Ummagumma

Ummagumma
Studio album / Live album by Pink Floyd
Released 25 October 1969 (1969-10-25)
Recorded 27 April, 2 May 1969
Studio Mothers Club, Birmingham, England; Manchester College of Commerce, Manchester, England; studio recordings made at EMI Studios, London[1][2]
Genre
Length 86:21
Label
Producer
Pink Floyd chronology
More
(1969)More1969		 Ummagumma
(1969)		 Atom Heart Mother
(1970)Atom Heart Mother1970
Pink Floyd live albums chronology
Ummagumma
(1969) Ummagumma1969		 Delicate Sound of Thunder
(1988) Delicate Sound of Thunder1988

Ummagumma is the fourth album by the English rock band Pink Floyd. It is a double album and was released on 25 October 1969 by Harvest Records in the United Kingdom and by Capitol Records internationally. The first disc consists of live recordings from concerts at Mothers Club in Birmingham and the College of Commerce in Manchester that contained part of their normal set list of the time, while the second contains solo compositions by each member of the band recorded at the Abbey Road Studios.[6][7] The artwork was designed by regular Floyd collaborators Hipgnosis and features a number of pictures of the band combined to give a Droste effect.

Although the album was well received at the time of release, and was a top five hit in the UK album charts, it has since been looked upon unfavourably by the band, who have expressed negative opinions about it in interviews. Nevertheless, the album has been reissued on CD several times, along with the rest of their catalogue.

Title

The album's title supposedly comes from Cambridge slang for sex,[8][9] commonly used by Pink Floyd friend and occasional roadie, Iain "Emo" Moore, who would say "I'm going back to the house for some ummagumma". According to Moore, he made up the term himself.[10]

Background

The site of Mothers Club in Birmingham, where some of the live album was recorded (seen in March 2013)

Although the sleeve notes say that the live material was recorded in June 1969, the live album of Ummagumma was recorded live at Mothers Club in Birmingham on 27 April 1969 and the following week at Manchester College of Commerce on 2 May of the same year as part of The Man and The Journey Tour.[11][12] The band had also recorded a live version of "Interstellar Overdrive" (from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn) intended for placement on side one of the live album, and "The Embryo", which was recorded in the studio before it was decided that the band members each come up with their own material.[11]

The studio album came as a result of Richard Wright wanting to make "real music", where each of the four group members (in order: Wright, Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason) had half an LP side each to create a solo work without involvement from the others.[11] Wright's contribution, "Sysyphus", was named after a character in Greek mythology, usually spelled "Sisyphus",[13] and contained a combination of various keyboards, including piano and mellotron. Although initially enthusiastic about making a solo contribution,[14] Wright later described it as "pretentious".[11] Waters' "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" contained a variety of vocal[15] and percussion effects treated at various speeds, both forwards and backwards, and was influenced by Ron Geesin,[15] who would later collaborate with both Waters and Pink Floyd. Waters' other contribution "Grantchester Meadows" was a more pastoral acoustic offering and was usually played as an opening to concerts over 1969.[16] Gilmour has since stated he was apprehensive about creating a solo work, and admits he "went into a studio and started waffling about, tacking bits and pieces together",[17] although part one of "The Narrow Way" had already been performed as "Baby Blue Shuffle in D Major" in a BBC radio session in December 1968.[18] Gilmour said he "just bullshitted" through the piece.[11] He asked Waters to write some lyrics for his compositions, but he refused to do so.[11] Mason's three-part "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" featured his then wife, Lindy, playing flute,[15] and Mason playing a seven-minute drum solo as part two of the piece.[11]

Packaging

The album was the first album by the band released on the Harvest label. The cover artwork shows a Droste effect featuring the group, with a picture hanging on the wall showing the same scene, except that the band members have switched positions.[12] The cover of the original LP varies between the British, American/Canadian and Australian releases. The British version has the album Gigi leaning against the wall immediately above the "Pink Floyd" letters.[12] At a talk given at Borders bookstore in Cambridge on 1 November 2008, as part of the "City Wakes" project, Storm Thorgerson explained that the album was introduced as a red herring to provoke debate, and that it has no intended meaning. On most copies of American and Canadian editions, the Gigi cover is airbrushed to a plain white sleeve, apparently because of copyright concerns, but the earliest American copies do show the Gigi cover,[19] and it was restored for the American remastered CD edition. On the Australian edition, the Gigi cover is completely airbrushed, not even leaving a white square behind. The house used as the location for the front cover of the album is located in Great Shelford, near Cambridge.[20]

On the rear cover, roadies Alan Styles (who also appears in "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast") and Peter Watts are shown with the band's equipment laid out on a taxiway at Biggin Hill Airport. This concept was proposed by Mason, with the intention of replicating the "exploded" drawings of military aircraft and their payloads, which were popular at the time.[12]

There is a slight difference between the British and North American editions in the way the titles on the back are laid out, the most important difference being the inclusion of subtitles for the four sections of "A Saucerful of Secrets". These subtitles only appeared on American and Canadian editions of this album, but not on the British edition, nor did they appear on original pressings of A Saucerful of Secrets.[21]

The inner gatefold art shows separate black-and-white photos of the band members. Gilmour is seen standing in front of the Elfin Oak. Original vinyl editions showed Waters with his first wife, Judy Trim, but she has been cropped out of the picture on most CD editions (with the original photo's caption "Roger Waters (and Jude)" accordingly changed to just "Roger Waters"). The uncropped picture was restored for the album's inclusion in the box set Oh, by the Way.[12]

Release history

Ummagumma was released in the UK and US on 25 October and 10 November 1969, respectively. It reached number 5 on the UK albums chart[22] and number 74 in the US, marking the first time the band reached the top 100 there.[23] The album was certified gold in the US in February 1974 and platinum in March 1994. American versions of the cassette retained only "Astronomy Domine" from the live set and omitted the three other tracks.[24] In 1987, the album was re-released on a two-CD set. A digitally remastered version was issued in 1994.[25]

In 2009, to mark the 40th anniversary of the album's release, Thorgerson sold a limited number of autographed lithographs of the front cover.[26] Although the 2011 re-release campaign Why Pink Floyd...? presented all fourteen albums newly remastered in 2011, only the studio disc of Ummagumma was remastered – the live disc is the previous 1994 version. Both the live and studio album will be re-issued on 3 June 2016 with Pink Floyd Records label.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[27]
The Daily Telegraph[3]
The Great Rock Discography7/10[28]
MusicHound2.5/5[29]
Paste5.0/10[30]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[31]
Sputnikmusic4/5[32]
Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music[28]

On release, Ummagumma received favourable reviews.[14][15] International Times were particularly positive about the live album, with the reviewer describing it as "probably one of the best live recordings I have ever heard".[33] Vox included the live half of this album on its list of "The Greatest Live Albums Ever".[28] Stylus Magazine were very positive towards the album, saying the live half "as a visceral document of the early Floyd’s proclivity for atmospheric, energetic jamming, there's nothing else like it" and the studio half "somehow transcends its fractured construction to make a full album-length statement".[34]

However, the band have since been dismissive and critical of the work. Recalling the album in later years, Waters said: "Ummagumma – what a disaster!",[35] while in 1995, Gilmour described the album as "horrible".[36] In a 1984 interview, Mason said: "I thought it was a very good and interesting little exercise, the whole business of everyone doing a bit. But I still feel really that that's quite a good example of the sum being greater than the parts ..."[37] Later, he described it as "a failed experiment", adding that "the most significant thing is that we didn't do it again".[38]

Paste, reviewing the 2011 re-release, described the album as "rock excess of the worst kind", although the writer praised the live version of "Careful with that Axe, Eugene".[30] Robert Christgau has suggested that the album's "hypnotic melodies" made it "an admirable record to fall asleep to".[39]

Dragonfly species

In December 2015 scientists named a new found insect of the genus Umma – a damselfly – Umma gumma after the album.[40][41]

Track listing

Double-LP Edition

Record one - Live album
Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Recording dateLength
1."Astronomy Domine"Syd Barrett27 April 19698:32
2."Careful with That Axe, Eugene"Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason, David Gilmour2 May 19698:49
Total length:17:21
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Recording dateLength
3."Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun"Waters2 May 19699:27
4."A Saucerful of Secrets"Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour27 April 196912:48
Total length:22:15
Record two – studio album
Side three
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Sysyphus (Parts 1–4)[lower-alpha 1]"Richard Wright13:28
2."Grantchester Meadows"Roger Waters7:26
3."Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict"Waters4:59
Total length:25:53
Side four
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
4."The Narrow Way (Parts 1–3)"David Gilmour12:17
5."The Grand Vizier's Garden Party (Part 1: Entrance; Part 2: Entertainment; Part 3: Exit)"Nick Mason8:46
Total length:21:03

UK Cassette Edition

US Cassette Edition

CD Edition

Personnel

Pink Floyd

Additional personnel

Charts and certifications

Notes

  1. ↑ On compact disc, part one was split into two halves, labeled "Part I" and "Part II". Consequently, the original part two became "Part III", while parts three and four became "Part IV".

References

Citations

  1. ↑ Glenn Povey (2007). Echoes: The Complete History of Pink Floyd. Mind Head Publishing. p. 74.
  2. ↑ Alistair Lawrence (2012). Abbey Road: The Best Studio in the World. A&C Black. p. 14.
  3. 1 2 3 4 McCormick, Neil (20 May 2014). "Pink Floyd's 14 studio albums rated". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  4. ↑ Doyle Greene (17 February 2016). Rock, Counterculture and the Avant-Garde, 1966-1970: How the Beatles, Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground Defined an Era. McFarland. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-4766-6214-5.
  5. ↑ Toby Manning (2006). The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd. Rough Guides. p. 160. ISBN 978-1-84353-575-1.
  6. ↑ Glenn Povey (2007). Echoes: The Complete History of Pink Floyd. Mind Head Publishing. p. 74.
  7. ↑ Alistair Lawrence (2012). Abbey Road: The Best Studio in the World. A&C Black. p. 14.
  8. ↑ Schaffner, Nicholas (2005). Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey (New ed.). London: Helter Skelter. p. 157. ISBN 1-905139-09-8.
  9. ↑ Manning, Toby (2006). The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd (1st ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 160. ISBN 1-84353-575-0.
  10. ↑ Blake, Mark. Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd. Da Capo Press Inc. p. 137. ISBN 978-0306817526. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Schaffner, Nicholas (2005). Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey (New ed.). London: Helter Skelter. p. 156. ISBN 1-905139-09-8.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Mabbett 2010, p. 160.
  13. ↑ Mabbett, Andy (1995). The Complete Guide to the Music of Pink Floyd. London: Omnibus Press. p. 27. ISBN 0-7119-4301-X.
  14. 1 2 Mason, Nick (2011) [2004]. Philip Dodd, ed. Inside Out – A Personal History of Pink Floyd (Paperback ed.). Phoenix. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-7538-1906-7.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Manning, Toby (2006). The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd (1st ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 161. ISBN 1-84353-575-0.
  16. ↑ Mason, Nick (2011) [2004]. Philip Dodd, ed. Inside Out – A Personal History of Pink Floyd (Paperback ed.). Phoenix. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-7538-1906-7.
  17. ↑ Fielder, Hugh (2013). Pink Floyd: Behind the Wall. (via Google Books}. Race Point Publishing. p. 48.
  18. ↑ "BBC – Radio 1 – Keeping It Peel – 02/12/1968 Pink Floyd". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  19. ↑ Umphred, Neil (1994). Goldmine's Price Guide to Collectible Record Albums (Fourth ed.). Krause Publications. p. 548.
  20. ↑ Glenn Povey, Echoes: the complete history of Pink Floyd, pg. 29, Mind Head Publishing (2007), ISBN 0-9554624-0-1
  21. ↑ Ummagumma (Media notes). Capitol Records. 1969. STBB-388. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  22. ↑ "Pink Floyd | Artist | Official Charts". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  23. ↑ DeRisto, Nick (25 October 2014). "45 Years Ago: Pink Floyd Tries to Find Its Way With ‘Ummagumma’". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  24. ↑ Ummagumma (Media notes). Capitol / EMI. 1973. 4XVV 388. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  25. ↑ "Ummagumma – Pink Floyd : Releases". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  26. ↑ "Pink Floyd News :: Brain Damage – Pink Floyd's Ummagumma – 40th Anniversary Marked with New Memorabilia". brain-damage.co.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  27. ↑ Eder, Bruce. "Ummagumma – Pink Floyd: Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards: AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  28. 1 2 3 "Pink Floyd Ummagumma". Acclaimed Music. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  29. ↑ Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds) (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 872. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
  30. 1 2 Deusner, Stephen (29 September 2011). "Pink Floyd: Ummagumma ("Why Pink Floyd?" Reissue) :: Music :: Reviews :: Paste". Paste. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  31. ↑ 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. ↑ Campbell, Hernan. "Pink Floyd Ummagumma". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  33. ↑ Povey, Glenn (2006). Echoes: The Complete History of Pink Floyd (New ed.). Mind Head Publishing. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-9554624-0-5. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
  34. ↑ Howard, Ed (1 September 2003). "Pink Floyd – Ummagumma – On Second Thought". Stylus Magazine. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  35. ↑ "(CD) Pink Floyd: Ummagumma". audio-music.info. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  36. ↑ Wolfgang Huebel and Thomas Huetlin. "Total Silence or War". Brain-Damage.co.uk. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  37. ↑ "Gilmour, Waters, Mason, Wright: Shakes of Pink – The Source, 1984 – All Pink Floyd Fan Network". Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  38. ↑ Omnibus. November 1994. 60 minutes in. BBC.
  39. ↑ Christgau, Robert. "Pink Floyd: Atom Heart Mother". Consumer Guide. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  40. ↑ Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra, Jens Kipping, Nicolas Mézière: Sixty new dragonfly and damselfly species from Africa (Odonata). Odonatologica 44 (4), Dezember 2015; S. 457–461. doi:10.5281/zenodo.35388.
  41. ↑ http://science.orf.at/stories/2775782/ Schaurig, schön und skurril, orf.at, 23. Mai 2016, abgerufen 23. Mai 2016. (German) – picture
  42. ↑ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 3767." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  43. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Pink Floyd – Ummagumma" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  44. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Pink Floyd – Ummagumma" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  45. ↑ "Pink Floyd | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  46. ↑ "Pink Floyd – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Pink Floyd. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  47. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Pink Floyd – Ummagumma" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  48. ↑ "Les charts francais (01/11/2011)". lescharts.com. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  49. ↑ "Spanishcharts.com – Pink Floyd – Ummagumma". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  50. ↑ "Italian album certifications – Pink Floyd" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  51. ↑ "British album certifications – Pink Floyd". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 9 June 2016. Enter Pink Floyd in the field Search. Select Artist in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Silver in the field By Award. Click Search
  52. ↑ "American album certifications – Pink Floyd". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 9 June 2016. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH

Sources

  • Mabbett, Andy (2010). Pink Floyd- The music and the mystery. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-857-12418-0. 

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