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Ummagumma

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Untitled

Ummagumma is a progressive rock double album by Pink Floyd, released in 1969 by Harvest and EMI in the United Kingdom and Harvest and Capitol in the United States. The first disc is a live album of their normal set list of the time, while the second one contains individual compositions by each member of the band recorded as a studio album.

Title

The album's title supposedly comes from a Cambridge slang word for sexual intercourse, commonly used by one of Pink Floyd's friends and occasional roadie, Iain "Imo" Moore who would joke 'Am I gunna' have sex tonight?! .[1] However, some band members have since stated that the word was "totally made up and means nothing at all".[2] In footage of the band rehearsing for a Royal Albert Hall appearance in 1969, one of the band members can be heard, off camera, quietly chanting the word "ummagumma".

Background

Although the sleeve notes say that the live material was recorded in June 1969, the first disc of Ummagumma was recorded live at Mothers Club, Birmingham, on 27 April 1969 and the following week at Manchester College of Commerce, on 2 May 1969; the second disc included four solo segments, one half-side of vinyl each by, in order: Richard Wright, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and Nick Mason.

The band had also recorded a live version of "Interstellar Overdrive" (from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn), intended for placement on side one of the live album. The track was dropped at the last minute, some say to maintain the sound fidelity of the record, but numerous test pressings with the original track list were given to friends of the band, including John Peel. Other sources[who?] have claimed[citation needed] that the song was dropped because of a conflict over the music publishing rights. (It would have been one of only two songs on the record to include Syd Barrett as a writer.)

Cover art

The cover shows the members of the band, with a picture hanging on the wall showing the same scene, except the band members have switched positions. The picture on the wall also includes the picture on the wall, creating a recursion effect, with each recursion showing band members exchanging positions. After 4 variations of the scene, the final picture within picture is the cover of the previous Pink Floyd album, A Saucerful of Secrets.

The cover of the original LP varies between the British, American/Canadian, and Australian releases. The British version has the album Gigi leaning against the wall immediately above the "Pink Floyd" letters. At a talk given at Borders bookstore in Cambridge on 1 November 2008, as part of the "City Wakes" project , Storm Thorgerson explained that the album was introduced as a red herring to provoke debate, and that it has no intended meaning. On most copies of American and Canadian editions, the Gigi cover is airbrushed to a plain white sleeve, apparently because of copyright concerns; however the earliest American copies do show the Gigi cover[3], and it was restored for the American CD edition. On the Australian edition, the Gigi cover is completely airbrushed, not even leaving a white square behind.

On the rear cover, roadies Alan Stiles and Peter Watts are shown with the band's equipment laid out on a runway at Biggin Hill Airport; a concept proposed by Nick Mason, with the intention of replicating the "exploded" drawings of military aircraft and their payloads, which were popular at the time.

Song titles on the back are laid out slightly differently in British vs. North American editions; the most important difference being the inclusion of sub-titles for the four sections of "A Saucerful of Secrets". These subtitles only appeared on American and Canadian editions of this album, but not on the British edition; nor did they appear on original pressings of A Saucerful of Secrets.

The inner gatefold art shows separate black and white photos of the band members. David Gilmour is seen standing in front of the Elfin Oak. Original vinyl editions showed Waters with his first wife, Jude, but she has been cropped out of the picture on most CD editions. The uncropped picture was restored for the album's inclusion in the box set, Oh, by the Way.

Release history

The album was released in the United Kingdom on 25 October 1969 and then in the U.S. on 10 November 1969. The album reached #5 on the UK album charts and #74 on the US album charts, marking the first time the band reached the top 100 in the U.S. The album was certified Gold in the U.S. in February 1974 and Platinum in March 1994. In 1987, the album was re-released on a two CD set. A digitally re-mastered version was released in 1994 in the UK and 1995 in the US.

The CD edition includes a longer version of "Sysyphus"—extended to 13:26, with the movements lasting 1:08, 3:30, 1:49, and 6:59. "Part 1" of was split into two tracks and called "Part 1" and "Part 2". "Part 2" on vinyl became "Part 3" on CD, and "Part 3" and "Part 4" were combined into the CD's "Part 4". (The original "Part 4" begins with the large orchestral thud.) "The Narrow Way" and "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" were also split into their three parts for easier navigation.

Track listing

Side one
  1. "Astronomy Domine" (Syd Barrett) – 8:29
  2. "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" (Roger Waters, Rick Wright, David Gilmour, Nick Mason) – 8:50
Side two
  2. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (Waters) – 9:15
  3. "A Saucerful of Secrets" (Gilmour/Waters/Mason/Wright) – 12:48
    • "Something Else"
    • "Syncopated Pandemonium"
    • "Storm Signal"
    • "Celestial Voices"
Side three
  2. "Sysyphus" (Wright) – 12:59
    • Part 1 – 4:29
    • Part 2 – 1:45
    • Part 3 – 3:07
    • Part 4 – 3:38
  3. "Grantchester Meadows" (Waters) – 7:26
  4. "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" (Waters) – 4:59
Side four
  2. "The Narrow Way" (Gilmour) – 12:17
    • Part 1 – 3:27
    • Part 2 – 2:53
    • Part 3 – 5:57
  3. "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" (Mason) – 8:44
    • Part 1: "Entrance" – 1:00
    • Part 2: "Entertainment" – 7:06
    • Part 3: "Exit" – 0:38

Cassette edition

Side one
  1. "Sysyphus" (Wright) – 12:59
  2. "Astronomy Domine" (Syd Barrett) – 8:29
  3. "Grantchester Meadows" (Waters) – 7:26
  4. "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" (Waters) – 4:59
  5. "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" (Waters/Wright/Gilmour/Mason) – 8:50
Side two
  2. "The Narrow Way" (Gilmour) – 12:17
  3. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (Waters) – 9:15
  4. "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" (Mason) – 8:44
  5. "A Saucerful of Secrets" (Gilmour/Waters/Mason/Wright) – 12:48

Personnel

Pink Floyd
  • David Gilmour – guitars; vocals on "Astronomy Domine", "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" and "A Saucerful of Secrets"; all instruments and vocals on "The Narrow Way"
  • Nick Mason – drums and percussion; all instruments on "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" (except flute)
  • Roger Waters – bass guitar; vocals on "Astronomy Domine", "Careful with That Axe, Eugene", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "Grantchester Meadows"; acoustic guitar on "Grantchester Meadows"; tape effects and voices on "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict".
  • Richard Wright – keyboards; vocals on "Astronomy Domine"; all instruments on "Sysyphus"
Additional personnel
  • Lindy Mason (then Nick Mason's wife) – flutes on "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" (uncredited)

Miscellaneous

  • In the "Weird Al" Yankovic mockumentary, The Compleat Al, Al is trying to describe the synchronicities between famous rock albums and "ancient astronauts". He holds up an Ummagumma LP and jokingly says, "Remember this? Well, I did a little research and found out that "Ummagumma" is actually an ancient word for: 'We're running out of ideas for songs, help us.'"
  • MFSL announced their plans to release Ummagumma on their ultrasound series, but later withdrew those stating that the master tapes were below quality.
  • After Pink Floyd's 16 May 1970 performance at The Warehouse in New Orleans, the equipment shown on the rear cover of Ummagumma was stolen. The remaining concerts on this U.S. tour were canceled. After the theft, and the Grateful Dead's drug bust after their 31 January 1970 performance, also at The Warehouse; New Orleans was shunned by most rock bands for the first half of the 1970s. The Grateful Dead would not play in New Orleans for another 10 years. Pink Floyd wouldn't play there for another 24 years.
  • The original intention of the band with the live album was to release those songs and then stop playing them. However, with the popularity of the album, the public kept wanting to hear songs from the live album, and so they stayed in their set lists for some time.
  • Part 3 of "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" is amongst the shortest Pink Floyd studio recordings ever released. Only "Stop", which was 0:30, from The Wall, and "A New Machine (Part 2)", which was 0:38, from A Momentary Lapse of Reason, are of equal or shorter length.
  • This album, More, Atom Heart Mother, and Obscured by Clouds were the only Floyd studio albums to not be represented on Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd
  • The sequencing of the studio album later inspired the arrangement for the Minutemen double album Double Nickels on the Dime[4].

Quotes

"What was your inspiration for The Narrow Way (on Ummagumma) your first major Floyd composition?"

"Well, we'd decided to make the damn album, and each of us to do a piece of music on our own... it was just desperation really, trying to think of something to do, to write by myself. I'd never written anything before, I just went into a studio and started waffling about, tacking bits and pieces together. I haven't heard it in years. I've no idea what it's like." - David Gilmour - Sounds "Guitar Heroes" Magazine, May 1983

"What do you think of your early records like Atom Heart Mother and Ummagumma today?"

"I think both are pretty horrible. Well, the live disc of Ummagumma might be all right, but even that isn't recorded well." - David Gilmour — Der Spiegel No. 23 - 5 June 1995

"When you listen to Ummagumma, you get the feeling that each one of you is doing his own music, not caring much about the others."

"That's right. I can't be precise, but we were very individualistic at the time." - Nick Mason — March 1973[citation needed]

"The back of Ummagumma comes from something Nick Mason did." - Storm Thorgerson - Guitar World - February 1998

Sales chart performance

Year Chart Position
1969 UK Albums Chart 5[citation needed]
1970 Billboard Pop Albums 74[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ Pigs Might Fly: The Inside Story Of Pink Floyd
  2. ^ pinkfloyd-co.com
  3. ^ Neil Umphred, Goldmine Price Guide to Collectible Record Albums, Fifth Edition, 1996, Krause Publications
  4. ^ Azerrad, Michael. Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991. Little Brown and Company, 2001. ISBN 0-316-78753-1. p. 82
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