Meddle

From the opening notes of "One of These Days" on 1971's "Meddle" the listener is aware that something special is about to happen. It's hard to believe that the band had reported that they were a little "lost" for what to do after their previous effort when you listen to this LP. "One of These Days" has always been one of my favorite Floyd tracks. In fact it was brought back to their live shows for their last tour in 95-96 which was really cool. It actually went on to open their second act during their "Pulse" tour (video below).

The image represents an ear, underwater, collecting waves of sound.

The bass line on "One of These Days" is both weird and frightful. It was performed by Roger Waters and David Gilmour using two bass guitars, one on old strings. Nick Mason's abstruse "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces" line was recorded at double speed using a falsetto voice, and replayed at normal speed. I still don't think this sound has ever been duplicated by anyone in Rock since. Ok well I need to move on from the opening track which as you can tell I really - really like.

As classic an LP as this there are really 3 forgettable songs on it. These are "Pillow of Winds", "San Tropez" and "Seamus".  It is with "Seamus" that I agree. The Floyd were indeed somewhat "lost" for what to do next at this point. You see, "Seamus" is a dog and actually barks through the entire song. In fact "Seamus" is usually noted as Pink Floyd's worst song. I agree.

Now that we got those 3 songs out of the way lets love onto the final two. First up is the Waters/Gilmour tune, "Fearless". The song's slow tempo and mellow acoustic sound bear along with an excellent vocal by Waters flows like a dreamlike state. Near the beginning and at the end of the song, a field recording of fans in Liverpool's Kop singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" is superimposed over the music. If you listen to the 1996 live "Pulse" album you actually hear the crowd break out into this (on their own" after the band performs "One of These Days"!

Pink Floyd performing "One of These Days" in 1996.

 



The final song of course is the 24 minute "Echoes" which takes up the entire side 2. All four members of the band getting writing credit on this one, which is really the big brother of the earlier "Atom Heart Mother". Here their experimentation works to perfection. Right from the opening notes which are Rick Wright on keyboard creating a "ping" sound by amplifying a grand piano and sending the signal through a rotating speaker. Roger Waters has explained that the song's lyrics were an attempt to describe "the potential that human beings have for recognizing each other's humanity and responding to it, with empathy rather than antipathy."  So very cool, and so very Pink Floyd.

This album was a huge success, however no one expected what to was to come next, after a very short diversion in the clouds of obscurity....