DAY 285.
Herbie Hancock..................................Headhunters   (1973)







Can't say I enjoyed that forty odd minutes, 4 tracks ranging from 6:29 minutes to 15:41 minutes is too much for me even in genres I like, but this wasn't .


Allegedly the man who brought hip hop to the masses with his record "Rockit," although some believe the record company weren't sure until the seen the video that went with it (made by Godley 7 Creme,) and it gained  instant traction on a new cable network called MTV.


this album wont be getting added to my collection.









Bits & Bobs;


Herbie Hancock was born in Chicago, Illinois and quickly became a child prodigy. He began playing classical piano at age 7 and at age 11 he performed the first movement of Mozart's "Piano Concerto No. 5" at a concert with the Chicago Symphony.


 
In 1963, Herbie Hancock became a well-known performer when he joined Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet. Hancock soon became a regular recording artist on the Blue Note label, appearing on records by notable artists like Tony Williams, Bobby Hutcherson, and Grant Green.


 
In 1968, Hancock was let go from Miles Davis' group because he had allegedly returned late from his honeymoon in Brazil. Although he was fired from Davis' touring band, Hancock still appeared on many of the jazz great's later albums, including In a Silent Way and On the Corner.


 
In 1983, Herbie Hancock scored his first breakthrough hit with "Rockit," a song that many recognize as the first single ever to feature scratching. The video for the song was a hit as well, winning 5 trophies at MTV's inaugural Video Awards in 1984.


About Rockit;

Herbie Hancock is a renown Jazz musician who joined Miles Davis' band in 1963. Davis taught Hancock the importance of experimentation, and about how you can achieve excellent results by letting the people working with you experiment as well. And while Jazz purists wanted no part of this Electro classic, it created a fresh new sound thanks to the production of Bill Laswell and the turntable work of GrandMixer D.ST, who each got the green light from Hancock to do their thing.



Laswell is a bass player who produced the track. Known for creating "Collision Music," he brought elements of Electro, Fusion Jazz and Hip-Hop on "Rockit." GrandMixer D.ST, later known as DXT, was a disciple of Kool Herc and one of the first popular DJs on the New York Hip-Hop scene.


 
Bill Laswell explained how this song came together, "I got a call from a guy who knew Herbie who told me he wanted to put together some tracks. I went to New York, saw Bambaataa and people DJing at the Roxy and I don't even think he was really paying attention but after that night out I said 'I'll come to LA in a couple of weeks and I'll bring a couple of rhythm tracks.' So we just recorded very quickly in a basement in Brooklyn. We didn't really know what it was. We took it and Herbie played over it for an hour or two and then it took like another hour to mix. The whole thing didn't take very long. We didn't really know what we'd done. We stopped at a store that sold a lot of speakers on the way to the airport because we wanted to kill some time. The guy went to put on a rock record and we said 'No we don't listen to that kind of stuff.' We had a cassette of the rough mix we'd finished so we said 'Play this instead.' We played it and afterwards we turned round and there was just about 50 kids looking at the speakers, saying 'What the f--k was that?!' [laughs] I think there was Grandmaster Caz from the Cold Crush Brothers and D.ST and we all just looked at each other and everyone was 'Oh s--t! I think we might have something.'"


 
This was the first hit song to feature scratching, and for anyone not familiar with Hip-Hop, it was the first time they heard the sounds of a record being manipulated on a turntable to the beat. The technique was pioneered by the DJs Grand Master Flash and Grand Wizard Theodore, who performed throughout New York. Flash explained: "Scratching is just cueing the record. A deejay has to back-cue the record, but he only hears that sound himself. We felt, Why just let us hear it? Let's pull the fader halfway up while the other record's still playing and make this scratching noise, back and forth, to the beat."


 
The video featured lots of animated mannequins, and was very popular on MTV, winning five video music awards in 1984: Best Art Direction, Best Concept, Best Editing, Best Special Effects, and Most Experimental Video. Along with Michael Jackson and Prince, Hancock was one of the first black artists to get significant airplay on MTV, but he barely appears in the video (he is shown briefly in one of the television sets), which was by design. The video was directed by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. Their directive was to get Hancock played on MTV, which was a daunting task considering the network's reluctance to play black artists. Keeping the artist out of the video was a way to take the race factor out of it, and it worked.


 
In America, most people heard this song on MTV, since it wasn't a big radio hit. Herbie Hancock wasn't on the radar of program directors outside of Jazz formats, and the song was too unusual for most Top-40 stations.


  
This song won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance. This made GrandMixer D.ST, whose turntable work was featured on the track, the first DJ to win a Grammy.
 

Most Rap/R&B fans don't know that Herbie Hancock helped Kanye West produce the track "Robocop" from his 2008 album 808s and Heartbreak. Hancock is not credited in the album's liner notes.





“My intention was to make a funk record, but the jazz influence kept pulling it.” – Herbie Hancock speaking about ‘Head Hunters’ to The New York Times




Herbie Hancock is one of the most successfully versatile musicians and composers from the past half-century, having made an indelible mark in jazz, pop, hip hop, dance and movie scores. And it seems he has always been something of a musical chameleon as he first studied classical music as a child prodigy who performed a Mozart concerto with the Chicago Symphony at the age of eleven. He was then discovered by the late trumpeter Donald Byrd, appeared on several of Byrd’s albums and then made his debut on Blue Note Records in 1962 with the album Takin’ Off. This album spawned his first crossover hit, ‘Watermelon Man’, which reached the Billboard Top 100 on the pop charts.





“I began to feel that I had been spending so much time exploring the upper atmosphere of music and the more ethereal kind of far-out spacey stuff. Now there was this need to take some more of the earth and to feel a little more tethered; a connection to the earth…. I was beginning to feel that we (the sextet) were playing this heavy kind of music, and I was tired of everything being heavy. I wanted to play something lighter.” (Hancock’s sleeve notes: 1997 CD reissue)


It was time for Hancock to come back to earth and to musically cross-pollinate as he did in the early sixties with compositions such as ‘Watermelon Man’ and ‘Cantaloupe Island’. The funk of Sly and the Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield and The Godfather of Soul were an inspirational stimulus and his mate Donald Byrd was working with the Mizell Brothers who were changing the face of jazz in 1973 with their funk inflected rhythms fuelled by their drummer of choice, Harvey Mason. Hancock enlisted Mason, bassist Paul Jackson and percussionist Bill Summers as his new rhythm section but kept reed player Bennie Maupin from his former line-up to record the new album.


 The resulting Head Hunters funk-ed things up with its grooving interplay between the Clavinet and rhythm section. The album still retained its jazz cred with the long improvisations and its recognition that jazz’s roots of swing and syncopation have often been an invitation to the dance floor.


 The album appealed to jazz, R&B, funk and rock fans and to this day is one the best-selling jazz recordings and the first to go platinum. Although it has commercial appeal, Head Hunters is still ‘heady’. Apparently we are not the only ones who believe this to be the case as the album features on Rolling Stone’s ’40 Greatest Stoner Albums’. While listening to the music one could stare at the psychedelic artwork by artist Victor Moscoso who also worked with Zap Comix and The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia.



 Years later, Head Hunters is still of cultural importance. In 2007 it was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. Just as significantly, the album has been a major influence on modern music as it has been sampled in hip hop by 2Pac, Nas, Digable Planets and in pop music by Beck and George Michael. Rather than being sniffy, Hancock is delighted that his music is able to cross boundaries. In his words: “The idea of being judgmental to me is not something I aspire to. The beauty of jazz is that, at its best, it’s non-judgmental.”




"Chameleon"

 
This instrumental was composed by Herbie Hancock in collaboration with saxophonist Bennie Maupin, bass guitarist Paul Jackson and drummer Harvey Mason. All four songwriters played on the original version on Head Hunters, which features solos by Hancock and Maupin.


 
The song has a characteristic jazz bass line and is set to a funk beat. "I knew that I had never heard any jazz players really play funk like the funk I had been listening to," said Hancock. "Instead of getting jazz cats who knew how to play funk. I got funk cats who knew how to play jazz."


 
The song is one of the most widely recognized jazz standards, and has become standard repertoire in most small jazz ensembles. The Head Hunters album is a defining moment in the genre of jazz funk, and in 2003, it was ranked at #411 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.


 
Head Hunters was a crossover hit thanks to its marriage of traditional jazz and the funk sounds of James Brown, and Sly Stone. Uncut magazine asked Herbie Hancock what inspired Head Hunters' mix of the two genres? He replied; "Two things. One was my own background living in Chicago, which is a blues town. When I was a kid, even though my parents would play classical music on the radio, they also played jazz records, and of course I heard R&B records, which were a part of my generation at that time growing up in the '40s. So that was my roots."


"But also there was Sly Stone with 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Self Again) and James Brown that I was listening to in the early '70s. At a certain point I felt the need to play music that was more tethered, something that was more earthy. It was certainly a new approach for me and I didn't realise  that I was carving out new territory."


 
On the album, this runs a hearty 15:41. A version running just 2:50 was released as a single. (now you're talking)




The word is used figuratively to describe a fickle person who shifts according to the opinions of others just as a chameleon can change its color to blend with its background.




"Watermelon Man"

Growing up in the '40s and '50s in Chicago, Herbie Hancock was around street vendors, including the "watermelon men," who peddled the fruit. This provided the title and musical inspiration for the song. In the liner notes to his Takin' Off album, Hancock wrote: "In reflecting on my childhood, I recalled the cry of the watermelon man making his rounds through the back streets and alleys of Chicago's South Side. The wheels of his wagon beat out the rhythm on the cobblestones."


 
This is one of the most famous jazz compositions ever recorded. Hancock was just 22 when he released it on his first album, Takin' Off. The song bubbled under at #121 on the Hot 100 in March 1963, but a cover by Mongo Santamaria landed at #10 in April, bringing the song, and Hancock, widespread acclaim.




Santamaria was a Cuban percussionist and bandleader known for his 1959 song "Afro-Blue," which John Coltrane recorded. Hancock's collaborator Donald Byrd suggested the song to Santamaria, who changed it from a hard bop to a Latin soul-jazz hybrid, giving the song a wide crossover appeal. Hancock played piano on this version, which features Santamaria's congas and a trumpet solo by Marty Sheller. Francisco "Kako" Baster played timbalero on the track, Ray Lucas was the drummer. It set the stage for more songs blending elements of Cuban music and soul, which became a popular combination in the next few years.


 
Hancock's rendition features Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and Dexter Gordon on tenor saxophone. Gordon starred (as a tenor sax player) in the 1986 movie Round Midnight. Hancock also had a role in the film and did the score, for which he won an Oscar.


 
Hancock's career took off from here. He joined Miles Davis' band and made groundbreaking music on his own, including his 1964 album Maiden Voyage and 1965 set Cantaloupe Island. Royalties from "Watermelon Man" gave him the freedom to experiment, and he did, moving into fusion in the '70s and taking a turn at electronic music in the '80s, which resulted in the hit song "Rockit."


 
The soul singer Gloria Lynne added lyrics to this song in 1965, taking the song to #62 US. The words, which she wrote, are all about how much she digs the watermelon man. It's a sultry vocal, but it seems she just likes his fruit.

 

As you will all have spotted my deliberate mistake , the album picture I posted was actually "The Hoople" and not "Mott" please accept my humblest, now changed.

"Mott actually had three different covers;


First UK LP


Revised UK LP



US Issue


Hope that clears it up

That's the same lass from the Roxy debut cover.

I'll wait until A/C gives his thoughts on the Mott album to comment.

Last edited by PatReilly (23/5/2018 2:49 pm)

Strange one this: I never bought it, although the two singles were good (as mentioned by A/C). 

Although not really the same genre as Sparks, Mott the Hoople gave an opportunity to me to 'show off', in my mind, when they became popular, Mott the Hoople with All the Young Dudes, and Sparks with This Town ain't Big Enough for Both of Us.

Show off, because I had earlier albums by both Sparks and Mott the Hoople, and thought I could impress folk by showing them to people, and they would think me clever.

To the album: it is one of my least favourite Mott the Hoople collections, in fact the first four albums were better, for me, than this or the previous 'All the Young Dudes' lp.

I'd been attracted to them by the opening song on their debut, which was an instrumental cover of You Really Got Me, but my favourite is the lowest selling Brain Capers, which includes the brilliant Death May Be Your Santa Claus and Darkness, Darkness, a Jesse Colin Young of the previously mentioned Youngbloods cover.



 

Day 287.
Mike Oldfield.................................Tubular Bells   (1973)





[img]https://res.cloudinary.com/www-virgin-com/w_800,c_scale,dpr_1.0,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/virgin-com-prod/sites/virgin.com/files/Time%20Machine/tubular_bells.jpg[/img]



This wont take long, I know it sold millions of copies, and that it would be in most homes in the 70s, and it seemingly still sells around 100,000 a year, but I didn't like it in the slightest.

To be fair a two track album's going to have to be F'kn tremendous to get my juices going, for my ears (admittedly they probably aren't trained to pick up the subtle nuances within) it was a load of old pish, but like I've said on numerous occasions what the fuck do I know?


This album will no' be coming near meh hoose.




Bits & Bobs;


Found this interview;
Hi, Mike! How's it going?
Good. I've just become a granddad for the first time.

 Congrats! What's it like to also be the godfather of new age ambient chillout?
I don't mind what the category is, as long as it's nice.


 When did you first see The Exorcist?
About 10 years after it first came out. Every Halloween it still pops up. I even hear it on CNN [hums chilling refrain from Tubular Bells]. I'm the godfather of scary movie music.


 Was it ironic considering your years exorcising demons with therapy sessions that your music should soundtrack a movie about exorcising a demon?
Well, the human mind – consciousness – is a very complicated thing. We don't begin to understand it. So if you're a creative person, everything that happens to you must come out in what you do. Obviously, yeah, it had an influence. It was never meant to be music for a movie, though. If anything it was related to music that I used to listen to under the blankets, on pirate radio, the beginnings of ambient, people like Terry Riley and
Tonto's Expanding Headband.




Who did you feel most kinship with out of that early-70s scene?
I listened to Ravel, Roedelius, Bartók, Stravinsky … or it might be Stevie Wonder or Led Zeppelin. It didn't matter. It was just music – vibrations in the air. My last album was entirely classical, and this one is entirely live-band rock music. You can't say I'm any one kind of artist.


 Did you ever call up record companies who rejected Tubular Bells and go, "Ner ner ne ner ner"?
[Laughs uproariously, then composes himself] Um, I must say, I did once spend half an hour Googling the A&R men who booted me out the door, thinking I was a complete nutcase. I couldn't find any of them. I imagine that, once Tubular Bells got to No 1, they probably got the sack.

 Was it the prog equivalent of Decca turning down the Beatles?
I suppose it's an unenviable job – choosing signings for record labels. They [the labels that turned him down] obviously wanted to play it safe and sign acts that were like ones that were already selling. But it's always the outsider, the black sheep, that becomes the blockbuster. Look at Harry Potter.


 Is it 14 or 17 million sales for Tubular Bells?
It says 17 on the Virgin website. I did get a proper breakdown about 20 years ago and it was up to 12m even then. For the UK alone I've got a seven-times platinum disc award. That's 2.1m, and that was 15 years ago.


 How long was it before Richard Branson responded to your suggestion, via morse code, to "Fuck Off, RB"?
Oh, he still hasn't. He's never mentioned it. He was over here [in Nassau] a few weeks ago – I'd done an arrangement of Tubular Bells for piano, for schools, and he jetted in for it. We don't talk about the old days, although when he was over we did drink a bottle of champagne and he insisted I play him loads of his favourite old tracks of mine, all the silly ones like Don Alfonso. He likes all the ditties.


 Do you get free Virgin flights?
I do!


 First class?
Yep. Only for me. If I fly with anyone else, I can't sit there on my own so I have to pay for their first class seat as well. Unfortunately, Virgin don't fly to the Bahamas so I don't get to use it much. I'm hoping he will change his mind.


 You fly yourself, don't you?
I used to. I had a licence for single and twin-engine aircraft and helicopters. I've got a little twinkling of an idea, to get one of these brand new ultra-light mini-copters. One-seater. Be nice to go doodling around the islands here.



 You recorded a version of the Blue Peter theme … did you get a badge?
Yes! I've still got it, proudly, in a box somewhere. Forget the Exorcist, winning a Grammy or having a No 1 – Blue Peter came to see me!


 Is it true you composed music for Charles and Diana's royal wedding?
It wasn't the actual wedding. It was the day before – outside St Paul's Cathedral. I composed a little ditty that you can probably find somewhere on the internet. I'm not sure if they ever heard it. Although I did get the freedom of the city of London, which was rather nice, from the lord mayor.


 What did that involve?
It means I can drive my sheep across London Bridge any time I want and if I'm ever sentenced to death, I can be hanged with a silken rope.


 You were at the Olympics opening ceremony … what did you say to Dizzee Rascal on the coach?
Mainly I was hiding from him because he had the most godawful flu. I was terrified I was going to catch it so that on the night of the opening ceremony I was going to have a temperature of 104 and be sneezing and coughing in front of a quarter of the world's population. He came and sat right behind me on the coach. So I moved to the back and covered myself with a blanket. He had no idea who I was. But then after a couple of the rehearsals, somebody must have told him, and by the time we got to the actual event on the opening night his flu had cleared up, and he was giving me high-fives and asking me, "How's it going, man?"



 So the ambient-grime crossover opus cannot be far off?
Maybe that'll be my next project.


 How much do you remember of your LSD trips?
Gawd, quite a lot. They were very, very scary. I think it's better to go the new age route, where you raise consciousness through chanting and meditation, rather than take drugs. Having said that, we wouldn't have all those beautiful tracks like Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, and we probably wouldn't have Tubular Bells – a lot of things, really – without drugs.


 When was your last trip?
Back in the 60s, I think. It's a life-changing thing. You're never the same afterwards. I was in such a state of confusion, insecurity and paranoia that I had to go through the Exegesis rebirthing experience to get all that out of my system. It was like going on a military boot camp for four days. It was excruciating.


 You said in 2009, "I don't have any friends, just lawyers." Still true?
Heh-heh. I also said, "The day I don't have any lawyers, I'll be a happy man."


 You had 15 sets of lawyers then. How many do you have now?
About half of that. What can I say? If you're a celebrity, it comes with legal problems. So you have to have lawyers. Still, I've got a huge family, and that makes up for it.


 You've lived in Switzerland, Monaco, Mallorca and, in the 90s, Ibiza. Did you cane it in the latter?
Yes! Because of my bad experiences in the 60s and 70s, I missed out on my teenage-hood. So I decided to have it in Ibiza, in my 40s.


 What did it involve?
I'm not going into that in a family newspaper. What teenagers get up to is private – they don't tell their parents. But I got it out of my system.


 Did you go raving?
Oh yeah – my favourite was Pacha. I got very into the craft of the DJ and headed straight for the DJ's booth. I'd spend the evening in there and they'd let me fiddle and spin a few discs.


 Did you ever overhear people, pointing at you, saying, "Isn't that bloke in the DJ booth Mike Oldfield?"
What? You can't talk in Pacha!


 OK – did you ever lip-read them gasping, "Isn't that Mike Oldfield E'd off his nut dancing to happy house and hardcore techno?"
No. I might have been recognised in mainland Spain, but for some reason in Ibiza nobody really pays any attention to you. There's something in the water there, though, that makes you go a bit loopy. It was wild. Great for a period, but you want to get out eventually.


 You don't club it where you live in Nassau?
No. I'm happy going out on my little boat and sitting on my own, with my thoughts and my memories, alone with nature. I'm a bit of a wilderness person.


 You don't suffer from paradise syndrome, where you're wracked with guilt and anxiety because everything is so perfect?
No, I don't feel guilty. I went through a bit of – after the 60s and 70s, it looked as though my career was over, my record company lost interest; they were much more interested in their punk rockers, and I had to reinvent myself.


 Did you meet any of the punks?
Yeah, I did. I was invited by the Skids to go and work with them and they turned out to be jolly nice chaps. Same as Iron Maiden. Actually very pleasant.


 You'd get on well with Johnny Rotten – he's a nature freak as well.
Yeah, he's a great British eccentric, and they're priceless. He's in the same category as Patrick Moore.


 Are you more light than shade?
Quite a few years ago I was taught how to meditate, and when you do you move out of this reality into a realm of nothingness. So I wouldn't say I'm light or shade. I'm both, and neither. I'm an empty space. But that doesn't mean I'm an airhead.


 What's the strangest use of your music that you know of?
I've had letters from people in prison. They're very sick. I heard it played on an intensive care ward in a hospital in Ibiza. I try not to judge. Any use of my music is great. The only thing I've rejected is its use in horribly violent horror films.


 What about the Exorcist?
That was a very good movie – it was about exorcising a demon, and if my music can help do that, that's a great thing. People do go crazy sometimes and consult exorcists.


 Do you ascribe your longevity to luck?
I do feel lucky. Almost as though I had a guardian angel, for want of a better word. What's astonishing is that, 40 years on, I'm still here. As we speak, I'm on national radio, I've got a wonderful relationship with my record company, and I'm talking to a national newspaper. I'm so incredibly grateful, I can hardly believe it.


 "I didn't start out trying [for the album to] be any particular thing. I just had a sound picture of what I wanted to hear,"As a result, the nascent Oldfield expended an incredible amount of time and resources to finish the project."I worked a marathon and did over 1,800 individual takes, working 20 hours a day,"


 In a tip of the hat to Tubular Bells' significance to his empire, Branson named one of his first Virgin America aircrafts, an Airbus A319-112, N527VA Tubular Belle."We've named one of our Virgin aircraft Tubular Belle and we are going into space this year," Branson told The Guardian in 2013. "I doubt any of that would have happened without Tubular Bells. I've listened to it so much, my wife won't let me play it anymore."


 

DAY 288.
Todd Rundgren.............................A Wizard a True Star   (1973)









Todd Rundgren's 1973 was clearly like no one else's. He was riding high on a wave of seemingly endless talent. He had been hoping to follow up "Something/Anything with yet another double album, but the oil crisis led to a vinyl shortage. Always one to embrace limitations, he took on a different project: a 19 or 24 track (depending on how you count it) album, which, like all his work, showcased his exceptional abilities as a vocalist and musician, at the same time as it challenged his audience.


Jumping between styles and sounds, the album is hard to digest at first, but Rundgren's great strength is his ability to write incredible songs.

DAY 289.
Elton John..................................Goodbye Yellow Brick Road   (1973)









Plans for this album started badly, after a studio in Jamaica was found wanting (hence. the cod-reggae in "Jamaica Jerk Off"). Stuck in his hotel room Elton had nothing else to do but write music for Taupin's lyrics

He wound up with enough songs for a double album, and recorded them at the famous "Honky Chateau" where his two previous chart toppers had been captured.

DAY 290.
Steely Dan.............................................Countdown To Ecstasy   (1973)









After the million-selling success of their debut album, Steely Dan had a line-up change, with Donald Fagen taking over vocal duties, it marked the start of the classic "Dan" sound.


Only got half of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" done last night, will catch up at some point this afternoon.

PatReilly wrote:

As I've written, this album would always be in my top ten, but I can understand folk not taking to it.

The first aspect which attracted me in was that the tracks on side one all ran into each other, but each wee segment was very different, some heavy, some tuneful, some serious and some playful. But to be honest, I don't think too much about why I like something, I just enjoy it.

Todd Rundgren is multi-talented, very able with all rock instruments and more beside.

It was interesting to read of his feud with John Lennon, knew nothing about this. Maybe Rundgren was after the controversy, but I doubt it, as he's never been into fame, in fact this very album put a stop to any commercial pretensions at the age of 23/24. 

The soul covers on side two made me realise it was cool for gribos/freaks to like soul music, which I secretly enjoyed anyway.

Good post Pat, I think Lennon was trying to get one back when he said " I guess we're all looking for attention Rodd, do you really think I don't know how to get it, without "revolution?" I could dye my hair green and pink for a start!"




Just a wee bitch fight, in my humbles.

DAY 291.
Waylon Jennings.............................Honky Tonk Heroes   (1973)







Unknown, eight-fingered Texas songwriter Billy Joe Shaver barged in and cornered Waylon in a Music Row recording studio in 1972, threatening to kick his ass “in front of God and everybody” unless Waylon listened to his demo songs. Waylon called off his posse, listened, and then recorded this entire album full of Shaver songs. At least that’s the way Shaver tells it today.


The combination of Shaver’s authentic, unaffected-by-Nashville working class storytelling and Waylon’s signature timbre was a perfect combination for the outlaw sound Jennings had started to forge on his prior three records and made for this country classic, perhaps the definitive album in both men’s distinguished careers.


The eight fingered bit;

Shaver took a job at a lumber mill to make ends meet. One day his right hand (his dominant hand) became caught in the machinery, and he lost the better part of two fingers and contracted a serious infection. He eventually recovered, and taught himself to play the guitar without those missing fingers
 

Last edited by arabchanter (27/5/2018 11:26 am)

DAY 291.
Waylon Jennings.............................Honky Tonk Heroes   (1973)










If whinging steel guitar and hand wringing lyrics is your bag, this could very well be up your street.Taking into consideration the genre, and listening to it with an open ear, this was ok, not really my cup of tea, but as far as Outlaw Country music goes I should imagine it's up there with the best of them.



The only tracks that stood out for me was the title track "Honky Tonk Heroes" and "Old Five And Dimers (Like Me)
although if I never heard them again, I wouldn't think I'd been short changed.


The thing I've found with this list, is even if I don't like the particular album there might be a story or a fact that I never knew before, and think pretty interesting, there's a couple in this Bits & Bobs.


Anyways, this album wont be getting bought.




Bits & Bobs;

Waylon Jennings was born in Littlefield, Texas. He began playing music at the age of 8 when his mother taught him how to play guitar. By the time he was 12, he was performing on the radio for KVOW in Littlefield, Texas, where he later worked as a disc jockey.


 In 1958, Jennings moved to Lubbock, Texas and worked for KDAV radio, where he met Buddy Holly. Jennings made his first recordings that year, "Jolie Blon" and "Where Sin Stops (Love Begins)," with Holly backing him on guitar. Later, Holly hired Jennings to play electric guitar for his Winter Dance Party Tour. In a twist of fate, Jennings gave up his seat on the plane that crashed in Clear Lake, Iowa on February 3, 1959. Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, better known as the Big Bopper, were killed. Richardson had complained of having to ride on the bus while having a cold, so Jennings switched places with him. In an interview with NPR, Jennings said it was his first experience with someone close to him dying and "it took me quite a while to get over it."


 
Jennings released his debut album, Folk-Country, in 1966 for RCA records. He had modest success in the late 1960s, including the hit single "Just to Satisfy You." It was after meeting Willie Nelson that he became part of the Country outlaw sound. His duet with Nelson, "Luckenbach, Texas," was a hit in 1977, although Jennings confessed he never really liked the song. Nelson and Jennings followed the song up with the album Waylon and Willie, which featured the song that would become a country music standard, "Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys." The song was #1 for four weeks on the country charts and won Jennings and Nelson a Grammy award in 1979.


 
Overall, Jennings had 16 #1 Country singles and several platinum albums. In 1975, Jennings was named Male Vocalist of the Year by the Country Music Association, on the heels of his 1974 release The Ramblin' Man. In the 1980s, he formed the band The Highwaymen with Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson. Jennings also lent his distinctive voice to the 1980s television show The Dukes of Hazzard, serving as the show's narrator. He also sang the show's theme song.


Outside the music industry, Jennings was also known as the primary voice of the narrator or balladeer on the television series "The Dukes Of Hazzard" and its predecessor, the 1975 film, "Moonrunners".


 In 1979, he recorded the theme song, "Good Ol' Boys" (an original Jennings composition), which is one of the most well-known television theme songs in American television history.


 For seven years, country music legend Waylon Jennings led us through the exploits of the Duke family as they fought the system in Hazzard County.


 In a 1985 episode, Waylon finally came to Hazzard. We learn why he sounded like he knew the Dukes personally as he told their tales. Over the family kitchen table, we learned that many years ago Waylon had his guitar stolen right before his first professional show. With no money to buy another guitar, Waylon thought his dream was over. Right then, a stranger came up and gave him the money he needed to buy an other guitar. That stranger was Jesse Duke. Waylon never forgot what Jesse did for him and the two became friends.
 
In 1993, Jennings issued a children's album, Cowboys, Sisters, Rascals and Dirt, featuring the song "Shooter's Theme." The song was a tribute to his 14 year-old son, Shooter, who went on to develop his own career in country-rock. Shooter played the role of his father in the 2005 movie, Walk the Line, the story of Johnny Cash.


 
Jennings was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. After battling drug addiction much of his life, particularly to cocaine, Jennings quit in 1984, primarily to provide a good example to his son. However, years of smoking and drug abuse took their toll. A diabetic, Jennings had his foot amputated in December 2001, then died in his sleep in February 2002 in Chandler, Arizona.



  Waylon Jennings was born Wayland Jennings, but his mother changed the spelling on his birth certificate to Waylon when he was young. Jennings did not like the name Waylon, he said in his autobiography, calling it “corny and hillbilly.” Despite his feelings on his name, Jennings eventually gave the same name to his son.


He was also recognized for his “spanky-twang” guitar style. To create his sound, he used a pronounced ‘phaser’ effect, plus a mixture of thumb and fingers during the rhythmic parts, while using picks for the lead runs



In the mid-1980s, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Nelson, and Jennings formed a successful group called The Highwayman.



Jennings began taking pills when he lived with Johnny Cash and eventually became addicted to cocaine. He was arrested by the DEA in 1977 for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, but charges were eventually dropped. Jennings drug habit became worse in the early part of the 1980s, and he eventually filed for bankruptcy. Jennings quit using cocaine in 1984, citing his son as his greatest motivation.


"Honky Tonk Heroes"



Nine of the ten songs on the Honky Tonk Heroes album, including this one, were written by the Texas songwriter Billy Joe Shaver. Like Jennings, Shaver is a leading figure in the "Outlaw Country" movement, or as he calls it, "Outcast Country." He told us: "We were a different bunch of people in from Texas, and we didn't dress up in white ties and things like that - just jeans - and it was different. But when we hit, everybody went our direction and the foundation got laid that was kind of outcast, but became a cornerstone of the whole mess. I say 'mess,' but the whole institution of Nashville, they were thankful after a while. They realized that it really helped more than it hurt. And a lot of things have been done on top of that now, and it's still rolling. I think it's a great thing."


 
Jennings was a rising star when he recorded this song, and it proved a big boost for Shaver, who wrote it. Said Shaver: "At the time, Waylon was just great, so great, and I knew something was gonna happen good for him, and sure enough it helped me and it helped him, too, and that's a pretty good trade.

It's kind of a double-edged sword, though, because no one else ever recorded the songs, because they're afraid that Waylon would cut 'em. Those songs - that was the end of them. But then again, I think it was his first country album that went main seller."


 
Shaver wrote a book called Honky Tonk Hero where he detailed some of his past discretions, which his detractors used against him when he became Born Again. Said Shaver: "They used it like a bible, they went through it and just beat me half to death with my past. But that was another person. They just didn't understand how I could sit up there so innocent. And even after I'd done all those other things. But I wasn't on trial for those other things. God had forgiven me for all that. And you know when you go back to God and you get word about something that you asked him forgiveness for, and he's forgiven you? And you go back to Him and go and whine about it again, He ain't got a clue what you're talking about, or you're thinking about. Because He's already forgiven you."




"Old Five And Dimers (like me)"



"Old Five and Dimers Like Me" was the title track to Billy Joe Shaver's 1973 debut album. When Waylon Jennings needed songs for his Honky Tonk Heroes album released later that year, he filled it with Shaver's songs, including this one. In true outlaw country style, the song finds Shaver reflecting on his lot in life, which is filled with excess and turmoil.




Shaver writes from the heart, and draws from personal experiences. He said  "I've always been real blunt. Most people from Texas are that way. And it seems like all the great writers, they're not afraid to say anything. I've always been pretty blunt, and sometimes it seems, brutally honest, but it's real close to the bone."


"We Had It All"

This poignant song about two ex-lovers recalling happier times was written by Troy Seals and Donnie Fritts and was first recorded by Waylon Jennings. It was the only track on the Honky Tonk Heroes album not penned by Billie Joe Shaver. It reached #28 on the country chart.


 
Many artists covered this, including Dobie Gray, Rita Coolidge, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones. In 2013, studio session musician Norbert Putnam added Elvis Presley to the list, though his version was never finished. Putnam, who played bass on 122 Elvis songs, remembers the singer falling in love with the track, but it proved too painful a reminder of his recent divorce from Priscilla Presley. What followed was an uncharacteristically tough session at Stax in 1973.


"Now Elvis was a very quick study, he could hear vocals and arrangements once or twice, grab the lyric sheet, and just kill it', Putnam said. "But on this particular night, we four, five six takes, and he wasn't getting it. I'd never seen him have problems like that before." Finally, the frustrated singer threw down his microphone and shouted, "You can put that one out after I've been dead 20 years!"

"We thought at first it was a joke," Putnam recalled. "Then [producer] Felton Jarvis said he just couldn't get through the words because he was thinking about himself. Another futile stab at the song the next day yielded nothing usable."


 
The Rolling Stones covered this in the late '70s and released their cover featuring Keith Richards as lead singer for the Deluxe edition of Some Girls in 2011. Keith Richards explained: "It's a Dobie Gray song that we've always loved, and I actually had forgotten we had recorded it. I had also forgotten how good it was and how much I like it.... It's a perennial, you know what I mean? One of those songs you sort of warm up in the loins with, you know?" Mick Jagger added: "Keith sings this one. It's an old-time country song written by Donnie Fritts and Troy Seals. I know this because I was mixing it and I said to Don Was, Did Keith write this song? I didn't know 'cause I'm not on it. Don said, No, it's an old cover tune. Waylon Jennings did a version, which is where I think Keith got it from."


 
Jennings' version was featured in the Peter Bogdanovich's 1981 romantic comedy They All Laughed, starring Audrey Hepburn and Ben Gazzara.


 

Elton John is a bit of a creep, imo, and he would have been done by Operation Yewtree by now if he hadn't been a close friend of the royal family. See Jimmy Savile, and how he got away with it, as a hint.

Steeley Dan? Prefer Steeleye Span.

Waylone Jennings too, not so great, but the best out of a bad trio of albums.

DAY 292.
Pink Floyd...............................The Dark Side Of The Moon   (1973)



[img]https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_596,c_limit,q_auto:best,f_auto,fl_lossy/fc/3039377-inline-i-3-the-dark-side-of-the-moon-cover-pf-dark-side-copy.jpg[/img]





Confession time............................I have made a concerted effort not to listen to this album until yesterday, you see when I was growing up, all I would hear from certain quarters was "hey man, you've got to listen to Floyd? it'll blow you away man" or some superhip wouldbe telling me "I dropped some acid, and put Floyd on, what a trip it blew my mind" well I was more of a sporty person back then, and thought what a load of shite, and the only blowin' I was doing was on my hot chips fae "Wallace's" on a Friday night.


I think "the lunatic was in my head," because however much I tried not to like it, I found I was getting nowhere, this was better in my humbles than the previous offering "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,"  now, I'm not gonna tell you I loved it, but it was a decent and interesting listen and one that will be going on the subbies bench until I give it a few more goes, but got to admit this album will be getting downloaded at the very least.


As for the boys who kept harping on about Floyd, they were tubes then and nothing in the passing years has occurred to alter my opinions, am adding the caveat that not everyone who likes this album is a tube.




Bits & Bobs;

Already posted about this band (if interested)

“I think every album was a step toward Dark Side of the Moon,” keyboardist Rick Wright said. “We were learning all the time; the techniques of the recording and our writing was getting better.”As a culmination of their inner-space explorations of the early 1970s, the Floyd toured the bulk of Dark Side in Britain for months prior to recording. But in the studio, the band articulated bassist Roger Waters reveries on the madness of everyday life with melodic precision (Breathe, Us And Them) and cinematic luster (Clare Torry’s guest-vocal aria, "The Great Gig In The Sky). It’s one of the best-produced rock albums ever, and "Money may be the only Top 20 hit in 7/4 time.


One of the great things about an album like The Dark Side Of The Moon, for example, is what is not played. The way instruments appear and then GO AWAY! Sometimes for great periods of time. The Hammond Organ enters for the first time on the “Run rabbit run” line in Breathe and then goes away until the middle of The Great Gig In The Sky, then doesn’t reappear until Us & Them, then goes away until Brain Damage/ Eclipse. It is only on 4 songs on the whole record. The Farfisa Organ is used instead on Home and Time, and there is no Hammond at all on Home, Time, Money and Any Colour You Like. It would kill it to have it on those tracks. Space is key. Playing to simply fill a hole is one of the most irritating traits a musician can possess. If you have nothing to play for a minute or two, leave the stage, if necessary
– John Carin, multi-instrumentalist and singer, recurring session musician for Pink Floyd, David Gilmour and Roger Waters since 1987


"Speak To Me"

 “Speak to Me” is the first track from British progressive rock band Pink Floyd’s 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon, on which it forms an overture. Drummer Nick Mason receives a rare solo writing credit for the track; Roger Waters subsequently claimed this was a “gift” to Mason, one which Waters came to regret after his acrimonious departure from the band.

 This song is extremely reminiscent of Ron Geesin’s “A Raise Of Eyebrows” which was released in 1967, a few years before Ron Geesin worked with Pink Floyd on Atom Heart Mother which was itself a few years before release of Dark Side of the Moon



 On radio cuts, “Speak to Me” is often combined with Breathe (In The Air), called “Speak to Me/Breathe”.



"Breathe"
 
This song is about an older man speaking to a baby, telling it to breathe. The old man then describes the unfortunate working life the baby will have to face: "Run, rabbit, run. Dig that hole, forget the sun." The song implies that we need to overcome these messages and do what inspires us.


 
Many people believe Dark Side of the Moon acts as a soundtrack to The Wizard of Oz. When they are synched up, the line, "Balanced on the biggest wave" plays when Dorothy nearly loses her balance while walking along a fence.

 
This is followed on the album by an instrumental called "On The Run." The next song is "Time," which reprises "Breathe."


 This has been covered by former members of Pearl Jam and Blind Melon.


 
The whispers that can be heard throughout the album are references to Syd Barrett's madness - Dave Gilmour said this himself when interviewed about Dark Side of the Moon.



"On The Run"


This song deals with the pressures of travel, which Rick Wright said would often bring fear of death.


 
The lead instrument is a synthesizer. Many people consider this song one of the earliest pieces of Techno music.


 
When the band performed this in concert, a model airplane would fly from one end of the arena to the other crashing in a brilliant explosion.


 
When the Dark Side of the Moon suite was performed in 1972 (before the album was released), it went under the title "The Travel Sequence" and was, instead of a complex electronic instrumental, a more simple guitar jam.


  
At approximately 25 seconds into the piece, the sound of a voice on a loudspeaker can be heard. Some think it to be an "airport voice" calling notices to travelers.


 
The keyboard which can be heard throughout the song is only 5 notes being repeated at a high speed.


"Time"
This song is about how time can slip by, but many people do not realize it until it is too late. Roger Waters got the idea when he realized he was no longer preparing for anything in life, but was right in the middle of it. He had just turned 28.




When the band came up with the concept for the album, the idea was to explore the pressures of life throughout the songs. This song takes on the topic of mortality.


 
The song starts with layers of clock noises that were put together by their engineer, Alan Parsons. Each clock was recorded separately at an antiques store, and the band blended them together. Parsons wanted to use the clocks to demonstrate a new quadraphonic sound system, but they ended up using it to open the song instead.


 
This was the only song on Dark Side of the Moon on which all four members received a writing credit.


 
The Dark Side of the Moon album has sold about 40 million copies and holds an unassailable record for most weeks on the Billboard 200 Albums chart with 889 (last time we checked). It entered the chart in March 1973 when the album was issued, dropped out in 1974, but then returned from time to time, including an 11-year run from 1977-1988 when it didn't leave. Various reissues and publicity campaigns goose it back onto the chart every so often. For example, in 2014 the Google Play store sold the entire album for 99 cents, pushing it up to #13.


 
On their 1973 tour, Pink Floyd played this just after a 4-foot model plane was released from the back of the venue, crashing into the stage and exploding. Floyd always used lots of visual effects at their shows, and had the money to make them very elaborate on this tour.


 
The band played this live long before it was released. They played the whole album in February 1972 at the Rainbow Theater in London, over a year before it came out.


  
At the time of recording only a few tom-tom drums were available for the intro. To get the right mix and sound, the band had to tune each drum after hitting it, record it, and then blend and mix into a finalized percussion track. This was a time intensive process.


 
In 1998, Dark Side of the Moon was certified 15x Platinum, meaning it had sold more than 15,000,000 copies. In 2003, the album was re-released on vinyl and has sold steadily in that format.



"The Great Gig In The Sky"

Pink Floyd keyboard player Rick Wright wrote this song, which is about life, gradually descending into death. Hence the angrier and more intense first half with a dying person refusing to "go gently into that good night."The second half is gentler, as the dying person gives into the inevitable and fades away. In the March 1998 issue of Mojo, Wright explained: "For me, one of the pressures of being in the band was this constant fear of dying because of all the traveling we were doing in planes and on the motorways in America and in Europe."


 
When the band was working on Dark Side of the Moon, most of the songs didn't have titles. They referred to this as "The Religious Section" or "The Mortality Sequence."


 
This is one of a few Pink Floyd songs to use a female vocal. Alan Parsons, who produced the album, brought in a singer he knew of named Clare Torry. Parsons explained in Rolling Stone, March 12, 2003: "She had to be told not to sing any words: when she first started, she was doing 'Oh yeah baby' and all that kind of stuff, so she had to be restrained on that. But there was no real direction - she just had to feel it."




David Gilmour stated in Mojo, March 1998: "We'd been thinking Madeleine Bell or Doris Troy and we couldn't believe it when this housewifely white woman walked in. But when she opened her mouth, well, she wasn't too quick at finessing what we wanted, but out came that orgasmic sound we know and love."


 
In 2004, Torry sued Pink Floyd and EMI seeking songwriting royalties for her contributions on this, claiming she helped Wright write it. In 2005, she won a judgment in the case, although terms were not disclosed.


 
Early on, this was just a piano sequence composed by Wright which the band didn't know what to do with. As the album came together, they resurrected it and turned it into a song. David Gilmour joined in later with his slide guitar and Torry's vocals were added as well. Wright explained to Uncut June 2003: "I went away and came up with this piece, and everyone liked the chord sequence. It was a question of 'What do we do with it?' and we decided to get someone to sing. Clare Torry came in and she thought we were going to give her the top line and lyrics. We said, 'Just busk it.' She was terrified – 'I don't know what to do.' 'Just go in and improvise.' Which she did, and out came this extraordinary, wonderful vocal.

I didn't, when I wrote it, think, 'This is all about death,' cos I don't think I would have written that chord structure. I get so excited when I hear Clare singing. For me, it's not necessarily death. I hear terror and fear and huge emotion, in the middle bit especially, and the way the voice blends with the band. The way it was mixed helps."


 
This marks the end of Side 1 of the album, which further indicates death.


 
This is one of the songs that synchs up to the movie The Wizard Of Oz. If you start the album at the third roar of the MGM lion, this will start just when the tornado scene comes on and end just when the scene is over.


 
Just before the last note of the song fades out, it speeds up so that it would fit on the album. Space was tight on vinyl records.


  In 1994, this was used in European commercials for the headache pain-relief pill Nurofen. It's very rare for Pink Floyd to lend their music to commercials, but since Rick Wright wrote the song, he had the authority to allow its use. He re-recorded the song for the ad with Clare Torry again on vocals.



"Money"



This song is about the bad things money can bring. Ironically, it made Pink Floyd lots of cash, as the album sold over 34 million copies.


 
This is often misinterpreted as a tribute to money. Many people thought the line "Money, it's a gas," meant they considered money a very good thing.


 
The song begins in an unusual 7/8 time signature, then during the guitar solo the song changes to 4/4, then returns to 7/8 and ends in 4/4 again. When Guitar World February 1993 asked Dave Gilmour where the famous time signature for "Money" came from, the Pink Floyd guitarist replied: "It's Roger's riff. Roger came in with the verses and lyrics for 'Money' more or less completed. And we just made up middle sections, guitar solos and all that stuff. We also invented some new riffs - we created a 4/4 progression for the guitar solo and made the poor saxophone player play in 7/4. It was my idea to break down and become dry and empty for the second chorus of the solo."


 
Roger Waters is the only songwriter credited on this, but the lead vocal is by David Gilmour. Waters provided the basic music and lyrics, while the whole band created the instrumental jam of the song. Gilmour was the one overseeing time change and responsible the acclaimed guitar solo. Rick Wright and Nick Mason.



 
Many studio effects were used on this song. They were using a new 16-track recorder, which allowed them to layer sounds much easier, but complex studio techniques like this still took a long time to do in 1973, as there weren't digital recorders and samplers available like we have today. If you wanted to copy and paste something, you had to do it the hard way - with a razor blade and splicing tape.


 
Roger Waters put together the cash register tape loop that plays throughout the song. It also contains the sounds of tearing paper and bags of coins being thrown into an industrial food-mixing bowl. The intro was recorded by capturing the sounds of an old cash register on tape, and meticulously splicing and cutting the tape in a rhythmic pattern to make the "cash register loop" effect.




Bands like The Beatles had used tape loops, but never like this. The tape loop used on this was about 20 feet long, and if you've ever seen a reel-to-reel tape machine, you can imagine how hard it was to keep it playing. In order to get the right tension and continuously feed the machine, they set up the loop in a big circle using microphone stands to hold it up. It was fed through the tape machine and played throughout the song.


 
The album was engineered by famed British producer and studio genius Alan Parsons at Abby Road Studios. Parsons later started his own band called The Alan Parsons Project and scored a hit in the '80s with "Eye In The Sky." He remains a much sought after music engineer and producer today.


 
The lyrics contain a naughty word. "Bulls--t" was left in the original release, but their record company quickly put out a version with the word removed, which became known as the "Bull Blank" version.


 
Along with "Us And Them," this is one of two songs on the album to use a saxophone, which was played by Dick Parry. The band wanted to experiment with new sounds on these sessions.


 
As happens throughout Dark Side of the Moon, random voices come in at the end. Waters drew up flashcards with deep philosophical questions on them, then showed them to people around the studio and taped their answers. The ones they liked made the album. Among the people questioned: a doorman, a roadie, and Paul McCartney. Most contributions were not used, but McCartney's guitarist at the time, Henry McCulloch, made the final cut with his answer, "I don't know; I was really drunk at the time."


 
Due to a record company dispute, they had to re-record this for their 1981 greatest hits album, A Collection Of Great Dance Songs (the title is a joke. You can't dance to Floyd). There are very subtle differences between this version and the original.


 If you start the CD on the third roar of the MGM lion, this begins just as the film goes to color in The Wizard Of Oz.


 Like many of their songs, this was not released as a single in the UK, where singles were perceived as a sellout.


   
The line, "Money, so they say, is a root of all evil today" is a paraphrase from the New Testament - 1 Timothy 6:10: "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." In 2002, a group called The Easy Star All-Stars recorded a Reggae version of the album called Dub Side Of The Moon. On this song, the sounds of money were replaced by sounds of someone smoking from a water-based marijuana delivery device (OK, a bong).


 
 
The cash register loop and bass line at the introduction to this song are used in a radio show that plays in the US, The Dave Ramsey Show. The show offers financial advice to struggling people, so the song ties in well.


 
In the documentary The Making of Dark Side of the Moon, it was revealed that Roger Waters wrote this in his garden, and the original demo version was described by him as being "Prissy and very English."



 
In Quentin Tarantino's 1992 film Reservoir Dogs, this song was originally intended to be used in a specific opening sequence. However, after hearing the song "Little Green Bag" by the George Baker Selection, Tarantino decided to use it instead because he it gave him an extreme sense of nostalgia.



 
Guitar World asked Gilmour if he was purposely trying to get away from just playing a 12 bar blues on guitar. He replied: "No, I just wanted to make a dramatic effect with the three solos. The first solo is ADT'd - Artificially Double Tracked. I think I did the first two solos on a Fender Stratocaster, but the last one was done on a different guitar - a Lewis, which was made by some guy in Vancouver. It had a whole two octaves on the neck, which meant I could get up to notes that I couldn't play on a Stratocaster."


 
Asked by Uncut in 2015 if there's a song that reminds him of Roger Waters, David Gilmour replied: "'Money.' I'm not talking about the lyric. Just the quirky 7/8 time reminds me of Roger. It's not a song I would have written. It points itself at Roger."



"Us And Them"

This began as a piano piece Rick Wright came up with while working on the soundtrack to the 1970 movie Zabriskie Point. It didn't make the soundtrack, but they worked with it at the Dark Side of the Moon sessions and it eventually became this song. The director of Zabriskie Point, Michelangelo Antonioni, rejected the song for being "beautiful, but too sad... it makes me think of church."


 

Zabriskie Point was one of the first soundtracks Pink Floyd worked on. They put a lot of work into it, but the director ended up using only 3 of their songs. Floyd also worked on soundtracks for the movies More, The Valley, and Tonight Let's All Make Love In London.


 The band referred to this as "The Violence Sequence" because they worked on it for a very violent scene in the movie.


 
Dave Gilmour sings lead, but this song was written by Roger Waters and Pink Floyd keyboard player Rick Wright. Some of Wright's other songwriting credits include "Breathe," "Great Big Gid In The Sky," and "One Of These Days," but by the late '70s Waters ended up doing most of the writing himself, and he wrote all the songs on their 1983 album The Final Cut. Talking about Wright's compositions, Waters said in a 2003 interview with Uncut: "He would write odd bits. He secreted them away and put them on those solo albums he made and were never heard. He never shared them. It was unbelievably stupid. I never understood why he did that. I'm sure there were two or three decent chord sequences. If he'd given them to me, I would have been very, very happy to make something with them."


 
One of Pink Floyd's first uses of female backup singers. They brought in Liza Strike, Leslie Duncan and Doris Troy to sing harmonies. Troy had a hit on her own with "Just One Look."


 
Like other songs on the album, this contains the ramblings of random voices. Roger Waters made flashcards with questions on them and recorded different people around the studio answering them. He showed one to a weird roadie for another band named Roger The Hat, who got the question "When was the last time you thumped somebody." His answer made it onto this song, which is the part about giving someone a "short, sharp shock."


 
Along with "Money" this was one of 2 songs on the album to use a sax, which was played by Dick Parry.M



 
The engineer for the album was Alan Parsons, who also worked on The Beatles' Abbey Road album. Some of the production techniques on this are similar to the suite of songs at the end of that album, especially "Sun King." Parsons went on to form his own band called The Alan Parsons Project. They had a hit in 1982 with "Eye In The Sky."


 
Pink Floyd's record company was originally hesitant to release this track because it was felt that the signature melody line was extremely depressing.



 
In the Dark Side of the Rainbow theory (that Dark Side of the Moon acts as a soundtrack to The Wizard Of Oz), the line, "And who knows which is which and who is who," occurs after the Wicked Witch of the West appears and she is first seen with Dorothy and Glinda, the good witch on the opposite side of the screen.


 
When this was recorded, Rick Wright played the song's jazz-influenced grand piano to what he thought was the rest of the band playing in the next studio. In fact they weren't present and it was a recording made earlier. What started as a prank became, according to Alan Parsons in Mojo magazine, "one of the best things Rick ever did."

"Any Colour You Like"


The title is often attributed to something Henry Ford said about the Model T automobile: "You can have it any color you like... as long as it's black!"  The song title is from a catch phrase used by former Pink Floyd road manager Chris Adamson. When asked for a guitar, Adamson would respond, "Any colour you like, they're all blue." He may have picked this up from local street traders in Cambridge.


 
This is an instrumental that is musically similar to "Breathe," and is unofficially called "Breathe (2nd reprise)."


 
The song used advanced effects for the time both in the keyboard and the guitar. The VCS 3 synthesizer was fed through a long tape loop to create the rising and falling keyboard solo. David Gilmour used 2 guitars with the UniVibe guitar effect to create the harmonizing guitar solo for the rest of the song.


 
Roger Waters, in an interview with the author Phil Rose, stated: "In Cambridge where I lived, people would come from London in a van - a truck - open the back and stand on the tailboard of the truck, and the truck's full of stuff that they're trying to sell. And they have a very quick and slick patter, and they're selling things like crockery, china, sets of knives and forks. All kinds of different things, and they sell it very cheap with a patter. They tell you what it is, and they say 'It's ten plates, lady, and it's this, that, and the other, and eight cups and saucers, and for the lot I'm asking NOT ten pounds, NOT five pounds, NOT three pounds... fifty bob to you!,' and they get rid of this stuff like this. If they had sets of china, and they were all the same colour, they would say, 'You can 'ave 'em, ten bob to you, love. Any colour you like, they're all blue.' And that was just part of that patter. So, metaphorically, 'Any Colour You Like' is interesting, in that sense, because it denotes offering a choice where there is none. And it's also interesting that in the phrase, 'Any colour you like, they're all blue,' I don't know why, but in my mind it's always 'they're all blue', which, if you think about it, relates very much to the light and dark, sun and moon, good and evil. You make your choice but it's always blue."


"Brain Damage"


This is probably about insanity, something the band was quite familiar with. Ex-singer/guitarist Syd Barrett's experiments with hallucinogens caused his unfortunate fall in the late '60s.


 
Many people consider this and "" one song because they run seamlessly together at the end of the monumental album, The Dark Side of the MoonEclipse. Radio stations usually play them together.


 
The line, "You raise the blade, you make the change" is a reference to frontal lobotomies.


 
The line, "And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes" is a specific reference to Syd Barrett's propensity for playing the wrong song on stage during his "episodes" towards his final days with Pink Floyd, which subsequently led to his dismissal.


 
Many people believe that The Dark Side of the Moon synchs up with the movie The Wizard Of Oz (beginning the record just as the third roar from MGM lion is displayed). This song plays while the scarecrow sings "If I only had a brain."



 
The lyrics, "The lunatic is on the grass" do not refer to the drug marijuana, but rather actual sod. Roger Waters based the line on the signs that state "Stay Off The Grass" and how he thought anyone who disobeyed the signs was crazy. The line, "Got to keep the loonies on the path" supports this, meaning that people must not get off the path and onto the grass.



"Eclipse"

The closing track on Pink Floyd's famous Dark Side of the Moon album, this seamlessly follows "Brain Damage" to close it out - radio stations almost always played the songs together. The album was well into production but didn't have an ending until Roger Waters came up with the song. It reprises some lyrics to the opening track "Breathe" ("All that you touch, all that you see") before closing out the album with the words, "There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark."




This closing statement is the voice of Gerry O'Driscoll (often misspelled "Jerry Driscoll"), who was the doorman at Abby Road studios, where the album was recorded. His is one of many random voices that show up throughout the album; Waters recorded people around the studios, looking for spontaneous thoughts, and Driscoll, with his sincere delivery and Irish accent, made the finished piece. He can also be heard on the track "The Great Gig In The Sky" (the line that begins, "I am not frightened of dying...").


 
Dave Gilmour recalled to Rolling Stone in 2011: "I remember working hard on making it build and adding harmonies that join in as you go through the song. Because there's nothing to it - there's no chorus, there's no middle eight, there's just a straight list. So, every four lines we'll do something different."


 
The working title for the Dark Side of the Moon album was "Eclipse: A Piece For Assorted Lunatics." They began working on it during rehearsals for their concerts, and performed early versions live during shows in 1972. This was an era when bands could spend a year refining songs by playing them at concerts before heading into the studio. These days, any such performance would be quickly recorded and distributed.


 
If you put on your headphones, turn down the bass and listen carefully to the right channel at the end of this song, you can hear what sounds like "Ticket to Ride" by The Beatles in a Muzak-style while you are still hearing the beating of the heart. No one in the Pink Floyd camp has talked about this as far as we can tell, which gave the many owners of the album yet another talking point.


 
Dave Gilmour told Guitar World February 1993 about Chris Thomas' role on the album: "Chris Thomas came in for the mixes, and his role was essentially to stop the arguments between me and Roger about how it should be mixed. I wanted Dark Side to be big and swampy and wet, with reverbs and things like that. And Roger was very keen on it being a very dry album. I think he was influenced a lot by John Lennon's first solo album [Plastic Ono Band], which was very dry. We argued so much that it was suggested we get a third opinion. We were going to leave Chris to mix it on his own, with Alan Parsons engineering. And of course on the first day I found out that Roger sneaked in there. So the second day I sneaked in there. And from then on, we both sat right at Chris's shoulder, interfering. But luckily, Chris was more sympathetic to my point of view than he was to Roger's."


 
The heartbeat on this song brings Dark Side of the Moon full circle, closing the album the same way it opens: with the heartbeat heard on the opening track "Speak To Me." The heartbeat is actually a kick drum processed to sound like a pulse.