Meddle

Meddle
Studio album by Pink Floyd
Released 31 October 1971
Recorded January–August 1971
Studio AIR Studios, Abbey Road Studios, and Morgan Studios
(London, United Kingdom)
Genre Progressive rock
Length 46:45
Language English
Label
Producer Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd chronology
Atom Heart Mother
(1970)Atom Heart Mother1970		 Meddle
(1971)		 Obscured by Clouds
(1972)Obscured by Clouds1972
Singles from Meddle
  1. "One of These Days" / "Fearless"
    Released: 29 November 1971

Meddle is the sixth studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd, released on 31 October 1971 by Harvest Records. It was produced between the band's touring commitments, from January to August 1971. The album was recorded at a series of locations around London, including Abbey Road Studios and Morgan Studios.

With no material to work with and no clear idea of the album's direction, the group devised a series of novel experiments which eventually inspired the album's signature track, "Echoes". Although many of the band's later albums would be unified by a central theme with lyrics written mainly by Roger Waters, Meddle was a group effort with lyrical contributions from each member, and is considered a transitional album between the Syd Barrett-influenced group of the late 1960s and the emerging Pink Floyd.[1] The cover has been explained by creator, Storm Thorgerson, to be an ear under water.[2] As with several previous albums, designed by Hipgnosis, though Storm Thorgerson was unhappy with the final result.

The album was well received by music critics upon its release. However, despite being commercially successful in the United Kingdom, lackluster publicity on the part of their United States-based label led to poor sales there upon initial release.

Recording

Returning from a series of tours across America and England in support of Atom Heart Mother, at the start of 1971 Pink Floyd commenced work on new material at Abbey Road Studios in London.[3] At the time, Abbey Road was equipped only with eight-track multitrack recording facilities, which the band found insufficient for the increasing technical demands of their project. They transferred their best efforts, including the opening of what became "Echoes", to 16-track tape at smaller studios in London (namely AIR, and Morgan in West Hampstead) 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, Rob Black and Roger Quested handled the engineering duties.[4]

Lacking a central theme for the project, the band used several experimental methods in an attempt to spur the creative process. One exercise involved each member playing on a separate track, with no reference to what the other members were doing. The tempo was entirely random while the band played around an agreed chord structure, and moods such as "first two minutes romantic, next two up tempo". Each recorded section was named, but the process was largely unproductive; after several weeks, no complete songs had been created.[5]

Leckie had worked on albums such as George Harrison's All Things Must Pass and Ringo Starr's Sentimental Journey, and was employed as a tape-operator on Meddle, partly for his proclivity for working into the early hours of the morning. He has said that Pink Floyd's sessions would often begin in the afternoon, and end early the next morning, "during which time nothing would get done. There was no record company contact whatsoever, except when their label manager would show up now and again with a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of joints."[6] The band would apparently spend long periods of time working on simple sounds, or a particular guitar riff. They also spent several days at AIR attempting to create music using a variety of household objects, a project which would be revisited between their next albums, The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.[7]

Following these early experiments – called Nothings – the band developed Son of Nothings, which was followed by Return of the Son of Nothings – the working title of the new album. One of these early works involved the use of Richard Wright's piano. Wright had fed a single note through a Leslie speaker, producing a submarine-like ping. The band tried repeatedly to recreate this sound in the studio but were unsuccessful, and so the demo version was used on what would later become "Echoes",[5] mixed almost exclusively at AIR Studios.[8] Combined with David Gilmour's guitar, the band were able to develop the track further, experimenting with accidental sound effects (such as Gilmour's guitar being plugged into a wah-wah pedal back to front). Unlike with Atom Heart Mother, the new multi-track capabilities of the studio enabled them to create the track in stages, rather than performing it in a single take. The final, 23-minute piece would eventually take up the entire second side of the album.[9]

"One of These Days" was developed around an ostinato bassline created by Roger Waters, by feeding the output through a Binson Echorec. The bass line was performed by Waters and Gilmour using two bass guitars, one on old strings. Drummer Nick Mason's abstruse "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces" line was recorded at double speed using a falsetto voice, and replayed at normal speed.[10]

Meddle was recorded between the band's various concert commitments, and therefore its production was spread over a considerable period of time.[4] The band recorded in the first half of April 1971, but in the latter half played at Doncaster and Norwich before returning to record at the end of the month. In May they split their time between sessions at Abbey Road, and rehearsals and concerts in London, Lancaster, Stirling, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Nottingham. June and July were spent mainly performing at venues across Europe.[4][11] August was spent in the far east and Australia, September in Europe, and October to November in the US.[4] In the same period, the group also produced Relics, a compilation album of some of Pink Floyd's earlier works.[12] A quadraphonic mix of the album was prepared at Command Studios on 21 and 26 September, but remains unreleased.[13][14]

Composition

Although the tracks possess a variety of moods, Meddle is generally considered more cohesive than its 1970 predecessor, Atom Heart Mother.[15] The largely instrumental "One of These Days" is followed by "A Pillow of Winds", which is distinguished by being one of the few quiet, acoustic love songs in the Pink Floyd catalogue. These two songs segue into each other across windy sound effects, anticipating the technique that would later be used on Wish You Were Here. The title of "A Pillow of Winds" was inspired by the games of Mahjong that Waters, Mason, and their wives, played while in the south of France.[16]

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 an end in a heavily reverberated fade-out. "San Tropez", by 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. The song was inspired by the band's trip to the south of France in 1970. Pink Floyd uncharacteristically displayed their sense of humour with "Seamus", a pseudo-blues novelty track featuring Steve Marriott's dog (which Gilmour was looking after) howling along to the music.[16][nb 1] "Seamus" often tops polls as the worst song Pink Floyd ever created, but the band would later use animal sounds again, in Animals.[17]

The final song on the album is the 23-minute "Echoes". First performed as "Return of the Son of Nothing" on 22 April 1971 in Norwich,[18] the band spent about six months on the track in three studios (Morgan, AIR and Abbey Road).[14] The track opens with Wright's "ping". "Echoes" was recorded almost entirely at Air Studios,[8] and completed in July 1971.[14] "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. On the compilation, multiple edits throughout the entire song cut the running length of the piece down by some seven minutes. Some of the material composed during the creation of Meddle was not used; however, one song would eventually become "Brain Damage", on The Dark Side of the Moon.[15][19] "Echoes" was later featured in its entirety in the 1973 Australian surf film Crystal Voyager, filmed, written and narrated by surfer, photographer and filmmaker George Greenough during an extended section of slow-motion footage shot inside the curl of waves.

Packaging

The album's title Meddle is a play on words: a medal, and to interfere.[17] Storm Thorgerson of the art-design group Hipgnosis originally suggested a close-up shot of a baboon's anus for the album cover photograph. He was overruled by the band, who informed him via an intercontinental telephone call while on tour in Japan that they would rather have "an ear underwater".[20] The cover image was photographed by Bob Dowling. The image represents an ear, underwater, collecting waves of sound (represented by ripples in the water).[17] Thorgerson has expressed dissatisfaction with the cover, claiming it to be his least favourite Pink Floyd album sleeve: "I think Meddle is a much better album than its cover".[21] Thorgerson's colleague Aubrey Powell shares his sentiments, saying: "Meddle was a mess. I hated that cover. I don't think we did them justice with that at all; it's half-hearted."[22] The gatefold contains a group photograph of the band (Floyd's last until 1987's A Momentary Lapse of Reason).[21]

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Retrospective reviews
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[23]
Blender[24]
Christgau's Record GuideB–[25]
The Daily Telegraph[26]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[27]
The Great Rock Discography8/10[27]
MusicHound3/5[28]
Paste8.8/10[29]
Q[30]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[31]

Meddle was released on 31 October 1971 in the US, and 13 November in the UK.[nb 2] Meddle was later released as a remastered LP by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab,[35] and in April 1989 on their "Ultradisc" gold CD format.[36] The album was included as part of the box set Shine On on 2 November 1992.[nb 3][38]

Although in the UK it reached number three, lacklustre publicity on the part of Capitol Records led to weak sales in the US, and a chart position of number 70.[33][39] "Pink Floyd had a strong following in the UK and other parts of Europe," recalled Rupert Perry, then head of A&R at Capitol. "But they needed to be bigger in the United States, where they were only doing 200,000 units. They were very much an album act – no singles – which was bad news for us. They had a high credibility factor without the sales."[40]

On 29 November 1971, "One of These Days" was released as a 7-inch single in the US, with "Fearless" on the B-side.[41] "One of These Days" and "Echoes" were performed during Live At Pompeii (the latter in two parts) and also on the BBC's 1971 In Concert.[42][43] Meddle was later certified gold by the RIAA on 29 October 1973 and then double platinum on 11 March 1994, following the added attention garnered by the band's later successes in the United States.[44]

Critical response

On release, Meddle received generally positive reviews from music critics.[45] Rolling Stone's Jean-Charles Costa wrote: "Meddle not only confirms lead guitarist David Gilmour's emergence as a real shaping force with the group, it states forcefully and accurately that the group is well into the growth track again",[46] and the NME called it "an exceptionally good album".[47] Steve Peterson of Hit Parader cited "Fearless" as its best song and said of the album, "This has got to be their best ever."[45] Ed Kelleher of Circus called it "another masterpiece by a masterful group", noting "Fearless" as "fascinating" and praising "Echoes" as "a tone poem that allows all four group members much time to stretch their muscles".[45] However, Melody Maker was more reserved, describing it as "a soundtrack to a non-existent movie".[47]

In a retrospective review, Robert Christgau said Meddle was a fairly good progression over the group's previous work and featured folk songs highlighted by unique melodies, although he lamented the lyrics to "A Pillow of Winds": "The word 'behold' should never cross their filters again". In his critique of "Echoes", he believed the lyrics imitate "Across the Universe" by the Beatles but over 23 minutes of music that flows with a "timeless calm" similar to "Interstellar Overdrive".[25] Daryl Easlea of BBC felt it is a similar, but more consistent and tuneful version of Atom Heart Mother highlighted by "Echoes", which he said "dominates the entire work" and is "everything right about progressive rock; engaging, intelligent and compelling".[48] In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Rob Sheffield said "Echoes" showed Pink Floyd to be a more developed group than before, "coloring the slow guitar ripples with deep-in-the-studio sonic details that only the truly baked would notice, much less appreciate."[31] Writing for AllMusic, editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine called Meddle the best album from their transitional years leading up to The Dark Side of the Moon, as it "spends most of its time with sonic textures and elongated compositions, most notably on its epic closer, 'Echoes'". He noted a "uniform tone", but not song structure, and wrote of the album's significance in the group's catalogue: "Pink Floyd were nothing if not masters of texture, and Meddle is one of their greatest excursions into little details, pointing the way to the measured brilliance of Dark Side of the Moon and the entire Roger Waters era."[23]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."One of These Days"Waters, Gilmour, Wright, Masoninstrumental[nb 4]5:57
2."A Pillow of Winds"Gilmour, WatersGilmour5:10
3."Fearless" (including "You'll Never Walk Alone")Gilmour, Waters (including Rodgers, Hammerstein II)Gilmour6:08
4."San Tropez"WatersWaters3:43
5."Seamus"Gilmour, Wright, Waters, MasonGilmour2:16
Total length:23:14
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."Echoes"Wright, Gilmour, Waters, MasonWright, Gilmour23:32
Total length:23:32

Personnel

Credits adapted from sleeve notes.[50]

Pink Floyd
Additional personnel

Charts and certifications

References

Notes
  1. ↑ "Seamus" was remade as "Mademoiselle Nobs", featuring a different dog and no lyrics, in the film Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii.[16]
  2. ↑ Povey (2007) suggests that the UK release date was 5 November,[32] but Mabbett (1995) and Pink Floyd's official website both state 13 November. All sources agree on the US release date.[33][34]
  3. ↑ UK - EMI PFBOX 1, US - Columbia CXK 53180 S1[37]
  4. ↑ The song is entirely instrumental, except for a spoken line by Nick Mason.[49]
Footnotes
  1. ↑ "Review of Pink Floyd – Meddle". BBC Music. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
  2. ↑ "Top 10 Pink Floyd Album Covers". ClassicRockHistory.com. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
  3. ↑ Mason 2005, pp. 152–153
  4. 1 2 3 4 Mason 2005, p. 157
  5. 1 2 Mason 2005, p. 153
  6. ↑ Harris 2006, p. 62
  7. ↑ Harris 2006, pp. 63–64
  8. 1 2 Mabbett 1995, p. 42
  9. ↑ Mason 2005, pp. 153–154
  10. ↑ Mason 2005, p. 155
  11. ↑ Povey 2007, pp. 142–144
  12. ↑ Mason 2005, p. 158
  13. ↑ Povey 2007, p. 148
  14. 1 2 3 Snider 2008, p. 103
  15. 1 2 Schaffner 1991, p. 160
  16. 1 2 3 Mason 2005, p. 156
  17. 1 2 3 Schaffner 1991, p. 155
  18. ↑ Harris 2006, p. 64
  19. ↑ Povey 2007, p. 155
  20. ↑ Mason 2005, p. 160
  21. 1 2 Blake 2007, p. 166
  22. ↑ Harris 2006, pp. 142–143
  23. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas, Meddle: Overview, AllMusic, retrieved 6 September 2009
  24. ↑ Twist, Carlo, Meddle – Blender, blender.com, retrieved 20 August 2009
  25. 1 2 Christgau 1981, p. 303.
  26. ↑ McCormick, Neil (20 May 2014). "Pink Floyd's 14 studio albums rated". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  27. 1 2 Pink Floyd Meddle, Acclaimed Music, retrieved 27 December 2014
  28. ↑ Graff & Durchholz 1999, p. 874
  29. ↑ Deusner, Stephen (5 October 2011). "Pink Floyd: Meddle ("Why Pink Floyd?" Reissue)". pastemagazine.com. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  30. ↑ "Pink Floyd Meddle", Q, p. 137, October 1995, The four were at their most collectively prolific at this time …
  31. 1 2 Sheffield, Rob (2 November 2004). "Pink Floyd: Album Guide". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media, Fireside Books. Archived from the original on 17 February 2011. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  32. ↑ Povey 2007, p. 150
  33. 1 2 Mabbett 1995, p. 39
  34. ↑ Pink Floyd – Echoes (click Echoes image link), pinkfloyd.co.uk, archived from the original on 18 March 2009, retrieved 22 August 2009
  35. ↑ MFSL Out of Print Archive - Original Master Recording LP, mofi.com, retrieved 3 August 2009
  36. ↑ MFSL Out of Print Archive – Ultradisc II Gold CD, mofi.com, retrieved 3 August 2009
  37. ↑ Povey 2007, p. N/A
  38. ↑ Eder, Bruce, Shine On – Review, AllMusic, retrieved 15 August 2009
  39. ↑ Harris 2006, pp. 158–161
  40. ↑ Gwyther, Matthew (7 March 1993). "The dark side of success". Observer magazine: 33.
  41. ↑ Povey 2007, p. 344
  42. ↑ Mabbett 1995, p. 43
  43. ↑ Harris 2006, p. 67
  44. ↑ US Certifications Database, riaa.com, archived from the original on 26 June 2007, retrieved 22 August 2009
  45. 1 2 3 "Pink Floyd – Meddle", Billboard, 1972, retrieved 6 September 2009
  46. ↑ Costa, Jean-Charles (6 January 1972), Pink Floyd: Meddle, rollingstone.com, retrieved 19 August 2009
  47. 1 2 Schaffner 1991, pp. 155–156
  48. ↑ Easlea, Daryl (17 April 2007), Pink Floyd Meddle Review, bbc.co.uk, retrieved 20 August 2009
  49. ↑ Ruhlmann, William. "One of These Days". AllMusic. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
  50. ↑ Meddle (sleeve). Pink Floyd. Harvest Records.
  51. ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (Illustrated ed.). St. Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 233. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  52. ↑ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 5323." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  53. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Pink Floyd – Meddle" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  54. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Pink Floyd – Meddle" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  55. ↑ "Pink Floyd | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  56. ↑ "Pink Floyd – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Pink Floyd. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  57. ↑ "Les charts francais (01/11/2011)". lescharts.com. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  58. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Pink Floyd – Meddle". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  59. ↑ "French album certifications – Pink Floyd – Meddle" (in French). InfoDisc. Select PINK FLOYD and click OK
  60. ↑ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Pink Floyd; 'Meddle')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
  61. ↑ "Italian album certifications – Pink Floyd – Meddle" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana.
  62. ↑ "British album certifications – Pink Floyd – Meddle". British Phonographic Industry. Enter Meddle in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Gold in the field By Award. Click Search
  63. ↑ "American album certifications – Pink Floyd – Meddle". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
Bibliography
  • Blake, Mark (2007), Comfortably Numb – The Inside Story of Pink Floyd, Thunder's Mouth Press, ISBN 1-56858-383-4 
  • Christgau, Robert (1981). Rock Albums of the '70s: A Critical Guide. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306804093. 
  • Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds) (1999), MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press, ISBN 1-57859-061-2 
  • Harris, John (2006), The Dark Side of the Moon (3rd ed.), Harper Perennial, ISBN 978-0-00-779090-6 
  • Mabbett, Andy (1995), The Complete Guide to the Music of Pink Floyd (illustrated ed.), Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-4301-X 
  • Mason, Nick (2005), Philip Dodd, ed., Inside Out – A Personal History of Pink Floyd (paperback ed.), Phoenix, ISBN 0-7538-1906-6 
  • Povey, Glenn (2007), Echoes, Mind Head Publishing, ISBN 0-9554624-0-1 
  • Schaffner, Nicholas (1991), Saucerful of Secrets (1st ed.), London: Sidgwick & Jackson, ISBN 0-283-06127-8 
  • Snider, Charles (2008), The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock, Lulu.com, ISBN 0-615-17566-X 
Further reading
  • Reising, Russell (2005), Speak to Me, Ashgate Publishing, ISBN 0-7546-4019-1 
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