Any Colour You Like
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 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 Song cycle |
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| Length | 43:00 | |
| Label | Harvest (UK) Capitol (US) |
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| Producer(s) | Pink Floyd | |
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| Tracks | ||
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"Any Colour You Like" is the eighth track[1] from English progressive rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon. It is an instrumental song.
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[edit] Composition
The piece itself features no lyrics, and consists of a synthesized tune which segues into a guitar solo (in some live versions, some scat vocals are added later on). It is approximately 3 minutes, 25 seconds in length. The song used advanced effects for the time both in the keyboard and the guitar. The VCS 3 synthesizer was fed through a long tape loop to create the rising and falling keyboard solo. David Gilmour used two guitars with the UniVibe guitar effect to create the harmonizing guitar solo for the rest of the song. Any Colour You Like is also known (and is even listed on the "Dark Side" guitar tablature book[2]) as "Breathe (Second Reprise)" because the song shares the same beat (albeit somewhat funkier and uptempo) as the album's song "Breathe." It has also nearly the same chord sequence just transposed a whole step lower from E minor to D minor. The title came from an answer frequently given by a studio technician to questions put to him: "You can have it any colour you like", which was a reference to Henry Ford's description of the Model T: "You can have it any color you like, as long as it's black."
The song is also notable for the fact that it is the only song during Roger Waters' tenure in Pink Floyd that is credited to Gilmour, Mason, and Wright without any credit to Waters. The only other songs credited to those three are "Carrera Slow Blues" and "Pan Am Shuffle" from La Carrera Panamericana soundtrack.
[edit] Live versions
On earlier Pink Floyd bootlegged versions of the song, there was no keyboard solo, and the song served as a long jam piece called "Scat Section" or "Scat". Gilmour frequently sung along with his guitar solo through a mic hooked up to a Leslie speaker. The band's female backing singers would sometimes come up on stage and sing with the song, as well.
In 1975, it was often extended, sometimes up to nearly ten minutes. Gilmour and the backing singers often sung along with it.
In 1994, it was considerably modified, to be more keyboard-heavy, though not extended, as in all earlier performances.
In 2006, Roger Waters performed it on his The Dark Side of the Moon Live Tour, it was often extended with Dave Kilminster scatting while playing.
[edit] Personnel
- David Gilmour - Guitar
- Richard Wright - Organ and Synthesiser
- Roger Waters - Bass and Tape effects
- Nick Mason - Drums and Percussion
[edit] Notes
- ^ The track number depends upon the edition of the album; earlier releases merge the two tracks "Speak to Me" and "Breathe", for instance.
- ^ Schuetz, David and Denault, Matt (1995). Echoes FAQ #1 (htm). FAQ. The Pink Floyd Fan Club. Retrieved on December 23, 2006.
