Empty Spaces
| "Empty Spaces" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by Pink Floyd from the album The Wall | ||||
| Released | 30 November 1979 (UK), 8 December 1979 (US) | |||
| Recorded | April–November, 1979 | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock | |||
| Length | 2:10 | |||
| Label | Harvest Records (UK) Columbia Records (US)/Capitol Records (US) |
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| Writer | Waters | |||
| Producer | Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, James Guthrie and Roger Waters | |||
| The Wall track listing | ||||
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"Empty Spaces" is a song by Pink Floyd.[1] It appeared on The Wall album in 1979.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Composition
The song is 2 minutes and 10 seconds in length and features a long introductory section, which includes an airport announcement, a reference to Pink heading for an American tour. At approximately 48 seconds into the song, the tone changes, and gets slightly louder. The song reaches a climax of tension, at which point Roger Waters plays the descending blues scale to release the tension and then cueing the start of the vocals. The song ends abruptly, as the last word of the song, "wall", isn't completed until the beginning of the next track, "Young Lust".
[edit] Plot
As with other songs on The Wall, "Empty Spaces" tells a segment of the story of Pink, the album's protagonist. Pink is now grown up and married, but he and his wife are having relationship problems because of his distance due to his halfway built 'wall'. Pink wonders what he should use to complete its construction.
[edit] Movie and live versions
On both the film adaptation and the recording of the live performance of this album, the song segues into "What Shall We Do Now?".
Visually, both the movie and live versions feature the famous "fornicating flowers" sequence, in which one predatory female flower appears to seduce a more shy male flower into sex. When this occurs, the two briefly morph into a vaguely foetus-like figure, before the predatory flower devours male, and flies into the distance of what becomes the animation for "What Shall We Do Now?".
[edit] Hidden message
Directly before the lyrical section, there is a hidden message. It is isolated on the left channel of the song. When heard normally, it appears to be nonsense. If played backwards, the following can be heard:
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- -Hello, Luka [hunters]... Congratulations. You have just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the Funny Farm, Chalfont...
- -Roger! Carolyne's on the phone!
- -Okay.[3]
Roger Waters congratulates either a girl named Luka, or 'hunters' (i.e. people who deliberately look for backward messages hidden in songs) for finding this message, and jokes that she (or they) can send her (or their) answer to "Old Pink" (being either a comical reference to Syd Barrett, or a foreshadowing of Pink's eventual insanity), who lives somewhere in a funny farm (a term to describe a psychiatric hospital) in Chalfont. Before he can tell the exact location, however, he gets interrupted by someone (James Guthrie) in the background who says Carolyne (Waters' wife) is on the phone. The wife's full name is Carolyne Christie.
[edit] Covers
- The song was covered by Mushroomhead for the Universal re-release of XX.[citation needed]
- In 2009, AGM House Band covered it for a never-completed tribute to The Wall.[4]
- In 2010, the progressive rock band Astra covered the track for a compilation album covering The Wall (titled The Wall: Rebuilt).|[citation needed]
- The song was covered by Fuel which was featured in the film A Walk to Remember
[edit] Personnel
- David Gilmour — guitars, clavinet, Prophet-5 and ARP Quadra synthesizers
- Roger Waters — vocals, bass, VCS3
- Richard Wright — piano
- James Guthrie — ARP Quadra synthesizer[5]
[edit] Further reading
- Fitch, Vernon. The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (3rd edition), 2005. ISBN 1-894959-24-8.
[edit] References
- ^ Mabbett, Andy (1995). The Complete Guide to the Music of Pink Floyd. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-4301-X.
- ^ Strong, Martin C. (2004). The Great Rock Discography (7th ed.). Edinburgh: Canongate Books. p. 1177. ISBN 1-84195-551-5.
- ^ "Jeff Milner's Backmasking site". Jeff Milner. http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
- ^ Ray Padgett, Full Albums: Pink Floyd's The Wall Pt. 1, Cover Me Songs, 15 September 2010.
- ^ Fitch, Vernon and Mahon, Richard, Comfortably Numb - A History of The Wall 1978–1981, 2006, p.82.
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