us hope that it reappears one day, enabling a high-quality remastering to be made. This final instrumental brings to a close the Floyd’s first foray into the world of motion pictures, the results of which, taken as a whole, are not merely convincing but brilliant. And this was an experience the group would soon repeat.
The Man And The Journey: The Original Suite
Pink Floyd played concert after concert throughout 1969. No fewer than six in January, prior to the start of the recording sessions for More, and then a further twenty in February and March. The group, which had been trying to get itself together again following the departure of Syd Barrett, would take advantage of these gigs to perform a multitude of sonic experiments and stage “happenings,” and also to try out an initial concept work in the form of The Man and the Journey, a musical suite organized around a central idea and consisting of new compositions as well as pieces taken from their existing repertoire. This would be performed onstage between spring 1969 and the beginning of 1970.
This suite lasted around forty minutes and comprised two parts. The first, The Man, tells the story of a day in the life of an average man in the postindustrial United Kingdom, and on a more metaphorical level of a man’s life from birth to death. The idea came to Roger Waters after seeing writing on a wall of Paddington station along the lines of: Get up, go to work, go home, go to bed, get up, go to work, go home, go to bed, get up, go to work, go home, go to bed, get up, go to work, go home, go to bed. How long can it go on? How long before you crack? The second part, The Journey, has no real unifying theme. It is about a journey (of what nature? psychedelic?) based on improvisation.
Sonic Experimentation and Stage Happenings
The first performance of a suite called The Man and the Journey, later occasionally referred to as The Massed Gadgets of Auximenes: More Furious Madness from Pink Floyd, was given by Pink Floyd at London’s Royal Festival Hall (South Bank) on April 14, 1969. From this time forward, the group’s concerts would all be based around a specific concept, looking forward to the direction Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Rick Wright, and Nick Mason were to take over the subsequent decades, and in a sense prefiguring their future concept albums.
Each of their gigs was nothing less than a dive into the unknown. In addition to sonic experimentation, realized above all with the Azimuth Coordinator, a device that enabled sound to be panned around the auditorium, and the improbable sound effects produced by the group live, short scenarios, described as happenings, were acted out, such as the sawing of planks, the construction of a table, and the ceremony of tea being served to the musicians onstage during the show. (This would later be included as the last track, “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast,” on the album Atom Heart Mother.) The peculiarity of these scenarios and sound effects, which punctuated the concert, making it an unusual event to say the least, is conveyed by an eyewitness account from the journalist Michel Lancelot, who attended the concert given at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris in January 1970: “While Nick Mason is hammering his cymbals and Rick Wright is hammering his vibraphone, the two others, David Gilmour and Roger Waters, the group’s two singers, are seated on the stage […] miming human labor with hammers, simple hammers […]. And then, while David Gilmour continues to bang the hammer, Roger Waters, the bassist, is sawing away at a plank. Just listen to the incredible rhythm, it’s extraordinary! And the most extraordinary thing, from the beginning of the second movement of this symphony about a day in the life of a man […], there’s a slightly ridiculous aspect to it, the sight of these men sitting down banging hammers, it doesn’t really correspond to one’s idea of what music is, and yet […] this extraordinary rhythm, this movement of the whole, it’s not done on record, for which the effects can be restarted fifteen times if need be, it is all done live, both the grinding of the saw and the hammering…”40 As a result of the material difficulties involved in staging these little scenarios, it would not be long before Pink Floyd abandoned performances of this kind.
The “Man and the Journey Tour” played to twenty or so other British towns and cities (including Birmingham, Manchester, and the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge) between April and June, with an interlude to appear on radio and television shows in West Germany (Stuttgart and Hamburg on April 19 and 23 respectively). The group resumed its performances of the suite in England in August (Plumpton Race Course, near Lewes, on August 8) before playing the Netherlands (Amsterdam on September 17; Maastricht on September 25) and France in January 1970 (Paris on January 23 and 24; Lyon on February 2). The French concerts are thought to be the last at which the suite was performed live.
The famed concert at Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on September 17, 1969, incompletely recorded by Dutch radio VPRO, gave rise to a bootleg. It was later officially released on the box set The Early Years 1965-1972, which also includes “Afternoon,” “The Beginning,” and “Beset by Creatures of the Deep” rehearsals of the The Man and the Journey concept for the show at the Royal Festival Hall in London on April 14, 1969.
UMMA-GUMMA
ALBUM
UMMAGUMMA
RELEASE DATE
United Kingdom: November 7, 1969
Label: Harvest Records
RECORD NUMBER: SHDW 1/2
Number 5 (the Netherlands)
LIVE DISC Astronomy Dominé / Careful With That Axe, Eugene / Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun / A Saucerful Of Secrets STUDIO DISC Sysyphus (Parts 1-4) / Grantchester Meadows / Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict / The Narrow Way (Part 1-3) / The Grand Vizier’s Garden Party (Part 1 - Entrance / Part 2 - Entertainment / Part 3 - Exit) OUTTAKES Roger’s Blues / Rest / Embryo
Ummagumma, a Freewheeling Album from the Floyd
Pink Floyd worked on their fourth album between September 1968 and July 1969. Ummagumma is atypical of the group’s output not so much because it is a double album, but rather because it consists of a live disc and a studio disc. The first two sides comprise live versions of four titles taken from their earlier studio albums (“Astronomy Dominé,” “A Saucerful of Secrets,” “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun,” and “Careful with That Axe, Eugene.” The second disc, recorded in the studio, is the result of a more experimental approach in that the four musicians allowed themselves half a side each in which to give free rein to their imaginations. The challenge the Floyd set themselves was for each member of the group to express himself individually, as he saw fit, with no concern for any overall unity. The sound engineer Peter Mew recalls that on the first day, the group was assembled in the studio with Norman Smith, who asked the musicians whether they had any songs. “To which Floyd replied,
‘No.’ After that, it was decided that each of them would have a quarter of the album.”1 “The four pieces of the LP are very different, though there are pieces in all of them which link together,” explained keyboardist Rick Wright in the columns of Beat Instrumental in 1970. “There wasn’t actually any attempt to connect them all. We didn’t write together, we just went into the studios on our own to record and then we got together to listen to them. We all played alone on our pieces, in fact […]. I thought it was a very valid experiment and it helped me.”52
Each member of the group was thus responsible for his own piece (or two pieces in the case of Roger Waters). Born of fruitful competition, the five tracks on the studio disc reveal something of the musicians’ personalities as well as of their improvisatory skills, even if all four band members were in experimental mode more or less. In “Sysyphus,” Rick Wright has written a four-part symphonic poem that evokes the music of the big-screen historical epic here and the descriptive music of the classical composers there, while elsewhere still, somewhat more aggressively, presenting a strand of musique concrète. In “Grantchester Meadows,” Roger Waters confirms his taste for the pastoral ballad (on the heels of the album More), while “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict” is a sound collage of a highly individual nature. In addition to providing a display of elegant guitar virtuosity in “The Narrow Way,” David Gilmour seems to be looking forward to the musical atmospheres of “Echoes” and The Dark Side of the Moon, especially in the third movement of his piece. Finally, in “The Grand Vizier’s Garden Party,” Nick Mason displays a taste for exoticism and revels in the wide world of percussion.