Pink Floyd All the Songs
Page 53
In the bridge of this initial instrumental section (between 0:37 and 0:56), we can hear a synthesizer that may well be Rick Wright’s newly acquired Prophet-5. On the other hand, it could be the ARP Quadra or even the VCS3.
Roger Waters then launches into his lead vocal. His voice fits the bill perfectly, carried by a reasonably long stereo delay and exhibiting exactly the right degree of cynicism. Beach Boys–style backing vocals envelop him in saccharine harmonies. It is worth mentioning that one of the backing vocalists was a certain Bruce Johnston, who had been engaged by the Californian band in 1965 to replace Brian Wilson in concerts after Wilson had decided he no longer wanted to sing in public. Surrounded by brilliant colleagues, Johnston delivers an exhilarating performance that is light-years away from the tormented universe of Pink Floyd. Waters can be felt taking delight in the midst of these singers, thrilling to the power of the work he is performing and has created, and supported by rhythmic chords on the organ (played by Wright?) and Mason’s bass drum, which marks the beat in similar fashion to the heartbeat in “Speak to Me” on The Dark Side of the Moon.
The band then reasserts itself, Mason once again smacking his drums with explosive power, supported by Gilmour’s aggressive-sounding Strat, Mandel’s bellowing B-3, and Waters’s muscular bass. Before long Waters starts barking out orders like some kind of demented movie director: Lights! Roll the sound effects! (2:23) At this point, the throbbing engines of bomber aircraft can be heard followed by the noise of a Stuka, that fighter plane that once terrorized populations with its dive-bombing attacks, stoking up the fear even further with its wailing sirens. Action! Drop it, drop it on them! DROP IT ON THEEEM! he raves. The other musicians work their instruments furiously in a hellish finale, Mason’s snare drum accompanying the Stuka to the bitter end. Instead of the anticipated explosion, however, we hear the crying of a baby, which has been skillfully substituted for the blast. Waters’s time machine has been set.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
During The Wall tour, “In the Flesh?” was performed by a stand-in group whose members wore masks representing Waters, Gilmour, Wright, and Mason. This idea was subsequently used on the sleeve of Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81, released in 2000.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
To reassure the bigwigs at CBS Records, who wanted to listen to the album during the final stages of production, James Guthrie was given the task of playing The Wall to the boardroom. Unfortunately, the right-hand loudspeaker in the sound system was immediately destroyed by the sound of the dive-bombing Stuka!
The Thin Ice
Roger Waters / 2:27
Musicians
David Gilmour: vocals, electric rhythm and lead guitar, Prophet-5
Rick Wright: organ, piano
Roger Waters: vocals, bass
Nick Mason: drums
Recorded
Britannia Row, Islington, London: September 1978–March 1979
Super Bear Studios, Berre-les-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes (France): April–July 1979
Studio Miraval, Domaine de Miraval, Le Val, Var, (France): April–July 1979
Cherokee Recording Studios, Los Angeles: September 6–8, 1979
Producers Workshop, Hollywood: September 12–November 1, 1979
Technical Team
Producers: Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, Roger Waters
Co-producer: James Guthrie
Sound Engineers: James Guthrie, Nick Griffiths, Patrice Quef, Brian Christian, Rick Hart
Genesis
“The Thin Ice” begins as “In the Flesh?” ends: with a baby crying. This innocent baby blue, whom mama so loves, is Pink. Before long, however, disaster strikes when Pink’s father is killed in the war. The valiant freedom fighter never got to see his son, and the newborn boy will never know his father. We are given to understand that Pink’s existence will be strewn with trials, because modern life is nothing but thin ice that can give way at any moment, leaving us to founder. It is actually his own past that Roger Waters is describing via the sorrows of Pink, his own father, Eric Fletcher Waters, having been killed at the Battle of Anzio in January 1944. Syd Barrett, who lost his father at twelve years of age, also comes to mind… The loss of their fathers by two future members of Pink Floyd opened up wounds that would never fully heal. Waters was nevertheless to claim a more general applicability: “After ‘In the Flesh?’ we start telling a story which is about my generation,”126 he explained to Tommy Vance a few years later, his generation being the “war babies.” “But it can be about anybody who gets left by anybody,”9 he has stressed.
Production
The second song on the album begins after seven seconds of a baby crying. The music is gentle, bringing to mind a lullaby. The soft voice singing belongs to David Gilmour, who simultaneously adopts the role of Pink’s mother. In the last three lines of his section, the notes get higher, and Gilmour can be heard struggling to reach the final babe, which seems to have been manipulated somewhat during mixing (listen at 0:59). The instrumental accompaniment consists mainly of keyboard, played most likely by Rick Wright: organ pads and a highly lyrical acoustic piano. There is also a low-register Prophet-5 part played by David Gilmour. The other essential—and very present—instrument in this section is Roger Waters’s bass. His playing is restrained, and the register low. By means of a short and highly intelligent rhythmic counterpoint that looks forward to the second verse, Waters creates an insidious tension on his Precision bass following Gilmour’s baby blue (listen at 0:47).
Following this, the roles and atmosphere change. Waters takes over the lead vocal, which is sung to a cheerful-sounding doo-wop-style melody, but in a caustic and caricatural voice that is the very opposite of Gilmour’s. The piano plays eighth-note chords, supported by organ pads and a bass that purrs along in the lower reaches of the harmonic structure. It also sounds as if there is a second piano emphasizing the lowest notes.
Once Waters reaches the end of the lyrics, Mason thumps out a forceful drum break that launches the group into a short rock instrumental similar in spirit to that of “In the Flesh?” Mason’s Ludwig kit is sounding just as powerful as before. Its particular sonority is that of Britannia Row: “live” and airy, and brilliantly recorded by James Guthrie. Wright is on the Hammond organ played through the Leslie, his style quite different from Fred Mandel’s on the previous track. Guthrie would later testify to the quality of Wright’s performances on the album: “Rick did some great playing on that album, whether or not people remember it. Some fantastic Hammond parts.”116 David Gilmour delivers two rhythm parts with Big Muff distortion on his “Black Strat” as well as a highly spirited solo part incorporating examples of his legendary phrasing. “The Thin Ice” ends on a chord of C whose resonance connects this track with the next: “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 1).”
For Pink Floyd Addicts
In Alan Parker’s movie, the scene that corresponds to “The Thin Ice” (Pink’s childhood) was shot at East Molesey in Surrey, not far from Great Bookham, Roger Waters’s place of birth.
Another Brick In The Wall (Part 1)
Roger Waters / 3:10
Musicians
David Gilmour: electric rhythm and lead guitar, vocal harmonies
Rick Wright: Minimoog, Prophet-5, Fender Rhodes
Roger Waters: vocals, vocal harmonies, bass
Recorded
Britannia Row, Islington, London: September 1978–March 1979
Super Bear Studios, Berre-les-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes (France): April–July 1979
Studio Miraval, Domaine de Miraval, Le Val, Var (France): April–July 1979
Cherokee Recording Studios, Los Angeles: September 6–8, 1979
Producers Workshop, Hollywood: September 12–November 1, 1979
Technical Team
Producers: Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, Roger Waters
Co-producer: James Guthrie
Sound Engineers: James Guthrie, Nick Griffiths, Patrice Quef, Brian Christian, Rick Hart
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Genesis
“Another Brick in the Wall (Part 1)” follows on logically from “The Thin Ice.” Here, Waters/Pink returns to the deep-seated trauma caused by the death of his father, who is now no more than a memory, a mere snapshot in the family album. His death in combat is the first brick in the wall constructed by Pink as a way of isolating himself from other people.
In his cinematographic adaptation of this conceptual work, Alan Parker creates a very moving scene for “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 1).” After being left alone by his mother in a children’s playground for a few minutes, Pink unsuccessfully tries to take hold of the hand of a man—a kind of substitute father—who happens to be there keeping an eye on his own son. This makes it clear that in the mind of the songwriter, the song is addressed not only to those who have lost a father in war, but to all orphans and more generally to all children anywhere in the world who are forced to endure the absence of a parent. As Roger Waters explains: “It is personal for me, but it’s also meant to be about any family where either parent goes away for whatever reason; whether it’s to go and fight someone or go and work somewhere. In a way, it’s about stars leaving home for a long time to go on tour… and maybe coming home dead, or more dead than alive.”36 The song ends with the hubbub of children…
Production
Pink Floyd recorded this first part of The Wall’s key triptych under the working title “Reminiscing.” If Roger Waters’s lyrics and composition are the soul of this piece, David Gilmour’s guitar playing is its heart. Gilmour gives a brilliant demonstration of his outstanding talent as a guitarist, a master not only of his instrument, but of technology of the delay as well. The track begins with the resounding closing chord of “The Thin Ice.” Gilmour’s “Black Strat” is immediately heard, playing a (doubled) palm-mute rhythm part on one note, a D that rapidly acquires a haunting quality. He then plays a number of short licks on a second guitar whose sound is strongly colored by a very present delay. Gilmour is most probably using his MXR Digital Delay at 440 ms with five feedback repeats and a tempo of 100 bpm. This produces superbly hypnotic and awe-inspiring results. He plays a clear-toned Strat colored by a light chorus, and although subjected to long, deep reverb, the sound remains extremely present as a result of being plugged directly into the console in accordance with Bob Ezrin’s wishes. This recording betrays a real technical prowess, and it seems likely that special attention was lavished on it. James Guthrie would later claim it as his favorite track on the whole album, not only for its musicality, but also for its successful evocation of the atmosphere of the 1940s that is associated here with Pink’s childhood memories.
The lead vocal is again sung by Roger Waters. His delivery is convincing, and he can be felt intensely reliving the words, his emotion captured by the mic. In certain phrases he doubles and even triples himself, particularly in the refrain (with Gilmour singing vocal harmonies). Waters is also playing bass, following Gilmour’s guitar like a shadow. He plays his Precision in standard tuning rather than in drop D, as he would do on “Brick 2.”
Following the last sung phrase, Gilmour plays two harmonized solo guitar parts that answer each other with the same impressive delay as before. Here and there he also throws in a power chord distorted by Big Muff and colored by Electric Mistress.
Right from the opening bars, we hear bass notes produced on a synthesizer, most likely played by Rick Wright on a Minimoog and sustained by pads on the Prophet-5. The Prophet-5 can also clearly be heard producing brass-like sounds toward the end of the song (listen from 2:42). A number of Fender Rhodes passages were also recorded, although these are difficult to make out.
Finally, the track is punctuated by various sound effects: a reversed keyboard (at 0:59), a disturbing-sounding voice (from 1:40), which goes on to whistle and utter the phrase: Hup, two, three… hey! (1:59), and the slowly faded-in sounds of a children’s playground (recorded both by Phil Taylor at a school in Beverly Hills and Brian Christian at his own son’s school in West Covina). Although rhythmically complex, it is interesting to note the total absence of drums and other percussion in “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 1).”
IN YOUR HEADPHONES
Listening carefully to the right-hand channel between 1:59 and 2:02, it is possible to hear in the background a drum machine that was no doubt used by Gilmour as a guide and which has probably leaked from the headphones of one of the musicians. Without this guide it would have been impossible to produce such a precise delay on the guitar.
The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
Roger Waters / 1:51
Musicians
David Gilmour: electric rhythm and lead guitar, backing vocals
Rick Wright: organ
Roger Waters: vocals, bass, backing vocals
Nick Mason: drums
James Guthrie: hi-hat, choke cymbal
Bob Ezrin (?): percussion
Recorded
Britannia Row, Islington, London: September 1978–March 1979
Super Bear Studios, Berre-les-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes (France): April–July 1979
Studio Miraval, Domaine de Miraval, Le Val, Var (France): April–July 1979
Producers Workshop, Hollywood: September 12–November 1, 1979
Technical Team
Producers: Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, Roger Waters
Co-producer: James Guthrie
Sound Engineers: James Guthrie, Nick Griffiths, Patrice Quef, Brian Christian, Rick Hart
Genesis
This song opens with the whirr of helicopter blades and the military-sounding voice of a school principal. The scene is set. Roger Waters uses irony (the happiest days of our lives) to denounce the teaching in British schools in the aftermath of the Second World War, characterized by iron discipline and even physical abuse. The songwriter targets those teachers who would hurt the children any way they could. The only attenuating circumstance offered in explanation of the sadistic behavior of these teachers is that when they got home they would in turn be beaten by their fat and psychopathic wives. This song includes Waters’s first misogynistic attack on The Wall—the first in a long series, it has to be said… Once again, Waters’s own experience and the story of Pink coincide here: “My school life was very like that. Oh, it was awful, it was really terrible,” claims Waters, but at least he has the discernment to put things into perspective: “I want to make it plain that some of the men who taught (it was a boys school) some of the men who taught there were very nice guys, you know I’m not… it’s not meant to be a blanket condemnation of teachers everywhere, but the bad ones can really do people in—and there were some at my school who were just incredibly bad and treated the children so badly, just putting them down, putting them down, you know, all the time.”126
Waters’s attack is also aimed at the teachers’ “higher” purpose—either conferred on them by the government or self-conferred—that of educating young people in such a way as to force them into the mold, to make docile citizens out of them, incapable of revolt or even critical thought.
Production
This song, musically a continuation of “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 1),” begins with the fade-out of that track against the background noise of a schoolyard. Suddenly a helicopter approaches. Bob Ezrin remembers recording it at Edwards Air Force Base in California: “We put a couple of pzm mikes out on the tarmac and got some seriously good stereo! I think it’s the best helicopter that’s ever been on record.”119 Strangely enough, Brian Christian would give a completely different account, claiming that he had personally recorded it with Sennheiser mics and a portable Nagra at Van Nuys Heliport in Los Angeles… A withering voice can then be heard issuing a command through some sort of megaphone: You, yes you! Stand still, laddie! The effect is achieved with equalization and a delay, helping to convey the patently traumatic nature of Waters’s memories of his schooldays. Suddenly the band enters, a bass drum/hi-hat combination on the first beat of the bar supporting Waters’s bass, played with delay, and Gilmou
r’s Strat, on which the guitarist resumes his palm mute. The sonority of the bass gives the impression that it was plugged straight into the console, just like the guitar. The interaction between the musicians is just as impressive as before, with Guthrie varying the effect of the delay on Waters’s Precision in order to avoid the sound becoming muddy. Waters comes in on lead vocal, his voice initially compassionate and intimate before rising in intensity as he describes the sad lives of the tyrannical teachers. It sounds as if a reverse reverb has been applied to his voice. The piece then moves into a short instrumental section consisting of vocal harmonies from Gilmour and Waters, a distorted sound that could be fuzz bass or fuzz keyboard, or even just a guitar, pad sounds from the Hammond organ, Mason on drums, and various percussion instruments played most probably by Bob Ezrin. According to Vernon Fitch, James Guthrie was responsible for the hi-hat and choke cymbal.
Edward A. Murphy, originator of the famous Murphy’s Law (“Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”), worked as an engineer at Edwards Air Force Base, where the helicopter in this song was recorded. While the success of The Wall does not bear his theory out, the deteriorating relationships between the band members do…
For Pink Floyd Addicts
The Happiest Days of Your Life is a British comedy directed by Frank Launder in 1950. The movie tells the story of the joyful anarchy that ensues when a boys’ school merges with a girls’ school just after the London Blitz. It may be that Roger Waters was thinking of this movie when he wrote his song. Another layer of irony…