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Post by The Lunatic on Oct 19, 2016 0:21:33 GMT
Pink Floyd's 1971 album, often considered to be a 'turning point' for the band. I personally find 'Echoes' to be a masterpiece second only to 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' (and endlessly inspiring, as evinced by my various attempts to interpret its imagery on paper), but I find the first side a bit patchy, with the only good tracks to my mind being 'A Pillow Of Winds' (one of the most beautifully dreamlike things ever recorded) and 'Fearless' (a fine song and an excellent philosophy for life). That having been said, I still enjoy the general atmosphere of the album very much. What do you all think? Also, be sure and listen to it on 31 October; this year marks its forty-fifth anniversary.
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Post by syd gilmour on Oct 19, 2016 18:13:30 GMT
Meddle is one of my favorite Pink Floyd albums, primarily because of side 2 but I also love the songs you mentioned and San Tropez as well.
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Post by Mad Bugger on Oct 29, 2016 1:48:52 GMT
I've heard Echoes, but not the album in its entirety. Since you mentioned its forty-fifth anniversary is coming up, I've decided I'm listening to it then: no buts about it. I'll let you know what I think.
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Post by The Lunatic on Oct 31, 2016 17:51:50 GMT
Happy birthday, Meddle!
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Post by The Lunatic on Nov 1, 2016 18:00:47 GMT
I've heard Echoes, but not the album in its entirety. Since you mentioned its forty-fifth anniversary is coming up, I've decided I'm listening to it then: no buts about it. I'll let you know what I think. *Ahem...* P.S. Rotate the above image to the right 45 degrees...
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Post by Mad Bugger on Nov 6, 2016 6:13:46 GMT
I've heard Echoes, but not the album in its entirety. Since you mentioned its forty-fifth anniversary is coming up, I've decided I'm listening to it then: no buts about it. I'll let you know what I think. *Ahem...* P.S. Rotate the above image to the right 45 degrees... Yes, sorry about that The Lunatic ! Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time.....But don't worry, I've listened to the album in full and here's my verdict, track by track: One Of These Days - A fun little track; the bit when Nick says "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces!" makes me smile. I like this one! A Pillow Of Winds - This tune is just lovely. The guitar is captivating, the melody is captivating, David's voice is captivating- it's captivating! Although beautiful, I find that it kind of loses a bit of direction after a little while, but it regains it by the end of the song. My favourite bit is " Sleepy time in my life, with my love by my side, and she's breathing low". Fearless - It's catchy and it's got good lyrics! Fearless is another whole-in-one in my book! San Tropez - I've heard a lot of people say that they don't like this song, but I'm pretty fond of it. Relaxing yet upbeat at the same time, I bet it'd be nice to listen to whilst casually cleaning or cooking or something of the like. Seamus - As with Tropez, I seem to have an unpopular opinion of this track. I really like the bluesy aspect of it; it's a good song to change things up with, as it isn't your typical Floyd. Echoes - Wow! I couldn't even begin to describe Echoes! I've heard it about 4-5 times now, and each listen is as good as the last one! I like 16:00 through to the end the best, but my favourite part in specific is from 18:14 to 18:44-ish. This song would have to be my favourite off of Meddle, with A Pillow Of Winds at a close second. Overall, I really like this album, and its subdued and relaxing cover art really reflects the mood of the music inside. I think it'd be more in the mid-upper range on my list of favourite Floyd albums so far, but I'd have to give it a few more listens to really solidify a spot for it.
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Post by The Lunatic on Nov 7, 2016 21:18:58 GMT
..But don't worry, I've listened to the album in full and here's my verdict, track by track: One Of These Days - A fun little track; the bit when Nick says "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces!" makes me smile. I like this one! A Pillow Of Winds - This tune is just lovely. The guitar is captivating, the melody is captivating, David's voice is captivating- it's captivating! Although beautiful, I find that it kind of loses a bit of direction after a little while, but it regains it by the end of the song. My favourite bit is " Sleepy time in my life, with my love by my side, and she's breathing low". Fearless - It's catchy and it's got good lyrics! Fearless is another whole-in-one in my book! San Tropez - I've heard a lot of people say that they don't like this song, but I'm pretty fond of it. Relaxing yet upbeat at the same time, I bet it'd be nice to listen to whilst casually cleaning or cooking or something of the like. Seamus - As with Tropez, I seem to have an unpopular opinion of this track. I really like the bluesy aspect of it; it's a good song to change things up with, as it isn't your typical Floyd. Echoes - Wow! I couldn't even begin to describe Echoes! I've heard it about 4-5 times now, and each listen is as good as the last one! I like 16:00 through to the end the best, but my favourite part in specific is from 18:14 to 18:44-ish. This song would have to be my favourite off of Meddle, with A Pillow Of Winds at a close second. Overall, I really like this album, and its subdued and relaxing cover art really reflects the mood of the music inside. I think it'd be more in the mid-upper range on my list of favourite Floyd albums so far, but I'd have to give it a few more listens to really solidify a spot for it. EXCELLENT! I concur on nearly all points. I don't think 'A Pillow Of Winds' loses direction, exactly; I always saw it as a classic bit of meditative Floyd wandery, as if after the 'When night comes down' bit you're dreaming, to awaken upon the 'And deep beneath the ground'. Not all those who wander are lost, and that. But I think every second of that song is perfection itself so I could be biased... Also, the line is 'Sleepytime, when I lie with my love by my side'. When I first heard 'San Tropez', I went 'WHAT the SMEG?!' because I'd never heard any Floyd like it. After I got used to it, I didn't mind it. I would love to cruise about St. Tropez whilst listening to it -- I imagine the song would make the perfect soundtrack to the place. Not that it's one of the Floyd's great masterpieces or anything, but it's a nice little tune and I love the piano solo (naturally, RICK ). And there's nothing wrong with 'Seamus' either -- it's just a silly little song that's not even long enough to bother skipping.
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Meddle
Nov 11, 2016 6:56:18 GMT
Post by Mad Bugger on Nov 11, 2016 6:56:18 GMT
..But don't worry, I've listened to the album in full and here's my verdict, track by track: One Of These Days - A fun little track; the bit when Nick says "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces!" makes me smile. I like this one! A Pillow Of Winds - This tune is just lovely. The guitar is captivating, the melody is captivating, David's voice is captivating- it's captivating! Although beautiful, I find that it kind of loses a bit of direction after a little while, but it regains it by the end of the song. My favourite bit is " Sleepy time in my life, with my love by my side, and she's breathing low". Fearless - It's catchy and it's got good lyrics! Fearless is another whole-in-one in my book! San Tropez - I've heard a lot of people say that they don't like this song, but I'm pretty fond of it. Relaxing yet upbeat at the same time, I bet it'd be nice to listen to whilst casually cleaning or cooking or something of the like. Seamus - As with Tropez, I seem to have an unpopular opinion of this track. I really like the bluesy aspect of it; it's a good song to change things up with, as it isn't your typical Floyd. Echoes - Wow! I couldn't even begin to describe Echoes! I've heard it about 4-5 times now, and each listen is as good as the last one! I like 16:00 through to the end the best, but my favourite part in specific is from 18:14 to 18:44-ish. This song would have to be my favourite off of Meddle, with A Pillow Of Winds at a close second. Overall, I really like this album, and its subdued and relaxing cover art really reflects the mood of the music inside. I think it'd be more in the mid-upper range on my list of favourite Floyd albums so far, but I'd have to give it a few more listens to really solidify a spot for it. EXCELLENT! I concur on nearly all points. I don't think 'A Pillow Of Winds' loses direction, exactly; I always saw it as a classic bit of meditative Floyd wandery, as if after the 'When night comes down' bit you're dreaming, to awaken upon the 'And deep beneath the ground'. Not all those who wander are lost, and that. But I think every second of that song is perfection itself so I could be biased... Also, the line is 'Sleepytime, when I lie with my love by my side'. When I first heard 'San Tropez', I went 'WHAT the SMEG?!' because I'd never heard any Floyd like it. After I got used to it, I didn't mind it. I would love to cruise about St. Tropez whilst listening to it -- I imagine the song would make the perfect soundtrack to the place. Not that it's one of the Floyd's great masterpieces or anything, but it's a nice little tune and I love the piano solo (naturally, RICK ). And there's nothing wrong with 'Seamus' either -- it's just a silly little song that's not even long enough to bother skipping. There I go again, messing up lyrics.... Oh well.
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Meddle
May 18, 2017 1:10:33 GMT
Post by TheVelvetBride on May 18, 2017 1:10:33 GMT
Echoes is long and awful. When I'm in the mood for it, it's fine, but as I said else where, it just rambles on forever.
And, I generally don't have the patience for a song that's almost 30 minutes long. (I harbour the same 'bored' feeling for the rest of their long stupid suite things as well.)
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Post by syd gilmour on May 20, 2017 2:54:24 GMT
Echoes is a masterpiece. Side 1 is great too, but Echoes taking up a full side boosts the album into the next level.
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Post by The Lunatic on Jul 6, 2017 14:53:37 GMT
Has anyone else heard someone saying something in the background at exactly the 1:00 mark in 'Seamus'? I heard it for the first time a couple months ago and forgot to post it (or maybe I forgot that I didn't forget to post it, I have no idea). To me it sounds like Nick saying 'Where is the actual one', but who knows?
If you've not heard it and are interested in doing so, it goes without saying* I recommend headphones.
*People always say a thing goes without saying right before saying the thing, isn't it a strange world?
Edit: I see that I never mentioned here just how much I've grown to love 'San Tropez'. I love it so much it irritates my sister.
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Post by thinyoungmoon on Aug 19, 2017 10:26:41 GMT
I'm going to say something really obvious now: Echoes is marvefabugorgeolous! (It just deserved its own word). I generally tend to have pictures or even movies in my head when listening to music, but it has never been so strong than it has been on Echoes! At the beginning, it feels like I am in a small dripstone cave and I feel a little dizzy and have no memory of the circumstances which lead to me lying in the cave but then, as the guitar begins to play, I see light at the end of a tunnel and decide to follow it, it gets brighter and brighter and with the drums kicking in, there it is in front of me, the ocean! It grows more and more epic, especially in the transitions between the verses with this captivating guitar part and then during the solo the epicness has reached a level similar to 'standing on a cliff high above the roaring sea, the arms raised towards the sky while the world is turning round', yeah, that's my imagination at least. And then the mood changes, exactly at the right moment IMO. Because it would have been impossible to maintain the epicness any longer without losing tension, and would better way is there to dissolve tension and lean back than a funky part? The funky part has a special place in my heart - it starts off with the riff and then the guitar and synthesizer, I believe, occasionally drop in. At the beginning, it's almost timidly but then it gets wilder, it relaxes again. All in all, it reminds me a lot of a conversation where everyone has to find their place first, but once they have it's a perfect harmony. And the transition to the eerie part of the song is also perfect - suddenly, I feel like being back at the cliff at the sea again, only this time it's night, fog draws near and every seagull sounds like a ghost. I'm so amazed by the fact that they could get that scary sounds out of their instruments. I wish there would be a full explanation on how they achieved every single note to sound the way they sound somewhere on the internet... ahh, daydreaming. When the final build up before the last verse comes (is this a bass tremolo?) I always feel like I'm growing wings and lifting from the cliff and beginning to fly above the ocean while the water passes by faster and faster below me until everything is just one big blue surface. After the final verse, one flies higher and higher into the clouds and vanishes, leaving everything on earth behind. A great thing is also, how many different stylistics are captured in the song: for example, the up-and-down-the-scale guitar riff between the verses, reminds me a lot of Phantom of the Opera, at about 9 minutes in the funky part I believe I hear a snippet of Toccata and Fuge by noone else than J.S. Bach, and during the built up before the last verse the guitars remind me a bit of Scottish music with bag pipes and everything. But I also love the other songs from Meddle especially One Of These Days, Fearless, and San Tropez.
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Post by The Lunatic on Aug 19, 2017 17:08:35 GMT
thinyoungmoon Wow, that is awesome! I've always got incredibly vivid imagery from 'Echoes' as well; some of it I attempted to render (here is a sample, and I've done some of the first two verses as well), but most of it I just allow to play through my mind when I listen to it.
It starts with a fade from black to a small, sharp sound dripping into the deep underwater chasm. As the intro builds you move forward, more sounds/band members appear, and then the imagery of the lyrics take over. After the verses you begin fully moving, crashing swiftly forward through the waves, surrounded by exotic vistas never seen in earthly seas. The low sound right before the guitar solo reminds me of a ship's call as it departs from a port, as you fully leave the shore behind.
Then the funky part: you are well below the surface now, and this transition probably represents crossing over into a different pelagic zone. The guitar is so reverby and sustain-y and piercing, it just sounds like it's underwater.
Then the band morph into strange, otherworldly creatures. You are very deep now, so deep that it's freezing cold and quite dark, and the unseen creatures are rather unsettling as they make their strange, creepy calls. (Ignore the fact that that was just David plugging his wah pedal in backwards.) You are drifting, dream-like, through a wide, bleak landscape that could be this underwater realm or it could be the moors of Scotland (with the ravens in the right ear) or it could be the frozen wastes of Mars.
Slowly, light and warmth begin creeping back; the ascent from the grim depths is fraught with tension. Will you make it back up alive?
With a fierce chiming of guitar, you break the surface and are flooded with light, only to find that you are adrift and completely lost at sea. You continue racing along the waves, increasingly faster and more frenetically...
...and then the sea around you evaporates, and the sun is actually streaming in through the window as you open your sleep-stained eyes. There is an inexpressible sense of relief at the whole tense journey being, in fact, nothing but a dream. You are inclined to celebrate it by throwing the windows wide, calling to the sun, dancing about the room perhaps... and as you remember the dream, the tension of it returns, and you slip back into it -- or it becomes your reality. It resolves peacefully, and you're left observing the quiet, everyday winds and drippings of the water, as it fades to black.
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Post by The Lunatic on Aug 20, 2017 15:50:51 GMT
Also, thinyoungmoon, it may interest you to know that the Floyd did not use a single synthesiser until Obscured By Clouds.
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Meddle
Aug 22, 2017 23:49:11 GMT
Post by thinyoungmoon on Aug 22, 2017 23:49:11 GMT
Thanks for the beautiful imagination The Lunatic! I am particularly thrilled by the fact that it's underwater, the low note you called 'ship horn'(I've never seen it that way but it makes so much sense)and by the ending! And by the fact that the creepy calls were a reversed wah pedal, that's incredible! I find it so amazing how they achieved all those different sounds without computer generators or even synthesisers (thanks for the information)! That's another proof of the fact that creativity is more important than complex gear.
Recently, I've been thinking a lot about another track on Meddle: Fearless.
First of all, from the way the guitar is being played it reminds me a bit of a Led Zeppelin song but I can't find out which one, does anyone else hear a resemblance? But more important: This is a really beautiful song, David's voice sounds so gentle and soft again and I always get goosebumps when the crowd sings 'you'll never walk alone' because I have the subtle feeling that this line, you'll never walk alone, has something to do with the overall message of the song. However, I don't really understand what the overall message is. Does it mean, that we shouldn't be afraid and care too much about what other people think of us?
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Post by The Dark Side Of The Spoon on Aug 23, 2017 10:09:55 GMT
thinyoungmoon , I haven't listened to this this track yet, but the "you'll never walk alone part" could be in reference to the Rodgers/Hammerstein song, later made famous by Gerry And The Pacemakers in the 60s (I mentioned listening to this version somewhere on BB.) The only reason I could think of a crowd singing it is because that song has since become an anthem for Liverpool football teams. EDIT: From the John Peel Wikia article: peel.wikia.com/wiki/You%27ll_Never_Walk_Alone"Peel also featured a Kop version of the song on his shows as part of the track Fearless from Pink Floyd's 1971 album Meddle; apparently the band were inspired to include it as a result of hearing it on Top Gear*." *Not that Top Gear. Peel was a regular host of a BBC radio show called Top Gear (The Beatles made several appearances on there during the early 60s, as did Pink Floyd a bit later on.)
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Post by The Lunatic on Aug 23, 2017 13:43:41 GMT
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Post by thinyoungmoon on Aug 23, 2017 14:16:02 GMT
Thank you, The Dark Side Of The Spoon! =D I've read that this chanting was in fact taken from a football match between Liverpool and Everton. However, I wondered why Pink Floyd decided to take it in. Because the way I understood the lyrics (which is probably not the correct way, I'm not sure) the crowd is presented as something negative, as the everdoubting, everjudging masses one should not care too much about. But then, why does this crowd sing 'You' ll Never Walk Alone'? This confuses me a bit. Has someone of you got a different interpretation of the song? BTW, Dark Side Of The Spoon, I would really recommend listening to it, you will love it (I think). Only this morning I found out that the song is actually 6 minutes long and I couldn't believe it because it feels like 3 to me. That's how good it is! :-)
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Post by The Dark Side Of The Spoon on Aug 23, 2017 21:55:04 GMT
I've edited my earlier post with some better information, and I'll make sure to listen to Fearless!
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Post by The Lunatic on Aug 24, 2017 0:57:18 GMT
thinyoungmoon I interpret it as follows: You are encouraged to follow your own path and not answer to anyone else, but at the same time know that you are not alone, that people are there for you. It's an excellent sentiment. The Dark Side Of The Spoon, be sure to listen to Meddle -- mod's orders.
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