Cymbaline

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For other uses of the word "cymbaline" see: Cymbaline (disambiguation)

"Cymbaline"

Song by Pink Floyd
from the album Music from the Film More
Released	July 27, 1969
Recorded	March 1969
Genre	Psychedelic rock, Folk Rock
Length	4:30
Label	Harvest Records
Writer(s)	Roger Waters
Producer(s)	Pink Floyd
Music from the Film More track listing
Green Is the Colour (5)	"Cymbaline" (6)	Party Sequence (7)

"Cymbaline" is a Pink Floyd song from the album More. Its lyrics vividly tell the tale of a "nightmare", which was the title of the song when it was first introduced in Floyd's The Man and the Journey shows.

The recording of '"Cymbaline" on the album is different from the one in the movie (the latter version is heard on a record player in a bedroom). The most noticeable difference being that the lyrics are sung by Roger Waters, whereas on the album they are sung by David Gilmour. The lyrics themselves are also different in places.

The song features a sparse arrangement of classical guitar, bass, piano, drumset, bongos, and Farfisa organ entering when Gilmour does a scat solo. Pink Floyd played "Cymbaline" from 1969 until the end of 1971. It can be heard on several bootleg recordings.

[edit] Live performances

When the band performed the song live, they made the following changes to the song:

Rick Wright almost always used Farfisa organ in place of piano (the exception being their performance at KQED studios in San Francisco on April 29, 1970, in which the studio had a piano for Wright to utilize).

David Gilmour played electric guitar and performed a guitar solo over where the scat solo occurred in the song.

They changed the key of the fadeout section from E-minor to B-minor. During this section, Roger Waters would bang a gong instead of bongos.

After the section in B-minor, the band presented a selection of sound effects (like footsteps, doors creaking, explosions, etc.) to present the nightmare. These effects were presented to the audience using the Azimuth co-ordinator. Hence, to the audience, the sounds would surround them, and the footsteps would go from left to right through the back of the audience. However, this move proved futile, as the sound effects garnered responses of laughter, instead of the intended fear. On one live recording a man in the audience even yells out in a sarcastic tone, "I'm Scared!".