Pink Floyd All the Songs

by Jean-Michel Guesdon

  The double album Ummagumma (1969) marks a turning point in Pink Floyd’s musical output and would provide the group with a number of different avenues to explore over the next few years.

  “Ummagumma”? Did you say, “Ummagumma”?

  The album title, which sounds like a low rumbling noise, is a local slang expression for sex used by Syd and David when they were living in Cambridge. “It’s just a name,” explains Nick Mason. “It wasn’t taken because it means anything; it was taken because it sounded interesting and nice. And it can be either made to sound like a chant or as a sort of exclamation.”53 Other explanations have also been put forward. Umma means prophet in the Chakobsa language spoken by the Fremen people in Frank Herbert’s science fiction classic Dune, and we know what enormous fans the band members, in particular Rogers Waters, were of this particular literary genre.

  Pink Floyd’s fourth album was released in the United Kingdom and continental Europe on November 7, 1969 (on EMI’s progressive music label Harvest, founded shortly before by Malcolm Jones with the help of Peter Jenner and Andrew King, who managed some of the label’s artists), and in the United States on November 10. To start with, the bosses at EMI were skeptical to say the least. Roger Waters would later claim that they did not believe in Ummagumma and thought it would not sell at all. But, as the bassist observes, “[…] it came out and sold better, far better than anyone thought.”3 Against all expectations, the album was enthusiastically received by the rock media and the general public alike, above all in Europe—and not only because it was modestly priced for a double album. Ummagumma reached number 5 in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, number 25 in West Germany, a disappointing number 89 in Belgium, and an even more disappointing number 117 in France (despite being awarded the Grand Prix International du Disque by the Académie Charles Cros). In the United States, Ummagumma progressed no further than number 74 on the Billboard chart, but would eventually be certified platinum.

  The Madcap Breaks His Silence

  Looking beyond the album’s reception by the music critics and the public, how did Syd Barrett react to the release of the album? The group’s former front man expresses himself in reasonably kindly terms in the Record Mirror: “They’ve probably done very well. The singing’s very good and the drumming is good as well.”9 It is worth noting that rather than abandoning Syd since his ejection from the group, his former colleagues had helped him to record his first solo album, The Madcap Laughs, with David Gilmour and Roger Waters going as far as playing on and producing various tracks. Barrett’s first solo LP was released on January 2, 1970, a little more than two months after Ummagumma. Compared to the surprisingly good sales of the group’s fourth album, The Madcap Laughs was a relative failure, but at least Syd’s former bandmates had done their bit, even if the album’s co-producer, Malcolm Jones, would later question the value of their contributions.

  The Sleeve

  The sleeve of Ummagumma, designed by Hipgnosis, is one of the most famous in the history of rock music. The pictures were taken at the home of the parents of Libby January, a friend of Storm Thorgerson, at Great Shelford, near Cambridge. In the foreground, David Gilmour, sitting on a chair positioned against the frame of an open doorway, stares into the lens with his face silhouetted against the light. Behind him, Roger Waters is seated on the ground, while Nick Mason, wearing a hat, occupies the middle distance, and Rick Wright, doing a shoulder stand, brings up the rear. Based on this positioning, the Hipgnosis design studio had the ingenious idea of creating a Droste effect, that is to say repeating the motif of the first image ad infinitum within successive images. In the second version of the image, which appears within a frame hanging on the wall, we see Roger Waters sitting on the chair, Nick Mason in the doorway, Rick Wright staring at the sky, David Gilmour doing a shoulder stand, and so on… The overall effect creates the illusion of a 3-D photograph, the aim being, in Storm Thorgerson’s words, “to illustrate the simple idea that Floyd music was multilayered […]”54

  On the back of the sleeve is a photograph of Pink Floyd’s impressive hardware carefully laid out on one of the runways of London’s Biggin Hill Airport by the roadies Alan Styles and Peter Watts, who can be seen in the picture. The equipment has been arranged in the shape of an arrowhead, creating the illusion of a military aircraft about to take off with its payload. The inner surfaces of the cover are adorned with black-and-white scenes of the musicians’ private lives: a low-angle shot of David Gilmour in front of a tree stump inhabited by elves, Roger Waters with his wife Judy, a heavily bearded and mustachioed Rick Wright staring intently at the camera from a position next to his piano, and sixteen close-up shots of Nick Mason.

  This sleeve has suffered various vicissitudes over the years. The original cover included a mistake in the concert dates of the live disc, which were given as June rather than as April 27 and May 2. This error was corrected on the remastered CD versions. It will also be observed that the inside photograph of Roger Waters with his wife Judy has been reframed on the CD version so that Roger alone can be seen. This is explained by the couple’s 1975 divorce…

  The Recording

  The first disc, that is to say the live part of the album, was recorded twice, on April 27 and May 2, as Rick Wright explains: “The first time, at Mother’s in Birmingham [“Astronomy Dominé” and “A Saucerful of Secrets”], we felt we’d played very well, but the equipment didn’t work so we couldn’t use nearly all of that one. The second time, at Manchester College of Commerce [“Careful with That Axe, Eugene” and “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”], was a really bad gig, but as the recording equipment was working well, we had to use it.”52

  The studio portion of Ummagumma was recorded at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in London. Norman Smith is again credited as producer, but the reality was quite different, as Rick Wright explained to Nicky Horne on London’s Capital Radio in December 1976: “That was at the time when we were splitting from Norman. He was getting less and less, if you like, involved in what we were doing, and virtually at the end he was just sitting in the background listening, but he realised I think that we were taking over production and it was a natural thing—a natural process.”55 Ever since Syd’s departure, Norman had not really understood the musical direction being taken by the group, and so he gradually detached himself from them. “So he just sort of let it happen,” continues Wright, “and, there wasn’t a sudden break, or a bad feeling at all; there wasn’t all of us one day saying, ‘Right, Norman, you’re out!’ We, all of us, realised that was what was happening, ’cos his good point I think early on was teaching us how to work in a studio.”55 Well grounded by this stage in recording techniques, the Floyd therefore took charge of production, leaving Norman as no more than a phantom producer.

  “I wasn’t fantastically amazed with the live album of Ummagumma,” confesses Roger Waters in a 1970 interview, “but I think the idea for the studio side, doing one track each, was basically good. I personally think it would have been better if we’d done them individually, and then got the opinions of the others, put four heads into each piece instead of just one. I think each piece would have benefited from that, but by the time they were done, we’d used up our studio time. I was quite pleased by the way it came out, though. It sold a lot, which is something.”56

  Pink Floyd would require a total of forty-three recording, editing, and mixing sessions for the studio album. Three of these were dedicated to “Embryo,” a title that would not be released until 1970, when it appeared on Picnic: A Breath of Fresh Air, a compilation of various artists recording for the Harvest label. It has since been included in the 1983 compilation Works, destined for the US market, and more recently in the CD collection The Early Years: 1965–1972, released in 2016. Five sessions were dedicated to “One Night Stand,” the working title of “Summer ’68,” which would not be included on an album until Atom Heart Mother (albeit in a rerecorded version) in 1970.

  Between September 17, 1968, and July 5, 1969
, the dates of the first and last recording sessions for the album, the group also found time to record its fifth single, “Point Me at the Sky”/“Careful with That Axe, Eugene” at the end of 1968, and to get down all the titles on its soundtrack for Barbet Schroeder’s movie More in early February 1969! As well as being a very busy period for the band, this must have been a time of considerable inspiration…

  Among the various sound engineers and assistants working on the project were some of the same names as before, most importantly Peter Mew at the console, but also a number of newcomers such as Neil Richmond (Motörhead, Soft Machine, and others); Alan Parsons, the future “master of sound” on The Dark Side of the Moon (who also worked on “Point Me at the Sky”/“Careful with That Axe, Eugene”); Anthony Mone; and Nick Webb. And then there are the two extraordinary engineers Phil McDonald (the Beatles, Derek And The Dominos, Syd Barrett, Deep Purple…) and Chris Blair (Genesis, the Cure, Kate Bush, Radiohead…), who attended only one of the final sessions on the album.

  Technical Details

  After a good deal of vacillation, in 1968 EMI finally agreed to acquire and bring into operation its first two eight-track tape recorders (3M M23s). It was presumably on one of these machines that Ummagumma was recorded. Although this is a safe assumption as far as Pink Floyd’s 1969 recording sessions are concerned, given that the group worked mainly in Studio Two (where one of the machines was installed) that year, it is less certain in the case of the group’s 1968 work. That year the Floyd used mainly Studio Three, and it has not been possible to establish beyond doubt whether the second eight-track machine was in operation there. Similarly, the REDD.51 console is known to have been replaced in 1969 by the famous TG12345, but whether or not this was also used for the group’s 1968 sessions is by no means easy to ascertain.

  The Instruments

  The image on the back of the album cover gives us an insight into the various instruments used by Pink Floyd at this time, particularly in concert. Among the items on display in this photograph, we can see Nick Mason’s Premier drum kit with its two bass drums, a pair of maracas, two orchestral timpani; Rick Wright’s vibraphone, trombone, and Farfisa Compact Duo organ; a Revox A77 tape recorder; a Binson Echorec II; David Gilmour’s white Fender Stratocaster and a new, natural wood Telecaster (purchased after he lost his first [white] Telecaster during the 1968 United States tour); Roger Waters’s Rickenbacker 4001 and newly acquired white Fender Precision; and finally the inevitable gong perched on the roof of the van. As for amplification, two Sound City L100 and two Hiwatt DR-103 amp heads can be identified, presumably used by Waters and Wright. Gilmour would soon switch to Hiwatt as well, but for his Ummagumma studio work he was almost certainly still using his Selmer Stereomaster with his white Stratocaster. Similarly, Waters’s Rickenbacker was either played through his Selmer Treble-n-Bass 100 or plugged directly into the console. Last but not least, it is worth noting that Gilmour used a Leslie 147 speaker to modify his guitar sound.

  For Pink Floyd Addicts

  The members of Pink Floyd have never really cared for Ummagumma. Roger Waters even referred to it as a “disaster”!

  A species of damselfly discovered in Africa in 2015 was named the Umma gumma! This was not the first creature to be honored with a binomial drawn from popular music: in 2014 a Brazilian spider had been charmingly baptized the Bumba lennoni…

  Sysyphus Parts One-Four

  Rick Wright / Part One: 1:09 / Part Two: 3:30 / Part Three: 1: 50 / Part Four: 7:00

  Musicians

  Rick Wright: Mellotron, organ, piano, electric harpsichord (?), electric guitar, vibraphone, tubular bells, voice, snare drum (?), cymbals (?)

  Norman Smith: timpani (?), gong (?)

  Recorded

  Abbey Road Studios, London: September 17, 18, October 2(?), 8(?), 9(?), December 11, 17, 18, 1968; March 26, May 5, 7, 12, 1969 (Studio Two, Studio Three, Room Four)

  Technical Team

  Producer: Norman Smith

  Sound Engineer: Peter Mew

  Assistant Sound Engineers: Neil Richmond, Jeff Jarratt

  Genesis

  The idea of each member of the group composing his own piece and recording it alone for the Ummagumma studio album seems to have originated with Rick Wright. The Pink Floyd keyboardist, who opens the proceedings, takes the name of his musical work from a character in Greek mythology. Sisyphus was the son of Aeolus and Enarete, the husband of Merope (one of the seven Pleiades) and the founder and first king of the city of Corinth. He may also have been the father of Ulysses. After vanquishing Thanatos (the personification of death) and daring to defy the authority of the gods, Sisyphus was condemned for all eternity to roll a boulder up a mountainside in Tartarus (where, in Greek mythology, wrongdoers atone for their sins) toward a summit that he could never attain due to the weight of the rock, which would incessantly force him back down.

  The inspiration behind Rick Wright’s experimental symphonic poem in four parts was thus this archetypal hero who wanted to evade death but was unable to conquer immortality, a symbol of the absurd according to Albert Camus in his philosophical essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” (1942). “Theoretically you could do it live, and the only reason I did it virtually all by myself is that it was quicker that way,” explains Wright. “I didn’t write out scores, I drew graphs.”3

  Production

  The four parts of “Sysyphus” are all very different. Unfortunately there is a lack of precise information about their respective recording dates.

  “Ric’s Scene [or Ricky’s Scene], Part 1,” the working title of “Sysyphus Part One,” was recorded on September 17, 1968, kicking off the Ummagumma sessions. It would require a dozen takes. This first part, lasting barely a minute, plunges the listener into the world of the historical epic, with the fifth chords characteristic of that cinematic genre. Presumably Rick Wright’s intention here was to evoke the antique origins of his hero Sisyphus. He can be heard producing various sounds, including strings and brass, on the Mellotron MK2. As revealed in the Record Mirror of January 25, 1969, however, it was Norman Smith who played the different percussion instruments, including the timpani and the gong (or orchestral cymbals?).

  According to the author Glenn Povey, this short instrumental is actually an edit of the finale of the fourth part, which originally comprised a fifth section. A more logical explanation, however, is surely that this first sequence was copied and slowed down and tagged onto the end of “Sysyphus.” This is borne out by the recording dates, the first part having been finished before the last. In terms of key, there is a difference of a fourth between the two, a consequence of the original version being slowed down.

  The mood of this first section of “Sysyphus” is very different from that of “Astronomy Dominé” or “A Saucerful of Secrets.” It is always fascinating to see how certain musicians play completely differently in a solo context from the way they perform with their band. On the evidence of this piece, Rick Wright harbored a martial side that was more Ben-Hur than Pink Floyd.

  The first part segues into the second via a cross-fade. Recording of this section also started on September 17, under the title “Ric’s Scene, Part 2,” before being definitively named “Sysyphus Part Two.” Here Rick plays acoustic piano, in all likelihood the studio’s Steinway B grand. His lyrical work vaguely suggests the influence of Russian or French composers such as Rachmaninov or even Debussy, although his style remains highly personal. At around 1:50, light and airy cymbals ring out, marking the start of free-jazz-style dissonances in the Cecil Taylor mold. Other percussion instruments also make an appearance, and stereo reverb is suddenly part of the picture, intensifying the sense of chaos, presumably with Norman Smith on the timpani.

  The session dates for the third part (working title: “Ricky’s Scene”) are unclear. The musical material for this section is completely dissonant and lacking any formal principle other than the aleatory. According to Glenn Povey once more, the voice and electric harpsichord overdubs were added
on March 26, 1969. This being the case, the latter would almost certainly have been the Baldwin electric harpsichord that EMI had acquired at the beginning of the year, the same instrument used on the Beatles’ song “Because.” Rick plays an improvised part on it, seeking out dissonances without any predictable structure. The instrument’s strings can be heard groaning, and Rick seems to provide his own accompaniment on the snare drum and the bell of a cymbal. After recording an initial sequence, the keyboardist then, in order to intensify the chaotic effect, recorded another pass using the same instruments but totally independently and mirroring the first in the stereo image. And as he still seems to have found his “Sysyphus Part Three” too mild, he then added some stress-inducing screams, sped up to sound even more unreal. This is not a track recommended for pregnant women.

  This brings us to the fourth and last part: “Ricky’s Scene, Part 4,” or “Sysyphus Part Four,” seven minutes of harrowing music, the recording of which began on December 11, 1968. This final track can be divided into four sections. The first begins with a peaceful, dreamlike, but oppressive atmosphere. Rick begins by producing a string sound on the Mellotron before adding vibraphone against a background of assorted birdsong—creating a similar pastoral mood to that of “Cirrus Minor” on the soundtrack to the movie More. Numerous instruments and sound effects can be heard, including an organ (or Mellotron) sound, modulated by an oscillator, which moves around the stereo spectrum; the sound of tubular bells (for example at 1:22); the Farfisa Compact Duo; and snippets of guitar played using the whammy bar in order to produce a plaintive effect (listen around 1:40).