Meddle

Harvest Records ( Europe)
Capitol Records (USA)

New editions:

EMI ( Europe)
Capitol Records (USA)

Occupation

David Gilmour - guitar, vocals, bass
Nick Mason - drums, percussion
Roger Waters - bass, vocals
Richard Wright - keyboards, vocals

Meddle is an album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 30 October 1971 in the U.S. and in Europe in November. It marks the transition of the direction of the band from psychedelic rock to art rock. The album was very successful, reaching # 3 on the UK album charts in 1994 and was awarded double platinum in the United States.

Classification

Meddle applies musically overall as closed as the previous album, Atom Heart Mother, even though stylistically distinguish the individual title for the part very much. Meddle contains several motifs that appear in the subsequent success of albums The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here again, as the wind noise in the transition from the first to the second piece.

Echoes, the last work of the album, which contains extended instrumental passages, is the last part of " rebirth " of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey synchronously. No member of the band, however, was ever confirmed that this was intentional.

Striking compared to the previous albums is the growing influence of guitarist David Gilmour, who dominated as a singer most of the pieces. A milestone in the direction of The Dark Side Of The Moon is the album in terms of songwriting, at least with regard to the music. The harmonies are sophisticated: Four-part, almost jazzy chords as in A Pillow Of Winds, and Echoes San Tropez are characteristic. But even unusual chord progressions (about C # m - BbM7 -A- G # sus4 G # ) are typical.

As a guitarist Gilmour shines as soulful improviser, surprised but at the same time with solos that sound melodic and structured. The psychedelic - experimental component is used more sparingly and targeted compared to previous albums. The sound experiments in the central part of Echoes refer this heavily on the previous albums A Saucerful of Secrets and Ummagumma. Roger Waters produced on his electric bass by uniform circular motion with a bottleneck spooky howling sounds, while the bird sounds of guitarist David Gilmour were imitated with a wah-wah pedal reversed connected. Rick Wright is only softly audible with his Hammond organ, whose volume has been modulated.

Equally remarkable the intro, in which Richard Wright by constant repetition of a single high tone ( a three coated h) mimics on its wing the sound of a sonar. The wing is doing a Leslie speaker cabinet, an organ Amplifiers played. The sound gets thereby a strange tremolo. Therefore, the sound is quite different from the one played without electrical amplification wing. The same had the Beatles previously made on their " White Album " in the song Do not Pass Me By. At the end of the experimental central part of Echoes there are passages in which the tone of the already published eight years later Pink Floyd album The Wall is similar (for example, the local piece In The Flesh ).

Also well known is the piece One of These Days. The special feature of this piece lies in the introduction: The piece begins with wind noise, are running over the succession to the two stereo channels, two basses, which are played on a Binson Echorec. A bass was played by Roger Waters, the other by David Gilmour. The only text of the play, spoken in the central part of Nick Mason and heavily modified by changing the pitch and playback speed, is " One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces" ( "One day I 'm going to cut into small pieces "). This set represents a jocular threat against a BBC radio reporter who moderated mainly hit shows and so drew the humorous intentioned wrath of the Pink Floyd musicians themselves.

Meddle also includes pieces that were less influential for the future of the band. The peppy San Tropez for example, has similarities with the gypsy jazz of the twenties and thirties, like him Joe Venuti, Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt invented.

Title list

The title Echoes occupies the entire second side of the LP version of the album.

Syd Barrett • David Gilmour • Nick Mason • Roger Waters • Richard Wright

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn A Saucerful of Secrets • • • Ummagumma Atom Heart Mother Meddle • • The Dark Side of the Moon • Wish You Were Here • Animals • The Wall • The Final Cut • A Momentary Lapse of Reason • The Division Bell

Ummagumma • Delicate Sound of Thunder • Pulse • Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81

The Committee • Tonite Lets All Make Love in London • Soundtrack from the Film More • • Obscured by Clouds Zabriskie Point

Relics • A Collection of Great Dance Songs • Works • Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd • The Best of Pink Floyd: A Foot in the Door

Arnold Layne See Emily Play • • • Flaming Apples and Oranges • It Would Be So Nice • Let There Be More Light • Point Me at the Sky • The Nile Song • One of These Days • Fearless • Free Four • Money • Us and Them / Time • Have a Cigar • Another Brick in the Wall (Part II) • Comfortably Numb • Run Like Hell • When the Tigers Broke Free • Not Now John • Learning to Fly • On the Turning Away • One Slip • Take It Back • high Hopes • Wish You Were Here (live)

Discography

Album ( Progressive Rock )
Pink Floyd album
Album 1971
Multi-platinum album (United States)

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