{"id":113497,"date":"2021-05-15T07:30:22","date_gmt":"2021-05-15T11:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=113497"},"modified":"2021-05-15T07:38:12","modified_gmt":"2021-05-15T11:38:12","slug":"musical-rarities-part-xi-two-from-floyd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=113497","title":{"rendered":"Musical Rarities, Part XI: Two from Floyd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finished another 4,500+ mile trip west of the Rio Grande somewhat over a week ago. And longtime readers probably know what’s next: yeah, I’m about to wax semi- ignorant<\/del> eloquent regarding some music that helped pass the time on the road. (smile)<\/p>\n

Here are two tunes from Pink Floyd I listened to on the trip that I thought TAH readers might enjoy. The first is truly a blast from the far past – in multiple versions. It’s from the band’s “classic lineup” period (after their first leader, Syd Barrett, left the band due to personality issues very likely brought on by “excessive use of heavy chemicals.”) It first appeared on the band’s 1971 album “Meddle”, where it was the introductory track.<\/p>\n

The tune IMO marks the beginning of the band’s post-Barrett classic period. (The band’s first post-Barrett release, “A Saucerful of Secrets” isn’t entirely post-Barrett; it contains one Barrett composition, and Barrett also plays guitar on a second track. The studio portions of the second and third albums by the band released after Barrett’s departure – “Ummagumma” and “Atom Heart Mother” – though commercially successful have been later been called unworthy by members of the band. Finally, their 1969 release “More” was a film soundtrack vice a normal studio album.) IMO it is the first example of the distinct musical style the band employed throughout the 1970s, resulting in what are now regarded as some of the finest progressive rock albums ever made (“Dark Side of the Moon”, “Wish You Were Here”, “Animals”, and “The Wall” – although IMO “Animals” suffers in comparison with the other three).<\/p>\n

The tune is a rarity in several respects. First, it has a double-tracked bass riff – both Waters and Gilmour played bass guitar on the tune. Second, the bass riff was processed using time delay, producing the distinctive “quarter-eighth-quarter-eighth” note pattern. Third, the tune features one of the few examples (and possibly the only example) of the band’s drummer, Nick Mason, providing lead vocals – though his original spoken vocal was done in falsetto, then was modified for the recorded version by both ring modulation and half-speed playback to produce a menacing effect. Fourth: the apparently violent spoken lyric was something of an inside joke by the band, aimed at a then-popular BBC disk jockey who exasperated many by babbling incessantly vice doing his job of playing music (see this linked Wikipedia article<\/i><\/a> for details).<\/p>\n

Finally, the song has the distinction of being the only Pink Floyd to be performed and recorded live at an ancient Roman amphitheater in Pompeii (yes, that<\/i> Pompeii) twice<\/i> – separated by an interval of roughly 45 years. Pink Floyd performed and recorded the tune there for their “Live from Pompeii” film in 1971. David Gilmour then performed and recorded the song in the same venue for his film and CD of the same name in 2016. Videos for both are included below – along with an IMO exceptional version from Pink Floyd’s “Delicate Sound of Thunder” tour DVD that was recorded in mid-1988.<\/p>\n

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