Sound Engineers: Alan Parsons, Chris Thomas
Assistant Sound Engineer: Peter James
Genesis
“Any Colour You Like,” credited to Gilmour-Mason-Wright, is an improvisation based on a dialogue between electric guitar and synthesizer. According to Nick Mason, the piece “really provides a touch of relief on a record so tightly arranged, contributing to the dynamic pacing, as a pause before ‘Brain Damage.’”5
The title derives from an expression used by the roadie Chris Adamson, who, when asked for a guitar, would inevitably answer: “Choose any color you like, they’re all blue.” This touch of humor was probably inspired by the famous formula used by Henry Ford when launching the Model T Ford on the US market in 1908: “Any color he [the customer] wants as long as it’s black.” If this is the case, the song could be interpreted as a barely veiled criticism of capitalism, Henry Ford having not only created one of the most famous automobile brands of all time, but perhaps more significantly given his name to a labor model based on standardized mass production and the assembly line, a model denounced by some people as having transformed mankind into a machinelike slave of industrial “progress” (Fordism). Thus Any colour you like could also mean that the choice offered by society is no more than pure illusion, a non-choice in other words.
This explanation ties in with another given years later by Roger Waters. The bassist made a connection between the song and a traveling salesman he often used to come across during his youth in Cambridge, who, despite the limited choice of wares on offer, would invariably call out: “Whatever color you want,” even if that color didn’t exist; “[…] metaphorically, ‘Any Colour You Like’ is interesting, in that sense, because it denotes offering a choice where there is none.”92
Other interpretations have also been suggested. Because it occurs between “Us and Them” and “Brain Damage,” “Any Colour You Like” could be seen as signifying the relentless unfolding of war and the rejection of anyone remotely different as insane. Similarly, the psychedelic atmosphere of the piece (aided and abetted by David Gilmour’s guitar) could perhaps be interpreted as evoking a trip under the influence of some hallucinogenic drug, thereby alluding indirectly to Syd Barrett, who had been such an influence on Waters, Gilmour, Wright, and Mason. Any explanation you like, the choice really is yours…
Production
Rick Wright would later reveal that he had used the Minimoog for the very first time in the “Eclipse Scat Section,” this being the working title of “Any Colour You Like.” It is indeed the warm, resonant sound of this keyboard instrument that dominates the whole of the first section of the piece, with two superb Minimoog parts whose shifting sounds are reinforced by phenomenal echo from the Binson Echorec. The notes literally float out of the keyboard, and the effect is magnificent. Wright also plays a Hammond organ accompaniment that is difficult to discern other than at the end of the piece. Waters lays down an excellent groove on his Precision bass, supported by Nick Mason alternating snare drum and toms with metronomic regularity. Gilmour plays rhythm on his “Black Strat” with a lightly distorted sonority and also presumably colored by his Uni-Vibe. It is also possible, of course, that he uses his Hi-Fli processor to achieve this combination of effects. Constructed around the two chords of E-minor 7 and G, the instrumental shifts gears with Gilmour’s solo intervention at 1:20. He plays with incredible feeling, bending his strings and also modulating the notes with his whammy bar. Gilmour would later reveal that he took his inspiration from Eric Clapton in “Badge,” in which the Cream guitarist uses a Leslie speaker to obtain his rich and swirling sonority. It is also after this particular passage that the working title “Eclipse Scat Section” is taken, for David Gilmour accompanies his solo with some scat singing. Although his voice is reasonably quiet, he can clearly be made out improvising in the style of George Benson, another famous guitarist who went in for this style of vocalization. Bass notes produced on the VCS3 are also heard throughout this section (from 1:45). Toward the end, the piece undergoes a final key change, creating a harmonic break that announces the following song, “Brain Damage.”
Roger Waters would later comment on the joint composition credits for “Any Colour You Like.” Although he is not among those credited, he explains that “‘Breathe’ and ‘Any Colour You Like’ are grey areas and so is ‘Time,’ because it was close to a real collaboration of all four members. […]”82 He goes on to explain that the group regarded itself as highly egalitarian at the time. “I gave away a lot of the publishing and I wish I hadn’t.”82
Brain Damage
Roger Waters / 3:47
Musicians
David Gilmour: electric rhythm and lead guitar
Rick Wright: keyboards
Roger Waters: vocals, vocal harmonies, bass
Nick Mason: drums
Doris Troy, Lesley Duncan, Liza Strike, Barry St. John: backing vocals
Unidentified Musicians: tubular bells
Peter Watts: voice
Recorded
Abbey Road Studios, London: June 2–3, 6, 20, October 11–12, 17, November 2–3, 1972; February 1 and 9, 1973
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineers: Alan Parsons, Chris Thomas
Assistant Sound Engineer: Peter James
Genesis
Roger Waters wrote the words and music to this song while Pink Floyd was in the closing stages of recording Meddle. At that time the songwriter named it… “The Dark Side of the Moon,” and it was under this title that the band performed the song within the framework of the concept Eclipse: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics. In an interview from March 1998, the bassist explains that for him the grass referred to in the first line (The lunatic is on the grass) evokes the “square in between the River Cam and Kings College chapel,”82 a place he used to go to as a young adolescent growing up in Cambridge.
This lunatic on the grass can only be Syd Barrett, who continued to haunt the group for years after he and it painfully parted ways. This is revealed by the phrases And if the dam breaks open many years too soon… And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too. Furthermore, the first verse is an evocation of the friends’ Cambridge childhood, which was for Waters and Barrett, and Gilmour too, a time of untroubled pleasures and dreams inspired by their reading of heroic fantasy literature: The lunatic is on the grass/Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs. Another pointer is that Barrett has influenced Waters to such an extent that he would remain forever inside him, no doubt serving him, symbolically at least, as some kind of guide: The lunatic is in my head… You rearrange me ’til I’m sane.
In the second verse, however, it is not just Syd Barrett who haunts Roger Waters’s mind, for here the bassist speaks of lunatics in the plural. The paper holds their folded faces to the floor. Are we to understand here that all famous people, those who make the front pages—politicians, pop stars, and more—are insane? Here too it might be possible to hazard an interpretation. There’s someone in my head but it’s not me, sings Waters. Has he gone to join his former friend in insanity? The dark side of the moon is by definition something that other people cannot see (not immediately, at any rate), something that is hidden, although certainly exists. In other words, madness. Roger Waters explains: “The line ‘I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon’ is me speaking to the listener, saying ‘I know you have these bad feelings and impulses, because I do too; and one of the ways I can make direct contact with you is to share the fact that I feel bad sometimes.’”36
Roger Waters is also, in a sense, reconnecting with the ancient belief that the moon could influence our mental state (not to mention the myths of human beings who metamorphose into werewolves or vampires during a full moon). Indeed the very term lunatic is derived from the Latin for moon.
Production
“Brain Damage” is a song that every self-respecting would-be guitarist felt compelled to learn when this LP came out. The two chords in the introductio
n (E and G7), which are relatively easy to play, offered even beginners—for whom the Pink Floyd repertoire was reputed to be difficult—a point of entry into the band’s music. This apparent simplicity is also the key to the song’s impact, and no doubt helped to get the album known all over the planet.
The making of this track is interlinked with that of “Eclipse,” the last title on side one of the vinyl edition, because one segues into the other without any editing, unlike all the other titles on Dark Side.
Although the first session dedicated to this piece took place on June 2, the base track was not laid down until the next day, under the title “Eclipse Parts 5 & 6” (“Brain Damage” and “Eclipse”). It was the fifth take that was marked best. Roger Waters sings lead vocal for the first time on the album and is also responsible for the vocal harmonies. David Gilmour recalls the songwriter’s nervousness: “He’d rarely sung leads before and he was very shy about his voice. I encouraged him. On occasions, he would try to persuade me to sing for him and I wouldn’t.”82 Waters is nevertheless a very good singer, different from Gilmour and Wright in that he is focused far more on the message than on the interpretation.
The piece opens with two “Black Strat” parts on opposite sides of the stereo field, each one arpeggiated and with a sound colored by a Leslie speaker. Gilmour also plays short solo phrases on his Bill Lewis, which enabled him to reach up higher than on his Strat (as can be seen in the documentary Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii). For these he adopts a clear tone with reverb and delay. In October and November, Gilmour rerecorded his guitars, and Waters also recorded a new and very good bass line in October. At this stage the piece was renamed “Lunatic Song.” From the first refrain, the texture is enriched by Rick Wright’s Hammond organ, but also by the superb backing vocals of Doris Troy, Lesley Duncan, Liza Strike, and Barry St. John, who recorded their vocals on June 20. A Minimoog solo begins after the second refrain and is harmonized on a second track. The voice of Pink Floyd road manager Peter Watts, father of the actress Naomi Watts, can be heard at three points in the piece: firstly emitting a resounding laugh at 1:52, then uttering the phrase I can’t think of anything to say, ha ha ha! at 3:20, and finally, just before the song transitions into “Eclipse,” saying the words I think it’s nice, ha ha ha!
For Pink Floyd Addicts
The 2003 SACD 5.1 “surround sound” version of The Dark Side of the Moon led to the rediscovery of instruments that had been completely “buried” in the original mix. Notably the tubular bells, which were present in the “Brain Damage” instrumentation and are rediscovered in the documentary about the making of the new mix.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
And if there is no room upon the hill, sings Roger Waters. This is clearly a reference to the Beatles’ “The Fool on the Hill.”
Eclipse
Roger Waters / 2:13
Musicians
David Gilmour: electric rhythm and lead guitar, vocal harmonies (?)
Rick Wright: keyboards
Roger Waters: vocals, vocal harmonies (?), bass, sound effects
Nick Mason: drums, sound effects
Doris Troy, Lesley Duncan, Liza Strike, Barry St. John: backing vocals
Gerry O’Driscoll: voice
Recorded
Abbey Road Studios, London: June 3, 6, 20, October 11–12, 1972; February 1, 1973 (Studios Two and Three)
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineers: Alan Parsons, Chris Thomas
Assistant Sound Engineer: Peter James
Genesis
In a 1998 interview, Roger Waters reveals that he added this song after already leaving on tour. “It felt as if the piece needed an ending […]. In a strange way it re-attaches me to my adolescence, the dreams of youth. The lyric points back to what I was attempting to say at the beginning. It’s a recitation of the ideas that preceded it saying, ‘There you are, that’s all there is to it.’”82 Hence this long invocation (in reality lasting a mere two minutes) into which all the feelings and actions of a lifetime are concentrated: All that you touch/And all that you see/All that you taste/All that you feel… the words of “Eclipse” are the final words in a modern tragedy. They sound like the ultimate response to “Breathe” at the beginning of the album: And all you touch and all you see/Is all your life will ever be.
The spiritual, or even mystical, dimension is writ large here. A comparison suggests itself with the Book of Ecclesiastes, in which it is written: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance […]” (chapter 3, verses 1–4). Better still, Roger Waters himself is transformed into an ecclesiast, in other words a preacher, one who addresses the crowd, exposing and denouncing the absurdity of life given that every human being under the sun is destined one day to die, the futility of life if it really does end with the last breath we take.
Roger Waters purports to be a lucid thinker, and his perception of the world is severe and harrowing—just like life itself. In “Breathe,” the sun is forgotten; in “Time,” we race to catch up with it (before it sinks). In “Eclipse,” the curtain finally falls: And everything under the sun is in tune/But the sun is eclipsed by the moon, the song concludes. The sun could therefore be seen as a metaphor for the nonexistence of a god as the grand orchestrator of the cosmic order. This interpretation is supported by the general lack of hope in the philosophy of the songwriter, who, in The Dark Side of the Moon, has invented a form of poetic realism in music. Unless… it is worth remembering that “Eclipse” ends with a heartbeat, just as “Speak to Me” started. Plenty of food for thought here!
Production
Although announced on the album with a duration of 2:13, “Eclipse” is actually one of the shortest numbers on Dark Side, the song itself lasting just 1:30. The difference is accounted for by the forty-plus seconds reserved at the end for the beating heart and Gerry O’Driscoll’s voice.
“The last track, ‘Eclipse,’ was a piece that had benefited enormously from live performance prior to recording,”5 explains Nick Mason. The Floyd used it to conclude their live performances of The Dark Side of the Moon, but had not really found a way to transform it into a finale with the necessary energy and brio. It was in the studio that they would achieve this, coming up with the verve that had been missing. The base track was recorded, along with that of “Brain Damage,” under the title “Eclipse Parts 5 & 6,” on June 3. With various overdubs added on June 6, backing vocals on June 20, organ on October 11, and bass on October 12, “End,” the new working title of “Eclipse,” now possessed the power and panache that it had lacked in concert.
Roger Waters keeps the momentum going, and following on from “Brain Damage,” delivers an excellent lead vocal, with David Gilmour most probably helping out on vocal harmonies. The four musicians are working in perfect symbiosis, Mason and Waters insistently pressing the rhythm, Wright making his Hammond organ roar, and Gilmour playing arpeggios on his “Black Strat” (colored by a Leslie speaker and almost certainly doubled) as well as solo passages most probably on his Lewis (with Fuzz Face distortion). But “Eclipse” would not have the impact it does without the incredible backing vocals of Doris Troy, Lesley Duncan, Liza Strike, and Barry St. John. Here, the main honors go to Doris Troy for her lesson in gospel that sets the piece on fire. Waters explains that “When Doris Troy did her wailing on ‘Eclipse,’ we knew it was the climactic ending we wanted. She did two passes and it was incredible. We knew we had the album in the bag.”64 After her performance, she went to see Waters and told him, no doubt with a glint in her eye: “I’m only going to charge you a hundred pounds for my thing on the end.”82
“Eclipse” closes on a chord of E major before giving way to the same beating heart that can be heard on �
�Speak to Me” and from 1:37 to the final phrase spoken by the inimitable Gerry O’Driscoll by way of closing metaphor and conclusion: There is no dark side of the moon, really. As a matter of fact it’s all dark. In reality, O’Driscoll’s monologue continues: And the thing that makes it look alight is the sun. It is not difficult to see why Waters would not have wanted to include this last phrase on the LP, its message sounding altogether too positive to suit the concept of the album.
IN YOUR HEADPHONES
At the end of the song, from 1:38, just after Gerry O’Driscoll’s voice starts up, an instrumental and orchestral version of the Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride” can clearly be heard (when the volume is turned up!). It has been suggested that this music was playing in the background during O’Driscoll’s interview, but the real explanation is probably a badly erased master or a technical error that occurred during the cutting of the disc.
WISH
YOU WERE
HERE
ALBUM
WISH YOU WERE HERE
RELEASE DATE
United Kingdom: September 12, 1975 (September 15 according to some sources)
Label: Harvest Records
Record number: SHVL 814
Number 1 (United Kingdom), 104 weeks on the charts
Number 1 (France, United States, Netherlands)
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5) / Welcome To The Machine / Have A Cigar / Wish You Were Here / Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 6-9)
Wish You Were Here, in the Shadow of Syd
Pink Floyd All the Songs Page 42