On the Run (Pink Floyd song)
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- For other uses, see On the Run (disambiguation).
| The Dark Side of the Moon | ||
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| Album by Pink Floyd | ||
| Released | March 2, 1973 | |
| Recorded | Abbey Road June 1972-January 1973 |
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| Genre | Progressive rock Electronic music Musique concrète |
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| Length | 43:00 | |
| Label | Harvest (UK) Capitol (US) |
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| Producer(s) | Pink Floyd | |
| Professional reviews | ||
| Tracks | ||
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"On the Run" is the third track[1] from British progressive rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon. It is an instrumental song that deals with the pressures of travel (which Rick Wright said would often bring fear of death), and is a VCS3 synthesizer-led piece. When the band performed this song in concert, a model airplane would fly from one end of the arena to the other crashing in a brilliant explosion.
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[edit] Composition
This piece was created by feeding in a simple series of notes into the VCS3 and speeding it up, with a white noise generator adding the high hat sound. They then added guitar parts, created by dragging a microphone stand leg down the fretboard, and panned left to right. There are also some other synthesizer parts, made to sound like some type of vehicle passing, giving a Doppler effect.
Near the end we hear a bomb explosion which gradually gets quieter as the seconds go by, leading up to the chiming clocks marking the introduction of the song 'Time'.
When the Dark Side of the Moon suite was performed in 1972 (before the album was released), it went under the title "The Travel Sequence" and was, instead of a complex electronic instrumental, a more simple guitar jam.
[edit] Voices
- At 27 seconds into the piece, the sound of a female voice on a loudspeaker can be heard. Some think it to be an "airport voice" calling notices to travelers. When one listens closely, they can hear the voice say, among other things, "Now boarding flight 237 to Rome" and "Please have your passports ready. The talking continues for nearly thirty seconds, but some of it cannot be heard because the helicopter like noise is played over it.
- At 1:54, Roger the Hat says: "Live for today, gone tomorrow. That's me. Ha ha ha!"
[edit] Trivia
- When the album is listened to along with the film, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy sings "Over the Rainbow" while "On the Run" is played. This forms an interesting contrast. The initials of the titles in both songs are OTR. Also, if the viewer uses his/her imagination, it seems that Dorothy is watching "planes" fly overhead.
- The Chicago Bulls NBA team uses On The Run for visiting-team player introductions.
- When the band perfomed the song live, all (except Wright) disappeared from the stage
[edit] Alternative and Live versions
- A live version of the song can be heard on the Delicate Sound Of Thunder concert video. This version did not appear on the CD release.
[edit] Notes
- ^ The track number depends upon the edition of the album; some releases merge the two tracks "Speak to Me" and "Breathe," for instance.
