Meddle
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| Meddle | ||
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| Studio album by Pink Floyd | ||
| Released | 30 October 1971 | |
| Recorded | January-August 1971 | |
| Genre | Psychedelic rock Folk-rock Progressive rock |
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| Length | 46:46 | |
| Label | Harvest, EMI (UK) Harvest/Capitol, Capitol (US) |
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| Producer(s) | Pink Floyd | |
| Professional reviews | ||
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| Pink Floyd chronology | ||
| Relics (1971) |
Meddle (1971) |
Obscured by Clouds (1972) |
| Alternative cover | ||
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| US/Canadian releases cover | ||
Meddle is an album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd. It was recorded at various studios in between the band's live touring commitments from January through August 1971.
Originally released in the US on October 30, 1971 by Harvest/Capitol and in the UK on November 5 by Harvest/EMI, the album was later remastered three times: first by MFSL in 1984 on high-quality vinyl and cassette, then in 1989 for Ultradisc, and finally by Doug Sax (supervised by James Guthrie) for the 1992 Shine On box set. This latter digital master was used for a CD reissue with additional artwork by Hipgnosis, released August 1994 in Europe and April 1995 in the US.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
- "One of These Days" – 5:57
- Spoken line: Mason
- "A Pillow of Winds" – 5:10
- Lead vocals: Gilmour
- "Fearless" – 5:50
- Lead vocals: Gilmour
- "San Tropez" – 3:43
- Lead vocals: Waters
- "Seamus" – 2:15
- Lead vocals: Gilmour
- "Echoes" – 23:31
- Lead vocals: Gilmour and Wright
[edit] Overview
Though the tracks have a variety of moods, Meddle is generally considered more cohesive than its 1970 predecessor Atom Heart Mother, and is thought by many fans to be Pink Floyd's first truly great album recorded without Syd Barrett. It enjoyed some commercial success in the United Kingdom (reaching #3 on the charts), but lackadaisical publicity on the part of Capitol Records led to weak sales in the US. However, Meddle would later be certified Gold by the RIAA in October of 1973 and then double platinum on March 11, 1994 following the added attention garnered by the band's later successes in America.
"One of These Days" (a largely instrumental piece) opens the album with an ostinato bassline and uses a slide guitar lick reminiscent of the theme tune from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
It is followed by "A Pillow of Winds", which is distinguished by being one of the few quiet, acoustic songs in the Pink Floyd catalogue primarily concerned with love. These two songs segue into each other via wind effects, anticipating the same technique that would later be used on Wish You Were Here. The song "Fearless" employs field recordings of the Liverpool F.C. Kop choir singing "You'll Never Walk Alone", their anthem, which brings the song to a haunting end in a heavily reverberated fade-out.
"San Tropez", by extreme contrast, is a jazz-inflected pop song with a shuffle tempo, composed by Waters in his increasingly-deployed style of breezy, off-the-cuff songwriting. Pink Floyd give a rare glimpse into their sense of humour with "Seamus" (later remade as "Mademoiselle Nobs"), a pseudo-blues number featuring 'vocals' by a dog. It is the only song in the film Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii that was never performed elsewhere.
The final song on the album, "Echoes", is reputed to synchronize musically and thematically with the climactic section of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey (entitled "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite"). It is rumoured that Pink Floyd purposely synchronized "Echoes" with 2001 because they regretted denying Kubrick the rights to use the "Atom Heart Mother Suite" in his film A Clockwork Orange. However, the song is more notable for being the lyrical centrepiece of the record and the band's most accomplished recorded work yet. "Echoes" also gave its name to the compilation album Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd, on which a much-edited version of the title track was included. In the compilation, multiple edits throughout the entire song cut the running length of the piece down by some 7 minutes.
[edit] Recording and release
Pink Floyd began production on the album at EMI's famous Abbey Road Studios, where most of their other projects had been recorded and mixed. Lacking a central theme for the project, the band decided to work on new material individually without listening to the other band members' contributions. They had already tried such an approach with limited success for Ummagumma, however, this time the band resolved to work on one collaborative piece rather than separate solo efforts. The result of one such experiment, which centered around the sound of a grand piano sent through a Leslie speaker, provided inspiration for what would later become "Echoes".
Unfortunately, Abbey Road was still only outfitted with 8-channel multitrack recording facilities, which Pink Floyd found insufficient for the increasing technical demands of their project. They transferred their best efforts, including the opening of "Echoes", to 16-track tape at smaller studios in London (namely AIR and Morgan) and resumed work with the advantage of more flexible recording equipment. Engineers John Leckie and Peter Bown recorded the main Abbey Road and AIR sessions, while for minor work at Morgan studios in West Hampstead Rob Black and Roger Quested handled the engineering duties. The band also spent several days in late September 1971 preparing a quadrophonic mix of the album at Command Studios. Reportedly, this was played at the album's press premiere. However, it has never been released to the public. [1]
Outtakes from the album sessions are rumoured to include an unreleased song entitled "The Dark Side of the Moon", which later became "Brain Damage", and two demo versions of "One of These Days", both of which have been made available on bootlegs and include cut-up speech samples of Radio DJ Sir Jimmy Young.
[edit] Album art
The band's associate Storm Thorgerson originally suggested a close-up shot of a baboon's anus for the album cover photograph. The band informed him via an inter-continental telephone call while on tour in Japan that they would rather have "an ear underwater",[citation needed] which was used as the basis for the final design (with slight colour differences on the original US and Canadian issues of the album). Circles on the water surface symbolize the sound itself, and can also represent the sea imagery in Echoes (IE: Echo of a distant tide, coral caves, Albatross, etc).
This image formed the outside of the original gatefold cover, while four superimposed black-and-white photographs of the individual band members were used for the interior. This would be the last time that the band members would appear on a Pink Floyd album sleeve, until the release of A Momentary Lapse of Reason, sixteen years later.
[edit] Singles
- (1971) One of These Days / Fearless (US and Italy release)
- (1971) One of These Days / Seamus (Japan only release)
[edit] Quotes
"Meddle is amongst my favourites. I mean that, to me, is the start of the path forward for Pink Floyd, really."
- —David Gilmour, February 1988, on Australian Radio
"Meddle was the first real Pink Floyd album. It set a tempo, a feel and a style that we liked, and it introduced the idea of the theme that can be returned to. It sounds a bit ham-fisted now, but the concept thing I like."
- —Nick Mason, 1994
[edit] Charts
Album - Billboard (North America)
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Pop Albums | 70 |
[edit] Credits
- Electric guitar on A Pillow of Winds, Fearless and Echoes.
- Lap steel on One of These Days, A Pillow of Winds and Echoes.
- Acoustic guitar on A Pillow of Winds, Fearless and Seamus.
- Bass guitar on One of These Days and A Pillow of Winds.
- Lead vocals on A Pillow of Winds, Fearless, Seamus and Echoes. -
- Harmonica on Seamus.
- Bass guitar on all tracks, except A Pillow of Winds.
- Backing vocals on Fearless.
- Lead vocals and acoustic guitar on San Tropez
- Rhythm guitar on Fearless.
- Piano on Fearless, San Tropez, Seamus and Echoes.
- Organ on A Pillow of Winds and Echoes.
- Lead vocals and backing vocals on Echoes.
- drums and percussions on all tracks
- Vocal phrase on One of These Days.
Seamus - In tune vocals on Seamus.
Note: It is unclear who played the harp in Seamus, but it's likely to be Gilmour.
