Pink Floyd All the Songs
Page 35
Morgan Studios, London: April 4–6, 1972
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer (Hérouville): Peter Watts (?)
Sound Engineer (Hérouville, mono mix): Dominique Blanc-Francard
Assistant Sound Engineer (Hérouville): Andy Scott
Genesis
Four short verses and a long guitar solo designed to convey the thrill of adventure and the lust for faraway places that motivate the group Viviane has joined. Contrary to what the title of this song might suggest, Olivier, Gaëtan, and the others are not seeking to make their fortunes. Their expedition to this legendary valley in New Guinea, really a journey of self-discovery, symbolizes a new paradigm in which the cult of consumption and materialism is superseded by a return to nature and an ascetic way of life. In his lyrics, Waters reconnects with, or rather prolongs, the hippie dream, which was actually rather moribund by this time. The monotony of a sensible, well-ordered life has given way to a taste for adventure and the unknown. While Roger Waters was responsible for the words, it is to David Gilmour that we owe the distinctly rock feel of the music, which recalls the dark-hued, urban style of early Velvet Underground and the glam rock of T. Rex, Slade, the Sweet, and others. It is astonishing, to say the least, to hear the group flirting with this style given that it had just recorded Meddle and was already working on The Dark Side of the Moon. This offbeat number plays in the movie after Viviane has accepted an invitation to dine at the encampment and then wants to see and caress the exotic feathers one last time before returning to… civilization.
Production
For Pink Floyd, this movie soundtrack seems to have been a digression, a kind of recreational side step in their artistic development. The group throws off all restraint and embraces an effective, though not exactly unforgettable, rock style. “The Gold It’s in the…” is a guitarist’s piece, a rock number in which all the tropes of the genre are paraded one by one. The rhythmic drive is assured by the Mason-Waters duo, the first with his pop-rock drumming and the second with a solid, sinewy bass line. There may be some doubt, however, about whether Roger Waters is actually responsible for the bass on this track as certain phrases are not particularly characteristic of his playing. It could be that David Gilmour has taken his place, a hypothesis supported by the various session photos that show Gilmour recording with Waters’s Fender Precision. It is definitely Gilmour playing the different guitar parts, however, all with Fuzz Face distortion and all on his “Black Strat.” He delivers a very good rhythm guitar, alternating riffs and power chords, doubling himself on a second track, with the two guitars facing each other in the stereo image. On top of this he plays multiple solos, from the intro to the last note of the track. After the final verse (at 1:15), he then lets it rip, improvising for nearly two minutes. When recording his solos, David Gilmour’s tried and trusted method was to record several takes and then select the best passages, which he would then splice together or rerecord in full, which is evidenced here. It is also the guitarist who sings lead vocal, his voice doubled in order to give it a greater assurance and power. Interestingly, Rick Wright is not playing on this track.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
“The Gold It’s in the…” was chosen as the B-side of the single “Free Four,” but only for Pink Floyd’s Danish, Dutch, German, Italian, and New Zealander fans.
Wot’s… Uh The Deal
David Gilmour, Roger Waters/5:09
Musicians
David Gilmour: vocals, vocal harmonies, acoustic guitar, electric lead guitar (?), pedal steel guitar (?)
Rick Wright: piano, organ
Roger Waters: bass
Nick Mason: drums
Recorded
Strawberry Studios, Château d’Hérouville, Val-d’Oise, France: February 23–29, March 23–27, 1972
Morgan Studios, London: April 4–6, 1972
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer (Hérouville): Peter Watts (?)
Sound Engineer (Hérouville, mono mix): Dominique Blanc-Francard
Assistant Sound Engineer (Hérouville): Andy Scott
Genesis
“Wot’s… Uh the Deal” stands out as a real gem in the catalog of romantic-nostalgic songs written by David Gilmour and Roger Waters. And nostalgic is definitely the right word for this number, a subtle reflection on passing time. The narrator, who is clearly in his twilight years and a million miles from home, is doubly sad because he is both homesick and distressed to see himself growing old (And I think I’m growing old… and later And I’ve grown old). These few verses seem to sum up the long course of his life, from the promise of dawn (Heaven sent the promised land), which he grabbed with both hands, to the bitter acknowledgment of his old age and the years that have run away from him, while in the last verse there’s no wind left in his soul…
In Barbet Schroeder’s movie the very beautiful “Wot’s… Uh the Deal” accompanies the lovemaking scene between Viviane and Olivier, an experience that was to provoke new sensations and arouse aspirations in the young woman…
The song’s title is taken from the first line of the second verse: Flash the readies… wot’s… uh the deal (“flash the readies” being British English for “show me the money”).
Production
“Wot’s… Uh the Deal” surprises firstly with the quality of its music and secondly with its title, which in all honesty does not live up to the sophistication of its harmonies. Whereas in the past the Floyd had always come up with striking and suggestive titles for their music (“A Saucerful of Secrets,” “Echoes,” “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”), they seem to have had some difficulty with this new album. Nick Mason offers an explanation: “A whole series of songs were produced, but my perception is that the song titles were hurriedly allocated under pressure to meet the film schedule.”5
This medium-tempo number opens with a descending scale played by two acoustic guitars answering each other across the stereo field. This is David Gilmour playing arpeggios on his Martin D-35 and doubling himself on a second track. Rick Wright accompanies with Hammond organ pads and acoustic piano. Nick Mason hits rim shots on his snare drum, and Roger Waters delivers a very good bass line on his Fender Precision. The charm of “Wot’s… Uh the Deal” derives in part from Gilmour’s superb lead vocal, in which he displays his usual gentle delivery and highly distinctive timbre. He doubles himself and also harmonizes with himself here and there, lending the song a particular color that George Harrison would not have been ashamed of. Rick Wright also plays two very good piano solos, the first after the second refrain (at 2:35), and the second in the coda. During the course of these improvisations, it is possible to detect a number of licks that occur regularly in his playing and that can also be heard, for example, in “San Tropez” on Meddle. His style here is a blend of jazz and pop that is entirely in keeping with the spirit of the song. David Gilmour plays another solo with bottleneck on his “Black Strat.” It is also possible, however, that he uses his pedal steel guitar for this, although the sound is not as characteristic as in “Burning Bridges” on this same album. The guitarist is known, however, to have played the solo on a lap steel in concert with Rick Wright at the Royal Albert Hall in May 2006. The solo is a great success, his guitar as fluid as usual, lightly distorted with the Fuzz Face and colored by the Echorec, with reasonably deep reverb.
“Wot’s… Uh the Deal” is not exactly typical of the Pink Floyd catalog, displaying greater similarities with US pop-folk than with English pop, but it is nevertheless a superb and far-too-little-known track, one that, moreover, was chosen as the B-side of the single “Free Four” in the Netherlands.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
Pink Floyd never performed “Wot’s… Uh the Deal” live, but David Gilmour played it during his “On an Island Tour” (DVD Remember That Night, 2007, and vinyl Live in Gdask, 2008).
Mudmen
Richard Wright, David Gilmour
/4:18
Musicians
David Gilmour: electric lead guitar, VCS3 (?)
Roger Waters: bass, VCS3 (?)
Rick Wright: piano, organ, vibraphone, VCS3 (?)
Nick Mason: drums
Recorded
Strawberry Studios, Château d’Hérouville, Val-d’Oise, France: February 23–29, March 23–27, 1972
Morgan Studios, London: April 4–6, 1972
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer (Hérouville): Peter Watts (?)
Sound Engineer (Hérouville, mono mix): Dominique Blanc-Francard
Assistant Sound Engineer (Hérouville): Andy Scott
Genesis
This instrumental, another of the album’s triumphs, accompanies one of the more esoteric sequences in Barbet Schroeder’s movie: Viviane and Olivier’s encounter in the New Guinea mountains with an ancient sorcerer in possession of a large collection of bird feathers. In the village, strange creatures bedecked with mud, their faces concealed by grotesque masks, materialize before the young woman. Immediately afterward, the sorcerer, who never speaks, gives Viviane some extremely rare and beautiful feathers. The song’s title refers specifically to these Mudmen who have literally bewitched the consul’s wife. A mysterious legend is associated with these warriors from the Asaro Valley, not far from Goroka, who returned from an expedition to find that their women had been abducted and their village destroyed by a hostile tribe. They set out in search of the women but strayed into the swamp after nightfall. At daybreak the Asaro men entered the enemy village, their mud-spattered bodies sowing panic among the villagers and enabling them to rescue their women…
Production
“Mudmen” is an instrumental adaptation of “Burning Bridges” on the same album. The tempo is slower and the time signature has changed from 6/8 to 4/4, but the various sequences (all in the key of G) are similar. Inexplicably, the instrumental is credited to Wright-Gilmour, whereas “Burning Bridges” itself is given to Wright-Waters, despite neither the harmonies nor the melodic line having changed in the slightest… It features Wright on piano, vibraphone, and Hammond organ, Waters on bass (an instrument that sounds like his Rickenbacker of old), and Mason on drums—the stereo recording of which (other than a few sections in mono or where a delay has been added to the snare drum) is a real success—and Gilmour executing flights of lyricism on his distorted “Black Strat” set in space courtesy of his Binson Echorec. The sound generated by the two VCS3 synthesizers can be heard at 2:05, over the stereo field, while Gilmour plays clear-toned guitar with bottleneck. He uses a delay generated by the Echorec, the output from which is replayed in reverse on a separate track (from 2:24 in the left-hand channel).
For Pink Floyd Addicts
It was not until 1994, with “Cluster One” and “Marooned” on the album The Division Bell, that a Wright-Gilmour credit would appear on any more tracks.
The Mudmen gave the first-ever demonstration of their customs and traditions in 1957 before a crowd of 100,000. It is said that many of the spectators were so frightened that they ran away as fast as they could!
Childhood’s End
David Gilmour/4:34
Musicians
David Gilmour: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric rhythm and lead guitar, VCS3 (?)
Rick Wright: organ, VCS3 (?)
Roger Waters: bass, acoustic guitar (?), VCS3 (?)
Nick Mason: drums, electronic drums
Recorded
Strawberry Studios, Château d’Hérouville, Val-d’Oise, France: February 23–29, March 23–27, 1972
Morgan Studios, London: April 4–6, 1972
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer (Hérouville): Peter Watts (?)
Sound Engineer (Hérouville, mono mix): Dominique Blanc-Francard
Assistant Sound Engineer (Hérouville): Andy Scott
Genesis
In this song with words and music by David Gilmour, the guitarist returns to a subject Pink Floyd had already tackled a number of times in other songs, in particular during the Syd Barrett era: the theme of childhood. More specifically the end of childhood, along with the choices and the fear of the unknown associated with that time. Gilmour takes the title for his song from a novel by the great science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. In Childhood’s End, which was published in 1953, extraterrestrials land on planet Earth and put an end to the independence of humankind. Some observers have interpreted the words of the song as describing the final days of Jan Rodricks, the main character in the novel and in due course the last man alive on Earth. Others see Gilmour’s lyrics, with their distinctly political overtones, as alluding to the unrest shaking the United States at this time, when young people were starting to demonstrate against the war in Vietnam.
Barbet Schroeder chose “Childhood’s End” to accompany the sequences in which the band of travelers penetrate into the heart of New Guinea in their Land Rover. Pink Floyd would perform the song in a handful of shows in 1972–73 but only really until the release of The Dark Side of the Moon. The former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler would reveal that he had been enormously impressed by this number: “People used to say, ‘Oh, you can’t listen to that prog rock nonsense,’ but I don’t care. Some of their stuff is amazing. It takes my breath away.”36 And he adds: “Now I’ve discovered Pink Floyd, I can’t understand why people listen to The Orb.”36 The song also demonstrates that David Gilmour is not only a good musician, but also a pretty decent lyricist. If not up to the standard of Roger Waters, this was no doubt because he lacked the confidence and the encouragement to impose his writing a little more, faced with such a talented (and domineering) partner!
Production
This piece opens with progressively rising keyboard pads that suggest the transition from childhood to adulthood. The sonorities result from a blend of Farfisa, Hammond, and also the VCS3, which contributes a bass drone. Around 1:00, electronic drums make their entrance, the same ones heard in the opening track, “Obscured by Clouds.” They disappear again when the singing starts. However, before David Gilmour makes his vocal entry, singing in more of a rock voice than on any of the other tracks on the album (with the exception of “The Gold It’s in The…”), he delivers two rhythm guitar parts on his Martin D-35 acoustic. For one of these parts the guitar seems to be tuned a tone lower than normal, with the strings apparently having less tension in them than otherwise. Roger Waters may be lending him a hand here, and he delivers a solid and efficient bass line on his Precision. In addition to playing his electronic drums, Nick Mason takes on the task of imparting a groove to the track with a heavy and somewhat basic rock beat on his Ludwig kit. Rick Wright joins in sporadically on his Hammond organ, marking the end of each verse with a short chord sequence.
And of course it is David Gilmour who dominates the proceedings with his numerous guitar parts—it is his song after all! In addition to the two acoustic rhythm guitar parts, he plays two more rhythm parts on his “Black Strat.” These can be heard on opposite sides of the stereo image. They are lightly distorted and, as with the acoustic instruments, it seems that the guitar is tuned a tone lower for one of the parts. At 2:49, Gilmour takes an excellent solo, also with Fuzz Face distortion, and his style is that of the group’s forthcoming major albums on which he would prove himself to be one of the best rock guitarists around. In particular, certain phrases in this solo anticipate “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” which the group would record in 1975. In his solos Gilmour tends to favor a clear and simple tone as often as he does a more elaborate sound, often set in space. In this case, he picks up the echo generated by his Binson Echorec and plays it back (in the left-hand channel) in answer to various phrases delivered on his Strat.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
Gilmour is not the only musician to have been inspired by Arthur C. Clarke. In 1972 Genesis would follow suit with “Watcher of the Skies” on Foxtrot, and in 1976 Van Der Graaf Generator wi
th “Childlike Faith in Childhood’s End” on Still Life.
IN YOUR HEADPHONES
At 3:03, someone in the studio can be heard either humming or shouting (whether as a result of joy or stress we’ll never know!).
Free Four
Roger Waters/4:17
Musicians
David Gilmour: acoustic guitar, electric rhythm and lead guitar
Rick Wright (?): VCS3
Roger Waters: vocals, bass, acoustic guitar (?)
Nick Mason: drums
Unidentified Musicians: hand claps
Recorded
Strawberry Studios, Château d’Hérouville, Val-d’Oise, France: February 23–29, March 23–27, 1972
Morgan Studios, London: April 4–6, 1972
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Sound Engineer (Hérouville): Peter Watts (?)
Sound Engineer (Hérouville, mono mix): Dominique Blanc-Francard
Assistant Sound Engineer (Hérouville): Andy Scott
Genesis
In this song, Roger Waters tackles various themes with the intention, perhaps, of exorcising some of his own demons. Old age and death, in the first instance, via the memories of an elderly man: You shuffle in the gloom of the sickroom and talk to yourself as you die and Life is a short, warm moment, and death is a long, cold rest. Optimism is not exactly de rigueur in Waters’s lyric writing. One reason for this is his traumatic childhood: I’m the dead man’s son. He was buried like a mole in a foxhole. This is clearly a direct and unsparing reference to his father, killed during Operation Shingle (1944), and indeed to the musician’s own childhood. Roger Waters would subsequently return to this theme in the albums The Wall and The Final Cut.