Tag Archives: pink floyd

#987: Pink Floyd – One of My Turns

Leave a reply

Within the story of The Wall, ‘One of My Turns’ comes at a point where the main character, Pink, finds out that his wife has been cheating on him while he, a rich musician, has been up to no good on the road himself. Despite his own wrongdoing, he obviously wasn’t prepared for the tables to be turned. He brings a groupie back to his apartment, sits down blankly staring at the television, and suddenly explodes in a fit of rage throwing his possessions around the room. Without properly delving into the whole concept, you’d only be able to sort of gauge what’s going on because of the sound effects that occur during the song. Thankfully, though, there’s a film where everything’s depicted in the frantic and frightening manner you would think a director would take if that situation happened in real life.

So this track is pretty much split into two sections. The calm before the storm, and the sudden explosion. Richard Wright’s synthesizer adds one note after the other to create this uneasy tension while we hear the groupie marvel at the size of Pink’s apartment and the amount of things he has. After she asks Pink if he’s feeling okay, FYI he isn’t, is when Roger Waters finally enters the frame to sing the first verse. Singing all calm-like alongside Wright’s synthesizer, he essentially describes Pink’s emptiness and overbearing depression with a short series of similes and heart-wrenching statements. Among them he warns the listener that he can feel “one of [his] turns coming on”. Not too soon after he says that, that turn arrives and the rest of the song is a hard-rock number with the guitars and drums entering the mix.

Just like many other songs on The Wall, Roger Waters makes it his mission to sound as unhinged as he possibly can, straining his voice to the peak of its limitations during this section of the track. Those are some high notes he’s reaching, but he pulls them off even though it’s like his voice could break there and then during the take. I personally have always got a kick of how he sings “Would you like something to eat?” There’s something a cartoon-ish about it. After a brief solo, the groupie runs out of the apartment, leaving Pink to scream into the night, which segues right into the next song on the album. If you want to listen to someone fall apart and lose it entirely, these are two songs which may pique your interest.

#939: Pink Floyd – Nobody Home

Leave a reply

All rock fans know The Wall. The album about the fictional rockstar who, after going through a life of traumatic events, builds a metaphorical wall around him to close him off from the outside world, before then being dosed with “medication” that results in a Nazi leader hallucination. If that doesn’t ring any bells, it’s also the album with the “Leave us kids alone” song on there. There you go, should be much more familiar to you now.

‘Nobody Home’ was one of the last songs written for the double album. The story goes that bassist Roger Waters was arguing with the rest of his bandmates about songwriting contributions. Surprise, surprise, am I right? Someone said if he was so good why didn’t he write something. And that’s what he did. He went home, wrote this track, came into the studio a couple days and showed everybody what he’d done. The rest of the band were impressed, and so it came to be the third track on the album’s second half. In terms of the album’s story, the track captures the Pink character in his comatose state, staring blankly at the television in a trashed hotel room, who then proceeds to list the useless things he possesses that keep him going that little bit. What he doesn’t have though, which probably matters the most, is the love of his wife who doesn’t pick up the phone when he tries to call home. The song ends abruptly after the start of what would be another verse, possibly because Pink loses consciousness again, before transitioning into the album’s next track ‘Vera’.

In my eyes, the track is one of the finest on The Wall. The double record goes off the wall at the majority of times, pardon the pun, it could probably turn some people off. But there’s something so graceful about this track. Sure, the narrator’s not in the greatest of places. But that grand piano and glorious orchestra aid in bringing a majestic-like quality to the production. Waters’ vocal delivery is top-notch. Doesn’t really go above anything than a murmur until the “Oooh, babe!” moment which is chill-inducing. And I have some appreciation for those other little musical/production choices. Like that panning heartbeat-like synthesizer during the intro, or the fact that Waters’ vocal echoes on itself to create its own rhythm. A lot of strong moments just in this one song. Could listen to it all the time.

#629: Pink Floyd – In the Flesh

Leave a reply

There are two “In the Flesh”(es) on The Wall, a concept album by Pink Floyd that some of you who are reading may know inside out, may have heard something about it somewhere, or have no idea about. The first one, ‘In the Flesh?’, is right at the beginning of the album. It introduces the story’s main character. It sets the scene. The second one, with no question mark at the end, comes near the end where the main character is hallucinating and believes he’s a massive fascist dictator at a concert. You need to listen to it to properly understand. Or just read its Wikipedia page.

The two songs have the exact same guitar introduction. Though the straight ‘In the Flesh’ is lengthened out by a glorious vocal choir (featuring Beach Boy Bruce Johnston) that eventually segues into the first verse. What I’ve always liked about this version of ‘In the Flesh’ are the drums. Those pack a punch with each hit. Very militaristic in style. I’ve always enjoyed the long drawn out big-rock ending too. It was during this time that the band’s bassist Roger Waters was very much taking over everything the group did and if the other members didn’t like it they could leave. This did actually happen during the making of the record. When he’s singing about getting ‘queers up against the wall’ and shooting people who smoke pot and have spots, I can imagine him singing it with no hesitation. You see, all of this sounds bad out of context. You really have to hear the whole package. He doesn’t obviously believe in any of it in real life. It is just a plot point in a story, don’t worry about it too much.

My iPod #493: Pink Floyd – Have a Cigar

1 Reply

“Have a Cigar” is the second track on Pink Floyd’s great album Wish You Were Here concerning Roger Water’s cynical takes on the music industry. Whilst “Welcome to the Machine” focused on the band’s disillusionment with the whole thing , “Cigar” is from the perspective of the sleazy, hypocritical businessman who is only interested in the money, having no idea as to what the band stand for, what they trying to say with their music, or even who the names of the members are.

The track is the most rock-oriented from the album, beginning with groovy guitar licks amidst a mix of sliding synthesizer phrases and electric piano which provide the back-bone for its duration before concluding on an electric guitar solo by David Gilmour. It is also noted for being one of only two songs which are sung by other vocalists apart from Gilmour and Waters. The story is that Waters had strained his voice singing on “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and could not sing to his full potential, and Gilmour was unhappy with the results when he did his take.

Up stepped folk singer Roy Harper who, “for a price”, carries it out with great aplomb, a hefty weight behind his voice and a unique delivery that I don’t think would have been the same had Waters or Gilmour done it instead. The voice crack on ‘just greeeEEEEEn’ at 2:40 makes me laugh every time I hear it, but within the context of the entire song it sounds very fitting.

Mash-Ups

2 Replies

So as I was saying yesterday, 2009-2010 was my Beatles year. And because of my sudden interest in the group, I got “The Beatles Rock Band” as a present early in the first month of the new decade. Now I was able to play along with George, Ringo, John and Paul on 45 of their signature tracks (and three albums extra as DLC). Undeniable fun was had. Though once all the songs were there and I’d played them all that fun faded away. Hope that every Beatles song would be added to game was dashed as days passed.

But  buying the game led me to joining its official forum where I chatted to some cool people. They owned the game, and liked The Beatles as much as I did. What could go wrong? That’s when you expect the heel-turn. But nothing did go wrong. It was a good few months on there.

The best thing I did on there, was contribute to a ‘community mash-up’ album conceived by another member. It was meant to be in the style of the ‘LOVE’ album of 2006 made for the Cirque du Soleil show. Obviously, ours weren’t as professional or on the same level as those tracks. But the process of making it was one of the most exciting things, and the ending product was pretty well done. The album’s title? “Melodies of Memories”. Very nice.

You can follow the album’s making by clicking here. You can also watch each song’s video on YouTube via clicking on this whole sentence. I am the member named ‘JAMZFTW’. I have reasons behind the name, but I won’t tell them. I also made some extra songs that didn’t make it on there, either because they didn’t fit or because it was too late. That ended up being an “EP” which I appropriately named “PEACE”. ‘Cause ‘Peace and Love’, get it? Click on here to download it.

I got so hyped up over the ‘mash-up’ idea that I ended up making many more. A sequel to “Melodies of Memories” was initiated by another forum member literally days after the first. That member then disappeared, and didn’t log in for a long time. How did it end? Well, the sequel was released eventually entitled “All Things Must Return”. That album and the songs from “Peace” would be on YouTube had the company not terminated my account, which I’m still sad about to this day.

I was even determined to start a part 2 to *that* incorporating the use of Beatles solo material to do the mash-ups. That album died. No one cared. And to be honest, I didn’t either. Songs were made though. Those are all in my Mediafire account. I will share those below. A Green Day Mash-Up album was also started. That died too. As did a Pink Floyd/Beatles mash-up album.

But a huge shout-out goes to the members on those forums. Glad I got the chance to participate in something that was so fun, creative and very productive.

IN SUMMARY, CLICK ON THESE LINKS:

Melodies of Memories (April 2010 – May 2010): The Beatles Community Mash-Up Album and the aftermath of its ‘release’.

PEACE (May 2010): The above’s accompanying “EP”.

Echoes of Love (Started July 2010 – died): The Beatles/Pink Floyd Mash-up album that didn’t quite happen. Though here are two tracks I did for it. Download here and here.

Green Day Community Mash-Up Album (Started August 2010 – finished never): Started in dedication to the then new release of “Green Day: Rock Band”. Wasn’t finished. Good songs were made for it though. All download links are on that forum.

The Beatles Acoustic Medley Pt. 3 (October 2010): A little something something requested by a forum member which I was happy to do.

All Things Must Return (May 2010 – January 2011): The sequel to “Melodies of Memories”. The Beatles Community Mash-Up Album II and the aftermath of its ‘release’. As I already said it’s not on YouTube anymore. You can still download the album here though.

All Things Must Return II (Started 2010 – Never finished): I actually did the first song for the album in 2010, combining “How Do You Sleep” by Lennon, “Too Many People” by McCartney and “Wah-Wah” by Harrison to make the song “Thinking of You” – a phrase taken from the latter song. Fitting because all three songs were written with the other Beatles in mind. However, actual work on the album didn’t start until February 2011, when the first “All Things Must Return” was done. As you can see, nothing really came of it. The mash-up era was over.

Enjoy listening to whatever you can though. Hope you have as much fun listening as I did making them.