040: Pink Floyd - Meddle (1971)

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“The reality is, like any band, you can never quite quantify who does what.”

—Nick Mason

Pink Floyd is not exactly obscure, but it’s true that their pre-Dark Side of the Moon albums don’t get as much attention as they deserve. Rather than simply being the lead-up to their more well-known material, their first few albums are fascinating, groundbreaking, and democratically weird. Pink Floyd was a band that just wanted to make cool, interesting sounds that nobody had ever made before, and with Meddle, they succeeded spectacularly - in fact, this is where you’ll find some of their very best material. Come along with us as we fearlessly cut this album into little pieces.

Miscellany

• This is the 40th album we’ve covered, and 40% of them have been from the 1970s. What can we say, it was a great decade for music.

• Amanda mispronounced “Queensrÿche”. She is very sorry and promises never to do it again.

• We mentioned Pink Floyd’s first use of an inflatable in live performance. Their concerts famously got more and more elaborate, causing many headaches for set designers and fire marshals worldwide. Subsequent inflatables included pigs, airplanes, and giant terrifying puppets.  

• Part of the reason we were skeptical about Roger Waters’ claim that “Echoes” was in 12/8 is because Pink Floyd didn’t tend to screw around with time signatures all that much. They found other ways to make their music sound weird and cool, and left the wacky timing to the likes of Yes and Genesis.

• Mike realized after finishing the episode that he never actually mentioned his history with Meddle itself. That’s a much shorter story: it was one of the last Pink Floyd albums he heard because it was a hard one to find.

• The setup for the Fantasia sync, extensively referenced in the episode, is as follows:

  • Use the 1969 version of the film, released on VHS in 1990, if possible: this version is the censored version, but John isn’t entirely sure what additional changes were made for the later DVD and Blu-Ray releases that might throw this off, and he has never tried this with DVD or Blu-Ray.

  • The programmed track list is: Echoes / One of These Days / Pillow of Winds / Fearless / Echoes / One of These Days / Pillow of Winds / Fearless / Echoes

  • Begin this track list as Leopold Stokowski is fading to red during the initial shift to animation (begin paying attention to initiate the animation after three French Horns are illuminated). The exact moment to begin is ambiguous but if you start when he has completely disappeared then you waited too long. The sync will end as a line of robed monks are processing through a forest to a cathedral, a couple of minutes before the end of the movie. 

Other links 

• “Echoes” at Pompeii (YouTube)

• “One of These Days” at Pompeii (YouTube)

• “Albatross!” (YouTube)

• “How Pink Floyd Made Meddle” (Louder Sound)

• Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd by Nick Mason (Amazon affiliate link)

• Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey by Nicholas Schaffner (Amazon affiliate link)

• Discord and Rhyme’s Meddle playlist (Spotify)

• Discord and Rhyme’s Patreon

Discord & Rhyme Roll Call 

• Mike DeFabio (host)

• John McFerrin (moderator)

• Rich Bunnell

• Amanda Rodgers

 Meddle tracklist 

1. One of These Days

2. A Pillow of Winds

3. Fearless

4. San Tropez

5. Seamus

6. Echoes

 Other clips used 

Pink Floyd:

• On the Run

• Interstellar Overdrive

• Arnold Layne

• Jugband Blues

• It Would Be So Nice

• A Saucerful of Secrets

• Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict

• Atom Heart Mother

• Careful With That Axe, Eugene

• Fat Old Sun

• Mademoiselle Nobs

• Embryo (BBC Session 1970)

• Childhood’s End

• Summer ‘68

• Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

Others:

• The Moody Blues - Peak Hour

• Henry Mancini - The Pink Panther Theme

• Nick Drake - Pink Moon

• P!nk - Get the Party Started

• The Band - The Weight

• Tori Amos - God

• Frank Zappa - Ms. Pinky

• The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 2

• XTC - Pink Thing

• Bruce Springsteen - Pink Cadillac

• Mr. Bungle - Pink Cigarette

• The National - Pink Rabbits

• Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - Can’t Hear My Eyes

• Boris - Pink

• The Chills - Pink Frost

• Janelle Monae - Pynk

• The Legendary Pink Dots - Just a Lifetime

• John Cougar Mellencamp - Pink Houses

• Devo - Pink Pussycat

• Hüsker Dü - Pink Turns to Blue

• The Psychedelic Furs - Pretty in Pink

• Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink

• Ween - Pink Eye (On My Leg)

• Disney Studio Chorus - Pink Elephants on Parade

• Richard Stone & Tom Ruegger - Pinky and the Brain

• Beck - Pink Noise (Rock Me Amadeus)

• Ron Grainer & Delia Derbyshire - Doctor Who (Original Theme)

• Van der Graaf Generator - After the Flood

• The Kinks - Sunny Afternoon

• Cream - Mother’s Lament

• The Doors - Cars Hiss by My Window

• Claude Debussy - Nuages

• Andrew Lloyd Webber - The Phantom of the Opera: Overture

• Def Leppard - Animal

• Ween - Birthday Boy

• David Gilmour - Echoes (Live in Gdansk)

Songs we mentioned but didn’t clip 

Pink Floyd:

• Have a Cigar

• Shine On You Crazy Diamond

• Wish You Were Here

• Money

• The Gnome

• Bike

• See Emily Play

• Time

• Julia Dream

• Flaming

• Fat Old Sun (BBC Session 1971)

• Brain Damage

• Dogs

• Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)

• Free Four

• Breathe

• Atom Heart Mother (Live in Montreux)

• Comfortably Numb

• Sheep

• Echoes (BBC Session 1971)

• When the Tigers Broke Free

• High Hopes

• Welcome to the Machine

 Others:

• Huey Lewis and the News - Stuck With You

• Huey Lewis and the News - Hip to Be Square

• Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring

• Megadeth - Peace Sells

• King Crimson - Three of a Perfect Pair

• The Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane

• Black Sabbath - Iron Man

• Kenny Loggins - Danger Zone

• Paul Dukas - The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

• Bread - Make It With You

• The Beatles - Back in the USSR

• The Beatles - Dear Prudence

• Todd Rundgren - International Feel

• Queensrÿche - Silent Lucidity

• The Kinks - Village Green Preservation Society

• Steven Wright - Bohemiath

• Yes - Starship Trooper

• Van Halen - Everybody Wants Some!!

• Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No. 6: IV. Gewitter, Sturm

• Roger Waters - 4:41AM (Sexual Revolution)

• The Beatles - A Day in the Life

• Johann Sebastian Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

• Roger Waters - It’s a Miracle

• The Beatles - Across the Universe

• Paul McCartney - No More Lonely Nights

• Paul McCartney - We Got Married

• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

• The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows

• King Crimson - Starless

• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Waltz of the Flowers

• Modest Mussorgsky - Night on Bald Mountain

• Jeff Wayne - Thunder Child

Band/album personnel 

• Rick Wright - Hammond organ, piano, Farfisa organ, vocals, EMS VCS 3

• David Gilmour - guitars, bass, harmonica, vocals

• Roger Waters - bass, guitar, vocals

• Nick Mason - drums, percussion, terrifying vocal

Credits

“Discord & Rhyme (Theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:

• Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf 

• Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste

• The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...

• Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

• Herbie Hancock - Hornets

• Kraftwerk - Autobahn

• Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen

• Pink Floyd - Fearless (this episode only)

You can buy or stream Meddle and other albums by Pink Floyd at the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon [affiliate link]. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich Bunnell, and special thanks to Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.