Author Topic: Pink Floyd and solo Spin offs for Eric  (Read 4690 times)

oldkid

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Re: Pink Floyd and solo Spin offs for Eric
« Reply #20 on: September 28, 2022, 03:40:31 PM »
When I think of Obscured by Clouds, I don't think of it as a whole.  I appreciate almost all the songs separately.  But I don't ever think of it as the album that sits between two classics, Meddle and DSotM.  I don't think of it as an album at all.  I just place the singles separately on my big PF playlist.  But actually, it stands as an album better than Meddle.  Meddle is a huge variety of magnificent songs.  Each song on ObC isn't as good, standing next to the songs on Meddle, but they build each other up to a whole much better than Meddle.  I'll have to listen to the album again, separately from the PF catalog.

Btw, for those who like Echoes, I'd also recommend a listen to the long classic Embryo.  It isn't on any of the big albums, but you can find it on Apple Music (not sure about Spotify).  It has a similar vibe to Echoes and a similar length.  But it stirs different emotions in me.  I wouldn't put it as high as the other excellent long songs-- Echoes or Shine On-- but it is worth spending time with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Lz6i6XdyI
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Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Pink Floyd and solo Spin offs for Eric
« Reply #21 on: September 28, 2022, 06:22:54 PM »
There is a Live BBC Radio Sessions 16 July 1970 version of Embryo on Spotify, it is just over 10 minutes long. It is from the album "The Early Years, 1967 - 1972, Cre/ation" that has a range of tracks like Ummagumma US Radio Ad, and a different (shorter) version of Embryo.

jdc

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Re: Pink Floyd and solo Spin offs for Eric
« Reply #22 on: September 29, 2022, 09:34:41 AM »
When I think of Obscured by Clouds, I don't think of it as a whole.  I appreciate almost all the songs separately.  But I don't ever think of it as the album that sits between two classics, Meddle and DSotM.  I don't think of it as an album at all.

That is a good way to sum it up.  While the first two instrumentals fit together, almost everything else could be played on a random playlist of other songs which doesn’t often work for a lot of PF songs. But there were written to be part of a movie soundtrack, so they may all have a connection but I never watched it or pieced it together.  But I don’t mind just playing it while cleaning and doing work around the house.
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MartinTeller

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Re: Pink Floyd and solo Spin offs for Eric
« Reply #23 on: September 29, 2022, 10:59:26 AM »
La Vallee is a slightly better film than More, but still not worth seeking out.

jdc

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Re: Pink Floyd and solo Spin offs for Eric
« Reply #24 on: September 30, 2022, 09:54:25 PM »
Dark Side of the Moon Mar 1973

This album marks a turning point for the band in that the album was conceived as a concept and meant to be listened or performed from beginning to end. While all the band have credits in creating the music, it was conceived as a concept by Waters and he wrote all the lyrics. This would be a trend for the following 4 albums after DSotM, only with fewer and fewer musical credits from the rest of the band.

While some concept albums like The WHO’s Tommy or Quadrophenia tell a story, DSoTM is more focused around themes and stresses of life, time passing you by, constantly being on the run, greed and need for money, mental illness, etc.  There is also a shift to be much more direct and clear lyrically then previous albums. 

Something else the band started doing was performing the music live before recording it which helped shape and improve on the structure of the songs.  While it was recording between May 72 to Feb 73 (launched in March), it was first performed from beginning to end in January 1971 and was performed through out the year.  The big difference in the earlier performances to the album are on two tracks; On the Run was more a band jam and not the Synth loop song that appears on the album and Great Gig in the Sky was an instrumental but the band thought it would be good to have a singer “wail” over the music.  Alan Parsons (before the Alan Parsons Project) was producing the record and hired Clare Torry to add vocals (but not lyrics) over the music. 

The release of the album forever changed the shape of the band.  The went from a band that largely experimented and toured a lot that built a fan base over years to what rock stardom and extremely successful.  It ranks 4th of top selling album of all times but probably more amazing was how long and steady it performed over the years.  The album would spend over 18 years in the Billboard’s Top 200 selling albums each week.  There just seems to be new fans over the years that discover Pink Floyd and they all by DSotM that kept it charting for that long.

All the said, I am sort of mixed on the album overall. I like all the albums during the Water’s led era from DSotM to The Final Cut, but it probably is my least favourite.  That said, it does have probably my favourite PF song which is Time.  But I am guessing everybody including Eric has heard it many times. I believe US and Them would resinate with Eric much better.  Upon release, the band started touring again but had already started to move on. While Dark Side was half the concert, the other half was made up of music that would later appear on the next two albums.  What was missing was all the standards that they use to perform prior to Dark Side, it would be a long time before any of them surfaced again live

Us and Them

https://youtu.be/eGwtXfIH3bc

T
"Beer. Now there's a temporary solution."  Homer S.
“The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations” - David Friedman

MartinTeller

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Re: Pink Floyd and solo Spin offs for Eric
« Reply #25 on: September 30, 2022, 10:57:03 PM »
I am sort of mixed on the album overall. I like all the albums during the Water’s led era from DSotM to The Final Cut, but it probably is my least favourite.

I agree. While there isn't a bad song on it (though I'm not very fond of "Money"), as a whole it doesn't grab me as much as the following four (each of which, besides Animals, also have their own less-than-awesome songs). My favorite on this album is "Great Gig in the Sky", and that's largely because of Clare Torrey's phenomenal vocal performance.

oldkid

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Re: Pink Floyd and solo Spin offs for Eric
« Reply #26 on: September 30, 2022, 11:54:16 PM »
I think Martin's opinion on DSotM perfectly matches mine.  Money is a good single, and suits the theme of the album, but not the tone or music. For the "big" albums, this is the first and my least favorite.  Still, I could probably play Time through GGitS endlessly on a loop.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

jdc

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Re: Pink Floyd and solo Spin offs for Eric
« Reply #27 on: October 01, 2022, 11:46:27 PM »
Wish You Were Here 1975

With DSotM being such a massive hit, there was a lot of pressure on the band for what were be next.  Initially they were toying with an idea of recording a album using non- instruments, called Household Objects but that was scrapped (not sure if there are any recording of these). But they had developed 3 songs that they started performing on the next tour that were to be part of the next album, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (maybe only called Shine On at the time), “Raving and Drooling” and “You’ve Got to be Crazy.” The spent months in the studio 4 days a week but we’re having a hard time coming up with new material and were more distracted with drinking and other personal problems.  Gilmour was interested to just improve on the songs they had which really were enough for an album given their lengths but Waters started to want to work on another concept. The only problem was the songs they had didn’t really fit together to be cantered on a theme.  So Shine on was kept and “Raving and Drooling” and “You’ve Got to be Crazy” were set aside but would later be reworked into Sheep and Dogs on the following Animals album.

Shine On was basically a tribute to Syd and while Water’s says that Wish You Were Here is not specifically about him, it is often the thought when listening to the words.  Two more tracks were added, Welcome to the Machine and Have a Cigar that critique what it is like to be in a band that gets big and a cynical take on the expectations from the record companies.  I suppose it loosely forms a concept around how the pressures of making it big and the demise of Syd as a creative force all are related.  Though, I those around him at the time would also have a hand in it as well. 

Lyrics again are all Waters. (Mason absent from credits)

Shine on (Waters, Gilmour, Wright) both parts
Welcome to the Machine (Waters)
Have a Cigar (Waters)
Wish You Were Here (Waters, Gilmour)


Shine On You Crazy Diamond ends up being around 25 minutes spilt in half to open and close the album (each half have their own sections).  Mostly an instrumental, sparse on lyrics though they are very good, and pretty much a master piece.  But won’t recommend it here.

While Wish You Were Here is probably my second favourite song, I have to imagine everybody knows it, so will choose Have a Cigar.  Originally Waters wanted to sing it but was not happy with the results.  He found he had a strained voice from singing the lead on Shine On which surprised me, I could tell he sings the softer parts but I thought the difficult part was Gilmour with backing singers.  After struggling with the vocal parts, he asked Gilmour to sing it (by far a better (proper?) singer but he declined. He found the song to cynical and didn’t quite share the view.  But Roy Harper, who was a English rock/folk singer, was recording an album the same studios so they invited him to sing the track. He wasn’t interested but owed Gilmour a favour for contributing a guitar solo on his album. 

Have a Cigar: (album version with Harper singing)

https://youtu.be/ankSXthBdd8

Studio version with Waters Singing released as part of the immersion set:

https://youtu.be/aFs4HLdV9yc

Extra bonus…

The band The Main Squeeze doing some amazing cover songs (plus originals) that everybody should listen to.

https://youtu.be/8R6StQfLNbw
"Beer. Now there's a temporary solution."  Homer S.
“The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations” - David Friedman

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Pink Floyd and solo Spin offs for Eric
« Reply #28 on: October 02, 2022, 12:52:16 AM »
While I love the whole album, my favourite from the album is Welcome to the Machine. It probably comes from the time when I would meditate to the album, but the song captures my imagination a little bit more than the other tracks on the album.

jdc

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Re: Pink Floyd and solo Spin offs for Eric
« Reply #29 on: October 02, 2022, 02:09:37 AM »
I thought off adding it instead of different versions of Have a Cigar, it really is a great lead in to that song… so if Eric gets the time

https://youtu.be/JBPrvDY6hzo
"Beer. Now there's a temporary solution."  Homer S.
“The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations” - David Friedman

 

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