October 31, 1971 - Meddle

A little over a year after "Atom Heart Mother", and only 5 months after the release of "Relics", Pink Floyd released their sixth studio album "Meddle" on October 31, 1971. For the second album in a row, one side of the record is taken up entirely by one epic 23-plus minute song. Pink Floyd were the first band I know of to do this, and clearly they liked the concept. Can they top their last fantastic effort? Let's find out!

Side one kicks off with "One Of These Days" which has Roger Waters and David Gilmour playing synchronized bass. It sounds pretty cool and Wright adds in the occasional organ note for emphasis. Gilmour adds some cool electric guitar around the two minute mark and then we hear a very cool trippy bass part. Waters goes up and down the whole fretboard in this awesome part and we hear Nick Mason say the only line of the song "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces". Whoah, very dark, and it leads into an awesome group part. Waters resumes the main riff and Mason and Richard Wright are in full force now with cool drums and organ. Gilmou plays some more cool guitar, and this album is off to a fantastic start! The wind at the end of the song segues right into "A Pillow Of Winds" which opens with Gilmour playing acoustic guitar and singing. I love his voice and it sounds great as usual as this song is a bit of a love song, something of a rarity for Pink Floyd for sure. They play it well though, with several acoustic tracks combined for a cool harmony. After the second verse there's a cool instrumental bit with solid acoustic and bass backing, before they return for one last verse. Track 3 is called "Fearless" which is carried by a very catchy guitar riff. Gilmour songs lightly overtop, but it's fitting for the song and sounds pretty good. They slow it down between the verses, but never for long as they come back to that catchy main riff. Wright plays some cool piano in the bridges and the song fades out to what sounds like the end. We then hear what seems like a live recording from Anfield (Liverpool's stadium) as we catch the end of the fans singing their anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone". Certainly an odd way to end a cool song, but clearly they were big fans and wanted to show their support. Waters plays acoustic guitar and sings lead vocals on the next song "San Tropez". His singing is solid in this one and he plays some cool bass as well. Wright plays solid piano and the chorus almost seems like a commercial for an island getaway. Gilmour plays some cool guitar and he joins the mix throughout the second verse. Wright takes off on a really good piano solo that just doesn't want to stop as it goes on for the rest of the song! Excellent stuff. The last track on side one is called "Seamus" after the dog that is in the song. This song was a bit of a joke for Pink Floyd as Seamus the dog howls throughout the 2-minute track. It's a slow blues jam and Gilmour actually does the blues-style singing quite well. Wright also plays some great old time-y piano and for a joke song, I think it's fairly good. 

Side two is Pink Floyd's second song to take up a whole side of a record, the near 24 minute "Echoes". It starts with a ping! This submarine-like noise was made by Wright while messing around in the studio and it pings at various points throughout the song. The opening bit has some slow organ by Wright and cool guitar by Gilmour. Mason's drums bring in the first verse and Gilmour and Wright sing harmonized vocals that sound really great together. The chorus for this song doesn't have any lyrics, but is a cool ascending/descending guitar riff. After the second verse Gilmour goes for an extended guitar solo that sounds pretty good and around the 7-minute mark Wright starts a new riff on organ. He and Gilmour continue to be the backbone of this song and around the 11-minute mark the psychedelia commences. Wright plays a bunch of crazy different keyboards in an extended section that I'm sure was heavily influenced by a drug trip of some kind. Once the madness finally ends we hear another cool extended instrumental part with great contributions from everyone. They bring it back for one final verse, followed by another slow section that brings us to the end of the song, and the album.

That is the end of "Meddle", yet another fantastic Pink Floyd effort. "One Of These Days" is certainly the highlight for me, but the other songs are not bad at all and I think Pink Floyd continue to evolve as a band on this album. But how does it rank against their other albums? I think it easily surpasses their first three albums and I'd even give it the nod over "Ummagumma", the real question is last year's "Atom Heart Mother". While I believe it is really close, I think that "Meddle" will have to settle for number two, as I thought "Atom Heart Mother" was just a little bit better in both it's 24-minute epic, and the overall quality of the songs on the other side. Still a great album though for sure. My next release won't be long, it comes out tomorrow!