Pink Floyd All the Songs
Page 24
The Recording
Pink Floyd thus recorded most of their Zabriskie Point soundtrack in the studios of International Recording in Rome at 172 Via Urbana. The group seems to have been in Rome for a good part of November, although the sessions apparently took place mainly between the fifteenth and the twenty-second. Rick Wright provides some detail (differing here and there from Nick Mason): “It’s all improvised, but nonetheless it was really hard work. We had each piece of music and we did about six takes of each, and he’d choose the best. Antonioni’s not hard to work with, but he’s a perfectionist. He was with us in the studios every night for two weeks, from nine in the evening until eight the next morning, every night for two weeks to get 20 minutes of music. It was hard, but it was worth it.”9
Opened by Giuseppe Antonino Biondo in 1959, the International Recording Roma studios were originally intended for sound recording, but after being acquired by the corporation NIS Film in 1968, they expanded their activities to take in international cinematic and domestic televisual post-production.
No definitive listing of the tracks recorded by Pink Floyd while working there in November 1969 has ever been drawn up. Nevertheless, it is known for sure that the following titles were cut in Rome: “Heart Beat, Pig Meat,” “Come in Number 51, Your Time Is Up,” “Love Scene,” and “The Riot Scene.” The sessions then continued at Abbey Road Studios in London for five days in December and three in January, with Phil McDonald at the console assisted by Neil Richmond. The group also seems to have worked at Advision Studios on Gosfield Street, London. Other numbers that would see the light of day as part of this project include: “Country Song,” “Crumbling Land,” “Take Off,” and the various versions of “Love Scene.” Once again, this list is probably not exhaustive.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
Jim Morrison of the Doors originally wrote “L’America” for Zabriskie Point. It was rejected by Michelangelo Antonioni, but ended up on the album L.A. Woman. Meanwhile “You Got the Silver” by the Rolling Stones (from the album Let It Bleed) can be heard in the film but is not included on the soundtrack album…
For the record, the Floyd is believed to have cut a “Christmas song” during the Roman sessions as a gift for Antonioni. To judge by Nick Mason and Rick Wright’s laughter as they recall the number on air with Ted Alvy at KPPC-FM in October 1971, this was more of a gag than anything else…
Heart Beat, Pig Meat
Roger Waters / David Gilmour / Nick Mason / Rick Wright 3:12
Musicians
David Gilmour: vocals
Rick Wright: organ
Roger Waters: vocal effects
Nick Mason: drums (?), percussion (?)
Recorded
International Recording Roma Studios, Rome: November 15–22, 1969
Abbey Road Studios, London: January 5 and 15, 1970 (Room Two, Room Three)
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer (EMI): Phil McDonald
Genesis
The musical cocktail devised by the musicians of Pink Floyd for their first piece of music for Zabriskie Point is a blend of percussion, voices, organ, and sound clips. Michelangelo Antonioni uses “Heart Beat, Pig Meat” at the very beginning of the movie, during the opening credits and student meeting. A television or radio journalist can be heard talking indistinctly. Among the first phrases that can be made out are: These teenagers are sometimes so freaked out they cannot sit up straight in class/Perhaps white people are more impressed than black people… a better impression.
Production
Listening to “Heart Beat, Pig Meat,” it is immediately clear that Pink Floyd’s musical approach here is quite different from the one they adopted for More. The atmosphere is far more tense and less psychedelic. The piece opens with a rhythm loop recorded using an instrument that is difficult to identify. It could be a bass drum or a tom, or equally a self-made or improvised percussion instrument. The dull sound is reiterated by the Binson Echorec, producing a stampede-like effect. Present throughout the track, this loop generates a palpable and somewhat disquieting tension. A sung vocal emerges from the depths with long and powerful reverb. This is presumably David Gilmour vocalizing in the same falsetto voice that he uses on “Careful with That Axe, Eugene.” The melody is indefinable, creating a mysterious, dreamlike impression. Rick Wright is the only one to play a harmony instrument, in this case an organ (the Hammond M-102?), on which he improvises short sequences that reappear sporadically throughout the piece. Finally, Roger Waters, as he was fond of doing (listen to the various live versions of “Careful with That Axe, Eugene”), produces numerous vocal effects that depend heavily on the Binson Echorec. “Heart Beat, Pig Meat” would not be what it is without its many sound clips, which include voices on the radio, television excerpts, title music, and dialogues of one kind or another. The track was remixed at Abbey Road on January 5 and 15, 1970, under the title “Beginning Scene.” Without exactly setting the world on fire, this instrumental fulfills its role of movie opener perfectly.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
The version heard in the movie differs slightly from that on the album. It is a different mix, and certain sequences have been edited and put together in a different order.
Crumbling Land
Roger Waters / David Gilmour / Nick Mason / Rick Wright 4:16
Musicians
David Gilmour: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Rick Wright: vocals, organ, piano
Roger Waters: bass
Nick Mason: drums, timpani, gong (?)
Recorded
Abbey Road Studios, London: December 13, 15–17, 1969; January 1 and 5, 1970 (Studio Two and Room Three)
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer: Phil McDonald
Assistant Sound Engineer: Neil Richmond
Genesis
The lyrics written by Pink Floyd for this song can be seen as an allegory of the movie. The man living on a hill with many shining things, including a gleaming car and diamond rings, could well be Daria’s boss, the person she is on her way to meet in Phoenix, Arizona. It is also a song about the harm wreaked by the pollution of the industrial age. On the ground, a dealer (whether of automobiles or drugs is not entirely clear, although the Ford production lines are mentioned) coughs and dies while the eagle flies in clear blue skies. The world is in wrack and ruin, hence the title of the song. Nevertheless, there is a message of hope: at the end, the eagle abandons this doomed world and flies into the sun.
With their second composition for Michelangelo Antonioni’s movie (the director may be represented by the man described in the lyrics as appearing in the sand like a mirage), Pink Floyd has played the card of traditional American music, one that is ideally suited to the natural scenery of Death Valley. Is it a parody of the music of Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams or a genuine homage to it? David Gilmour would later confide that a country and western tune of this kind “could have got done ten times better by numerous American groups, but he used ours. Very strange…”36
Production
It was in London, rather than Italy, that “Highway Song” (the working title of “Crumbling Land”) was recorded. The Floyd took six sessions to complete the song, the second three given over mainly to remixing. It is a surprising piece of work that sounds somewhat like a pastiche of the Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash, or even the Grateful Dead. David Gilmour can be heard picking his acoustic guitar (Levin LT 18?) and white Stratocaster simultaneously. Nick Mason lays down a very good rhythm with brushes (and sticks on the ride cymbal), switching to the timpani (sadly undermixed) in the two bridges. It is said that five kettledrums were provided for the December 15 overdubs. Roger Waters supports his bandmates with a country-style bass line, while Rick Wright plays Hammond organ and piano. Wright shares the lead vocals with Gilmour, and the results are on the whole pleasing.
IN YOUR HEADPHONES
Toward the end of the son
g, at around 3:40, the sound of urban road traffic can be heard. Nick Mason recorded this in Rome.
Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up
Roger Waters / David Gilmour / Nick Mason / Rick Wright / 5:05
Musicians
David Gilmour: vocals, electric rhythm and lead guitar
Rick Wright: vocals (?) keyboards
Roger Waters: voice, bass
Nick Mason: drums
Recorded
International Recording Roma Studios, Rome: November 15–22, 1969
Abbey Road Studios, London: January 1 and 5, 1970 (Studio Two and Room Three)
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer (EMI): Phil McDonald
Assistant Sound Engineer (EMI): Neil Richmond
Genesis
This instrumental piece is used at the very end of the film, at the moment when the desert home of Daria’s boss blows up, symbolizing the consumer society in the process of falling apart. The hippie utopia, which has its roots in the work of Henry David Thoreau, is shown at this moment to be the only credible response to the materialism that has been put in place as the supreme value. In the movie, this track, which runs for 5:05, stops at 3:43. Its title, “Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up,” is a phrase taken from a sketch in the satirical and surrealist BBC Two show Q5, created by Spike Milligan in March 1969, in which the English comic actor parodies boat-rental clerks, who used the expression to call in customers who had exceeded their time. There are no words in “Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up,” which is actually a retreading of “Careful with That Axe, Eugene,” the piece released as a single in December 1968 and included in a magnificent live version on the double album Ummagumma, which had gone on sale in October 1969, shortly before the Zabriskie project. It was this number that had prompted Antonioni to approach the quartet for the soundtrack of his movie.
Production
“Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up” was recorded in Rome in November 1969. This twin of “Careful with That Axe, Eugene” is in a lower key than the original, namely E minor. The slower tempo is closer to that of the live version on Ummagumma. This instrumental foregrounds the various upper-register vocals sung in all likelihood by both David Gilmour and Rick Wright. These voices are both more numerous and more present, each one drowned in powerful reverb. Roger Waters whispers various phrases (rendered incomprehensible by a significant delay) that pan furiously from side to side of the stereo field, although not the famous “Careful with That Axe, Eugene.” In terms of the musical arrangement, Rick Wright’s organ lays down mellow pads over which Roger Waters’s bass riff warbles. Nick Mason marks the tempo mainly on a ride cymbal, and Gilmour plays a clear-toned Stratocaster with a tremolo obtained either from the Echorec or his guitar’s volume control. At 2:53, Waters’s scream, substantially more virile than the one on the album version of “Careful,” marks the transition of this piece toward a harder style, with a distorted second solo guitar, unbridled drums and organ, and a loud and meaty bass. At 3:46, a thunderous Yeah! contributes to the overcharged atmosphere. The track was remixed in London on January 1 and 5, 1970, under its working title “Explosion.” Antonioni could not have found a better musical accompaniment for his closing sequence. “Come In Number 51” is an out-and-out triumph.
The primal cry of Daria—emitted by Roger Waters, actually—at the moment of the explosion, to express metaphorically his disgust with the consumer society, is not the first primal cry in the work of Pink Floyd, but it is certainly one of the most famous in the cinema! Coincidence?
Zabriskie Point Outtakes
Pink Floyd recorded a number of songs for the Zabriskie Point sessions that would not, in the end, be used in the movie. Four of these were included as “official” outtakes on the double CD released by Sony in 1997: Zabriskie Point (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (88697638212). Others can be found on a more recent release, the box set The Early Years: 1965–1972, which came out in November 2016. It is only the four outtakes on the 1997 CD that we will consider here.
Country Song
Roger Waters / David Gilmour / Nick Mason / Rick Wright / 4:42
Musicians: David Gilmour: electric lead guitar / Rick Wright: piano / Roger Waters: bass / Nick Mason: drums / Recorded: International Recording Roma Studios, Rome: November 15–22, 1969 (?) / Abbey Road Studios, London: December 12, 13, 17, 1969; January 5, 1970 (Studio Two) / Technical Team: Producer: Pink Floyd / Sound Engineer: (EMI): Phil McDonald / Assistant Sound Engineer (EMI): Neil Richmond
Genesis
Pink Floyd like to wrong-foot their public, and the only thing that’s country about this song, which they composed specially for Zabriskie Point, is its title. It is more of a rock ballad with an abundance of distorted guitar. Is this why Antonioni decided against including it in his movie?
“Country Song” presents two characters in an unusual kind of fable: a king who hugs the border in the shadow under the trees, and the Red Queen who awaits news of him. The tale takes a completely abstract turn when it becomes a question of gold in the treasury and then a game of chess lost by the queen, who starts to cry. She ends up smiling at the cat, who smiled back. The spirit of Lewis Carroll is not far away…
Production
It is not known for certain whether “Country Song” was worked on in Italy, but it was the first take recorded at EMI on December 12, 1969, that served as the base for the various overdubs. The real framework of the piece is provided by Rick Wright’s rhythmic piano, which is supported by Nick Mason’s drumming and Roger Waters’s bass. David Gilmour takes care of the acoustic guitar and the singing. In the verses he harmonizes with himself in a gentle, fragile-sounding voice, before adopting a more raucous rock style on the refrains. This was also an opportunity for him to let it rip on his Stratocaster, strongly distorted courtesy of his Fuzz Face, and the resulting sound is reminiscent of that of “The Nile Song” on More. He plays the song out with a solo on his Fender, but definitely not one of the best of his career… In its present state, “Country Song” is more like a demo than a finished piece, but some listeners may question the strength of the song itself.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
“Country Song” is also known by the titles “The Red Queen” and “Looking at the Map.”
Unknown Song
Roger Waters / David Gilmour / Nick Mason / Rick Wright / 6:01
Musicians: David Gilmour: acoustic guitar, electric guitars / Rick Wright: keyboards / Roger Waters: bass / Nick Mason: drums / Recorded: International Recording Roma Studios, Rome: November 15–22, 1969 / Abbey Road Studios, London: December 12, 13, 17, 1969; January 5, 1970 (Studio Two and Room Three) / Technical Team: Producer: Pink Floyd / Sound Engineer (EMI): Phil McDonald / Assistant Sound Engineer (EMI): Neil Richmond
Genesis
“Unknown Song” is a partly acoustic number reminiscent of the version of “The Narrow Way, Part 1” (from the album Ummagumma) that was renamed “Baby Blue Shuffle in D Major” for a live show recorded for the BBC on December 2, 1968. David Gilmour has pride of place. Antonioni rejected the track despite its fitting the atmosphere of the movie pretty well—in particular Mark the student and Daria the secretary’s quest for the absolute in a world dominated by consumerism. This song is also known by the title “Rain in the Country.”
Production
“Unknown Song” is apparently also an unfinished song. It is clearly a recycled version of “The Narrow Way, Part 1,” featuring similar arrangements, an identical tempo, and the same key (D). Although credited to all four musicians, David Gilmour was presumably the main author of this instrumental. He can be heard picking an acoustic guitar (on the right) and playing lead electric (on the left) and electric slide (in the center). He is not joined by his bandmates until 1:54, when Nick Mason comes in on drums and Rick Wright on keyboards, but most prominently Roger Waters on bass, with a hook that he would reuse in the “Funky Dung” section of “Atom Heart Mother” on their next al
bum (of the same name). For the time being, he plays for only a little over seven bars before stopping and picking up the same motif a little further on, at 2:37, and then continuing virtually to the end of the track. Curiously, Waters sticks with the same notes despite the changing harmonies, giving the impression of having been recorded alone in his own corner without taking any account of the others! “Unknown Song” is not exactly an indispensable number in the group’s discography, but it contains the seeds of a section of their future (and magnificent) next album.
Love Scene (version 4)
Roger Waters / David Gilmour / Nick Mason / Rick Wright / 6:46
Musicians: Rick Wright: piano / Recorded: International Recording Roma Studios, Rome: November 15–22, 1969 / Technical Team: Producer: Pink Floyd / Sound Engineer: (?)
Genesis
Pink Floyd recorded six versions of “Love Scene,” none of which Antonioni used in the soundtrack of his movie. On the other hand, two of them, “Love Scene (Version 4)” and “Love Scene (Version 6),” can be found on the double album CD released in 1997.