750 lines
41 KiB
Plaintext
750 lines
41 KiB
Plaintext
"Shades of Pink," from the Source, with host Charlie Kendall
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(1984)
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Cast:
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CK Charlie Kendall
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DG David Gilmour
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RWa Roger Waters
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NM Nick Mason
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RWr Rick Wright
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CK: Prepare for the most in-depth profile the Source has ever
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presented. For the next four hours, it's Pink Floyd.
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DG: We're not splitting up or anything, officially or otherwise,
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but we just aren't doing anything right now.
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RWa: Your writing I believe comes out largely from a personality
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that develops when you're a child.
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RWa: I don't know what I shall do in the future, but there's no
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way I can stop working.
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CK: The saga of Pink Floyd is certainly one worth telling.
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Consider the facts: Pink Floyd is one of rock's most
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celebrated bands, yet its members are among rock's most
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reluctant celebrities. From their earliest days with Syd
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Barrett, right through to the present day, Pink Floyd has
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defined state of the art recording, and captivating concert
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production. Their album _Dark Side of the Moon_ is the most
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consistent selling record in the history of the record
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business. Yet how many of us could name each member? Well,
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you'll get to know Pink Floyd a lot better, because Roger
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Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason are
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going to cover Pink Floyd from beginning to present, as the
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Source presents "Shades of Pink - The Definitive Pink Floyd
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Profile."
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[Money]
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[Run Like Hell]
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CK: "Run Like Hell," and "Money," two classics from Pink Floyd.
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In 1965, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason were
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architecture students at the Regent Street Polytechnic school
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in London. According to drummer Nick Mason, the idea to put
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a band together came quite by accident.
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NM: We were all students together in the first year, and there
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was a guy in the year who was writing songs and he wanted to
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play the songs to a publisher. So he asked various people if
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they played instruments and if they might be prepared to put
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a little band together to play his songs. So, Rick and Roger
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and myself all "admitted" that we did play instruments in
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some sort of fashion, and so we sort of put a band together.
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I remember we played the songs for the publisher and he said
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the songs were quite good but "forget the band." I think if
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we'd listened to anyone who had any taste at the time we'd
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have all folded up right then and there. But fortunately we
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were so egocentric and just carried on.
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CK: Originally calling themselves Sigma-6, the T-Set, the
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Meggadeaths, and the Abdabs, Waters, Wright and Mason
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eventually recruited guitarists Bob Close and Syd Barrett.
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Waters and Barrett were old friends from High School in
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Cambridge.
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RWr: While we were at the Poly we had various people in and out of
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the band and one particular, very good guitar player Bob
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Close. He was really a far better musician than any of the
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rest of us. But I think he had some exam problems and really
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felt that he had to apply himself to work, whereas the rest
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of us were not that conscientious. And so he was sort of out
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of the band and we were looking for another guitar player and
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we knew that Syd was coming up to London from Cambridge and
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so he just, well he was just co-opted into the whole thing.
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CK: This is the beginning of what Syd Barrett called "The Pink
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Floyd Sound," and it is Barrett who is the acknowledged
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founder of Pink Floyd. In February 1966, Pink Floyd was
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booked to play at the weekly Sunday afternoon show called
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"The Spontaneous Underground," at London's Marquee Club.
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Here, and later at the UFO club, the Floyd built a loyal
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following and became more or less the official band of
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London's growing underground scene.
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NM: I think we started to develop a cult following because
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everyone was talking about the psychedelic revolution and
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light and sound and all the rest of it. People were looking
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to try and guess, as they always are, what was going going to
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happen next in music. This suddenly looked like what was
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going to happen next. I mean, we were incredibly awful, we
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were a dreadful band, we must have sounded frightful, but we
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were so different and so odd that I think--I mean odd, for
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those days. Of course, now, people would look at it and
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laugh. You look at the early photographs and we just look
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like a sort of elderly version of the Monkees or something.
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At the time, that was what was happening and no-one really
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understood it, but they all thought they ought to try and
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get in on it. So the record deal was in fact a really rather
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good one considering we had no track record whatsoever and
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couldn't play the instruments.
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[Arnold Layne]
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NM: I think Syd was a major talent as a songwriter and maybe
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could have been as a musician, I mean, he did stop. He has
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not done anything for the last ten years. And consequently,
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people who don't perhaps entirely achieve all their potential
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become even more legendary.
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[See Emily Play]
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CK: "See Emily Play," and "Arnold Layne," two Syd Barrett
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compositions that were Pink Floyd's first chart successes in
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1967. Even then, the essence of Pink Floyd couldn't be
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captured on record. Their early concerts featured a
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choreographed light show and quadraphonic sound system.
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Following the release of their debut album, _The Piper at the
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Gates of Dawn_, Syd Barrett's behavior became more and more
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erratic. Barrett, the band's leader, the one who brought
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Pink Floyd to prominence, was now in over his head.
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RWa: I believe Syd was a casualty of the so-called "Psychedelic
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Period" that we were meant to represent. 'Cause everybody
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believed that we were taking acid before we went on stage and
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all that stuff....unfortunately, one of us was, and that was
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Syd. It's a simple matter, really, Syd just had a big
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overdose of acid and that was it. It was very frightening,
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and I couldn't believe what had happened, 'cause, I remember
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we had to do a radio show, and we were waiting for him, and
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he didn't turn up. And then he came the next day, and he was
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a different person.
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CK: In February 1968, Roger Waters asked an old friend of his
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from Cambridge to join the band, since Syd Barrett's status
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was up in the air. Seven weeks later, Syd was phased out
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completely, and David Gilmour became Pink Floyd's guitarist.
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DG: The first plan was that I would join and make it a five piece
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so it would make it easier so that Syd could still be strange
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but the band would still function. And then the next idea
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was that Syd would stay home and do writing and be the Brian
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Wilson elusive character that didn't actually perform with us
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and the third plan was the he wouldn't do nothing at all.
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And it quickly changed 'round, and it was just....it was
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*obviously* impossible to carry on working that way so we
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basically ditched Syd, stopped picking him up for gigs.
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CK: With Syd out of the band out of the band completely, in order
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for Pink Floyd to continue, someone else would have to write
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the material. Roger Waters took the controls, with some
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apprehension.
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RWa: I had no idea that I would ever write anything, when I bought
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my first guitar at age fifteen and decided that I was going
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to be a rock star along with umpteen million other kids. I
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had no idea that I would ever really write songs, and in the
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early years, I didn't have to 'cause Syd was writing all the
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material and it was only after he stopped writing that the
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rest of us had to start trying to do it. I'd always been
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told, at school anyway, that I was absolutely bloody hopeless
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at everything, so I had no real confidence about any of it.
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[Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun]
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CK: "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun," from Pink
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Floyd's second album, _A Saucerful of Secrets,_ released in
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June, 1968. That same month the Floyd became the first rock
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band to play a free concert in London's Hyde Park.
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CK: Over the years, Pink Floyd has written the music for several
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movie soundtracks. Their film score debut was in 1969, when
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they wrote and performed the music for a Barbet Schroder film
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called "More."
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RWr: His feeling about music for movies was, in those days, that
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he didn't want a soundtrack to go behind the movie. All he
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wanted was, literally, if the radio was switched on in the
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car, for example, he wanted something to come out of the car.
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Or someone goes and switches the TV on, or whatever it is.
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He wanted the soundtrack to relate exactly to what was
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happening in the movie, rather than a film score backing the
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visuals.
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CK: When Pink Floyd signed to EMI records in 1967, they were
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assigned staff producer Norman "Hurricane" Smith to work with
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them in the studio. Four albums later, the members of Pink
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Floyd felt stifled by Smith, and beginning with the live side
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of _Ummagumma_, started producing the albums themselves.
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DG: We were phasing Norman out, through that period of time. He
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was doing, you know--at the beginning he was very good, he
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taught us a lot of things, certainly taught me a lot of
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things. But he was also quite frustrating at times, he would
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always want to even things out, make them more homogenous.
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I can remember just little episodes of things that I wanted
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to try something and he would be in our way and my way when
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I was trying to do things. A certain point came when we felt
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we had got all we could get from him and he was only
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hindering in certain places.
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CK: _Ummagumma_, Pink Floyd's fourth album, was released in late
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1969, and featured two discs, one live, one studio. On the
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studio album, each member indulged himself with his own
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extended composition. Nick Mason for one enjoyed the
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experiment, but admits that the parts weren't as strong as
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the whole.
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NM: I thought it was a very good and interesting little exercise,
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the whole business of everyone doing a bit. But I still feel
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really that that's quite a good example of the sum being
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greater than the parts, that it's an interesting album, and
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all sorts of ideas are contained in it, but it actually is
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more satisfactory when we work as a band.
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CK: Following the release of _Ummagumma_, Pink Floyd went to Rome
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to write and record four songs for the film "Zabriskie
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Point." Then, David Gilmour and Roger Waters returned to
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London, to co-produce Syd Barrett's first solo album, _The
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Madcap Laughs._ Finally, in late 1970, Pink Floyd's fifth
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album was released: _Atom Heart Mother_. You may have
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wondered where the title came from.
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DG: The day we were trying to think of it, we had a newspaper,
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sitting outside a pub in London, in our break in recording,
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7 o'clock on a sunny evening in London, and there was a woman
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who had had heart surgery, and had an atomic heart pacemaker
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fitted on her heart, and she was a mother. It said "Atom
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Heart Mother blah blah blah..." We thought "Atom Heart
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Mother....title!" Simple as that.
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CK: David Gilmour and Richard Wright co-produced the second Syd
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Barrett album in late 1970. For most of the following year,
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the Floyd toured the world, stopping occasionally to record
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tracks for their next album, _Meddle._
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[Fearless]
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CK: Pink Floyd's sixth album, _Meddle_, marked the vocal debut of
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drummer Nick Mason.
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NM: Possibly the most interesting thing about "One of These Days"
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is that it actually stars myself as vocalist, for the first
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time on any of our records that actually got to the public.
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It's a rather startling performance involving the use of a
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high voice and slowed down tape.
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[One of These Days]
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CK: That's "One of These Days," from Pink Floyd's album,
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_Meddle_. In concert, Pink Floyd strives to equal or surpass
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the production elements on their records.
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DG: Yes we did all sorts of strange things you know for live
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concerts as well, we used to make up tapes for the audience
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to come in by. We had one half-hour long tape, which we'd
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play for the half an hour the audience was coming in just
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before we started our show, and things like that. Just tapes
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of bird noises in quad--quadraphonic sound, you know, with
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birds singing, and pheasants taking off in the distance, and
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swans taking off from water, a tractor driving down one side
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of the room, and an airplane going over the top, and all
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these things carrying on, all just from just different sound
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effects records, you just stick them in and you--you create
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a type of mood.
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CK: Pink Floyd's next album was their second movie soundtrack for
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filmmaker Barbet Schroder. Recorded in France, _Obscured by
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Clouds_ is one of David Gilmour's favorite Floyd albums.
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DG: I love that album. Yes, it was really fast, rapid stuff
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without any great need to make a concept out of it. That was
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when we'd just got the very first synthesizer ever invented,
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and we were playing with it, the EMS Synthy. And all you
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could do was tune it up to play a note, and then press it for
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it to play the note, like you couldn't play notes with a
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keyboard, not at that juncture. Or if you could, we didn't
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know how to. That was the first time we ever used any form
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of a synthesizer, was on _Obscured by Clouds_.
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[Free Four]
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CK: "Free Four," from Pink Floyd's _Obscured by Clouds_. If the
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Beatle's _Sgt. Pepper_ revolutionized the concept of rock
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albums in 1967, then Pink Floyd's _Dark Side of the Moon_
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fine tuned that concept into genuine audio art six years
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later. Recorded at EMI's fabled Abbey Road studios, where
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the Beatles recorded all their albums, Pink Floyd produced
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the _Dark Side of the Moon_ by themselves, over a period of
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nine months. When it was released in March 1973, _Dark Side_
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represented a culmination of the band's studio experiments,
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and Roger Waters' insights that had only been brushed upon in
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their earlier recordings. The fact that _Dark Side of the
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Moon_ was Pink Floyd's first album to reach number one in
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America is easily eclipsed by the fact that today the album
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is still on Billboard's top album charts. It is one of the
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most consistent selling albums in pop music history--over 530
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weeks. With the help of David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and
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Richard Wright, here's Pink Floyd's _The Dark Side of the
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Moon._
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[Speak To Me]
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[Breathe]
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[On The Run...]
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DG: We had originally go an "On the Run," a different thing,
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which is on a live one if you've heard one of those bootlegs,
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you might have heard a different version of it than is on
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_Dark Side of the Moon_. We had a sort of guitar passage,
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but it wasn't very good. We'd just got this new synthesizer,
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a briefcase model EMS-1, and in the lid there was a little
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sequencer thing. I was playing with the sequencer device
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attachment, and came up with this sound, which is the basic
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sound of it. Roger sort of heard it, came over and started
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playing with it, too. Then he actually put in the notes that
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we made...it was his sequence, that "de-di-doo-de-di-dil"-
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-whatever it was. He made that little sequence up, but I had
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got the actual original sound and I actually was the one
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doing the controlling on the take that we used. Then we
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chucked all sorts of things over the top of it afterwards.
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[...On The Run]
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DG: He had just recently before we did that album gone out with
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a whole set of equipment and had recorded all these clocks in
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a clock shop. And we were doing the song "Time," and he said
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"Listen, I just did all these things, I did all these
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clocks," and so we wheeled out his tape and listened to it
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and said "Great! Stick it on!" And that, actually, is Alan
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Parsons' idea.
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[Time...]
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NM: The drums used on the "Time" track are roto-toms. I think we
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did some experiments with some other drums called "boo-
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bans," which are very small, tuned drums, but the roto-toms
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actually gave the best effect.
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[...Time]
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RWr: "Great Gig in the Sky?" It was just me playing in the
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studio, playing some chords, and probably Dave or Roger
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saying "Hmm..that sounds nice. Maybe we could use that for
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this part of the album." And then, me going away and trying
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to develop it. So then I wrote the music for that, and then
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there was a middle bit, with Clare Torry singing, that
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fantastic voice. We wanted something for that bit, and she
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came in and sang on it.
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[Great Gig in the Sky]
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DG: We had people come in the studio and sit down. We'd made
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lots of pieces of paper, lots of cards up with a question on
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and we set them up with a microphone and everything and had
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the tape recorder on and they had to sit there and they had
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to answer the questions. That's how we got all the voices
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and all the little lines that you hear on _Dark Side of the
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Moon_ all over the place, that's how we got them. We just
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said, you know, "What do you think of the dark side of the
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moon?" and that's how we got the answer, via the Irish
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doorman at Abbey Road, Jerry, he said (<fakes accent>) "There
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is no dark side of the moon, really, it's all dark."
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[Us and Them]
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[Any Colour You Like....]
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RWa: I never kind of sit down and try and think of ideas, ideas
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arrive, and I'll go "Hmm...that's not a bad idea," and I may
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make a note of it, somewhere. And then I'll come back to it
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later, and then maybe it will develop, or maybe I'll sit down
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at a piano one day and work out some chords for a melody that
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comes together with a bit of an idea. All that happens
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without me trying at all, I don't have to try. The difficult
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bit, then, is developing those short ideas into full-length
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things, that's where the craft comes in, and the graft.
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'Cause then that does take a long time--well, it can do.
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Sometimes the absolutely the hardest things are, you know,
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you've written two verses and a bridge to a song and you've
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got to write the last verse and sometimes to write that last
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verse becomes an absolute nightmare.
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[Brain Damage]
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[Eclipse]
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CK: In 1975, Pink Floyd signed with Columbia records in America,
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and released _Wish You Were Here_. Expanding on the three
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themes explored on _Dark Side of the Moon_, loneliness,
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alienation, and madness, _Wish You Were Here_ was inspired by
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a simple guitar figure David Gilmour came up with.
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DG: The whole thing started out of that first guitar thing, that
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"ding-ding-ding-ding." I was just in the studio rehearsal
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room during one day and playing with the guitar and those
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notes started coming out, just a little motif on the guitar.
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I played it a few times, and I put some DDL's and other
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effects on it and started playing again and it sort of pinged
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out and sounded nice and I said "oh, that's really great."
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Roger really got off on it, he got exactly the same from it
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as I was getting from it. I don't know quite how it
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happened, but those sort of things happen. That was like the
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start of--gave us the start for making the whole record.
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CK: Probably the most legendary Pink Floyd story occurred during
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the _Wish You Were Here_ sessions. The album was
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unofficially dedicated to Syd Barrett, and the song "Shine On
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You Crazy Diamond" was written about him.
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RWr: Roger was there, and he was sitting at the desk, and I came
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in and I saw this guy sitting behind him--huge, bald, fat
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guy. I thought, "He looks a bit...strange..." Anyway, so I
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sat down with Roger at the desk and we worked for about ten
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minutes, and this guy kept on getting up and brushing his
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teeth and then sitting--doing really weird things, but
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keeping quiet. And I said to Roger, "Who is he?" and Roger
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said "I don't know." and I said "Well, I assumed he was a
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friend of yours," and he said "No, I don't know who he is."
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Anyway, it took me a long time, and then suddenly I realized
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it was Syd, after maybe 45 minutes. He came in as we were
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doing the vocals for "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," which was
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basically about Syd. He just for some incredible reason he
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picked the very day that we were doing a song which was about
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him. And we hadn't seen him, I don't think, for two years
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before. That's what's so incredibly...weird about this guy.
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And a bit disturbing, as well, I mean, particularly when you
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see a guy, that you don't, you couldn't recognize him. And
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then, for him to pick the very day we want to start putting
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vocals on, which is a song about him. Very strange.
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[Shine On You Crazy Diamond, parts 3-5]
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RWr: We started doing outdoor gigs, so we had to have a roof, so
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I thought "I know what we can do...why don't we build an
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enormous pyramid, and we could fill it with helium, and at
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the end of the show we could let it go." This was 60 foot-
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-the base of this thing was 60 feet. There was a lot of
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trouble getting that past the rest of the lads. Nicky was
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always a great ally, Nick Mason, was always a great ally in
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all of these things. He liked the idea of it, and finally we
|
|
did it, and it was unbelievable. It was at Three Rivers
|
|
stadium in Pittsburgh, and suddenly this thing went WHOOSH!
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|
It was on a cable, you know, so that we could try and get it
|
|
back again. Then it turned upside down and the balloon that
|
|
was inside it short off into outer space and the rest of it
|
|
fell to the earth in the crowd and was ripped into a million
|
|
pieces and they all took a bit home.
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[Welcome to the Machine]
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DG: It's quite easy to make an audio illusion, you know, to
|
|
create one, like you know, the one of the door opening and
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|
people being behind that door. It's a very easy thing to do.
|
|
You just have a sound of this thing, the buzzing
|
|
"mmmmmmmmmmm" of the door opening well you've got to get some
|
|
sort of humming noise and then you just fade up a fader with
|
|
talking and laughing and clinking of glasses noises. And it
|
|
sounds just like the door's opening and you can suddenly hear
|
|
all these people at the other side of it. And those things
|
|
are very very simple audio illusions that one can create.
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|
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|
CK: If you'd like to get in touch with the band, here's an
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|
address to write them: Pink Floyd/43 Portland Road/London,
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England/W11 4LJ.
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[Have A Cigar]
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RWr: Everyone never understood, really, one couldn't believe how
|
|
we reacted to the business side of it. For example, refusing
|
|
to do interviews, or being told "well, if you do an extra
|
|
week in America you're going to earn this amount of money"
|
|
and this and this and we'd say "No, we don't want to do it."
|
|
We always went in a way against the accepted business way of
|
|
doing things, right from the beginning in some ways. When we
|
|
started playing the music we were doing, I mean everyone in
|
|
the business just said--they couldn't understand it, or
|
|
believe it. They never believed we'd be successful.
|
|
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|
[Wish You Were Here]
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|
CK: That's "Wish You Were Here," and "Have A Cigar," both from
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|
Pink Floyd's _Wish You Were Here._ By the way, "Have a
|
|
Cigar" features English street singer Roy Harper on vocals.
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|
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|
[Pigs on the Wing, Part 1]
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|
CK: Following the success of _Wish You Were Here_, Pink Floyd
|
|
released _Animals_ in early 1977. David and Nick give
|
|
insight into some of the effects used in recording the song
|
|
"Sheep."
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|
|
|
DG: Roger was singing a note, and he sort of dragged the note out
|
|
long, and it just suddenly struck me that we could cross-
|
|
fade it with a synthesizer note--you know, as his note comes
|
|
down you just bring up the synthesizer, and you cross-fade
|
|
them together, and turn the vibrato up on the synthesizer.
|
|
Just to make a strange effect, and it worked.
|
|
|
|
NM: I think most of the effects are backwards echoes. The drums
|
|
are put on normally, then the tape reversed, and echo put on,
|
|
so that you just--as I say, you get that slur, instead of a
|
|
decay. With something going "CCCHHHHEEEeeeessssshhhhh...,"
|
|
that's reversed, so you get the thing building up to the
|
|
actual sound, so it goes "sssshhhhheeeeeEEEEEHHHHHC!".
|
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|
[Sheep]
|
|
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|
CK: "Sheep," from Pink Floyd's _Animals_. _Animals_ signaled the
|
|
end of Rick Wright's tenure with the band, as more and more,
|
|
Roger Waters became the Floyd's dominant member.
|
|
|
|
RWr: _Animals_ was in a way, the beginning of the departure of me
|
|
from the Floyd, because _Animals_ was Roger's concept, if you
|
|
like, and I didn't actually write anything on _Animals_. So
|
|
I was just like Nick, playing the music.
|
|
|
|
CK: Three years and several tours passed before the fans would
|
|
have a new album. In 1980, Pink Floyd released _The Wall_,
|
|
an ambitious two-record set that included the bands first
|
|
number one single in America, "Another Brick In The Wall,
|
|
Part 2." Roger Waters' view of the world had grown
|
|
progressively bleak, and even David Gilmour found Roger's
|
|
demos for _The Wall_ a little too depressing.
|
|
|
|
DG: He gave us all a cassette of the whole thing, and I couldn't
|
|
listen to it. It was too depressing, and too boring in lots
|
|
of places. But I liked the basic idea. We eventually agreed
|
|
to do it, but we had to chuck out a lot of stuff, rewrite a
|
|
lot of things and put a lot of new bits in, throw a lot of
|
|
old bits out. And when we actually were making it, and Roger
|
|
was under pressure, and we had said "That wasn't good
|
|
enough," Roger actually wrote some of the best ones after
|
|
that point. When we were actually doing it, when he was
|
|
under pressure and being pushed to do things, he did some of
|
|
the best things, I think.
|
|
|
|
[In The Flesh?]
|
|
|
|
CK: That's "In The Flesh." Over the years, Floyd has developed
|
|
an approach that has satisfied them artistically and
|
|
financially.
|
|
|
|
RWa: When you start coming up with ideas for things like this, of
|
|
course the immediate reaction always is: <inhales sharply>
|
|
"It's going to cut into the profit margins...," you know,
|
|
"Oooh, I don't know if we want to do..." And there have been
|
|
some ludicrous things that I've done in the past that were,
|
|
well that Floyd did in the past, that were, that was a real
|
|
battle to get them done because they were going to slice
|
|
$150,000 off the bottom line.
|
|
|
|
[Young Lust]
|
|
|
|
RWa: Your writing, I believe, comes out largely from a personality
|
|
that develops when you're a child. And that how successful
|
|
you may become, you don't change inside. You may become
|
|
crushed by the weight of your success, and that weight may
|
|
prevent you from expressing the feelings that are still that
|
|
you will always have inside. I don't think that the way a
|
|
person feels ever really changes through their life. Do you?
|
|
|
|
[Hey You]
|
|
|
|
CK: "Young Lust" and "Hey You," both from _The Wall_. As you
|
|
know, when the Floyd took _The Wall_ on the road, their
|
|
American tour played only two cities--New York and Los
|
|
Angeles. The elaborate show featured the construction and
|
|
demolition of a wall 31 feet high and 160 feet long. Nick
|
|
Mason:
|
|
|
|
NM: The problem, really, with the show is that it wasn't a
|
|
touring show, so it had to be set up, and left, and taken
|
|
down again. There were a lot of light operators and stage
|
|
operators and wall builders. Because of the amount of stuff
|
|
that went up and down, floated across, did this, did that,
|
|
there were a lot of operators, rather than just people
|
|
putting stuff up. And, of course we had lots of semis, as I
|
|
believe you call them, because of the special lighting pods
|
|
that we used which needed, each one needs a trailer unit to
|
|
hold it. And the special stage, because of the way the stage
|
|
was actually used, there was a sort of structural bracing
|
|
piece for the building of the wall. So it was all special
|
|
equipment, I mean it was absurdly expensive. It's not
|
|
something other people will do, generally, because it's just
|
|
so expensive to put on, it's simply not feasible. But it was
|
|
great to have done it once.
|
|
|
|
CK: For David Gilmour, one of the highlights of that tour was
|
|
performing the guitar solo of "Comfortably Numb."
|
|
|
|
DG: It was a fantastic moment, I can tell, to be standing up on
|
|
there, and Roger's just finished singing his thing, and I'm
|
|
standing there, waiting. I'm in pitch darkness and no one
|
|
knows I'm there yet. And Roger's down and he finishes his
|
|
line, I start mine and the big back spots and everything go
|
|
on and the audience, they're all looking straight ahead and
|
|
down, and suddenly there's all this light up there and they
|
|
all sort of--their heads all lift up and there's this thing
|
|
up there and the sound's coming out and everything. Every
|
|
night there's this sort of "<gasp!>" from about 15,000
|
|
people. And that's quite something, let me tell you.
|
|
|
|
[Comfortably Numb]
|
|
|
|
CK: "Comfortably Numb," co-written by David Gilmour, from Pink
|
|
Floyd's _The Wall_. Following the release of _The Wall_, a
|
|
feature-length film of the album appeared, starring Bob
|
|
Geldof of the Boomtown Rats as the central character "Pink."
|
|
Of course Pink Floyd's music is featured throughout,
|
|
including "When The Tigers Broke Free," a song that wasn't
|
|
included on the album.
|
|
|
|
[When The Tigers Broke Free]
|
|
|
|
CK: "When The Tigers Broke Free," from Pink Floyd's film
|
|
soundtrack of _The Wall._ _The Wall_ would become Richard
|
|
Wright's final cut with the band--he announced his
|
|
resignation after the _Wall_ tour. _The Final Cut_ is the
|
|
most current Pink Floyd album, and according to Nick Mason,
|
|
was meant to be a sequel to _The Wall_.
|
|
|
|
NM: It was an aftermath to _The Wall_, at one time it was
|
|
actually, the _Final Cut_ was, the title meaning that it was
|
|
the final cut of _The Wall_ that it was going to contain a
|
|
lot of old _Wall_ material that hadn't made it onto the album
|
|
or that was a sort of finale to _The Wall_. So the two
|
|
albums are actually rather interconnected.
|
|
|
|
CK: Founding father Syd Barrett recorded two solo albums in 1970,
|
|
and left another unfinished and unreleased in 1974.
|
|
Guitarist David Gilmour re-united with his high school band
|
|
"Joker's Wild" for his solo debut in 1978. The lineup was
|
|
Gilmour on guitar and vocals, backed by Rick Wills of
|
|
Foreigner on bass, and Willie Wilson on drums. Gilmour's
|
|
guitar style is one of rocks most identifiable. You may have
|
|
wondered how he started, and how he approaches the
|
|
instrument.
|
|
|
|
DG: It's very hard to tell what made me first decide to play the
|
|
guitar. "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley came out when
|
|
I was ten, and that probably had something to do with it. I
|
|
was a big fan of all that stuff, I was also a fan of "lead
|
|
belly" and other guitar-y type things, from when I was about
|
|
10 onwards. I didn't actually pick one up until I was about
|
|
14 or 15. I've never had fast fingers, they're really pretty
|
|
slow compared to most, and the coordination between left and
|
|
right hand and stuff is not great. If I start trying to do
|
|
too fast then this one gets--the right one gets out of sync
|
|
with the left hand, so I have to rely on other things. I
|
|
rely on effects, fuzzboxes, anything that I can lay my hands
|
|
on. Then I just try and make nice, sort of, melodies with
|
|
it, like try to make it sing, I try to imagine that the
|
|
guitar's kind of singing, you know?
|
|
|
|
[There's No Way Out Of Here]
|
|
|
|
CK: "There's No Way Out of Here" from David Gilmour's solo album.
|
|
Here's a fact for you: David picked that up tune from a band
|
|
he produced in the mid 70's called "Unicorn." Earlier this
|
|
year, David released his second solo album, _About Face_.
|
|
|
|
DG: Doing this album I wanted to make a really good record. I
|
|
didn't want to do it very very quickly, and I wanted to get
|
|
the best musicians in the world that I could get hold of to
|
|
play with me, so I thought I'd just make a little list of all
|
|
my favourite musicians, you know, best drummer, best bass
|
|
player, best keyboard player, and I'll work through the list
|
|
to see who I can get. Jeff Peccarro was top of my drummers
|
|
list, Pino Palladino was top of my bass players list, and Ian
|
|
Quely, or the Rev, as he's known, he actually came and did
|
|
the bulk of the hammond and piano playing, and he was
|
|
terrific. Steve Winwood was top of my keyboard playing list
|
|
but he couldn't do most of the album, but I got him to do a
|
|
bit.
|
|
|
|
[Murder]
|
|
|
|
CK: "Murder," from David Gilmour's second solo album, _About
|
|
Face._ Following its release, David assembled a touring
|
|
band, and successfully toured Europe and America this past
|
|
spring and summer. Keyboardist Richard Wright's solo album
|
|
_Wet Dream_ more or less coincided with the release of David
|
|
Gilmour's first album. Now that he's officially out of Pink
|
|
Floyd, he's formed a new band, called "Zee."
|
|
|
|
RWr: I've been working with Dave Harris, who used--he was in a
|
|
band called "Fashion," and we just released a record in the
|
|
UK, an album, under the name "Zee," that's the last nine
|
|
months. What's it like? It's...you'll have to hear it.
|
|
|
|
[Confusion]
|
|
|
|
RWr: We plan, hopefully, to start writing the next album, and then
|
|
on the strength of having material from the first album and
|
|
the second album, we would go on the road. But it's very
|
|
tentative at the moment, there are no definite plans.
|
|
|
|
CK: Nick Mason's lone solo album was called "Fictitious Sports,"
|
|
and aside from producing records, his real passion is motor
|
|
racing and collecting vintage race-cars.
|
|
|
|
NM: I want to be involved in making a film, really, about my
|
|
motor racing. But the idea with that is, possibly that we'd
|
|
do a section, part of the film would be some modern racing,
|
|
and I might work with someone else and do some music for
|
|
that.
|
|
|
|
CK: Following on the heels of David Gilmour's recent album, Roger
|
|
Waters released his first solo effort _The Pros and Cons of
|
|
Hitchhiking._
|
|
|
|
RWa: Well, the idea for the album came concurrently with the idea
|
|
for _The Wall_--the basis of the idea. I wrote both pieces
|
|
at roughly the same time. And in fact, I made demo tapes of
|
|
them both, and in fact presented both demo tapes to the rest
|
|
of the Floyd, and said "Look, I'm going to do one of these as
|
|
a solo project and we'll do one as a band album, and you can
|
|
choose." So, this was the one that was left over. Um...I
|
|
mean, it's developed an awful lot since then, I think.
|
|
|
|
[The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking]
|
|
|
|
CK: That's the title track from Roger Waters' solo album, "The
|
|
Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking." The short American tour that
|
|
just concluded was definitely one of the must-see concerts of
|
|
this year. Roger's band included Eric Clapton, and a stage
|
|
show nearing Pink Floyd's proportions. Roger's next move is
|
|
up in the air.
|
|
|
|
RWa: I don't know what I shall do in the future, but there's no
|
|
way I can stop working. If I stop working for a bit I...I
|
|
find myself drifting into the room with the piano, sitting
|
|
down, starting to tinker, you know, "What if...?" I shall go
|
|
to my grave with "Well, I wonder if...." And from those "I
|
|
wonder if"s, something happens.
|
|
|
|
CK: Pink Floyd's mark on live and recorded music is indelible.
|
|
If the hallmark of a great band is to have a signature sound,
|
|
then certainly Pink Floyd meets the qualifications, because
|
|
no band sounds like Pink Floyd--they're an original, a
|
|
classic, and are legendary.
|
|
|
|
CK: We hope you've enjoyed this profile of Pink Floyd, and if you
|
|
have any comments, we'd like to hear from you. Write "The
|
|
Source/30 Rockafeller Plaza/New York, NY 10020."
|
|
|
|
Written by Steven Johnson.
|
|
|