Meddle

by

Pink Floyd

Edit

David Gilmour himself once remarked that Meddle was Pink Floyd's first true album. Though this is their fifth post-Barrett effort, it is musically light-years ahead of any of its predecessors. Of course there are many wonderful, brilliant moments on those early records, but it is clear in those recordings that the band was anxiously searching. Meddle is Pink Floyd finding itself. It is far more focused, far more melodic, and far more cohesive then anything before it. No longer searching, Pink Floyd had finally arrived.

The album kicks into gear with the savage instrumental One Of These Days. Howling wind sets the tone as a pulsing doubled bass line (complete with tape echo) pumps along. Intensity grows with organ stabs, reversed cymbal rolls, and fierce slide guitar. After a creepy bass interlude, Nick Mason makes his (distorted) vocal debut with "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces!!" and slams the song into overdrive. Pounding drums and stinging slide guitar dominate for the next two minutes until nothing but wind remains. It is here that (appropriately enough) the gorgeous ballad, A Pillow Of Winds picks up. Made up of acoustic guitars and sparse bass, this is a beautiful floating piece that takes advantage of Gilmour's tranquil vocals. This gentle mood is held through Fearless, a relaxed mid-tempo summer breeze of a song, again driven by Dave's voice. San Tropez and Seamus show off the Floyd's eclecticism as well as humor. The former invokes a bouncy cocktail lounge jazz feel, while the latter stars Steve Marriot's dog Seamus who "sings" along with Gilmour on some acoustic blues.

And then there's Echoes. 31 years later, this epic sound journey stands as one of the band's greatest achievements. Every element that would become synonymous with Pink Floyd was crystallized in this one phenomenal song. Swirling, bubbling keyboards and liquid guitar lines mix with floating vocal harmonies and a dynamic rhythm section to move the music through several dramatic and powerful moods. Truly the band's musicianship had taken a monstrous quantum leap forward from Atom Heart Mother. Of exceptional note is David Gilmour who, after years of struggling, managed to firmly define his role in Pink Floyd with complete confidence. That he asserts his unmatched talents on this track is an understatement. Fluid guitar lines; silky bends; gorgeous vibrato; subtle slide; tremolo bar antics; funky rhythms; and soaring leads abound. A significant part of his style - playing sounds and textures as well as notes - is also well represented. In the intro, he carresses the strings with a steel slide (much like an E-bow) to produce a shimmering string section-like feel. During the middle section, when darkness falls, his echo-laden feedback cries can be heard over ominous keyboards, swirling wind, and the distant screech of crows. Then, as daybreak comes in the form of a musical buildup to the final verses, the track ends with a multi-layered guitar part that sounds almost like a ghostly choir rising higher and higher. All this over the single echoing piano note that started the piece off. Fantastic.

Meddle is often dismissed as a "transitional" album due to the massive success of it's follow-up, Dark Side Of The Moon. Though it's not quite as perfectly structured as Dark Side, it can easily stand shoulder-to-shoulder with it (and any of the golden era Floyd albums). I would say that if you've digested Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall, move on to Meddle next. This is an incredible album and should not at all be overlooked.

Why this is not recognized as Pink Floyd's chef d'oeuvre is beyond me. There is more in the 45 minutes of this album to justify the Floyd's enshrinement in the pantheon of rock godhood than all of their subsequent output combined.

To begin with, there is "One of These Days." The doubled bass tracks (Echo-plexed and stereo-tracked to swirl from left-to-right and back) anticipate much electronic music -- witness ABBA, Morcheeba, Massive Attack, Moby, Oakenfold, Radiohead, Zoot Woman, etc.

"A Pillow of Winds" showcases the dreamy Hammond organ stylings of Rick Wright and the acoustic guitar part-writing of Dave Gilmour. If this track does not stand as tall as the rest of the album, it is only because it is an oak amongst redwoods.

"Fearless" is the first great demonstration of Roger Waters's obsession with insanity, self-regard, and schizophrenia, later to become de rigeur on "Animals," "The Wall", and "The Final Cut." Its creepiness is bolstered by the crawling octave figures in Dave Gilmour's guitar part, which seem to illustrate, in musical terms, the narrator's growing paranoia and dissociation from the world around him. "You'll never walk alone," indeed. Actually, you may walk alone over the cliff of madness, but at least your precipitation therefrom will be accompanied by a Gilmour guitar-figure.

"San Tropez" follows on insanity of "Fearless", and actually turns out to be its reiteration and intensification. The reprieve from Watersian dissociation is merely a hazy, cocktail-inflected hour of jazz.

"Seamus" diverts from the atmosphere of dreariness which has begun to take root. The stage is now clear for the quasi-symphonic titan which concludes this album.

The hydrophone pings which begin "Echoes" bely its outer-space origins -- the starting couplet of which originally went "Planets meeting face to face/Hang motionless upon the air." The opening, in a sort of Handelian French-overture dotted rhythm, eventually gives way to an extended funk-rock workout (with much bending and releasing from the ever-fertile Gilmour and chopping and draw-bar manipulation from the Hammond-frying Wright).

In all, "Echoes" moves strength to strength, proving itself to be the reason for buying "Meddle", pushing 70s progressive rock from the realm of curiosity (or straight classical paraphrase) to actual direct musical expression.

When you have finished the album, the feeling is one of accomplishment, or that of having flown over a large, wide-horizoned vista.