There are two different versions of the third verse of “Free Four.” In the movie La Vallée, it takes the form of a piece of helpful advice being offered by the narrator: So take my advice/And cut yourself a slice/And try not to make it too thick. On the album Obscured by Clouds, Roger Waters makes a passing reference to his status as a rock musician: So all aboard for the American tour/And maybe you’ll make it to the top. And then, fatalistically: And I can tell you ’cos I know/You may find it hard to get off. In the movie, “Free Four” is heard after the band of travelers have arrived at the foot of the mountains and need to buy horses in order to be able to continue their expedition.
As happens so often, the title of the song plays on a linguistic ambiguity. In what appears to be a simple count-in at the beginning in order to establish the tempo, the “three” has become “free” (“one, two, free, four”). Might this signify the “four free ones”? Could it be an unintended metaphor for the phenomenal and unexpected fame the band would achieve with the impending release of The Dark Side of the Moon? A fame that would lead Waters, Gilmour, Wright, and Mason—the four—into an inevitable state of alienation from one another? Are these the band’s final moments of freedom before being caught in the trap of The Wall?
Production
This song, which could easily have been performed by the Kinks or T. Rex, begins with an emphatic “one, two, FREE, FOUR!” Musically, it is a pleasant acoustic ballad: light and jolly (despite the words, which are quite the opposite), but one that lacks any real melodic appeal. Waters is trying his hand here at something he does not really excel at, and is straying away from the subtle harmonies that are his forte. Two strummed guitars are an integral part of the rhythm section throughout the song. It is highly likely that they were played by Waters and Gilmour, as numerous studio photos show them recording with a Martin D-35. Waters also plays the bass (which is slightly too recessed in the mix) and sings lead vocal, which he doubles on a second track. His voice possesses an important characteristic: it immediately captures the listener’s attention, like that of a radio commentator. And Waters certainly has a few tales to tell… Nick Mason delivers some straightforward, pop-style drumming far removed from his arabesques on Ummagumma. He is assisted by hand claps from his bandmates, creating the mood of a New Year’s party. Rick Wright seems to be on the VCS3, playing a G with a highly characteristic timbre (audible in the intro). Finally, David Gilmour plays the solo parts on his “Black Strat,” again with Fuzz Face distortion. His improvisations are highly spirited, his phrasing harder edged than usual, and he also makes use of feedback on his guitar, coloring it further with his whammy bar (at 1:50). At 2:49 and 2:54 short phrases can be heard that sound like badly wiped tracks or unused solo parts that have emerged accidentally. It is interesting to note that behind each of his solos he plays a distorted rhythm part.
“Free Four” would get some radio airplay in the US and is a perfect illustration of the state of mind Pink Floyd were in when they undertook to record this second soundtrack for Barbet Schroeder. Resulting in a collection of disparate songs, the movie project came along at just the right time, providing the Floyd with a distraction after their hard work on Meddle and their no less taxing preparation for The Dark Side of the Moon.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
“Free Four” was chosen as the A-side of the only single to be extracted from Obscured by Clouds. The B-side was “Stay” in the United States, “The Gold It’s in The…” in Denmark, Italy, New Zealand, and West Germany, and “Absolutely Curtains” in Japan.
Stay
Richard Wright, Roger Waters/4:08
Musicians
David Gilmour: electric rhythm and lead guitar
Rick Wright: vocals, vocal harmonies, piano, organ, Fender Rhodes (?)
Roger Waters: bass
Nick Mason: drums
Recorded
Strawberry Studios, Château d’Hérouville, Val-d’Oise, France: February 23–29, March 23–27, 1972
Morgan Studios, London: April 4–6, 1972
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer (Hérouville): Peter Watts (?)
Sound Engineer (Hérouville, mono mix): Dominique Blanc-Francard
Assistant Sound Engineer (Hérouville): Andy Scott
Genesis
“Stay” is a composition by Roger Waters and Rick Wright whose subject is not so far removed from that of “Summer ’68” on the album Atom Heart Mother. It is the story of a one-night stand, possibly with a groupie. Stay and help me to end the day. The narrator is intrigued by his companion, a mysterious creature by whose side he awakes as the morning dews herald a newborn day and the midnight blue turns to gray: Because I want to find what lies behind those eyes, sings Rick Wright. And he adds: Rack my brain and try to remember your name. A melancholy and even depressive song riddled with regrets and unanswered questions, “Stay” was not used in Barbet Schroeder’s movie. It was, on the other hand, chosen as the B-side of the US single (with “Free Four” as the A-side).
Production
The music for “Stay” was apparently composed by Rick Wright and the words were written by Roger Waters. The harmonies are rich, the structure meandering, and the performances of uniformly good quality. All the same, listeners might be forgiven for wondering whether the same musicians who had recorded Meddle a few months previously could also have been responsible for this song. After all, we are a long way here from the progressive music they helped to develop. “Stay” is more of a pop song, but then Rick Wright had a good feel for melody despite his jazz influences, and this is also why he appreciated Syd Barrett so much as a composer and lyricist.
The song opens with intimate piano supported by a very good bass line from Roger Waters. It is Wright who sings, in a characteristically gentle voice, which he doubles, while harmonizing with himself in places. He plays a number of different keyboards, including what is most probably a Fender Rhodes, heard mainly in the refrains; a second acoustic piano, also played in the refrains; and a Hammond organ that can be heard in the background, recessed in the mix. Mason lays down a good beat halfway between pop and jazz-rock. As for David Gilmour, the guitarist accompanies on a clear-toned “Black Strat,” using his wah-wah pedal to color the sound. His contribution to this track is of high quality, in particular his excellent solo at 2:41.
Absolutely Curtains
Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Rick Wright, Nick Mason/5:51
Musicians
David Gilmour: VCS3 (?)
Rick Wright: VCS3, organ, Fender Rhodes, tack piano
Roger Waters: VCS3 (?)
Nick Mason: cymbals, timpani
Mapuga tribespeople: ethnic chanting
Recorded
Strawberry Studios, Château d’Hérouville, Val-d’Oise, France: February 23–29, March 23–27, 1972
Morgan Studios, London: April 4–6, 1972
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer (Hérouville): Peter Watts (?)
Sound Engineer (Hérouville, mono mix): Dominique Blanc-Francard
Assistant Sound Engineer (Hérouville): Andy Scott
Genesis
“Absolutely Curtains” is an instrumental credited to the four members of Pink Floyd. It is heard at the end of the movie, as the members of the expedition struggle across some steep terrain in thick mist. All of a sudden, while the others are resting, Viviane takes a few more steps and has a glimpse of the valley. This concluding track (and the musical accompaniment to the ultimate stage of the journey) is built around Rick Wright’s keyboards and Mason’s percussion. The voices of the Mapuga tribespeople then surge forward, reinforcing the mystical aspect of the expedition (and representing an alternative to the Western consumer society). Thanks to this aspect, “Absolutely Curtains” can be regarded as Pink Floyd’s contribution to world music, as it was this instrumental that launched the encounter between rock (prog rock in this particular instance) an
d ethnic singing.
Production
The piece begins with a C drone on the VCS3 and pads laid down on the Hammond organ. The atmosphere is oppressive, and becomes all the more so when new sonorities created on a second VCS3 gradually merge with the other keyboards. Rick Wright comes in with an ethereal motif on his Fender Rhodes (from 0:25), before playing a tune on what sounds like a tack piano, in other words an instrument into each of whose hammers a thumbtack has been inserted, creating a distinctive sound not unlike that of the Japanese koto. It was presumably not by chance that this instrumental track would later be used as the B-side of the 1972 “Free Four” single in Japan (Toshiba/Odeon Records EOR-10149). Wright then plays a second melodic line on his Farfisa organ just as Nick Mason strikes his timpani with some power (1:03). A crescendoing cymbal then rings out, similar to others heard earlier in the piece. At 2:38, a snatch of a sung phrase is suddenly heard, coming as something of a surprise. This is soon faded out, giving way to the chanting of the Mapuga tribespeople, who are eventually left to bring “Absolutely Curtains” to a close unaccompanied. Strangely enough, of all the tracks on the album, it is probably this one that most closely resembles the characteristic Pink Floyd style.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
The same tack piano was apparently used by Elton John on his album Honky Château at the Château d’Hérouville in January 1972. The instrument can be heard on the song “Honky Cat,” which was released as a single in July 1972.
THE
DARK SIDE
OF THE
MOON
ALBUM
THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
RELEASE DATE
United Kingdom: March 23 (March 24 according to some sources), 1973
Label: Harvest Records
RECORD NUMBER: SHVL 804
Number 1 (United States), on the charts for more than 800 (nonconsecutive) weeks, Number 1 (Canada), Number 2 (United Kingdom)
Speak To Me/Breathe/On The Run/Time/The Great Gig In The Sky/Money/Us And Them/Any Colour You Like/Brain Damage/Eclipse
The Dark Side of the Moon: The Ultimate Concept Album
On January 20, 1972, following three days of rehearsals at the Rainbow Theatre in London, Pink Floyd played the Brighton Dome. This was the first in a long series of concerts that by the end of the year would take the band up and down the United Kingdom, to North America, and back again to Europe (including the United Kingdom [again], Denmark, West Germany, France, Belgium, and Switzerland). A series of concerts that most importantly would enable the Floyd to hone the songs that made up the forthcoming album.
The First Steps on the Moon…
January 20, 1972. Inside the Dome, the crowd’s impatient wait comes to an end when the stage is suddenly plunged into darkness and the hypnotic sound of a beating heart starts to pound out through the hall’s speaker system. That evening, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Rick Wright, and Nick Mason debuted six new pieces (“Speak to Me,” “On the Run,” “Time,” “Breathe,” “The Mortality Sequence” [soon to be renamed “The Great Gig in the Sky”], and “Money”) to an entranced house, in spite of a technical hitch during “Money” that meant the tape loop could not be played.
This reception set the tone for the ensuing concerts on either side of the Atlantic, during which the group was able to systematically integrate into its set list all the component pieces in its new conceptual work The Dark Side of the Moon: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics—supplementing the above with “Us and Them,” “Any Colour You Like” (initially entitled “Scat”), “Brain Damage,” and “Eclipse.”
Writing in the columns of the Sunday Times, Derek Jewell, who attended the February 17 concert at the Rainbow Theatre, enthused: “If all this sounds like The Inferno reworked, you would be only partly right. The ambition of the Floyd’s artistic intention is now vast. Yet at the heart of all the multi-media intensity, they have […] an uncanny feeling for the melancholy of our times […] In their own terms, Floyd strikingly succeed.” The journalist concludes that Pink Floyd “are dramatists supreme.”53 Renamed Eclipse: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics for the North American leg of the tour in April and May, the extended work readopted its previous title, The Dark Side of the Moon: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics, for the second part of the tour in September and November. As with “Echoes,” this meant the songs on Pink Floyd’s eighth album were presented to the public, developed, and even, in some cases, assumed their definitive form during the course of concerts given by the group.
The Birth of the Concept Album
The concept for the album had seen the light of day a few months earlier, in November 1971. Having already started to mull over ideas for an album, the group got together at Nick Mason’s home on Saint Augustine Road in Camden, London, shortly after returning from the United States. “I remember sitting in his kitchen,” explains Roger Waters, “looking out at the garden and saying, ‘Hey, boys, I think I’ve got the answer,’ and describing what it could be about.”81 According to Nick Mason, the individual themes within the overall concept emerged as follows: “Deadlines, travel, the stress of flying, the lure of money, a fear of dying, and problems of mental instability spilling over into madness… Armed with this list Roger went off to continue working on the lyrics.”5 David Gilmour remembers Roger saying: “… that he wanted to write it absolutely straight, clear and direct. To say exactly what he wanted to say for the first time and get away from psychedelic patter and strange and mysterious warblings.”1
In terms of its themes and lyrics, The Dark Side of the Moon is clearly Roger Waters’s album, because it was he alone who came up with them, conceiving of the work as a modern tragedy in three acts. The first act deals with the loss of childhood—apparently a reference to the bassist’s early years in post–Second World War Britain, the second focuses on inhibiting factors within society (the politico-economic system, religion), and the third on the struggle—a battle lost in advance—against the death and nothingness that await us all at the end of the road… “The concept grabbed me,”82 Gilmour would later declare.
The album’s title is a metaphor for madness or, as the bassist himself has said, for everything that is capable of making people crazy: on the one hand the evils of the modern world (repetitive work, a lack of communication, greed, success…); on the other something that has always obsessed humankind: the passing of time, leading inexorably to death. The overriding mission of all rational beings must therefore be to find a way out of, to escape from, this “dark side” and to finally discover the light. “The Dark Side of the Moon was an expression of political, philosophical, humanitarian empathy that was desperate to get out,”83 explains the songwriter. In an interview with Uncut magazine, he is even more specific: “If The Dark Side of the Moon is anything, it’s an exhortation to join the flow of the river of natural history in a way that’s positive, and to embrace the positive and reject the negative, given that one might be able to identify with the things which seem to be a matter of great confusion to a lot of people.”81
At first glance, then, there is more than just darkness in Waters’s world. According to him, salvation is attained through having the courage to lead one’s life free from harmful influences. Don’t be afraid to care, he writes in “Breathe,” for this is how we will get to see the light. Delving more deeply into the words of The Dark Side of the Moon, however, it is also possible to form a different impression, particularly from the closing track of the album, “Eclipse,” in which the moon eclipses the sun and darkness reigns forevermore. “The ideas that Roger was exploring apply to every generation,”83 reveals David Gilmour. A resounding triumph, the album was described by David Fricke, writing in the columns of Rolling Stone, as the ultimate concept album. “The concept is there, the songs are there, the spaces in the music are there. But it doesn’t take away any of the imagination.”83
A Break with the Past…
The Dark Side of the Moon revealed Roger Waters’s creative strength as both a lyricist and a
musician. “Compared to the rather piecemeal approach of our previous albums, which had often been conceived in an air of desperation rather than inspiration,” reports Nick Mason, “this felt like a considerably more constructive way of working […]. Using the specific lyrics that Roger devised, the music evolved in the rehearsal studio—and subsequently throughout the recording sessions. This gave Roger the opportunity to see any musical or lyrical gaps and to create pieces to fill them.”5
This eighth album marks a clear break with the past. Peter Jenner shrewdly points out that “Though it was largely about him, that was the record where they escaped from Syd.”53 The musical approach also differs from that of the previous albums. Epics of twenty minutes’ or more duration, such as “Atom Heart Mother” and “Echoes,” have been dropped in favor of a more “traditional” format. Thus the album is made up of ten songs, the longest of which, “Us and Them,” is no more than eight minutes long. Some of these songs were sketched out well before the group started working on this concept album. “Breathe,” for example, dates from the recording of Music from the Body (1970) by Roger Waters and Ron Geesin, while “Us and Them,” originally named “The Violence Sequence,” and “Brain Damage,” go back to the movie Zabriskie Point and the album Meddle respectively. The new compositions are “Speak to Me,” “On the Run,” “Time,” “The Great Gig in the Sky,” “Money,” “Any Colour You Like,” and “Eclipse.”
Pink Floyd All the Songs Page 36