Executive Producer: Norman Smith
Sound Engineers: Peter Mew, Peter Bown
Assistant Sound Engineers: Neil Richmond, Alan Parsons, Nick Webb
Genesis
This is without doubt one of the most beautiful songs ever written by Rick Wright. In it the keyboardist tells the story of a brief love affair. We met just six hours ago, the music was too loud, he sings, and We say good-bye before we’ve said hello. Is this song based on a real-life experience? Perhaps. The narrator, possibly a rock star, seems to care very much about what his partner is feeling. Perhaps you’d care to state exactly how you feel, he wonders, before asking again in the refrain: How do you feel? Noting that he has hardly even had time to grow to like the young woman, and that he shouldn’t care at all, he then acknowledges bitterly that their time was passed in silence. He knew the woman would soon leave to go and greet another man, while for him, the narrator–rock star, Tomorrow brings another town, another girl like you… Feelings in which regret rubs shoulders with a certain weariness against the last rays of sunshine from the Summer of Love…
Rick Wright would later reveal that he liked the lyrics of “Summer ’68.” “Although I don’t think that the lyrics were good, they did at least say something that, I felt, was a real genuine feeling and therefore that’s cool.”36
Production
“Summer ’68” is one of Rick Wright’s great triumphs and one whose musical eclecticism is immediately apparent. It reveals his taste for pop, for the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and even the Baroque, with a hint of Bach coming through in the brass parts. The final result, however, is a unique work that only Wright could have written.
The genesis of the song goes back to the Ummagumma sessions. The initial base tracks of “One Night Stand”—the future “Summer ’68”—were actually laid down on December 4, 1968. Other sessions would follow on the ninth, tenth, and sixteenth and also one month later, on January 16, 1969. By this stage the piece was more or less complete. Instead of being included on Ummagumma, however, it was put aside and not revived until Atom Heart Mother, its particular character being better suited for this new album.
It was thus on July 5, 1970, that is to say almost a year and a half after they had abandoned it, that the four musicians found themselves working on the song once again in Studio Two, Abbey Road. This was the same day they recorded the Moog for “If” and got down to the final mixing of “Fat Old Sun.” They rerecorded the base track of the 1969 version of “Summer ’68” and then proceeded to edit and remix the song on July 13 and 14, before adding various reverse sound effects on July 19 and doing the final mix the following day. In practice it was a difficult piece to make, all the more so as sections of different mixes had to be combined in order to obtain a master. But the group’s hard work paid off, and the final result is a little pop–progressive rock gem that speaks volumes about the talent of its songwriter and performers.
In the first part of the song, Rick Wright sings the lead vocal. He accompanies himself on piano and is supported by some superb bass from Roger Waters. (The sound is more Rickenbacker 4001 than Fender Precision.) This is a pop ballad that unfolds with the successive entry of a Hammond organ, vocal harmonies sung by Wright himself, a hi-hat, and a backward cymbal effect that ushers in the first refrain. This is sung most likely by David Gilmour and Rick Wright together, in particular the countermelodies, which are very much in the style of the Beach Boys. In this section the piano is greatly compressed, the bass and drums provide solid support, maracas and what are probably bongos (listen at around 1:40) reinforce the rhythm, and David Gilmour accompanies on the acoustic guitar (the Levin LT 18?).
This brings us to the instrumental section. Despite some controversy on this score, it is a real trumpet that can be heard at this point. Glenn Povey has gleaned from the Abbey Road records that on December 16, 1968, two unidentified session musicians were paid a total of £18 for playing brass instruments. The phrasing and quality of sound leave no room for doubt that it is a real instrument that can be heard here, rather than a synthesizer. On the other hand, in various other sections where the trumpet reappears, around 3:30 and 4:40, it is reinforced by brass sounds produced on the Mellotron and also perhaps by a harmonium, the latter also having been recorded on December 16. It is worth noting that David Gilmour helps to enrich the musical texture of these two sections with an electric rhythm guitar part (albeit difficult to make out) along the same lines as the distorted guitar part he plays during the initial instrumental section in which the trumpet is unsupported.
The song’s bridge, which comes just before the coda, recalls the atmosphere of the intro. Wright plays some highly lyrical piano and also a second piano part in the bass register, accompanied by Gilmour’s acoustic guitar. The keyboardist sings in a gentle voice supported most probably by Gilmour and Waters, the three of them once again adopting a distinctly Beach Boys–like vocal style. Furthermore, Rick Wright would claim in 1972 that Surf’s Up, one of the Californian band’s masterpieces, was a favorite of his. Following the return of the brass, “Summer ’68” ends on an A-major chord.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
No one knows who the young woman addressed in the phrase Good-bye to you Charlotte Pringle (or Kringle) is. The most likely explanation is that Rick Wright chose the name for its soft sound.
In France in 1977, the singer Michel Marceau recorded a version of “Summer ’68” under the title “Maquillez-vous,” with orchestration by Jean Musy and French lyrics by Étienne Roda-Gil (Maquillez-vous les filles, c’est facile… [Put your makeup on girls, it’s easy]). In 2005 Roger Waters would release a solo project entitled Ça Ira, a three-act opera and concept album on the subject of the French Revolution, the libretto for which was written by Étienne Roda-Gil and his wife Nadine.
Fat Old Sun
David Gilmour / 5:22
Musicians
David Gilmour: vocals, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, electric slide guitar, electric lead guitar, bass (?), drums, recorder (?)
Rick Wright: organ, backing vocals (?)
Recorded
Abbey Road Studios, London: June 11–13, July 5, 1970 (Studio Two)
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Executive Producer: Norman Smith
Sound Engineer: Peter Bown
Assistant Sound Engineer: Alan Parsons
Genesis
After “The Narrow Way” on the album Ummagumma, “Fat Old Sun” is only the second song to be written and composed entirely by David Gilmour for Pink Floyd. It covers themes that were as dear to the guitarist as they were to the group as a whole. Distant bells, new-mown grass smells so sweet/By the river holding hands, roll me up and lay me down: these lines take us back to Grantchester Meadows, the guitarist’s birthplace and the onetime playground of Syd Barrett and Roger Waters. What’s more, Gilmour seems to have written it at the same time that Waters wrote “Grantchester Meadows” on Ummagumma.
Gilmour is therefore returning here to his teenage years: the scene is set at dusk on a summer’s evening, when the last rays of sunshine are glinting on the River Cam and the evening birds are calling. The narrator shares this special atmosphere with his companion… A second hypothesis is that the fat old sun that is setting could also be an evocation of youth and a carefree existence, both of which have now gone forever—in short, the end of an era. Hence the bells that can be heard in the distance, symbolizing the inexorable passage of time… (Gilmour would take up this idea again in “High Hopes” on the album The Division Bell.)
Musically, “Fat Old Sun” is folky in character, and is sung by David Gilmour in a reedy, nostalgic voice. In the early seventies, Pink Floyd would regularly perform the song live in a version sometimes approaching fifteen minutes in length, but later dropped it in favor of The Dark Side of the Moon concept. Decades later (from 2001), David Gilmour would include it in the set list of his solo tours. “I’ve always liked the song, one of the first I ever wrote,” he told the Sun i
n 2008. “I tried to persuade the rest of the Pink Floyd guys that it should go on Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd but they weren’t having it.”62
Production
“Fat Old Sun” begins and ends with the sound of bells ringing out across the countryside. David Gilmour uses this sound clip to set a distinctly pastoral scene. He chooses to play this sublimely beautiful composition on acoustic guitar, probably his new Gibson J-45, whose sound seems to have been either processed with a harmonizer or more straightforwardly doubled with a second acoustic. In the background he creates a floating mood on his Stratocaster (the “Black Strat” or his Strat Sunburst), sounding here like a pedal steel guitar, with strong, deep reverb applied to slide chords. It is also believed to be Gilmour on bass (Waters’s Fender Precision), which he plays very well, resembling in every respect the style of the instrument’s owner. Gilmour had succeeded in establishing himself in the group for two main reasons: his incredible guitar playing and his outstanding singing. And on this song he provides a demonstration of both, delivering the vocal line in a high register verging on falsetto, with that unmistakable vocal texture that is all his own.
Rick Wright joins him on the organ, most likely the Hammond M-102. Then comes the refrain, which is launched with a short drum break. Some listeners believe they can detect a resemblance between the song’s delicate melody and the Kinks’ “Lazy Old Sun” (on the 1967 album Something Else by the Kinks). Leaving aside the similarity between the two titles, however, Gilmour’s “Fat Old Sun” owes nothing to the earlier song. At the end of the refrain, the harmonies take on a curiously Slavic color, reinforced by a background guitar with reverb that sounds like a balalaika. (Listen at 1:53!) The effect may be surprising, but it provides the perfect lead-in to the return of the third verse. And it is at this moment that things get a little uncomfortable, for David Gilmour is also playing the drums. He would regret it later, but on this version he is the one seated at the drum kit, as on Ummagumma’s “The Narrow Way: Part Three.” His drumming lacks assurance, he seems at times to be caught off guard by the drum breaks, and his timing is not always what it might be. This is particularly noticeable in the coda (listen at 4:16) during his excellent, heavily distorted Stratocaster solo, parts of which recall Eric Clapton’s “Layla.” During this instrumental section it is possible to make out a recorder with reverb in the background, also perhaps being played by Gilmour. This sonority, which merges with the general atmosphere, reinforces the bucolic character of the track, paving the way for the return of the church bells in the form of a conclusion.
“Fat Old Sun” was recorded quickly: the base track was laid down (and the first take selected as “best”) on June 11, the vocal and recorder overdubs were added the next day, and the guitar and sound effects on June 13. This excellent track, perhaps one of the guitarist’s best, was then mixed on July 5. However, it may be because of the weakness of the drum part that Gilmour was unable to convince the other members of the group to include the song on the compilation Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (2001).
For Pink Floyd Addicts
The sound clip of bells that can be heard at the beginning and end of the song is the very same one used by the Kinks in 1966 to introduce “Big Black Smoke,” the B-side of their single “Dead End Street.” Gilmour would later explain this by suggesting—correctly, it would seem—that the sound effect libraries were pretty limited at the time, giving rise to amusing coincidences like this…
Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast
Roger Waters, Nick Mason, David Gilmour, Rick Wright / 13:00
Rise and Shine: 1:00–3:34 / Sunny Side Up: 4:29–7:44 / Morning Glory: 8:17–11:54
Musicians
David Gilmour: electric lead guitar, acoustic guitar
Rick Wright: piano, organ
Roger Waters: bass
Nick Mason: drums, sound effects
Alan Styles: voice
Recorded
Abbey Road Studios, London: June 18, July 10, 17, 19, 20, 21, 1970 (Studio Two and Room Four)
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Executive Producer: Norman Smith
Sound Engineer: Peter Bown
Assistant Sound Engineers: Alan Parsons, Nick Webb
Genesis
“Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast,” which concludes Atom Heart Mother, is an experimental piece that would not have been out of place on Ummagumma or even on the album Music from the Body. “We were all frantically trying to write songs, and initially I thought of just doing something on the rhythm of a dripping tap […] then it turned into a whole kitchen thing,”9 explains Roger Waters. According to Nick Mason, “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” stems from a collaboration: “[…] Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast was another great idea—gas fires popping, kettles boiling, that didn’t really work on record but was great fun live. I’ve never heard Roger lay claim to it, which makes me think it must have been a group idea.”39
The Alan in question on this final track of the album is Alan Stiles, one of Pink Floyd’s road managers, who also did the cooking when the group was on tour. He is pictured on the back of the Ummagumma sleeve. Nick Mason would give the following affectionate description of him in 1973: “He was older than us and had been in the army and was physically big, even for his job. He got to be such a star that we were afraid to ask him to do things like lifting gear. He is a real character. In the end we had to fire him.”9 Apart from this, Mason maintains that there was no particular reason to have made him the protagonist of this song.9 Although the group has often been derided for its overly serious image and deficient sense of humor, it clearly displays a sense of fun in this piece, as David Gilmour confirms: “We do take our music seriously, but that doesn’t mean it all has to be serious.”9 However, this would not prevent certain critics from laughing (to varying degrees) at, rather than with, the results, which they deemed to be excessively naive.
In the end, Pink Floyd would perform “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast,” which is divided into three sections (“Rise and Shine,” “Sunny Side Up,” and “Morning Glory”), no more than a handful of times. In order to do the piece properly, roadies were required to actually serve breakfast to the musicians onstage. A number of performances of the piece were given between December 18 and 22, 1970, that the last of these, which took place in Sheffield City Hall, England, gave rise to a bootleg recording. On this the Floyd can be heard prolonging “Rise and Shine” with a bluesy improvisation and then making themselves comfortable for “Sunny Side Up” and drinking tea before moving calmly into the final section.
Production
It was Nick Mason who undertook to record, in his own London kitchen, the various sounds that would accompany the curious “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast.” Having been initiated by Ron Geesin into the art of making perfect collages on tape, he performed this task using quarter-inch tape while Alan Stiles commented on the breakfast he was preparing. After returning to Abbey Road, Mason categorized and named each sound, and in some cases made a tape loop. A first session was held with the group on June 18 to record the base track, then called “Alan’s Story.” Almost a month later, on July 10, Mason’s various sound effects were then edited along with others from the EMI sound library. That day the Floyd also rerecorded the base track and edited the “Tape Delay” loops. Overdubs, notably piano, were then added on July 17, and two days later the base track was recorded yet again. The editing, cross-fades, and mixing were completed on July 20 and 21.
A Breakfast in Three Acts!
“Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” is divided into three sections. The first, “Rise and Shine,” opens with the sound of dripping water. The different sonic elements of this breakfast are then gradually added, as Roger Waters explains: “On the record it’s a carefully set up stereo picture of a kitchen with somebody coming in, opening a window, filling a kettle, and putting it on the stove. But instead of the gas lighting, there’s a chord, so he strikes another match, and there’s
another chord, and another match, and so on, until it finally goes into a piece of music.”9 The whole of this little scene—at least until the entry of the music—is constructed around the voice of Alan Stiles: “Oh… Er… Me flakes… Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, toast, coffee… Marmalade, I like marmalade… Yes, porridge is nice, any cereal… I like all cereals… Oh, God.” Some of his words are repeated by means of the “Tape Delays” recorded on July 10. Each of the seven matches that are struck is accompanied by a musical exclamation based on a single E-major chord, a reasonably soothing sequence in perfect harmony with Alan, who calmly goes about preparing his breakfast. Rick Wright plays two piano parts with reverb, Nick Mason marks time with his hi-hat, and Gilmour launches into a solo, some of which is played slide through a Leslie speaker, while Wright answers him on the organ. This section concludes with the whistling of the kettle, the music having gradually faded away.
In the next sequence, “Sunny Side Up,” Alan Stiles continues his monologue: “Breakfast in Los Angeles, macrobiotic stuff… ” More sounds follow: boiling water being poured, the clinking of a glass bottle, a cup being filled, a spoon stirring, someone swallowing, background music, cornflakes being poured into a bowl, sugar being sifted, cornflakes being mixed with a spoon, the crackle of cornflakes… Gilmour is then faded in on acoustic guitar, picking a folky ballad on what is most probably his Gibson J-45. The mood is bucolic and brings to mind the future “A Pillow of Winds” on the group’s next album, Meddle. Gilmour answers this first guitar part with a solo improvisation, again acoustic. This instrumental is complemented by a clear-toned slide guitar accompaniment of which certain aspects (listen at 6:07) once again recall “A Pillow of Winds.” The piece concludes with the sound of bacon frying in a pan. Toward the end, Alan resumes his soliloquy.
Pink Floyd All the Songs Page 28
