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Meddle

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"Meddle" redirects here. For the song by Little Boots, see Meddle (song).
For a definition of the term "meddle", see the Wiktionary entry meddle.
Untitled

Meddle is the fifth studio album by Pink Floyd. It was released in October 1971, and demonstrates the band's change in genre from psychedelic rock, to progressive rock.

The album was recorded at a series of locations around London, including Abbey Road Studios. With no material to work with and no clear idea of the album's direction, the band devised a series of novel experiments which eventually inspired the album's signature track, "Echoes". Although each of the group's later albums would be unified by a central theme with lyrics written exclusively by Roger Waters,[nb 1] Meddle was a group effort with lyrical contributions from each member.

Meddle was produced between the band's touring commitments, from January to August 1971. Reviews were mixed, and although it was commercially successful in the United Kingdom, lacklustre publicity on the part of their US label led to poor sales in the United States.

Recording

Returning from a series of tours of Atom Heart Mother across America and England, at the start of 1971 the band started work on new material at Abbey Road.[5] The album was the first the band had worked on in the studio since 1968's A Saucerful of Secrets, but Abbey Road was equipped only with 8-track multitrack recording facilities, which Pink Floyd found insufficient for the increasing technical demands of their project. They transferred their best efforts, including the opening of "Echoes", to 16-track tape at smaller studios in London (namely AIR, and Morgan in West Hampstead) and resumed work with the advantage of more flexible recording equipment. Engineers John Leckie and Peter Bown recorded the main Abbey Road and AIR sessions, while for minor work at Morgan studios in West Hampstead Rob Black and Roger Quested handled the engineering duties.[6]

Lacking a central theme for the project, the band used several experiments in a divergent attempt to spur the creative process. One exercise involved each member playing on a separate track, with no reference to what the other members were doing. The tempo was entirely random while the band played around an agreed chord structure, and moods such as 'first two minutes romantic, next two up tempo'. Each recorded section was named, but the process was largely unproductive; after several weeks no complete songs had been created.[7]

John Leckie had worked on albums such as All Things Must Pass and Ringo Starr's Sentimental Journey, and was employed as a tape-operator on Meddle, partly due to his proclivity for working into the early hours of the morning. Pink Floyd's sessions would often begin in the afternoon, and end early the next morning, "...during which time nothing would get done. There was no record company contact whatsoever, except when their label manager would show up now and again with a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of joints."[8] The band would apparently spend long periods of time working on simple sounds, or a particular guitar riff. They also spent several days at Air Studios, attempting to create music using a variety of household objects, a project which would be revisited between The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.[9]

Following these early experiments—called "Nothings"—the band developed "Son Of Nothings", which was followed by "Return Of The Son Of Nothings"—the working title of the new album. One of these early works involved the use of Richard Wright's piano. Wright had fed a single note through a Leslie speaker, producing a submarine-like ping. The band tried repeatedly to recreate this sound in the studio but were unsuccessful, and so the demo version was used on what would later become "Echoes",[7] mixed almost exclusively at Air Studios.[10] Combined with David Gilmour's guitar, the band were able to develop the track further, experimenting with accidental sound effects (such as Gilmour's guitar being plugged into a wah-wah pedal back to front). Unlike Atom Heart Mother the new multi-track capabilities of the studio enabled them to create the track in stages, rather than performing it in a single take. The final twenty-three minute piece would eventually take up the entire second side of the album.[11]

"One of These Days" was developed around an ostinato bassline created by Roger Waters, by feeding the output through a Binson Echorec. The bass line was performed by 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.[12]

Meddle was recorded between the band's various concert commitments, and therefore its production was spread over a considerable period of time.[6] The band recorded in the first half of April, but in the latter half played at Doncaster and Norwich before returning to record at the end of the month. In May they split their time between sessions at Abbey Road, and rehearsals and concerts in London, Lancaster, Stirling, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Nottingham. June and July were spent mainly performing at venues across Europe.[6][13] August was spent in the far east and Australia, September in Europe, and October to November in the US.[6] In the same period the band also produced Relics, a compilation album of some of Pink Floyd's earlier works.[14] A quadraphonic mix of the album was prepared at Command Studios on 21 and 26 September, but remains unreleased.[1][15]

Content

Though the tracks possess a variety of moods, Meddle is generally considered more cohesive than its 1970 predecessor Atom Heart Mother.[16] The largely instrumental "One of These Days" is followed by "A Pillow of Winds", which is distinguished by being one of the few quiet, acoustic love songs in the Pink Floyd catalogue. These two songs segue into each other across windy sound effects, anticipating the technique that would later be used on Wish You Were Here. The title of "A Pillow of Winds" was inspired by the games of Mah-Jong that Waters and Mason, and their wives, played while in the south of France.[17]

The song "Fearless" (the title is the football equivalent of 'formidable') employs field recordings of the Liverpool F.C. Kop choir singing "You'll Never Walk Alone", their anthem, which brings the song to an end in a heavily reverberated fade-out. "San Tropez", by contrast, is a jazz-inflected pop song with a shuffle tempo, composed by Waters in his increasingly-deployed style of breezy, off-the-cuff song-writing. The song was inspired by the band's trip to the south of France in 1970. Pink Floyd give a rare glimpse into their sense of humour with "Seamus", a pseudo-blues novelty track featuring Steve Marriott's dog (which Gilmour was looking after) howling along to the music.[17][nb 2] "Seamus" often tops polls as the worst song Pink Floyd ever created, but the band would later use animal sounds again, in Animals.[18]

The final song on the album is the twenty-three minute "Echoes". First performed as "Return of the Son of Nothing" on 22 April 1971 in Norwich,[19] the band spent about six months on the track in three studios (Morgan, Air, and Abbey Road).[15] The track opens with Richard Wright's 'ping'. "Echoes" was recorded almost entirely at Air Studios,[10] and completed in July 1971.[15] "Echoes" also gave its name to the compilation album Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd, on which a much-edited version of the title track was included. In the compilation, multiple edits throughout the entire song cut the running length of the piece down by some seven minutes. Some of the material composed during the production of Meddle was not used, however one song would eventually become "Brain Damage", on The Dark Side of the Moon.[16][20]

Packaging

The album's title Meddle is a play on words; a medal, and to interfere.[18] Storm Thorgerson originally suggested a close-up shot of a baboon's anus for the album cover photograph. He was over-ruled by the band, who informed him via an inter-continental telephone call while on tour in Japan that they would rather have "an ear underwater".[21] The cover image was photographed by Bob Dowling. The image represents an ear, underwater, collecting waves of sound (represented by ripples in the water).[18] Thorgerson has expressed dissatisfaction with the cover, claiming it to be his least favourite Pink Floyd album sleeve: "I think Meddle is a much better album than its cover".[22] Aubrey Powell (Thorgerson's colleague) shares his sentiments—"Meddle was a mess. I hated that cover. I don't think we did them justice with that at all; it's half-hearted."[23] The gatefold contains a group photograph of the band (Floyd's last until 1987's A Momentary Lapse of Reason).[22]

Release

Meddle was released on 30 October 1971 in the US, and 13 November in the UK.[nb 3] Reviews of the album were mixed. Rolling Stone's Jean-Charles Costa wrote "Meddle not only confirms lead guitarist David Gilmour's emergence as a real shaping force with the group, it states forcefully and accurately that the group is well into the growth track again",[27] and NME called it "an exceptionally good album". Melody Maker were however more reserved, claiming the album was "...a soundtrack to a non-existent movie".[28] "One of These Days" and "Echoes" were performed during Live At Pompeii, in two parts, and also on the BBC's 1971 In Concert.[29][30] Although in the UK it reached #3, lacklustre publicity on the part of Capitol Records led to weak sales in the US, and a chart position of #70.[25][31]

Meddle was later certified gold by the RIAA on 29 October 1973 and then double platinum on 11 March 1994, following the added attention garnered by the band's later successes in the United States.[32]

Reissues

Meddle was later released as a remastered LP by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab,[33] and in April 1989 on their "Ultradisc" gold CD format.[34] The album was included as part of the box set Shine On on 2 November 1992.[nb 4][36]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleLead vocalsLength
1."One of These Days" (David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason)Mason (Vocal phrase)5:57
2."A Pillow of Winds" (Gilmour, Waters)Gilmour5:10
3."Fearless" (Gilmour, Waters)Gilmour6:08
4."San Tropez" (Waters)Waters3:43
5."Seamus" (Gilmour, Waters, Wright, Mason)Gilmour2:16
Side two
No.TitleLead vocalsLength
1."Echoes" (Wright, Gilmour, Waters, Mason)Gilmour and Wright23:29

Singles

  • "One of These Days"/"Fearless" (1971, US and Italy release)
  • "One of These Days"/"Seamus" (1971, Japan only release)

Sales chart performance

Year Chart Position
1971 UK Albums Chart 3[15][37]
1971 Billboard Pop Albums 70[38]

Personnel

Pink Floyd
Additional personnel

References

Notes
  1. ^ Not including albums written following Waters' departure from the group.
  2. ^ "Seamus" was remade as "Mademoiselle Nobs", featuring a different dog and no lyrics, in the film Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii.[17]
  3. ^ Povey (2007) suggests that the UK release date was 5 November,[24] but Mabbett (1995) and Pink Floyd's official website both state 13 November. All sources agree on the US release date.[25][26]
  4. ^ UK - EMI PFBOX 1, US - Columbia CXK 53180 S1[35]
Footnotes
  1. ^ a b Povey 2007, p. 148
  2. ^ Easlea, Daryl (2007-04-17), Pink Floyd Meddle Review, bbc.co.uk, retrieved 2009-08-20
  3. ^ Twist, Carlo, Meddle - Blender, blender.com, retrieved 2009-08-20
  4. ^ Christgau, Robert, Pink Floyd: Meddle, robertchristgau.com, retrieved 2009-08-20
  5. ^ Mason 2005, pp. 152–153
  6. ^ a b c d Mason 2005, p. 157
  7. ^ a b Mason 2005, p. 153
  8. ^ Harris 2006, p. 62
  9. ^ Harris 2006, pp. 63–64
  10. ^ a b Mabbett 1995, p. 42
  11. ^ Mason 2005, pp. 153–154
  12. ^ Mason 2005, p. 155
  13. ^ Povey 2007, pp. 142–144
  14. ^ Mason 2005, p. 158
  15. ^ a b c d Snider 2008, p. 103
  16. ^ a b Schaffner 1991, p. 160
  17. ^ a b c Mason 2005, p. 156
  18. ^ a b c Schaffner 1991, p. 155
  19. ^ Harris 2006, p. 64
  20. ^ Povey 2007, p. 155
  21. ^ Mason 2005, p. 160
  22. ^ a b Blake 2007, p. 166
  23. ^ Harris 2006, pp. 142–143
  24. ^ Povey 2007, p. 150
  25. ^ a b Mabbett 1995, p. 39
  26. ^ Pink Floyd - Echoes (click Echoes image link), pinkfloyd.co.uk, retrieved 2009-08-22
  27. ^ Costa, Jean-Charles (1972-01-06), Pink Floyd: Meddle, rollingstone.com, retrieved 2009-08-19
  28. ^ Schaffner 1991, pp. 155–156
  29. ^ Mabbett 1995, p. 43
  30. ^ Harris 2006, p. 67
  31. ^ Harris 2006, pp. 158–161
  32. ^ US Certifications Database, riaa.com, retrieved 2009-08-22
  33. ^ MFSL Out of Print Archive - Original Master Recording LP, mofi.com, retrieved 2009-08-03
  34. ^ MFSL Out of Print Archive - Ultradisc II Gold CD, mofi.com, retrieved 2009-08-03
  35. ^ Povey 2007, p. N/A
  36. ^ Eder, Bruce, Shine On - Review, allmusic.com, retrieved 2009-08-15
  37. ^ Chart Stats - Pink Floyd, www.chartstats.com, retrieved 2009-07-02
  38. ^ Pink Floyd - Charts & Awards - Billboard Albums, allmusic.com, retrieved 2009-08-19 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |FLOYD&sql= ignored (help)
Bibliography
Further reading
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