Pink Floyd All the Songs
Page 49
In the second verse the songwriter targets not a social class, but a person—a woman he has seen at the bus stop. A fucked up old hag who likes the feel of steel and who is good fun with a hand gun—in other words a woman devoid of all humanity. Did he have someone particular in mind? The figure that springs to mind is Margaret Thatcher, who, although not yet prime minister when Waters wrote this song, had already been elected leader of the Conservative party and, in particular, had been nicknamed the “Iron Lady” by the Soviets on account of her anticommunist stance, not to mention her fierce determination to crush the power of the trade unions, which she claimed were guilty of stifling growth in the United Kingdom.
In the third and final verse, which is just as vitriolic, there is no doubt this time as to the person being accused, as Roger Waters names her outright: the house proud town mouse is none other than Mary Whitehouse, an impassioned campaigner for a return to the puritan values of old England, bitterly contemptuous of homosexual minorities and so lacking in humor, or any sense of proportion, that in one fiery outburst she condemned the violence of the Doctor Who series and of the film A Clockwork Orange (1971) by Stanley Kubrick and the pornography of Last Tango in Paris (1972) by Bernardo Bertolucci. Mary Whitehouse was someone who had made it her mission to ward off the forces of evil, and who would not have been opposed to the establishment of a theocracy on British soil. Which was why she became the object of Waters’s bile!
Production
“Pigs (Three Different Ones)” was the only song, other than “Pigs On the Wing” (parts one and two) written specifically for the new album, as the two others dated from the Wish You Were Here period. Roger Waters was the sole writer-composer of this piece lasting more than eleven minutes. But the contributions of the other band members were vitally important in creating the alchemy necessary to the wholly unique language they had jointly developed.
The piece opens with the grunt of a pig, produced by David Gilmour’s Heil Sound Talk Box. This effect, which was popularized in the early seventies by musicians such as Stevie Wonder and Peter Frampton, allows a performer to modulate the notes of an instrument such as a keyboard or guitar using his mouth and a pipe connected to the box and the amplifier. So it is an imitation of a pig’s grunt—repeated over and over by a delay with a very long feedback—that marks the start of “Pigs (Three Different Ones).” This is followed by a sound produced by a synthesizer (Minimoog or VCS3) with an identical delay. Rick Wright on the Hammond organ gets the piece properly under way with two arpeggio parts opposite each other in the stereo picture. Then comes a bass solo, the phrasing giving away the fact that it is definitely not Roger Waters playing, but a guitarist, in this case David Gilmour. It was he who wrote this part, even though he doesn’t get a mention in the record credits. His bass line is very melodic and his playing is technically superior to Waters’s. It is hard to pin down what type of bass it is played on; it is most likely the Fender Precision, but certain tones are also reminiscent of a fretless (such as a Charvel P-Bass). Gilmour has various guitar parts elsewhere, notably in the introduction, where he comes in with some almighty chords on his “Black Strat,” distorted by his Colorsound (doubled by ADT).
It is Roger Waters who takes the lead vocal. His confidence is such, since Wish You Were Here, that he automatically awards himself the lead vocal in the bulk of the songs where he is the main writer. His singing is different from Gilmour’s, more highly sensitive, more urgent. He sings four of the five tracks on Animals, and on the next two albums Gilmour concedes this role, which had previously been his own, to Waters almost entirely. Pink Floyd has a different view of things now; their music has a very different feel about it than at the start of their career. Waters is supported by an excellent rhythmic section performed by Nick Mason, who is in top form; by Gilmour’s Strat and bass; and probably by Wright on the Clavinet. After the first three lines of the verse, Mason—for the first time in the band’s history (in such an obvious manner)—brings in a cowbell, the effect of which is absolutely superb. Wright backs him up on the grand piano, the Yamaha C7, with a boogie-style passage; Gilmour adds a second rhythm guitar, and Waters performs a very good vocal, his voice equalized and fed through most probably a Leslie (or the rotating Yamahas) with very short reverb (not done with a vocoder). Then comes an interlude in which Gilmour plays some very high notes that he introduces with his volume pedal (or the volume dial on his Strat), featuring a delay and very long reverb (from 2:29).
After the second verse a rhythm guitar played clean and heavily colored by the Yamaha rotating speakers launches into the first instrumental part. Again grunting noises can be heard. Then Gilmour embarks on an unbelievable solo, performed on his Heil Talk Box (from 5:13). He also contributes other rhythm guitar parts, while Mason pounds his Ludwig, with Wright supporting on the Hammond organ and the ARP Solina. The effectiveness of Gilmour’s bass line is striking, his playing so different from that of Waters (listen at 6:45, for example).
At the end of the solo we hear a repeat of the introduction, Wright’s Hammond organ not double-tracked this time. Waters resumes the lead vocal in the last verse, with voice effects added, Mason is back on his cowbell (as superb as ever!), Wright is on his grand piano, and Gilmour is on his various rhythm guitars and the bass all at once. Finally Gilmour plays a truly magnificent chorus on his “Black Strat,” distorted by his Big Muff. He has now abandoned for good the soaring pedal steel guitar passages that had graced Meddle and The Dark Side of the Moon, especially, in favor of a hard, aggressive playing style. In fact he acknowledged this later, in 1978, commenting that “that seemed to work at the time and appeared a reasonable thing to do.”9 His bass playing is once again beautifully done, going up and down the scale to great effect (listen at 10:12). The piece ends on a fade-out, gradually giving way to the sound of birds and sheep, which usher in the next song, “Sheep.”
“Pigs (Three Different Ones)” is interesting in that it clearly demonstrates the role of each band member at this stage in the group’s career. Waters had indisputably appointed himself the band’s leader, his bandmates reduced to the role of accompanists. With one exception: Gilmour, who stood up for himself, managing to get his name on one piece (“Dogs”) and to hold his own with his brilliant instrumental contributions. Waters, unlike his bandmates, always considered the lyrics to be paramount. Indeed he made this point in numerous interviews, as in 2004: “I think [Rick] liked to think of himself as a kind of musical purist. As did Dave.”113 “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” is a good example of this: he had no qualms about abandoning his bass, to Gilmour’s benefit, but he was determined to perform his lyrics. Ideas above all else.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
At the 2008 Coachella festival in California, Waters had an inflatable pig tethered above the stage, with Obama written on it—an endorsement. The pig flew away during the performance of “Pigs (Three Different Ones).” The organizers offered a $10,000 reward for bringing it back safe and sound. It was found in La Quinta, a few miles away.
Sheep
Roger Waters / 10:19
Musicians
David Gilmour: rhythm and lead guitars, bass
Rick Wright: keyboards, VCS3 (?)
Roger Waters: vocals, rhythm guitar, VCS3 (?)
Nick Mason: drums
Unidentified: vocoder voice
Recorded
Britannia Row, Islington, London: April–December 1976
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer: Brian Humphries
Assistant Sound Engineer: Nick Griffiths
Genesis
The original version of “Sheep,” like that of “Dogs,” dates back to January 1974. At the time it was entitled “Raving and Drooling.” A song with a rather hazy message, perhaps about insanity, with the character caught in a trap between the illusion of safety in numbers/And the fist in your face. It was performed for the first time on the French tour for The Dark Side of the Moon in 1974.
Abandoned even before the recording of Wish You Were Here, this composition resurfaced during the Animals recording sessions at Britannia Row in Islington, this time entitled “Sheep.”
Waters talks about sheep, the working classes, the followers, described as meek, fearful animals under the influence of the so-called higher classes, the pigs and the dogs. You better watch out/There may be dogs about, he sings. The criticism evidently has no other aim than to rouse these working classes, to incite them to rebel against something that is by no means inexorable, to get out of the road if you want to grow old. “It was my sense,” Roger Waters explained to Karl Dallas, “of what was to come down in England, and it did last summer with the riots in England, in Brixton and Toxteth… Probably that it had happened before in Notting Hill in the early sixties. And it will happen again. It will always happen. There are too many of us in the world and we treat each other badly. We get obsessed with things and there aren’t enough things, products, to go round. If we’re persuaded it’s important to have them, that we’re nothing without them, and there aren’t enough of them to go round, the people without them are going to get angry.”104 For the songwriter, the sheep are oppressed perhaps not just by economic and political forces, but by religious forces as well. Why else, in the middle of the song, would he have a robotic voice recite this parody—not without humor—of Psalm 23: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want/He makes me down to lie […] With bright knives He releaseth my soul […] He converteth me to lamb cutlets. Why else would he again evoke the inevitable revolt that is brewing: When cometh the day we lowly ones,/Through quiet reflection, and great dedication/Master the art of karate,/Lo, we shall rise up/And then we’ll make the bugger’s eyes water. Roger Waters sees himself as belonging to the class of the sheep: like a lost sheep, one might add…
Production
“Sheep” opens with a fantastic solo by Rick Wright on the Fender Rhodes lasting more than ninety seconds. His notes seem to float above a rural ambiance composed of birdsong and the baaing of sheep, continued from the end of “Pigs (Three Different Ones).” The phrasing is bluesy and his playing is supported by a hypnotic tremolo. David Gilmour would later say that Animals, with its harder, more aggressive edge than the previous albums, had probably left Wright, who “didn’t feel it suited so well,”9 struggling to express himself. However, this introduction is delightful and reminds us what an inspired musician Wright was. A bass accompanies him from the sixth bar onward. The motif contains a hint of the Doctor Who theme tune, the British cult TV series having already been a source of inspiration on “One of These Days” (Meddle). It is David Gilmour’s playing we hear, as on “Pigs (Three Different Ones).” And he is most probably on his Fender Precision, the sound colored by an MXR Phase 90. But, unlike in the previous piece, his playing bears a strong resemblance to Waters’s. Gilmour would later explain that he had in fact partly copied the bass line that Waters used to play onstage for “Raving and Drooling.” This can be heard on the live recording from 1974, which features on the CD Wish You Were Here [Experience Edition], released in 2011. Incidentally, for the concerts on the British Winter Tour that same year (November 4 to December 14), Waters took a recording of Jimmy Young, the famous BBC radio DJ, cut it up and randomly reassembled it, and played this at the shows to represent his idea of a man “raving and drooling”—a madman, in other words.
Nick Mason comes in with some inverted drum effects that lead into the first verse, sung by Roger Waters. His voice is taut, aggressive, and the tempo is very dynamic, contrasting with the serenity of the introduction. The last words of some lines of the verses are mixed and drawn out with a note on the Minimoog (or the VCS3?), adding an artificial emphasis. Wright has switched to the Hammond organ, and Gilmour is on the rhythm guitar, probably his Telecaster (as on “Dogs”). What’s new here is Waters on electric rhythm guitar (“Black Strat”?), which he double-tracks with the two guitars in stereo. He mirrors the bass line, and the two instruments slot effectively into Mason’s very good drum part.
The first instrumental break comes at 3:47, against a background of sound effects, probably slowed down, which suggests the sound of chains or a spinning cylinder. The bass creates tension with a repeated E note alternating with an E an octave higher, which rises in a crescendo, while chords on the guitar and Hammond organ ring out in this almost surreal atmosphere. The word stone, which was repeated over and over in “Dogs,” makes a brief, ghostly appearance (between 4:06 and 4:20), before giving way to a synthesized bass sound produced almost certainly on the VCS3. This sequence continues with the Minimoog coming more to the fore, and a repeat of the rhythmic section led by Mason.
Then comes a second instrumental break (at 5:33). The tension mounts a notch. Gilmour’s bass is increasingly foregrounded. Wright plays a motif on the Minimoog, which he harmonizes on two tracks opposite each other in the stereo picture, with strings from the ARP Solina forming the background soundscape. Next we have a series of organ chords that seem to pre-echo “Don’t Leave Me Now” from the album The Wall (from 6:10). Eventually, as if rising out of the darkness, comes a monotone voice distorted by a vocoder, reciting a parody of Psalm 23. It works well, with the baaing effect adding to the caricature. At concerts it was Nick Mason’s voice that was heard here, but on the album it would definitely have been a roadie or a studio technician who, unfortunately, is not identified.
The piece carries on with a repeat of the third verse and some excellent singing by Waters, who isn’t afraid to let it rip with a demonic scream and laugh (at 7:24). “Sheep” then concludes with a final sequence led by Gilmour on his Telecaster. He delivers a superb chord-based melodic motif (doubled) with an epic quality to it, not unlike that of some of Jimmy Page’s guitar parts (for example, on “The Song Remains the Same”). The piece ends on a fade-out, as the pastoral flavor of the introduction returns with the sounds of birds and sheep, bringing us to “Pigs On the Wing 2,” the last song on the album.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
In an interview, Roger Waters makes reference to the race riots that erupted in 1981 in Brixton, South London, and in Toxteth, Liverpool. He also mentions the riots that took place in Notting Hill at the end of the 1950s. It was in response to these that Notting Hill Carnival was created, at the initiative of Claudia Jones.
Pigs On The Wing 2
Roger Waters / 1:29
Musician
Roger Waters: vocals, acoustic guitars
Recorded
Britannia Row, Islington, London: April–December 1976
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer: Brian Humphries
Assistant Sound Engineer: Nick Griffiths
Genesis
The second part of “Pigs On the Wing” provides some answers to the questions posed by Waters in the first part. His partner—in this case his second wife Carolyne Christie—is there to guide him and keep him on the right track. Interviewed by Karl Dallas, Waters explained that the first verse amounts to a contemplation of the question “Where would I be without you?” while the second verse says, “In the face of all this other shit—confusion, sidetracks, difficulties—you care, and that makes it possible to survive.”104 So thanks to Carolyne, Waters will not become a dog or a pig, nor will he be submissive in the way so many sheep are. This ballad that rounds off the album is therefore the simple, powerful story of a mutual love that enables Waters and his wife—like all couples who love and respect each other—to avoid loneliness, of course, but also boredom and pain. It is from this love that he draws all his strength and which protects him from the “pigs on the wing.”
Production
This second part follows on from the pastoral sounds of sheep and birds at the end of “Sheep.” Roger Waters adds a second guitar, with the two instruments positioned to give panoramic sound. His voice is noticeably more foregrounded than in the first part, probably to draw more attention to the meaning of his words, to reveal his feelings a little m
ore. He seems to be doubling himself, although the effect is hard to pick out. The reverb is shorter, emphasizing the presence of his vocal. And the last track of Animals ends as it began: simply, and with feeling.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
It was Carolyne Christie’s suggestion that Roger Waters approach Bob Ezrin to produce Pink Floyd’s next album, The Wall.
THE WALL
ALBUM
THE WALL
RELEASE DATE
United Kingdom: November 30, 1979
Label: Harvest Records
RECORD NUMBER: SHDW 411
Number 3 (United Kingdom), on the charts for 67 weeks
Number 1 (France, United States, Canada, the Netherlands, West Germany, Sweden, Norway)
In The Flesh ? / The Thin Ice / Another Brick In The Wall, Part 1 / The Happiest Days Of Our Lives / Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2 / Mother / Goodbye Blue Sky / Empty Spaces / Young Lust / One Of My Turns / Don’t Leave Me Now / Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3 / Goodbye Cruel World / Hey You / Is There Anybody Out There ? / Nobody Home / Vera / Bring The Boys Back Home / Comfortably Numb / The Show Must Go On / In The Flesh / Run Like Hell / Waiting For The Worms / Stop / The Trial / Outside The Wall OUTTAKES What Shall We Do Now ? / Sexual Revolution
The Wall, Roger Waters’s Epic Psychological Journey
Coming off the 1977 promotional tour for Animals (christened the “In the Flesh Tour”) that had begun in Europe (January 23 to March 31) before moving to North America (April 22 to July 6), the four members of Pink Floyd were completely exhausted. Upon returning home, all they wanted was a little rest before turning their attention to various personal projects. Unfortunately they had not bargained for the harsh realities of the business world.