MEDDLE was the first album to truly represent what Pink Floyd evolved into after David Gilmour's arrival. The albums that immediately followed PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN either retained traces of Gilmour's predecessor, Syd Barrett (SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS), were soundtracks (MORE), paired live tracks with solo experiments (UMMAGUMMA), or were collaborations with outside parties (ATOM HEART MOTHER). Whereas any of them might have had traditional song structures dropped in at random, MEDDLE represents Pink Floyd attempting to approach a sequence of them. "Echoes," an ambitious 23-minute soundscape, harkened back to Floyd's earlier exuberances. Its length enabled former architecture students Roger Waters and Nick Mason to patch together Gilmour and Richard Wright's fragmented musical ideas into a piece soaked in aquatic and lunar imagery. The pinging of a module greets the listener before Gilmour's warm, open guitar and gentle crooning gives way to a middle section that devolves into a repetitious, workmanlike rhythm. From here, the music fades into an abyss of whale calls and eerie sonic reverberations that slowly return to the opening section; it closes with the sound of howling wind. Spooky! Elsewhere, Floyd dabble with straightforward cocktail-hour jazz ("San Tropez") and a twisted slow blues ("Seamus").
But it was "One Of These Days," MEDDLE's opening track and lone radio staple, that hinted at the direction the band was headed. Waters' bass, played through a Binson echo unit, establishes the song's manically hypnotic groove, as Wright's synthesizer bursts in and out, Mason's off-kilter drum fills get tossed about, and Gilmour's guitar dive-bombs through it all. These varied sound effects, packaged in a song that clocked in at less than six minutes, were a precedent for the masterpiece that was two years away: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON.
CD Ref.: CDP 7 46034 2
CD Date: 1994
N. CDs: 1
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Tracks
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1. One Of These Days (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour)
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2. A Pillow of Winds (Waters, Gilmour)
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3. Fearless (Waters, Gilmour)
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4. San Tropez (Waters)
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5. Seamus (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour)
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6. Echoes (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour)
Lyrics
- 1. One Of These Days (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour)
One of these days I'm gonna cut you into little pieces
- 2. A Pillow of Winds (Waters, Gilmour)
A cloud of eider down Draws around me softening the sound Sleepy time in my life With my love by my side And she's breathing low And the candle dies. When night comes down you lock the door The boot falls to the floor As darkness falls and waves roll by The seasons change The wind is raw. Now wakes the hour that sleeps the swan Behold a dream, the dream is gone Green fields A cold rain is falling Near the golden dawn. And deep beneath the ground The early morning sounds and I go down Sleepy time in our life With my love by my side And she's breathing low And I rise like a bird In the haze and the first rays touch the sky And the night winds die.
- 3. Fearless (Waters, Gilmour)
You say the hill's too steep to climb, Climb it! You say you'd like to see me try, Climb it! You pick the place and I'll choose the time And I'll climb The hill in my own way just wait a while, for the right day And as I rise above the treeline and the clouds I look down hear the sound of the things you said today Fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd, smiling Emotionless the magistrate turns 'round, frowning and who's the fool who wears the crown Go down in your own way And everyday is the right day And as you rise above the fearlines in the frown You look down Hear the sound of the faces in the crowd
- 4. San Tropez (Waters)
As I reach for a peach Slide a rind down behind the sofa in San Tropez Breaking a stick with a brick on the sand Riding a wave in the wake of an old Sedan Sleeping alone in the drone of the darkness Scratched by the sand that fell from our love Deep in my dreams and I still hear her calling If you're alone I'll come home Backwards and home bound The pidgeon the dove Gone with the wind and the rain on an airplane Owning a home with no silver spoon I'm drinking champaigne like a big tycoon Sooner than wait for a break in the weather I'll gather my far flung thoughts together Speeding away on a wind to a new day If your alone I'll come home And I pause for a while By a country style And listen to things they say Digging for gold in the hoe in my hand Hoping they'll take a look at the way things stand And you're leading me down to the place by the sea I hear your soft voice calling to me Making a date for later by phone if you're alone I'll come home
- 5. Seamus (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour)
I was in the kitchen Seamus, that's the dog was outside Well, I was in the kitchen Seamus, my old hound was outside Well, you know the sun was sinking slowly But my hound just sat right down and cried
- 6. Echoes (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour)
Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air And deep beneath the rolling waves in labyrinths of coral caves The echo of a distant tide Comes willowing across the sand And everything is green and submarine And no one showed us to the land And no one knows the wheres or whys But something stirs and Something tries And starts to climb towards the light Strangers passing in the street By chance two separate glances meet And I am you and what I see is me And do I take you by the hand And lead you through the land And help me understand the best I can And no one calls us to the land And no one crosses there alive And no one speaks And no one tries And no one flies around the sun And now this is the day you fall Upon my waking eyes Inviting and inciting me to rise And through the window in the wall Comes streamin in on sunlight wings A million bright ambassadors of morning And no one sings me lullabies And no one makes me close my eyes So I throw the windows wide And call to you across the sky.
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NotesRelease date: November 11st, 1971
Recorded at: AIR Studios, EMI Studios, Abbey Road and at Morgan Sound, London This was the album which streamlined and established the hallmark of the Floyd's mature style: a dense and colourful weave of actuality sounds (notably the football chant on Fearless) original electronic textures, and more conventional rock instrumentation. "Meddle" contains two extremely important songs in the Pink Floyd story. One, the powerful, spacey "One Of These Days", marked a welcome return to simplicity; while the other, the side-long "Echoes", is a progressive rock classic. On this track they managed to dispense with additional musicians and became, in effect a four-piece orchestra. The song marked the first real appearance of the lush, symphonic sound that was such an obvious feature of their music from then on. "Echoes" featured Dave Gilmour's first significant contributions to the group's sound. David Gilmour: "We did loads of bits of demos which we then pieced together, and for the first time, it worked. This album was a clear forerunner for Dark Side Of The Moon, the point when we first got our focus." Nick Mason: "We spent a long time starting the record. We'd worked through the Sounds Of Household Objects project, which we never finished. The idea was always to create a continuous piece of music that went through various moods and this was the album that established that. Rick was the guy who got it off the ground with that one note at the beginning." Rick Wright: "I was playing around on the piano in the studio but it was actually Roger who said, Would it be possible to put that note through a microphone and then through the Leslie? That's what started it. That's how all the best Floyd tracks start, I believe." The title "Meddle" was meant to be a pun - "a play between 'medal' and 'interfere'".
Tracks:
- One of These Days (Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason) [05:57] Vocals by Nick Mason.
- A Pillow of Winds (Waters, GIlmour) [05:07] Vocals by Gilmour.
- Fearless (Waters, Gilmour) [06:05] Vocals by Gilmour.
- Saint Tropez (Waters) [03:40] Vocals by Waters.
- Seamus (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour) [02:13] Vocals by Gilmour.
- Echoes (Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason) [23:31] Vocals by Gimour and Wright.
Total Playing Time: 46'33
Musicians Featured: David Gilmour: Guitars, Vocals Nick Mason: Drums Roger Waters: Bass Guitar, Vocals Rick Wright: Keyboard, Vocals
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