ARNOLD LAYNE. vocals: syd / 67 Recorded at Sound Techniques, Chelsea, the Floyd's debit 45 was banned from the Radio London thanks to its true-life lyrics about a male cross-dresser stealing underwear from Syd and Roger's mums washing lines in Cambridge. A landmark of English psych-pop, it reached number 20. SEE EMILY PLAY. vocals: syd / 67 "I was sleeping in the woods one night after a gig somewhere when I saw girls appear for me. That girl was Emily." Thus spoke Syd about their sprightly, ultra-compressed hollow-up 45. Drug-addled vision or real-life person? Who knows, but it reached number 6. ASTRONOMY DOMINEE. vocals: syd & rick / 67 The droomy, out-there opening track on their first elpee, the title of which was taken from a chapter in Kenneth Grahames's Wind In The Willows. The lyrics were purportedly inspired by a star map that Syd carried around him. BIKE. vocals: syd, rick joins / 67 Nursery-rhyme lunacy from Syd, written for his then girlfriend Jenny Spires. With a collage editing techniques and a symphony of clocks in the middle, it's one of Syd's finest moments: "I've got a cloak, it's a bit of a joke.." etc. SET THE CONTROLS OF THE HEART OF THE SUN. vocals: roger / 68 Their second album saw the band taking over writing duties from Syd, whose psychological state was deteriorating. "It's about an unknown person who, while piloting a flying saucer, is overcome with suicidal tendencies", said it writer Roger, who still plays it on this solo tour. JUGBAND BLUES. vocals: syd / 68 Syd's last stand and his only song-writing contribution to the album. For the middle section, six Salvation Army bandsmen were invited in off the street and told to play what they liked. Plans to release it as a single were eventually shelved. ONE OF THESE DAYS. growling: nick / 71 Laid down during sessions at AIR Studio January '71, this full-tilt space boogie had echoed bass (Roger played through a Binson echo unit), backwards cymbals and "growling" by Nick. So titled because everything went wrong that day. ECHOES. vocals: david & rick This trans-jam epic, piece together from numerous sound fragments and taking up a whole side of the album, was blamed for killing all the fish in the stage front pond when the band played it at the Crystal Palace Bowl in '71. A turning point. |
TIME. vocals: david & rick / 73 "No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun." Waters realises life ain't no rehearsal on this track from their meisterwerk, cut at Abbey Road. It was the only track from the session credited to all four members. THE GREAT GIG IN THE SKY. vocals: claire torry / 73 It may be about death but it was voted the top song to make love to in a recent Australian radio poll. The song, with its free-form wailing crescendo, was rejigged by Rick for a Nurofen ad. MONEY. vocals: david / '73 Famous satire in 7/4 time on the evils of rock wealth which would, oh dear, help them to earn lots more. The cash register tape loop also includes the sounds of tearing paper and bags of cash being dropped on the studio floor. US AND THEM. vocals: rick & david / 73 Following Money on Side 2, this was built on a instrumental recorded in Rome for Antonioni's '70 movie Zabriski Point, through it never made the final cut. WISH YOU WERE HERE. vocals: david / 75 Titletrack from the most anticipated album of the '70's, recorded at Abbey Road in the first half of '75. A plan to end the song with a violin cadenza from Stephane Grappelli came to nothing. SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND. vocals: roger & david / 75 Another opus, made up like Echoes from several movements, which was re-recorded several times. Syd, the " crazy diamond" in question, turned up ("fat, bold and mad", according to Waters) unexpectedly during recording and announced he was "ready to do his bit". SHEEP vocals: roger /'77 The Floyd took a darker turn with the Orwellian Animals, taped at Britannia Row Studios, this track includes a parody of the 23rd Psalm. Some felt the cover's giant inflatable pig was the key creative statement. ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL PT II vocals: roger / '78 Producer Bob Ezrin suggested the disco beat and added the Islington schoolchildren to help flesh out Water's verse and chorus. It made a unlikely Christmas single. |
THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF OUR LIFES. vocals: roger / '78 Tale of wretched school experience of wall hero Pink - no unrelated to writer Water's own memories. The Wall cost a reported $700.000 to record, but whitin two months has shipped over a million copies.
HEY YOU. vocals: david & roger (no) More Wall angst on this yearning ballad, with an isolated Pink addressing the world as he bricked up.
COMFORTABLY NUMB. vocals: david & roger / '78 Another Waters-Gilmour composition, its poignant greatness represented, says David, "the last embers" of his creative partnership with Roger. WHEN THE TIGERS BROKE FREE. vocals: roger / '82 From the Wall film, through not used on the album, the single reached Number 39, a huge failure beside the mega-selling Another Brick. Released to promote the movie.
FLETCHER MEMORIAL HOME. vocals: roger / '84 Waters take pot shots at war and the political leaders of the day (they had a Falkland conflict in their mind) on a track from a generally grim album. Rick Wright had left the band now. LEARNING TO FLY. vocals: david / '87 Radio-friendly rock, released after Waters had left the band and lost it court battle to end the group. David is now established as the group's prime creative force.
SORROW. vocals: david & rick / '87 Gilmour shows he can turn out a decent lyric, but with minimal involvement from Nick and hired-in Rick the album itself was inarguable below-par (i disagree! i = Nick who made this site!). Roger called it a "pretty fair forgery". MAROONED. vocals: none / '94 On a moody instrumental, penned by David and Rick, Floyd are back on form, with Rick as full member again.
KEEP TALKING. vocals: david & stephen / '94 A highlight of the final Floyd album. There were plans for guest vocalist Professor Stephen Hawking to join the band for the London shows of the Division Bell tour.
HIGH HOPES. vocals: david / '94 "A moment when something happens quickly and wonderfully," David says. The song's lyrics were co-written by his girlfriend Polly Samson during a sojourn to France.
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| Thanks to Hans R. from Australia and the Mojo Magazine November 2001. | ||
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