FBG'S TOP 100 PINK FLOYD SONGS - #01 - Comfortably Numb from The Wall (1979) (2 Viewers)

[PIK95]

To give people an idea about how little a dent we have made into the voting, the total points for all the songs from #51 to #100 added together = 612 points. There were 10,725 total points awarded overall . . meaning the Bottom 50 songs account for only 5.7% of all points.

That means the order for the bottom 5.7 doesn't mean much, right? Kinda random.

 

[FatMax]

Keep Talking would have been 27-32 for me. A bunch of Division Bell songs just miss my top 25 as I mentioned a few weeks back. They crush these other tunes that are ranked with them here imo. Oh well.

Keep talking was #25 on my original list. But then it was decreed that a certain, unnamed song on WYWH was actually two songs, so KT got bumped.

 

[Anarchy99]

To give people an idea about how little a dent we have made into the voting, the total points for all the songs from #51 to #100 added together = 612 points. There were 10,725 total points awarded overall . . meaning the Bottom 50 songs account for only 5.7% of all points.

That means the order for the bottom 5.7 doesn't mean much, right? Kinda random.

I don't know what it means to you, but what it means to me is that if I only listed the Top 50 rankings, I'd be almost done now (and there would be more engagement among the masses).

 

[Galileo]

Keep Talking would have been 27-32 for me. A bunch of Division Bell songs just miss my top 25 as I mentioned a few weeks back. They crush these other tunes that are ranked with them here imo. Oh well.

On my near miss list as well.

If it was a near miss, then it made your list, right?

Well, if we go beyond 25, then sure...

 

[jabarony]

To give people an idea about how little a dent we have made into the voting, the total points for all the songs from #51 to #100 added together = 612 points. There were 10,725 total points awarded overall . . meaning the Bottom 50 songs account for only 5.7% of all points.

That means the order for the bottom 5.7 doesn't mean much, right? Kinda random.

I don't know what it means to you, but what it means to me is that if I only listed the Top 50 rankings, I'd be almost done now (and there would be more engagement among the masses).

I'm really digging the write-ups & links, so I'm happy about the 5.7%.

 

[PIK95]

To give people an idea about how little a dent we have made into the voting, the total points for all the songs from #51 to #100 added together = 612 points. There were 10,725 total points awarded overall . . meaning the Bottom 50 songs account for only 5.7% of all points.

That means the order for the bottom 5.7 doesn't mean much, right? Kinda random.

I don't know what it means to you, but what it means to me is that if I only listed the Top 50 rankings, I'd be almost done now (and there would be more engagement among the masses).

I'm really digging the write-ups & links, so I'm happy about the 5.7%.

Yeah, I wasn't complaining. Just offended by how the Math is effecting Division Bell. I have been reading and enjoying ALL the write ups.

 

[Anarchy99]

#61-T - Careful With That Axe, Eugene from B Side (1968)

Appeared On: 4 ballots (out of 33 . . . 6.1%)
Total Points: 20 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 2.4%)
Top Rankers: @Pip's Invitation @Mt. Man @ericttspikes @BassNBrew
Highest Ranking: 16

Live Performances:
PF: 343 (9th most performed song by PF)

Release history:
Original B Side linked up top
The Murderotic Woman - BBC (1968)
BBC Radio Session (1969)
Ummagumma (1969)
Belgium (1969)
Live At The Pardiso (1969)
Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up - Zabriskie Point (1970)
Explosion - Zabriskie Point Remix (1970)
BBC Radio Session (1970)
San Francisco (1970)
St. Tropez (1970)
Sheffield (1970)
Pompeii (1971)
Brighton Dome (1972)
West Germany (1972)
NYC (1973)
Oakland (1977) (Final Performance)

Covers: Nik Turner, Electric Family, Vespero, Fungus, Camper Van Chadbourne, Cat & Owl, JMJ Band (reggae), Australian Pik Floyd

A true PF classic . . . if others hadn't voted for it, it would have been pretty high on my list. I could listen to this song all day (and don't think I haven't. Talk about mood music. At one point, it was entitled Beset by Creatures of the Deep.

There are so many versions and recordings of this one, I can't keep them straight. The band went into the studio at the beginning of November 1968 to record this piece, which they had been working on since the spring. The single version was the fourth version of the song, but the first one to be officially released. It was one of the first extended instrumentals early on with Dave in the group.

Including the versions that had come before, the total would come to eight different versions, four released and four unreleased. In chronological order:
Untitled (The Committee soundtrack)
Keep Smiling People
Murderistic Woman
Careful . . . (single)
Beset by Creatures of the Deep (The Journey)
Careful . . . (Ummagumma)
Come In Number 51, Your Time is Up (Zabriskie Point)
Careful. . . (Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii).

More versions have been released in recent years.

The piece is incredibly effective in creating a dense mood of paranoia and anxiety, a subtle hypnosis of feeling; Roger's quiet whispering and screams provide just the right touch.

Dave Gilmour: "Careful with that Axe, Eugene is basically one chord. We were just creating textures and moods over the top of it, taking it up and down; not very subtle stuff. There was a sort of rule book of our own that we were trying to play to — and it was largely about dynamics."

In live performance, Roger's screams would show off the quadraphonic sound system by spinning around the concert hall, completely enclosing the enraptured audience. Careful with that Axe, Eugene would be released twice more under that name, once more under an alternate title. In addition, another version would be created for The Journey Suite. The live versions are markedly different from the single version, being significantly longer and noticeably more intense. Roger's screams became even more harrowing and central to the piece. The aftermath section is the most drawn out compared to earlier versions.

Nick Mason: "We enjoy playing it, and people do like hearing things they're familiar with, but it's important to do some new things. We made Ummagumma in the belief that we wouldn't have to perform those numbers anymore. It's just like The Who's Tommy. For our own good as well as for everyone else's we must start on new things."

The song slowly started to fade out of their live shows . . . it showed up for 4 shows in France in 1974 and then one last time on the 1977 tour before getting tucked away for good.

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 40
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 48
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 38
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): 27
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 56
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): 15

Vulture Ranking (40 out of 165 songs): Again, we can see the band take a somewhat flaccid studio track and turn it into something that, if you squint your ears a bit and forget about the dumb title, you could imagine passably blowing a few minds among sufficiently impressionable and adequately chemicalized London youth at the time. Nice to hear Gilmour working it on out. This track is one of the more enjoyable extended Floyd offerings on record.

UCR Ranking (48 out of 167 songs): Between the hint of violence in the song title (whispered as a wild-eyed warning during the otherwise instrumental track) and the slowly encroaching tangle of Pink Floyd’s post-psych free-for-all, Careful with that Axe, Eugene is a sinister bit of sludge coughed up from the underworld. This little demon creeps along, builds in volume, makes its menacing stand and, finally, slinks away into the darkness to find new prey.

Louder Ranking (38 out of 50 songs): The seeds of Careful With That Axe, Eugene can be traced back to a couple of instrumental variants in the 12 months before it was officially released, namely Keep Smiling, People and Murderistic Woman. It would go through 2 more modifications later, firstly as Beset The Creatures Of The Deep and then, with a choir, as Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up, for the soundtrack of 1970’s counterculture film Zabriskie Point. The original studio version is a sublime improv jam, anchored by Waters’s bass. Wright’s organ lines meander freely, while Gilmour adds tasteful guitar. The song’s innate trippiness is further accentuated by the use of its title as a whispered motif, followed by Waters’s bedlam scream. This feels like a model of restraint, however, compared to the more voluble nine-minute live take on Ummagumma.

WMGK Ranking (27 out of 40 songs): Co-written by Roger Waters, Richard Wright, David Gilmour and Nick Mason, it was originally released as the b-side to Point Me At The Sky and later included on the Relics collection. But this live version, which adds three minutes of jamming, is more fearsome.

Billboard Ranking (15 out of 50 songs): A textbook acid-rock freakout, and much more effective with the live build on the Ummagumma version than in the more abbreviated form as the B-side to the largely forgettable Point Me at the Sky. You need those first three minutes of eerie falsetto, menacing organ and lightly plodding bass, before Waters offers the bad omen of the whisper title phrase, and the song absolutely explodes with his screaming — a hurricane howl that that would become a signature sonic element of the band in the decade to come. Somewhere, a young Alan Vega was taking careful notes.

That's it for today. Don't have the energy for any more writeups. Next up, another instrumental . . . just from many years later.

 

[zamboni]

61-T - Careful With That Axe, Eugene from B Side (1968)

Had this in my original top 25 but swapped out at the end - not sure why.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

#61-T - Careful With That Axe, Eugene from B Side (1968)

My rank: 18

One of the most successful experiments from their "experimental" period. I love the B-side version, the Ummagumma version and the Pompeii version (not familiar with the others). The band does a great job of conveying spookiness and tension, especially through Rick Wright's organ and Roger Waters' screams, but what really hits home is Nick Mason's drums, which manage to convey barely controlled chaos.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

#68-T - Your Possible Pasts from The Final Cut (1983)

The "closer... closer... closer" part recalls the "stone... stone... stone" part of Dogs. That's the only nice thing I have to say about this song. The verses sound like a Bob Dylan outtake sung by someone with a head cold, and the uptempo parts are recycled Wall bits that didn't need to be restored from the cutting room.

#68-T - The Trial from The Wall (1979)

I wanted to hear a rock and roll album and a fuhcking Gilbert and Sullivan operetta -- with bad singing -- broke out.

#66-T - Remember A Day from A Saucerful Of Secrets (1968)

This track is a glimpse into a road not taken. It's an ethereal, experimental pop song obviously inspired by what the Beatles did in 1967. There are also elements of what the Zombies did on Odessy and Oracle and and more twee (yet still propulsive) numbers The Who were doing at the time.

#66-T - Goodbye Cruel World from The Wall (1979)

Minor piece that brings the first half of Pink's story to an end. Doesn't really offer much outside the context of the album.

#65 - Keep Talking from The Division Bell (1994)

Exquisitely crafted and thoughtful piece. Who cares if the backup singers and a recording of Stephen Hawking do a lot of the heavy lifting here -- the arrangement works wonderfully.

#63-T - Take It Back from The Division Bell (1994)

Perfectly cromulent tune that was in keeping with what FM radio would play in 1994. There are some Joshua Tree-era U2-isms in the guitar work.

#63-T - The Gunner's Dream from The Final Cut (1983)

This is a listenable ballad for the first 2 minutes, then Waters raises his voice and the sax comes in. Then it's listenable again until Waters screeches again. But there's little energy or momentum to this and overall it doesn't hold my interest.

 

[Anarchy99]

#60 - Marooned from The Division Bell (1994)

Appeared On: 2 ballots (out of 33 . . . 6.2%)
Total Points: 21 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 2.4%)
Top Rankers: @Joe Schmo @Todem
Highest Ranking: 15

Live Performances:
DG's PF: 2 (Oslo - 1994)
DG: 1 (Strat Pack - 2004)

Covers: Walt Wagner, Pandora, Self Maamoun, Nando Gamboa, Animals, Lobo Aviles, Hoda Khaki, Big One, Brit Floyd, Andromida

Marooned is the only PF song to win a Grammy Award (winning in the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category in 1994). The song beat out Shapes Of Things by Dixie Dregs, Luz Amor Y Vida by Santana, Leave That Thing Alone by Rush, and All Alone by Joe Satriani. The band had previously been nominated 3 other times: for The Delicate Sound Of Thunder Video in the Best Long Form Music Video category (losing to Rhythm Nation 1814 (Short Film) by Janet Jackson). The Wall was nominated for Album Of The Year, losing out to Christopher Cross' debut self-titled album. The Wall was also nominated in the Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal category, coming up short to Bob Seger's Against The Wind

The piece was written by Wright and Gilmour. It has sounds that describe the setting as an island, such as the sounds of seagulls and waves crashing on the shore. It was composed while jamming aboard the Astoria (Dave's house boat and recording studio) in early 1993. Wailing guitar effects can be heard in the background, reminiscent of the song Echoes. Wright's grand piano parts were recorded at Olympic Studios in London.

Gilmour has mentioned that "pretty much" all of Marooned is improvised and that he "probably took 3 or 4 passes at it and took the best bits out of each". Wright also said this was the first song to be mixed for The Division Bell. Dave commented, "For me music is very lyric-dominated these days and I love lyrics and I love songs. But I also like listening to a good instrumental and a good piece of playing on any instrument. A beautiful chord sequence can be very provocative and emotional. The first 30 seconds of the song is just me alone, playing an ambient piece I wrote for a record I was making at the time that happened to be in the same key, but, of course, didn’t come out - instead ending up on a Pink Floyd record." I believe this is what Dave was referring to.

The song has only has only been played live 3 times . . on 2 dates in Oslo, Norway on the 1994 The Division Bell tour and by DG at the 50th Fender birthday concert, where Gilmour played his where Gilmour played his Serial #0001 Stratocaster.

The website Stereogum felt that the instrumental "stands out primarily as a song that sounds as much like Pink Floyd as anything on their mid-'70s releases. The song roots itself to Gilmour's familiar lonesome melodic guitar descants threading themselves through the trademark mood setting and foundation of Mason's drum work and the invaluable Wright's keyboard deviations.

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 124
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 86
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 47
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR

Vulture Ranking (124 out of 165 songs): Marooned is how you feel listening to this pallid, five-minute-and-thirty-second guitar solo.

UCR Ranking (86 out of 167 songs): It’s not really a song; it’s a five-minute guitar solo. But it’s a good one from Gilmour, with solid assists from Wright and Mason among others, and an epic sound that almost recalls Floyd’s ’70s glory days. One niggling regret: Rick should have played an actual piano on the track. The “synthesizer on piano” setting was beneath someone of his talent.

Up next, out first Top 5 song from someone to make an appearance . . . and it features Dave on guitars, vocals, bass, piano, organ, mellotron, drums, and percussion.

 

[FatMax]

it features Dave on guitars, vocals, bass, piano, organ, mellotron, drums, and percussion

Hold on ... did I wander into a top Foo Fighters song thread?

 

[BassNBrew]

#60 - Marooned from The Division Bell (1994)

Appeared On: 2 ballots (out of 33 . . . 6.2%)
Total Points: 21 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 2.4%)
Top Rankers: @Joe Schmo @Todem
Highest Ranking: 15

Live Performances:
DG's PF: 2 (Oslo - 1994)
DG: 1 (Strat Pack - 2004)

Covers: Walt Wagner, Pandora, Self Maamoun, Nando Gamboa, Animals, Lobo Aviles, Hoda Khaki, Big One, Brit Floyd, Andromida

Marooned is the only PF song to win a Grammy Award (winning in the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category in 1994). The song beat out Shapes Of Things by Dixie Dregs, Luz Amor Y Vida by Santana, Leave That Thing Alone by Rush, and All Alone by Joe Satriani. The band had previously been nominated 3 other times: for The Delicate Sound Of Thunder Video in the Best Long Form Music Video category (losing to Rhythm Nation 1814 (Short Film) by Janet Jackson). The Wall was nominated for Album Of The Year, losing out to Christopher Cross' debut self-titled album. The Wall was also nominated in the Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal category, coming up short to Bob Seger's Against The Wind

The piece was written by Wright and Gilmour. It has sounds that describe the setting as an island, such as the sounds of seagulls and waves crashing on the shore. It was composed while jamming aboard the Astoria (Dave's house boat and recording studio) in early 1993. Wailing guitar effects can be heard in the background, reminiscent of the song Echoes. Wright's grand piano parts were recorded at Olympic Studios in London.

Gilmour has mentioned that "pretty much" all of Marooned is improvised and that he "probably took 3 or 4 passes at it and took the best bits out of each". Wright also said this was the first song to be mixed for The Division Bell. Dave commented, "For me music is very lyric-dominated these days and I love lyrics and I love songs. But I also like listening to a good instrumental and a good piece of playing on any instrument. A beautiful chord sequence can be very provocative and emotional. The first 30 seconds of the song is just me alone, playing an ambient piece I wrote for a record I was making at the time that happened to be in the same key, but, of course, didn’t come out - instead ending up on a Pink Floyd record." I believe this is what Dave was referring to.

The song has only has only been played live 3 times . . on 2 dates in Oslo, Norway on the 1994 The Division Bell tour and by DG at the 50th Fender birthday concert, where Gilmour played his where Gilmour played his Serial #0001 Stratocaster.

The website Stereogum felt that the instrumental "stands out primarily as a song that sounds as much like Pink Floyd as anything on their mid-'70s releases. The song roots itself to Gilmour's familiar lonesome melodic guitar descants threading themselves through the trademark mood setting and foundation of Mason's drum work and the invaluable Wright's keyboard deviations.

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 124
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 86
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 47
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR

Vulture Ranking (124 out of 165 songs): Marooned is how you feel listening to this pallid, five-minute-and-thirty-second guitar solo.

UCR Ranking (86 out of 167 songs): It’s not really a song; it’s a five-minute guitar solo. But it’s a good one from Gilmour, with solid assists from Wright and Mason among others, and an epic sound that almost recalls Floyd’s ’70s glory days. One niggling regret: Rick should have played an actual piano on the track. The “synthesizer on piano” setting was beneath someone of his talent.

Up next, out first Top 5 song from someone to make an appearance . . . and it features Dave on guitars, vocals, bass, piano, organ, mellotron, drums, and percussion.

Did anyone else hear some similarity? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkC_oi0ksuw

 

[zamboni]

#60 - Marooned from The Division Bell (1994)

Appeared On: 2 ballots (out of 33 . . . 6.2%)
Total Points: 21 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 2.4%)
Top Rankers: @Joe Schmo @Todem
Highest Ranking: 15

Live Performances:
DG's PF: 2 (Oslo - 1994)
DG: 1 (Strat Pack - 2004)

Covers: Walt Wagner, Pandora, Self Maamoun, Nando Gamboa, Animals, Lobo Aviles, Hoda Khaki, Big One, Brit Floyd, Andromida

Marooned is the only PF song to win a Grammy Award (winning in the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category in 1994). The song beat out Shapes Of Things by Dixie Dregs, Luz Amor Y Vida by Santana, Leave That Thing Alone by Rush, and All Alone by Joe Satriani. The band had previously been nominated 3 other times: for The Delicate Sound Of Thunder Video in the Best Long Form Music Video category (losing to Rhythm Nation 1814 (Short Film) by Janet Jackson). The Wall was nominated for Album Of The Year, losing out to Christopher Cross' debut self-titled album. The Wall was also nominated in the Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal category, coming up short to Bob Seger's Against The Wind

The piece was written by Wright and Gilmour. It has sounds that describe the setting as an island, such as the sounds of seagulls and waves crashing on the shore. It was composed while jamming aboard the Astoria (Dave's house boat and recording studio) in early 1993. Wailing guitar effects can be heard in the background, reminiscent of the song Echoes. Wright's grand piano parts were recorded at Olympic Studios in London.

Gilmour has mentioned that "pretty much" all of Marooned is improvised and that he "probably took 3 or 4 passes at it and took the best bits out of each". Wright also said this was the first song to be mixed for The Division Bell. Dave commented, "For me music is very lyric-dominated these days and I love lyrics and I love songs. But I also like listening to a good instrumental and a good piece of playing on any instrument. A beautiful chord sequence can be very provocative and emotional. The first 30 seconds of the song is just me alone, playing an ambient piece I wrote for a record I was making at the time that happened to be in the same key, but, of course, didn’t come out - instead ending up on a Pink Floyd record." I believe this is what Dave was referring to.

The song has only has only been played live 3 times . . on 2 dates in Oslo, Norway on the 1994 The Division Bell tour and by DG at the 50th Fender birthday concert, where Gilmour played his where Gilmour played his Serial #0001 Stratocaster.

The website Stereogum felt that the instrumental "stands out primarily as a song that sounds as much like Pink Floyd as anything on their mid-'70s releases. The song roots itself to Gilmour's familiar lonesome melodic guitar descants threading themselves through the trademark mood setting and foundation of Mason's drum work and the invaluable Wright's keyboard deviations.

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 124
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 86
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 47
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR

Vulture Ranking (124 out of 165 songs): Marooned is how you feel listening to this pallid, five-minute-and-thirty-second guitar solo.

UCR Ranking (86 out of 167 songs): It’s not really a song; it’s a five-minute guitar solo. But it’s a good one from Gilmour, with solid assists from Wright and Mason among others, and an epic sound that almost recalls Floyd’s ’70s glory days. One niggling regret: Rick should have played an actual piano on the track. The “synthesizer on piano” setting was beneath someone of his talent.

Up next, out first Top 5 song from someone to make an appearance . . . and it features Dave on guitars, vocals, bass, piano, organ, mellotron, drums, and percussion.

Did anyone else hear some similarity? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkC_oi0ksuw

Not really hearing the similarities, although it’s possible the boys are Chicago Bulls fans.

 

[jabarony]

#61-T - Careful With That Axe, Eugene from B Side (1968)
Release history:

Belgium (1969)

Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up - Zabriskie Point (1970)

I really enjoyed these 2.

 

[jabarony]

Up next, out first Top 5 song from someone to make an appearance . . . and it features Dave on guitars, vocals, bass, piano, organ, mellotron, drums, and percussion.

I'll bet this one is good. Chalk be damned!

 

[Mt. Man]

Did anyone else hear some similarity? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkC_oi0ksuw

It's fair to say that Pink Floyd and Alan Parsons might share just a bit of common ground.

 

[zamboni]

Did anyone else hear some similarity? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkC_oi0ksuw

It's fair to say that Pink Floyd and Alan Parsons might share just a bit of common ground.

Of course, although Parsons had long parted ways with Floyd and wasn’t part of Division Bell.

 

[BassNBrew]

Pink Floyd - Marooned (Official Music Video HD)

The video for Marooned was released to mark the 20th anniversary of Pink Floyd's The Division Bell. Much of the thought-provoking video was shot by the Floyd...

youtu.be

The Alan Parsons Project - Sirius (Official Audio)

Official Audio for "Sirius" by The Alan Parsons ProjectListen to The Alan Parsons Project: https://TheAlanParsonsProject.lnk.to/listenYDWatch more The Alan P...

youtu.be

 

[Anarchy99]

#59 - The Narrow Way from Ummagumma (1969)

Appeared On: 1 ballot (out of 33 . . . 3.0%)
Total Points: 22 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 2.7%)
Top Rankers: @jabarony
Highest Ranking: 4

Live Performances:
PF: 20 (London - 1969-05-12, Amsterdam - 1969-09-17)

Covers: Stillness, Message, Noothgrush, Bruno Hrabovsky, RPWL

We'll give Jabarony the floor to discuss why he selected this particular song (other than his French model mother having conceived him while listening to it). The studio album section of Ummagumma came as a result of Wright wanting to make "real music", where the four group members each had half an LP side to create a solo work without involvement from the others. The first section of The Narrow Way was originally called Baby Blue Shuffle In D Major, with portions of the suite very similar to the tracks Rain In The Country and Unknown Song.

Parts of the song became part of the live The Journey Suite and seemed to imply passage through a threshold of some kind. One certainly gets a sense of the hero venturing more deeply into the land of the enemy, and the farther he (or she) goes, the more impossible it becomes to turn back. Perhaps finding a friendly house along the way, the temptation to 'rest [his] aching limbs for a little bit' in a sense becomes another enemy to conquer — the desire to give up. But the hero closes his ears and eyes to these temptations, and travels on into the land where mystery swells and creatures crawl. The mythic narrative imagery of this song is rich when viewed in this context.

A chorus of multi-tracked Daves opens part three, on which he also plays piano. The quiet chorus also benefits from two or three Daves. The mythic feel and narrative style of this section aided its inclusion as part of The Journey Suite the past spring. The song is much more polished in its recorded version, though the lyrics are comparatively low in the mix due to Dave's insecurity about them. They aren't too bad, but nowhere near the quality and relevance of his lyrics for the post-Waters albums. The last chorus gives way to a good instrumental section at the end. The Narrow Way (Part III) was performed 20 times in 1969. The live version was substantially rougher, as the piece was still in the process of developing. Dave never was sure of the lyrics for the fifth verse, as these seemed to change with every performance.

Dave was frustrated by the necessity of writing all his own material for the first time (something he was not interested in at that time), simply because Rick wanted to do solo pieces and Roger agreed it might be a good idea. He recalled the experience: "We'd decided to make the damn album, and each of us do a piece of music on our own. It was just desperation really, trying to think of something to do, to write by myself. I'd never written anything before. I just went into the studio and started waffling about, tacking bits and pieces together. I just BS'ed my way through. I got desperate at one point, rang Roger up and said 'Please help me write the lyrics,' but he said, 'No, do 'em yourself.' I haven't heard it in years, I've no idea what it's like. I was not ready for it, frankly. I didn't know what to do. So I wrote my own lyrics but I mean it's nothing, really. Not really. I don't see it as having any real value. I've never listened to it for donkey's years, mind you, so I don't know."

Although the album was well received at the time of release, and was a Top 5 hit in the UK album charts, it has since been looked upon unfavorably by the band, who have expressed negative opinions about it in interviews. Nevertheless, the album has been reissued on CD several times. The band members have been dismissive and critical of Ummagumma. Recalling the album in later years, Waters said: "Ummagumma – what a disaster!" Dave described the album as "horrible." Mason said: "I thought it was a very good and interesting little exercise, the whole business of everyone doing a bit. But I still feel really that that's quite a good example of the sum being greater than the parts. But it was a failed experiment, and the most significant thing is that we didn't do it again."

Paste magazine reviewed the 2011 re-release and described the album as "rock excess of the worst kind", although the writer praised the live version of Careful with that Axe, Eugene. Critic Robert Christgau suggested the album's "hypnotic melodies" made it "an admirable record to fall asleep to".

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 106
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 74
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 117
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR

Vulture Ranking (106 out of 165 songs): This was Gilmour’s contribution to Ummagumma, in three parts. (These guys and their suites.) There’s acoustic murmurings with crappy electronic guitar sounds over it . . . then a driving electronic riff with some other discordant noise over it, mostly without drums. Part two has some intoned vocalizings. Part three is a passable rock instrumental. Nothing holds these three horrid-to-mediocre pieces of music together. Waters would write a lot, in subsequent years, about the dehumanizing nature of the record industry, and persuasively so. But poor EMI sure put out a lot of crappy Pink Floyd albums early on. That’s something Pink Floyd could have written a song about. (“The hovering albatross takes its chances / We complain about everything except our advances.”) Ummagumma is by far the worst album by a major band of the progressive-rock era, and that includes Tales From Topographic Oceans, Brain Salad Surgery, and Leftoverture.

UCR Ranking (74 out of 167 songs): Of anyone in the band, Gilmour had the most trepidation about creating an individual experimental piece for the studio disc of Ummagumma. And he ended up with the best thing on that half of the project. The three-part suite re-purposes an existing tune for the rustic opener, but Gilmour’s guitar steamrolls through the middle portion before landing on a George Harrison-ish bit of space-twang for the climax.

I don't think I need anything at all . . . well, except for maybe our next song.

 

[jabarony]

#59 - The Narrow Way from Ummagumma (1969)

Appeared On: 1 ballot (out of 33 . . . 3.0%)
Total Points: 22 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 2.7%)
Top Rankers: @jabarony
Highest Ranking: 4

Live Performances:
PF: 20 (London - 1969-05-12, Amsterdam - 1969-09-17)

Covers: Stillness, Message, Noothgrush, Bruno Hrabovsky, RPWL

We'll give Jabarony the floor to discuss why he selected this particular song (other than his French model mother having conceived him while listening to it). The studio album section of Ummagumma came as a result of Wright wanting to make "real music", where the four group members each had half an LP side to create a solo work without involvement from the others. The first section of The Narrow Way was originally called Baby Blue Shuffle In D Major, with portions of the suite very similar to the tracks Rain In The Country and Unknown Song.

Parts of the song became part of the live The Journey Suite and seemed to imply passage through a threshold of some kind. One certainly gets a sense of the hero venturing more deeply into the land of the enemy, and the farther he (or she) goes, the more impossible it becomes to turn back. Perhaps finding a friendly house along the way, the temptation to 'rest [his] aching limbs for a little bit' in a sense becomes another enemy to conquer — the desire to give up. But the hero closes his ears and eyes to these temptations, and travels on into the land where mystery swells and creatures crawl. The mythic narrative imagery of this song is rich when viewed in this context.

A chorus of multi-tracked Daves opens part three, on which he also plays piano. The quiet chorus also benefits from two or three Daves. The mythic feel and narrative style of this section aided its inclusion as part of The Journey Suite the past spring. The song is much more polished in its recorded version, though the lyrics are comparatively low in the mix due to Dave's insecurity about them. They aren't too bad, but nowhere near the quality and relevance of his lyrics for the post-Waters albums. The last chorus gives way to a good instrumental section at the end. The Narrow Way (Part III) was performed 20 times in 1969. The live version was substantially rougher, as the piece was still in the process of developing. Dave never was sure of the lyrics for the fifth verse, as these seemed to change with every performance.

Dave was frustrated by the necessity of writing all his own material for the first time (something he was not interested in at that time), simply because Rick wanted to do solo pieces and Roger agreed it might be a good idea. He recalled the experience: "We'd decided to make the damn album, and each of us do a piece of music on our own. It was just desperation really, trying to think of something to do, to write by myself. I'd never written anything before. I just went into the studio and started waffling about, tacking bits and pieces together. I just BS'ed my way through. I got desperate at one point, rang Roger up and said 'Please help me write the lyrics,' but he said, 'No, do 'em yourself.' I haven't heard it in years, I've no idea what it's like. I was not ready for it, frankly. I didn't know what to do. So I wrote my own lyrics but I mean it's nothing, really. Not really. I don't see it as having any real value. I've never listened to it for donkey's years, mind you, so I don't know."

Although the album was well received at the time of release, and was a Top 5 hit in the UK album charts, it has since been looked upon unfavorably by the band, who have expressed negative opinions about it in interviews. Nevertheless, the album has been reissued on CD several times. The band members have been dismissive and critical of Ummagumma. Recalling the album in later years, Waters said: "Ummagumma – what a disaster!" Dave described the album as "horrible." Mason said: "I thought it was a very good and interesting little exercise, the whole business of everyone doing a bit. But I still feel really that that's quite a good example of the sum being greater than the parts. But it was a failed experiment, and the most significant thing is that we didn't do it again."

Paste magazine reviewed the 2011 re-release and described the album as "rock excess of the worst kind", although the writer praised the live version of Careful with that Axe, Eugene. Critic Robert Christgau suggested the album's "hypnotic melodies" made it "an admirable record to fall asleep to".

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 106
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 74
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 117
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR

Vulture Ranking (106 out of 165 songs): This was Gilmour’s contribution to Ummagumma, in three parts. (These guys and their suites.) There’s acoustic murmurings with crappy electronic guitar sounds over it . . . then a driving electronic riff with some other discordant noise over it, mostly without drums. Part two has some intoned vocalizings. Part three is a passable rock instrumental. Nothing holds these three horrid-to-mediocre pieces of music together. Waters would write a lot, in subsequent years, about the dehumanizing nature of the record industry, and persuasively so. But poor EMI sure put out a lot of crappy Pink Floyd albums early on. That’s something Pink Floyd could have written a song about. (“The hovering albatross takes its chances / We complain about everything except our advances.”) Ummagumma is by far the worst album by a major band of the progressive-rock era, and that includes Tales From Topographic Oceans, Brain Salad Surgery, and Leftoverture.

UCR Ranking (74 out of 167 songs): Of anyone in the band, Gilmour had the most trepidation about creating an individual experimental piece for the studio disc of Ummagumma. And he ended up with the best thing on that half of the project. The three-part suite re-purposes an existing tune for the rustic opener, but Gilmour’s guitar steamrolls through the middle portion before landing on a George Harrison-ish bit of space-twang for the climax.

I don't think I need anything at all . . . well, except for maybe our next song.

For the record - I voted for Part 3, specifically, but it makes sense to write up and discuss as one. I also knew that DG himself would disapprove of this ranking. I don’t care. I could listen to this track, especially the end instrumental, on loop for hours.

I can’t objectively, or eloquently, defend this ranking. This song just hits me in the right spot.

 

[BassNBrew]

#59 - The Narrow Way from Ummagumma (1969)

Appeared On: 1 ballot (out of 33 . . . 3.0%)
Total Points: 22 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 2.7%)
Top Rankers: @jabarony
Highest Ranking: 4

Live Performances:
PF: 20 (London - 1969-05-12, Amsterdam - 1969-09-17)

Covers: Stillness, Message, Noothgrush, Bruno Hrabovsky, RPWL

We'll give Jabarony the floor to discuss why he selected this particular song (other than his French model mother having conceived him while listening to it). The studio album section of Ummagumma came as a result of Wright wanting to make "real music", where the four group members each had half an LP side to create a solo work without involvement from the others. The first section of The Narrow Way was originally called Baby Blue Shuffle In D Major, with portions of the suite very similar to the tracks Rain In The Country and Unknown Song.

Parts of the song became part of the live The Journey Suite and seemed to imply passage through a threshold of some kind. One certainly gets a sense of the hero venturing more deeply into the land of the enemy, and the farther he (or she) goes, the more impossible it becomes to turn back. Perhaps finding a friendly house along the way, the temptation to 'rest [his] aching limbs for a little bit' in a sense becomes another enemy to conquer — the desire to give up. But the hero closes his ears and eyes to these temptations, and travels on into the land where mystery swells and creatures crawl. The mythic narrative imagery of this song is rich when viewed in this context.

A chorus of multi-tracked Daves opens part three, on which he also plays piano. The quiet chorus also benefits from two or three Daves. The mythic feel and narrative style of this section aided its inclusion as part of The Journey Suite the past spring. The song is much more polished in its recorded version, though the lyrics are comparatively low in the mix due to Dave's insecurity about them. They aren't too bad, but nowhere near the quality and relevance of his lyrics for the post-Waters albums. The last chorus gives way to a good instrumental section at the end. The Narrow Way (Part III) was performed 20 times in 1969. The live version was substantially rougher, as the piece was still in the process of developing. Dave never was sure of the lyrics for the fifth verse, as these seemed to change with every performance.

Dave was frustrated by the necessity of writing all his own material for the first time (something he was not interested in at that time), simply because Rick wanted to do solo pieces and Roger agreed it might be a good idea. He recalled the experience: "We'd decided to make the damn album, and each of us do a piece of music on our own. It was just desperation really, trying to think of something to do, to write by myself. I'd never written anything before. I just went into the studio and started waffling about, tacking bits and pieces together. I just BS'ed my way through. I got desperate at one point, rang Roger up and said 'Please help me write the lyrics,' but he said, 'No, do 'em yourself.' I haven't heard it in years, I've no idea what it's like. I was not ready for it, frankly. I didn't know what to do. So I wrote my own lyrics but I mean it's nothing, really. Not really. I don't see it as having any real value. I've never listened to it for donkey's years, mind you, so I don't know."

Although the album was well received at the time of release, and was a Top 5 hit in the UK album charts, it has since been looked upon unfavorably by the band, who have expressed negative opinions about it in interviews. Nevertheless, the album has been reissued on CD several times. The band members have been dismissive and critical of Ummagumma. Recalling the album in later years, Waters said: "Ummagumma – what a disaster!" Dave described the album as "horrible." Mason said: "I thought it was a very good and interesting little exercise, the whole business of everyone doing a bit. But I still feel really that that's quite a good example of the sum being greater than the parts. But it was a failed experiment, and the most significant thing is that we didn't do it again."

Paste magazine reviewed the 2011 re-release and described the album as "rock excess of the worst kind", although the writer praised the live version of Careful with that Axe, Eugene. Critic Robert Christgau suggested the album's "hypnotic melodies" made it "an admirable record to fall asleep to".

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 106
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 74
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 117
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR

Vulture Ranking (106 out of 165 songs): This was Gilmour’s contribution to Ummagumma, in three parts. (These guys and their suites.) There’s acoustic murmurings with crappy electronic guitar sounds over it . . . then a driving electronic riff with some other discordant noise over it, mostly without drums. Part two has some intoned vocalizings. Part three is a passable rock instrumental. Nothing holds these three horrid-to-mediocre pieces of music together. Waters would write a lot, in subsequent years, about the dehumanizing nature of the record industry, and persuasively so. But poor EMI sure put out a lot of crappy Pink Floyd albums early on. That’s something Pink Floyd could have written a song about. (“The hovering albatross takes its chances / We complain about everything except our advances.”) Ummagumma is by far the worst album by a major band of the progressive-rock era, and that includes Tales From Topographic Oceans, Brain Salad Surgery, and Leftoverture.

UCR Ranking (74 out of 167 songs): Of anyone in the band, Gilmour had the most trepidation about creating an individual experimental piece for the studio disc of Ummagumma. And he ended up with the best thing on that half of the project. The three-part suite re-purposes an existing tune for the rustic opener, but Gilmour’s guitar steamrolls through the middle portion before landing on a George Harrison-ish bit of space-twang for the climax.

I don't think I need anything at all . . . well, except for maybe our next song.

For the record - I voted for Part 3, specifically, but it makes sense to write up and discuss as one. I also knew that DG himself would disapprove of this ranking. I don’t care. I could listen to this track, especially the end instrumental, on loop for hours.

I can’t objectively, or eloquently, defend this ranking. This song just hits me in the right spot.

It's OK, some dudes are into women kicking them in the balls too.

 

[zamboni]

#59 - The Narrow Way from Ummagumma (1969)

Appeared On: 1 ballot (out of 33 . . . 3.0%)
Total Points: 22 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 2.7%)
Top Rankers: @jabarony
Highest Ranking: 4

This is a very interesting song for sure, but ?

 

[Anarchy99]

This is a very interesting song for sure, but ?

It could just be genetic. Not a lot to draw from when your parents are a middle-aged, balding, freak for a dad that preys on underaged, drug-infused, passed around failed French models. But I try not to judge people. To each their own.

 

[Anarchy99]

On the "what's normal" front, the past two days I have been listening to pretty much nothing but John Waite solo and in The Babys and Bad English. I'm guessing that would likely be classified as unusual . . . and I might be one of a handful of people with a collection big enough to be able to accomplish that odd feat. I think too many songs from The Final Cut and Ummagumma drove me to make such a draconian move musically speaking. We've got another half dozen or so Floyd songs before things pick up (at least IMO).

 

[Pip's Invitation]

On the "what's normal" front, the past two days I have been listening to pretty much nothing but John Waite solo and in The Babys and Bad English. I'm guessing that would likely be classified as unusual . . . and I might be one of a handful of people with a collection big enough to be able to accomplish that odd feat. I think too many songs from The Final Cut and Ummagumma drove me to make such a draconian move musically speaking. We've got another half dozen or so Floyd songs before things pick up (at least IMO).

I've mentioned this in other music threads but none that I believe you go in:

My son's guitar teacher's brother-in-law replaced John Waite in the Babys when the lead guitarist and drummer decided to revive the band in 2013 and Waite wasn't interested. When they were younger, the guitar teacher was constantly telling his brother-in-law that he looked like John Waite, to which the response was usually "don't be ridiculous."

 

[Anarchy99]

#58 - Another Brick In The Wall (Part 3) from The Wall (1979)

Appeared On: 2 ballots (out of 33 . . . 6.1%)
Total Points: 23 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 2.8%)
Top Rankers: @Rand al Thor @Grace Under Pressure
Highest Ranking: 10

Brick 3: Drugs
Band Demo
Band Demo #1
Band Demo #3
ABITW3: Drugs
Empty Spaces / ABITW3 (Original song order)
Is There Anybody Out There Version
Film Version
Berlin
RW: The Wall

Live Performances:

PF: 31
RW: 451

Covers: Tony Levin, Out Of Phase, Luther Wright, MacFloyd, Hendrikse, Animals

Rand al Thor had this one in his Top 10. Clocking in at only 74 seconds, ABITW3 is the third and final of the three Bricks tracks. The song goes back to Roger’s original Bricks In The Wall demo. Throughout production, the song evolved as it got several new titles. Lyrics were changed and the overall sound and tone of the music became darker and angrier. The song was probably changed more than nearly any other track on the album. Originally called “Brick 3: Drugs” on the original demo, its title evolved throughout production. On the early band production demos, it was called Another Brick In The Wall (aka Drugs) and Another Brick In The Wall: Drugs.

Original lyrics:
I don’t need no drugs to calm me down, down, down
And I don’t need your hands to hold me down, down, down
I don’t need your tongue to cut me down, down, down
I don’t think that I need you at all
I don’t think that I need you at all

All in all it’s just another brick in the wall
All in all you’re just another brick in the wall

It’s the loudest and angriest of the three “Brick” songs and the entire track was rerecorded even louder and angrier for the film. While there is nothing official out there on who did what for the re-recorded versions of songs for the movie, it's generally considered unlikely that Rick Wright played on any of the updated versions.

Pink tears himself from his catatonic state, rejecting the need for a wife or any other crutch, feeling he finally understands the ways of the world, and is embittered beyond belief. He makes the decision to stand alone behind his wall, without needing anyone ever again. Roger Waters: "At the end of Don't Leave Me Now, there he is in his room with his TV and there's that symbolic TV smashing, and then he resurges a bit, out of that kind of violence, and then he sings this loud saying 'all you are just bricks in the wall,' I don't need anybody, so he's convincing himself really that his isolation is a desirable thing, that's all."

For this song, the film intercuts extremely rapidly a number of scenes from the movie, depicting things in the past, things yet to come, and scenes that didn't make the final cut of the movie, except in their brief depiction here. These scenes of hate, betrayal, marriage, school, mother, rejection, loss, women, and violence add up to the sum total of the bricks in Pink's wall. The wall is almost complete, and in terms of the film, this is a recap of all that has gone to make it.

The riot scenes in the film featured 150 rioters, police, and the Hammer Guard skinheads. Director Alan Parker: "The riot footage was an improvised affair that developed through the night. The only image I'd preconceived was the 'wall' of riot police, their shields glinting in the light, behind them a second wall of flames. As the night drew on and the skinheads and 'police' clashed for the dozenth time, tempers were rising. The skinheads had found it difficult to grasp that these were actors dressed as policeman and that we were creating a film riot, not a real one. But, however many times we reminded them, the fighting always seemed to continue long after I had yelled out 'Cut!'"

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 77
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 99
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 35
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 71
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR

Vulture Ranking (77 out of 165 songs): The third iteration of the song, and we’re not even halfway through The Wall yet. Two were enough.

UCR Ranking (99 out of 167 songs): The most abrasive installment of Another Brick in the Wall is also the least interesting from a musical and thematic perspective. The pulsing synthesizer and discordant guitar mirror Pink’s anger, and the track is short enough to move us toward the start of Disc 2, where more interesting songs await.

Louder Ranking (35 out of 50 songs):
For Wall protagonist, Pink, the final entry in the trilogy was a violent rejection of all around him – or as Waters told DJ Tommy Vance in 1979, the character “convincing himself that isolation is a desirable thing”. Nihilism dripped from the lyric (“I don’t need no arms around me/And I don’t need no drugs to calm me”), while most biting was the kiss-off, accusing us all of being complicit (“All in all, you were all just bricks in the wall”).

Coming up next on the Queen Top 100 countdown . . . BICYCLE! BICYCLE! BICYCLE! I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike.

 

[worrierking]

#61-T - Careful With That Axe, Eugene from B Side (1968)

Appeared On: 4 ballots (out of 33 . . . 6.1%)
Total Points: 20 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 2.4%)
Top Rankers: @Pip's Invitation @Mt. Man @ericttspikes @BassNBrew
Highest Ranking: 16

Live Performances:
PF: 343 (9th most performed song by PF)

Release history:
Original B Side linked up top
The Murderotic Woman - BBC (1968)
BBC Radio Session (1969)
Ummagumma (1969)
Belgium (1969)
Live At The Pardiso (1969)
Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up - Zabriskie Point (1970)
Explosion - Zabriskie Point Remix (1970)
BBC Radio Session (1970)
San Francisco (1970)
St. Tropez (1970)
Sheffield (1970)
Pompeii (1971)
Brighton Dome (1972)
West Germany (1972)
NYC (1973)
Oakland (1977) (Final Performance)

Covers: Nik Turner, Electric Family, Vespero, Fungus, Camper Van Chadbourne, Cat & Owl, JMJ Band (reggae), Australian Pik Floyd

A true PF classic . . . if others hadn't voted for it, it would have been pretty high on my list. I could listen to this song all day (and don't think I haven't. Talk about mood music. At one point, it was entitled Beset by Creatures of the Deep.

There are so many versions and recordings of this one, I can't keep them straight. The band went into the studio at the beginning of November 1968 to record this piece, which they had been working on since the spring. The single version was the fourth version of the song, but the first one to be officially released. It was one of the first extended instrumentals early on with Dave in the group.

Including the versions that had come before, the total would come to eight different versions, four released and four unreleased. In chronological order:
Untitled (The Committee soundtrack)
Keep Smiling People
Murderistic Woman
Careful . . . (single)
Beset by Creatures of the Deep (The Journey)
Careful . . . (Ummagumma)
Come In Number 51, Your Time is Up (Zabriskie Point)
Careful. . . (Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii).

More versions have been released in recent years.

The piece is incredibly effective in creating a dense mood of paranoia and anxiety, a subtle hypnosis of feeling; Roger's quiet whispering and screams provide just the right touch.

Dave Gilmour: "Careful with that Axe, Eugene is basically one chord. We were just creating textures and moods over the top of it, taking it up and down; not very subtle stuff. There was a sort of rule book of our own that we were trying to play to — and it was largely about dynamics."

In live performance, Roger's screams would show off the quadraphonic sound system by spinning around the concert hall, completely enclosing the enraptured audience. Careful with that Axe, Eugene would be released twice more under that name, once more under an alternate title. In addition, another version would be created for The Journey Suite. The live versions are markedly different from the single version, being significantly longer and noticeably more intense. Roger's screams became even more harrowing and central to the piece. The aftermath section is the most drawn out compared to earlier versions.

Nick Mason: "We enjoy playing it, and people do like hearing things they're familiar with, but it's important to do some new things. We made Ummagumma in the belief that we wouldn't have to perform those numbers anymore. It's just like The Who's Tommy. For our own good as well as for everyone else's we must start on new things."

The song slowly started to fade out of their live shows . . . it showed up for 4 shows in France in 1974 and then one last time on the 1977 tour before getting tucked away for good.

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 40
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 48
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 38
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): 27
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 56
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): 15

Vulture Ranking (40 out of 165 songs): Again, we can see the band take a somewhat flaccid studio track and turn it into something that, if you squint your ears a bit and forget about the dumb title, you could imagine passably blowing a few minds among sufficiently impressionable and adequately chemicalized London youth at the time. Nice to hear Gilmour working it on out. This track is one of the more enjoyable extended Floyd offerings on record.

UCR Ranking (48 out of 167 songs): Between the hint of violence in the song title (whispered as a wild-eyed warning during the otherwise instrumental track) and the slowly encroaching tangle of Pink Floyd’s post-psych free-for-all, Careful with that Axe, Eugene is a sinister bit of sludge coughed up from the underworld. This little demon creeps along, builds in volume, makes its menacing stand and, finally, slinks away into the darkness to find new prey.

Louder Ranking (38 out of 50 songs): The seeds of Careful With That Axe, Eugene can be traced back to a couple of instrumental variants in the 12 months before it was officially released, namely Keep Smiling, People and Murderistic Woman. It would go through 2 more modifications later, firstly as Beset The Creatures Of The Deep and then, with a choir, as Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up, for the soundtrack of 1970’s counterculture film Zabriskie Point. The original studio version is a sublime improv jam, anchored by Waters’s bass. Wright’s organ lines meander freely, while Gilmour adds tasteful guitar. The song’s innate trippiness is further accentuated by the use of its title as a whispered motif, followed by Waters’s bedlam scream. This feels like a model of restraint, however, compared to the more voluble nine-minute live take on Ummagumma.

WMGK Ranking (27 out of 40 songs): Co-written by Roger Waters, Richard Wright, David Gilmour and Nick Mason, it was originally released as the b-side to Point Me At The Sky and later included on the Relics collection. But this live version, which adds three minutes of jamming, is more fearsome.

Billboard Ranking (15 out of 50 songs): A textbook acid-rock freakout, and much more effective with the live build on the Ummagumma version than in the more abbreviated form as the B-side to the largely forgettable Point Me at the Sky. You need those first three minutes of eerie falsetto, menacing organ and lightly plodding bass, before Waters offers the bad omen of the whisper title phrase, and the song absolutely explodes with his screaming — a hurricane howl that that would become a signature sonic element of the band in the decade to come. Somewhere, a young Alan Vega was taking careful notes.

That's it for today. Don't have the energy for any more writeups. Next up, another instrumental . . . just from many years later.

I had this at 11 on my list, which you may have missed.

In the late 90s, I had the great pleasure of being the play-by-play voice of a minor league hockey team in the WPHL. There was a player on the Alexandria, LA team named Robert Plante, and I would constantly make Led Zeppelin references whenever he was on the ice. He was Trampled Underskate, when he got checked. He gave No Quarter on defense and he was sent to the penalty box for a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time.

Next season a new team was formed in Corpus Christi and they had a player named Dave Gilmore. I made multiple Pink Floyd references in my broadcast, including my all-time favorite when he was assessed a five-minute major for high-sticking, "Careful With That Stick, Eugene." I doubt a single person listening got it, but I sure laughed at myself.

 

[Anarchy99]

I had this at 11 on my list, which you may have missed.

Hmmm . . . not sure what happened here. Your list does have CWTAE at 11. My database does not. I wonder if my database got corrupted somehow. I will have to interrogate my staff to see what happened here. I will report back the new rankings.

 

[Anarchy99]

Careful With That Axe, Eugene jumps up to #50 with the amended balloting totals. If people notice anything else askew about songs they voted / didn't vote for, LMK and I will make the proper adjustments.

 

[Grace Under Pressure]

#58 - Another Brick In The Wall (Part 3) from The Wall (1979)

Appeared On: 2 ballots (out of 33 . . . 6.1%)
Total Points: 23 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 2.8%)
Top Rankers: @Rand al Thor @Grace Under Pressure
Highest Ranking: 10

This song is a pretty integral component of the story, IMO, thus earning a ranking.

 

[jabarony]

Careful With That Axe, Eugene jumps up to #50 with the amended balloting totals. If people notice anything else askew about songs they voted / didn't vote for, LMK and I will make the proper adjustments.

It appears as if there were multiple votes not counted for The Narrow Way Pt 3. Obviously there wouldn't be just the one.

 

[Anarchy99]

Careful With That Axe, Eugene jumps up to #50 with the amended balloting totals. If people notice anything else askew about songs they voted / didn't vote for, LMK and I will make the proper adjustments.

It appears as if there were multiple votes not counted for The Narrow Way Pt 3. Obviously there wouldn't be just the one.

I checked the balloting. There were actually 8 people that voted for it, but 7 people gave it negative points. So what I listed was the total of all votes (positive and negative).

 

[Pip's Invitation]

#60 - Marooned from The Division Bell (1994)

Possibly the most "Floydian" track of anything on AMLOR or TDB.

#59 - The Narrow Way from Ummagumma (1969)

This is the best thing from the studio half of Ummagumma, which isn't a high bar to clear, but it's something. The acoustic picking on part 1 recalls Jimmy Page to my ears. Part 2 has a menacing riff and weird sound effects, but seems to foreshadow parts of Echoes. Part 3 has some of the elements that would define the band's sound from Meddle onwards -- mellow harmonies, keening slide guitar, stately but ambling rhythms. Gilmour's drumming sounds quite a bit like Nick Mason, which shouldn't be a surprise. One of the comments on the linked Youtube file states that this, not Echoes, is the beginning of the Floyd sound that everyone came to know, and I can see the point.

#58 - Another Brick In The Wall (Part 3) from The Wall (1979)

Maybe my favorite iteration of the ABITWs, because it's the hardest-edged of them, and because it represents a pivotal development for Pink.

 

[FatMax]

Is there anybody out there?

(page two rescue post)

 

[Yo Mama]

Is there anybody out there?

(page two rescue post)

(I nodded because I could hear you)

 

[Anarchy99]

#58 - Bike from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967)

Appeared On: 4 ballots (out of 33 . . . 12.1%)
Total Points: 24 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 2.9%)
Top Rankers: @New Binky the Doormat @Dr. Octopus @jabarony @Ghoti
Highest Ranking: 11

Live Performances:

PF: 3
NM: 156 (Live At The Roundtree)

Covers: P-Model, Television Personalities, Hotrats, Fortran 5, Harvette, Ty Segall, Yellow Melodies, Phish

Clearly one of the critics' faves (Top 5? Really?). Guitarist Syd Barrett wrote this for his girlfriend, Jenny Spires. In the song, Syd shows her his bike, which he borrowed. He also shows her his mouse named Gerald, a clan of gingerbread men and a cloak. At the end of the song, Syd takes her to his music room.

Piper At The Gates Of Dawn was the first Pink Floyd album and the only one dominated by Syd Barrett, who was booted from the band in 1968 when he became mentally impaired. The album title came from a chapter in the book Wind In The Willows, where The piper was Pan, the Greek god of music. Barrett was 18 when he met 15-year-old Jenny Spires in 1964. They started dating the following year, which is when he wrote Bike. Barrett would often create artwork and poetry for Spires, and "Bike" was his version of a love song. Spires recalled him being "very loving."

This song, the working title of which was simply The Bike Song, might be considered Syd's approximation of a love song — and it is certainly much more interesting than a traditional pop love song. The tune is a shy and endearing attempt on the part of the singer to share those things which are special to him (at least in the moment) — his bike, cloak, pet mouse, and gingerbread men — with the girl he loves, who he thinks fits in with his rag-tag world. The song starts out straightforward, but each subsequent verse becomes more disjointed and bizarre. For example, in the second verse, we are left to wonder if the singer doesn't know why his mouse named Gerald hasn't got a house, or if the singer doesn't know why he calls his mouse Gerald.

Though the actual sung lyric at the end of each chorus is 'I'll give you anything, everything, if you want thing,' it is supposed to be '...if you want things' — in other words, 'I'll give you what I have, if material things make you happy.' At the end of the song, Syd invites his girl into the 'other room' and the song segues into a bizarre mix of sound effects which may be intended to represent various sexual escapades — and if they do, one is struck dumb in wonderment at exactly what kind of sex could inspire such effects; some of which are musical, some of which sound like clockwork, as the lyric suggests, and some of which sound like a mad flock of geese on Barrett's drug of choice, LSD. On the other hand, the sounds may bear no relation to the rest of the song, merely a product of Syd's fragmented genius. Recorded on 21 May (during the time See Emily Play was also being produced), this was another song slashed from the US album release. It was re-released on the Relics compilation in 1971.

Drummer Nick Mason considers this one of Syd Barrett's best songs. "The lyrics to this are so very Syd, astonishingly clever," he told Rolling Stone. "It's fun, but there's a depth of sadness to them."

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 5
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 12
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 59
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): 17

Vulture Ranking (5 out of 165 songs): I think this is Barrett’s most touching song. Give it a cursory listen, and it’s just another nursery-rhyme-y account of his bizarre, if engaging, whimsicalities: “I know a mouse, and he hasn’t got a house / I don’t know why. I call him Gerald / He’s getting rather old, but he’s a good mouse.” Verses stop and go, speed up and slow down; the meter of the song is unclear and once in a while everything stops for a burst of something like white noise. But listen closer. This is a love song. “You’re the kind of girl who fits into my world,” Barrett sings, hopefully. This is how I live, Barrett is saying. Can you join me in it? An off-kilter song for off-kilter lovers, and exhibit A for the case that Barrett’s self-destruction, accidental or not, was a major tragedy for rock, as it was of course to the band itself. The record is clear that Barrett the person and Barrett the inspiration remained on the minds of all the Pink Floyd band members for the rest of his life and beyond. After the band had to leave him behind, Gilmour and Waters patiently assisted him trying to get a solo album together; this would be The Madcap Laughs, interesting but overrated. A second solo effort was even more difficult to birth. When a burst of royalties came in, Barrett would appear back in London to spend his money. Friends said he mostly just watched television and put on weight. He finally disappeared back to Cambridge permanently, apparently supported by his friends in the band, to be occasionally pursued by dogged fans. He died in 2006, reportedly from pancreatic cancer.

UCR Ranking (12 out of 167 songs): Watch a scripted movie or TV show with a child in it and notice how, at least 90 percent of the time, the creators get kids wrong. Invariably, they are more peculiar, lively, funny and interesting than they are portrayed. Barrett gets the kid’s eye perspective perfectly right on Bike, from their fascination with details (a basket, a bell and “things to make it look good”) to their humor (“I don’t know why I call him Gerald”) to their curious and generous spirit. The twist is that Syd combines this notion with the idea that he’s trying to wow a woman with an array of things (“if you want things”), drawing a parallel between a child’s need to impress an adult and a young man’s need to impress a potential girlfriend. The whole thing ends in a clatter of cranks and chimes, whistles and thumps – fun for boys and girls of all ages.

Billboard Ranking (17 out of 50 songs): The one song that seems to stick with everyone from their first listen to Piper, the childlike absurdity of its verses — which pays little attention to meter, rhymes when it feels like doing so, and wastes a verse on a “good mouse” named Gerald — making an unsettling contrast with the almost-coherent refrain: “You’re the kind of girl that fits into my world/ I’ll give you everything, anything, if you want things.” Then it dissolves into a cacophony of percussive scrapes and manic giggles. Like Barrett at large, near total anarchy, but with just enough of a whiff of something true at the center for fans to continue decoding the enigma 50 years later.

Moving on, someone's #2 selection . . . the last song performed live by the band . . . and a song that David Bowie made a guest appearance on during David's 2006 tour.

 

[Yo Mama]

#58 - Bike from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967)

Appeared On: 4 ballots (out of 33 . . . 12.1%)
Total Points: 24 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 2.9%)
Top Rankers: @New Binky the Doormat @Dr. Octopus @jabarony @Ghoti
Highest Ranking: 11

Live Performances:

PF: 31
RW: 451

Covers:

Clearly one of the critics' faves (Top 5? Really?).

guitarist Syd Barrett wrote this for his girlfriend, Jenny Spires. In the song, Syd shows her his bike, which he borrowed. He also shows her his mouse named Gerald, a clan of gingerbread men and a cloak. At the end of the song, Syd takes her to his music room.

Piper At The Gates Of Dawn was the first Pink Floyd album and the only one dominated by Syd Barrett, who was booted from the band in 1968 when he became mentally impaired. The album title came from a chapter in the book Wind In The Willows, where The piper was Pan, the Greek god of music. The album was digitally remastered and reissued in 2007

was 18 when he met 15-year-old Jenny Spires in 1964. They started dating the following year, which is when he wrote "Bike." Barrett would often create artwork and poetry for Spires, and "Bike" was his version of a love song. Spires recalled him being "very loving."

This song, the working title of which was simply The Bike Song, might be considered Syd's approximation of a love song — and it is certainly much more interesting than a traditional pop love song. The tune is a shy and endearing attempt on the part of the singer to share those things which are special to him (at least in the moment) — his bike, cloak, pet mouse, and gingerbread men — with the girl he loves, who he thinks fits in with his rag-tag world. The song starts out straightforward, but each subsequent verse becomes more disjointed and bizarre. For example, in the second verse, we are left to wonder if the singer doesn't know why his mouse named Gerald hasn't got a house, or if the singer doesn't know why he calls his mouse Gerald.

Though the actual sung lyric at the end of each chorus is 'I'll give you anything, everything, if you want thing,' it is supposed to be '...if you want things' — in other words, 'I'll give you what I have, if material things make you happy.' At the end of the song, Syd invites his girl into the 'other room' and the song segues into a bizarre mix of sound effects which may be intended to represent various sexual escapades — and if they do, one is struck dumb in wonderment at exactly what kind of sex could inspire such effects; some of which are musical, some of which sound like clockwork, as the lyric suggests, and some of which sound like a mad flock of geese on Barrett's drug of choice, LSD. On the other hand, the sounds may bear no relation to the rest of the song, merely a product of Syd's fragmented genius. Recorded on 21 May (during the time See Emily Play was also being produced), this was another song slashed from the US album release. It was re-released on the Relics compilation in 1971.




Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 5
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 12
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 59
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): 17

Vulture Ranking (5 out of 165 songs): I think this is Barrett’s most touching song. Give it a cursory listen, and it’s just another nursery-rhyme-y account of his bizarre, if engaging, whimsicalities: “I know a mouse, and he hasn’t got a house / I don’t know why. I call him Gerald / He’s getting rather old, but he’s a good mouse.” Verses stop and go, speed up and slow down; the meter of the song is unclear and once in a while everything stops for a burst of something like white noise. But listen closer. This is a love song. “You’re the kind of girl who fits into my world,” Barrett sings, hopefully. This is how I live, Barrett is saying. Can you join me in it? An off-kilter song for off-kilter lovers, and exhibit A for the case that Barrett’s self-destruction, accidental or not, was a major tragedy for rock, as it was of course to the band itself. The record is clear that Barrett the person and Barrett the inspiration remained on the minds of all the Pink Floyd band members for the rest of his life and beyond. After the band had to leave him behind, Gilmour and Waters patiently assisted him trying to get a solo album together; this would be The Madcap Laughs, interesting but overrated. A second solo effort was even more difficult to birth. When a burst of royalties came in, Barrett would appear back in London to spend his money. Friends said he mostly just watched television and put on weight. He finally disappeared back to Cambridge permanently, apparently supported by his friends in the band, to be occasionally pursued by dogged fans. He died in 2006, reportedly from pancreatic cancer.

UCR Ranking (12 out of 167 songs): Watch a scripted movie or TV show with a child in it and notice how, at least 90 percent of the time, the creators get kids wrong. Invariably, they are more peculiar, lively, funny and interesting than they are portrayed. Barrett gets the kid’s eye perspective perfectly right on Bike, from their fascination with details (a basket, a bell and “things to make it look good”) to their humor (“I don’t know why I call him Gerald”) to their curious and generous spirit. The twist is that Syd combines this notion with the idea that he’s trying to wow a woman with an array of things (“if you want things”), drawing a parallel between a child’s need to impress an adult and a young man’s need to impress a potential girlfriend. The whole thing ends in a clatter of cranks and chimes, whistles and thumps – fun for boys and girls of all ages.

Billboard Ranking (17 out of 50 songs): The one song that seems to stick with everyone from their first listen to Piper, the childlike absurdity of its verses — which pays little attention to meter, rhymes when it feels like doing so, and wastes a verse on a “good mouse” named Gerald — making an unsettling contrast with the almost-coherent refrain: “You’re the kind of girl that fits into my world/ I’ll give you everything, anything, if you want things.” Then it dissolves into a cacophony of percussive scrapes and manic giggles. Like Barrett at large, near total anarchy, but with just enough of a whiff of something true at the center for fans to continue decoding the enigma 50 years later.

When I pulled up this video I got an add for Peloton beforehand - talk about targeted advertising.

 

[Galileo]

#58 - Bike from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967)

I don't think any of my list has been revealed yet, but we are starting to target my "near miss" list more often. I guess I must be pretty chalky. I think TPATGOD flies under the radar a little bit, for me at least. I became a Pink Floyd fan as I was coming of age in the 80's, and just never really dug into their early catalog much at all. My familiarity with the earliest stuff is rather limited as I did not own the albums and this stuff wasn't getting radio play in my neck of the woods. This song, as well as a few others from this album, fell just outside of my top 25 range, but I thoroughly enjoy it.

ETA: Thread title needs to catch up...

 

[Anarchy99]

I don't think any of my list has been revealed yet.

IIRC, you are one of 4 people with no songs in the Bottom 50.

 

[Anarchy99]

#55-T - Arnold Layne from Single (1967)

Appeared On: 4 ballots (out of 33 . . . 12.1%)
Total Points: 24 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 3.1%)
Top Rankers: @Mookie Gizzy @PIK95
Highest Ranking: 2

Live Performances:

PF: 19 (Copenhagen - 1967) (Alternate Version) (Cambridge - 1967)
DG'S PF: 1 (London - 2007-05-10, Rehearsal - 2007-05-10)
DG: 11 (With David Bowie)
NM: 157 (Roundhouse)

Covers: Tables, Arjen Anthony Lucassen, Boomtown Rats, The Damned, A Doll's House, Kid Loco, Etienne Daho, Wondermints, Rosebud,

The song's title character is a transvestite whose strange hobby is stealing women's lingerie and undergarments from washing lines. Arnold Layne was actually based on a real person. Roger: "Both my mother and Syd's mother had students as lodgers because there was a girls' college up the road so there were constantly great lines of bras and knickers on our washing lines and Arnold or whoever he was, had bits off our washing lines. They never caught him. He stopped doing it after a bit — when things got too hot for him."

Mason: "It's hard to describe the complete open madness of us at that time. We had no idea what was going on. We knew we wanted to be rock stars. We wanted to make singles so we thought Arnold Layne was great. It seemed the most suitable to condense into 3 minutes without losing much. It was created to make the Floyd a hit parade band. We were interested in the business of being a pop group — successful, money, cars, good living. That's the reason most people get involved in rock music, because they want that sort of success. If you don't, you get involved in something else."

After Arnold Layne and Candy and a Currant Bun, were completed, EMI gave PF an advance of £5000. In promotional materials to accompany the single, the label wrote: "Pink Floyd does not know what people mean by psychedelic pop and are not trying to cause hallucinatory effects on their audience." Radio London banned Arnold Layne, since it was about a man who steals women's undergarments. The far more conservative BBC played it. Mason said the band didn't really want Arnold Layne as their first single: "We were asked to record 6 numbers, pick out the best two, then find a recording company that would accept them. We recorded the first two, and all the record companies wanted the disc." By the time Arnold Layne was released, we had already progressed and changed our ideas about what a good hit record should be. We tried to stop it being released but we couldn't. Still, it doesn't matter now."

Arnold Layne became the bookends of Pink Floyd. It was their first song . . . and their final performance. On May 10, 2007, there was a tribute show after the passing of Barrett. The organizers asked Gilmour if the band would be interested in performing, and Dave respectfully declined to perform but said they would attend. Roger Waters played one of his solo songs. Another request was made to DG, and this time they agreed. As the story goes, the trio was not adverse to have Roger Waters join them, but he had left the venue right after his performance. The band did a brief run through back stage and then came out as the final act to play Arnold Layne . . . sung by Rick Wright. Gilmour had revived the song for his several shows on his 2006 tour. David Bowie sang lead on one of the London dates . . . which proved to be his last live performance.

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 21
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 22
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 40
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): 33
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 43
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): 30

Vulture Ranking (21 out of 165 songs): This is the band’s first single, released just before Sgt. Pepper. This is one of a handful of quintessential Syd songs, but it was something not of a piece with the sounds the band was developing (or rather, had developed) in its performances in the underground scene of London at the time. The single’s aesthetics are somewhat unstable. It’s a very merry tale of a guy who goes around stealing women’s undergarments (I’m sorry, “pinching knickers””) off his neighbors’ clotheslines. There’s a pretty radical video. Barrett fans point to this and See Emily Play as evidence of Barrett’s pop brilliance, but I think they are confusing genius with promise. I don’t know if this is as good as Happy Jack or In The Year 2525.

UCR Ranking (22 out of 167 songs): At three minutes long, Arnold Layne is a world away from the jammed-out live version (and a whole universe removed from the Floyd’s ’70s aesthetic). But the band’s debut established Barrett’s melodic ability and curiosity for fringe characters – a transvestite who snags women’s clothing from laundry lines. The pop gem is weird, catchy and psychedelic in its use of echo and Wright’s organ break. Although Floyd would morph a time or two, the first version of this band was pretty potent.

Louder Ranking (40 out of 50 songs): When Waters told Barrett about a knicker-stealing local pervert who had troubled his mother’s washing-line, the band leader dreamt up a slice of psychedelia, equal parts whimsical and sinister. Barrett’s mannered vocal and Wright’s brilliantly smudged organ led the Floyd’s debut single to UK#20 – despite a partial radio ban. “We can’t think what they’re so perturbed about,” sniffed Waters. “It’s a song about a clothes fetishist who’s obviously a bit kinked."

WMGK Ranking (33 out of 40 songs): The band’s first single, it was written by Syd Barrett. It was about a transvestite who enjoyed stealing women’s clothing - specifically, lingerie. Waters has said that it was based on a real person.

Billboard Ranking (30 out of 50 songs): The first Pink Floyd A-side, a catchy third-person character study that was too warped, inside-jokey and musically unpredictable for anyone to possibly mistake it for the Kinks. Probably hard to guess from this one that its creators would go on to sell over 250 million records worldwide, but by the time it got to its classic closing couplet — "Arnold Layne / Don’t do it a-gain!” — you had to know something was up with these guys.

Up next, another sandwich or lead in song which won't ever be played on it's own.

 

[PIK95]

I'm guessing....On the Run?

Bike was in my original 25, but I had to bump it out unfortunately.

 

[Anarchy99]

#55-T - The Happiest Days Of Our Lives (1979)

Appeared On: 2 ballots (out of 33 . . . 12.1%)
Total Points: 26 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 3.2%)
Top Rankers: @Rand al Thor @Grace Under Pressure
Highest Ranking: 10

Demo, Another Demo, Another Demo (May be the same as one of the others), Film Version

Live Performances:

PF: 31 (London - 1981
RW: 749 (1990, 2000, 2015, 2018)

Covers: Rafter, Sergeant Thunderhoof, Vinnie Coliauta, William Irvine

I pushed for this one to be merged with ABITW2, but it didn't end up going that way. I made ABITW1, THDOOL, and ABITW2 one track on all my devices, and THDOOL is basically a standalone fragment that doesn't make a lot of sense on its own. C'est la vie. ABITW2 is one of the most played rock songs, and it's been estimated that 40% of the time radio stations have played THDOOL in conjunction with ABITW2 . . . making Happiest Days a heavy air play song (even though it will never be played on its own).

When the complete album was played for a group of executives at Columbia’s headquarters in California, several were reportedly not impressed by what they heard. In the movie based on the album, the sound at the beginning of the song is depicted as coming from a train entering a large tunnel, rather than a helicopter heard on the album.

The song is about how the now school-age Pink sees the contempt certain teachers have for their students and the rumors “around the town” (realistically, more like between the other schoolchildren — you remember grade school) about those teachers’ dark and suppressed home life. Pink seems to take glee in the thought that the teacher is probably as miserable at home as he makes his students at school. In the DVD commentary for the movie version of The Wall, Roger Waters admits to having teachers like the one we see punishing Pink.

The Happiest Days Of Our Lives was not on Roger Waters’ original Wall demo tape and was added to the storyboard later. Roger said the idea for the album came concurrently with the idea for The Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking, "I wrote both pieces at roughly the same time. I made demo tapes of them both — and presented both demo tapes to the rest of the Floyd, and said, ‘Look, I’m going to do one of these as a solo project and we’ll do one as a band album, and you can choose."

Roger: "The idea for The Wall came from 10 years of touring, rock shows, particularly the last few years in '75 and in '77. We played to very large audiences, some of whom were our old audience who'd come to see us play, but most of whom were only there for the beer, in big stadiums, and, consequently it became rather an alienating experience doing the shows. I became very conscious of a wall between us and our audience and so this record started out as being an expression of those feelings. The story was been developed considerably since then, this was two years ago, I started to write it, and now it's partly about a live show situation — in fact the album starts off in a live show, and then it flashes back and traces a story of a character, if you like of Pink himself, whoever he may be. But initially it just stemmed from shows being horrible."

Due to the space limitations of albums, several songs were shortened and others had to be cut from the album altogether including:

What Shall I Do Now
Sexual Revolution
The Last Few Bricks (Already on the countdown)
Death Disco
Is There Anybody Out There? (Reprise) and (Another Reprise)
Overture For Comfortably Numb
It’s Never Too Late
The Final Cut (Already listed)
Teacher/ One Of The Few

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 11
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 73
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): 6
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 41
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR

Vulture Ranking (11 out of 165 songs): An absolutely awesome intro to ABITW2 and by far Waters’s greatest fragment. This is also the point at which Waters gave up and took ownership of his throttled squeak of a cartoony voice. Life isn’t fair; Waters probably deserved a voice to put across his best songs; instead he had this narrow, theatrical thing, which could at least find a place articulating the thoughts of some of the morally throttled characters in The Wall. The ending Sweeney Todd–like whistle works fabulously. ABITW2, incidentally, is one of the most-played rock songs on American radio over the past nearly 40 years; this intro is played with it about half the time, making it played on the radio more than all but a few classics from bands like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

UCR Ranking (73 out of 167 songs): Whether this reflects Pink’s or Roger’s opinions on mothers or wives, it’s troubling that there’s always a woman to blame for the mental issues explored behind The Wall. Even the bullying teachers’ behavior gets chalked up to their “fat and psychopathic wives” on this track, which is really an extended intro for “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).” But what an intro, with the sounds of ominous helicopter and vicious cackling, Waters’ poison poetry and Mason’s thunderous transition of a drum solo.

Coming up, it's high time we say goodbye to the More soundtrack.

 

[FatMax]

I pushed for this one to be merged with ABITW2, but it didn't end up going that way

As much as many songs on the Wall are very dependent on each other, to me , Happiest Days of Our Lives and ABITW2 are as inseparable as Brain Damage and Eclipse. Totally agree with you on this point.

 

[zamboni]

I pushed for this one to be merged with ABITW2, but it didn't end up going that way.

Some were pouring their derision upon everything you did.

 

[Anarchy99]

#55-T - Cymbaline from More (1969)
Appeared On: 3 ballots (out of 33 . . . 9.1%)
Total Points: 26 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 3.2%)
Top Rankers: @Mookie Gizzy @zamboni @Pip's Invitation
Highest Ranking: 14

Film Version, Extended Version, Live Version

Live Performances:

PF: 141

Covers: Hawkwind, Hubert Laws, RPWL, Permanent Clear Light, Jacklyn Slimm, Aurisha, SLACKS

Considered the highlight of More the album, Roger Waters has said that Cymbaline is "about a nightmare." In fact, it would be incorporated into The Man suite later in 1969 in that context. A great song lyrically and musically, it seems that the nightmare is about being caught up in the music business machine, one of Roger's first songs about this subject. Roger likens the effort of putting together a rhyming lyric for a song to walking a tightrope, while 'the ravens' — those who want to feast off one's success and laugh at one's failure — watch every step hungrily. And when the ravens are 'closing in,' one's manager and agent are only worried about making more money. The lyrics of the third verse are more obscure, yet still striking. Dr. Strange was a popular comics hero at the time due to his mystical abilities rooted in ancient magics (such as the ability to traverse other dimensions and change his size at will), but his relevance to the song is unknown. Perhaps, if Cymbaline is about an actual nightmare, the third verse simply reflects the surreality and free association that occurs in dreams.

Unlike most More songs, the film version of this song is not the same as the album. It is a completely different recording, in a higher key and with different lyrics as well. Nick Mason's first wife is credited for playing woodwinds and flute on the song. Mason, by the way, contends to this day that the only reason he was invited to join the band was due to the fact that he owned a car (they were poor college age kids back then) and Roger wanted to use it all the time.

The live performance of the piece, which lasted into 1971, was something else entirely. It was used to very effectively demonstrate the band's quadraphonic sound system. Near the end of the song, the music would stop and a tape would play. The footsteps of a man could be heard, beginning at one corner of the hall, and appearing to walk full circle around the auditorium, the man opening and closing doors as he went. When the footsteps had gone completely round, the final door was opened, behind which lay an explosion — and the rest of the song. It was probably the most highly directional use of sound that existed at the time, though it loses its appeal on stereo or mono bootleg recordings. The Floyd continued their interest in directional soundthe rest of their time together.

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 46
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 62
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): NR
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): 37

Vulture Ranking (46 out of 165 songs): A standout from the More soundtrack, which works well in the party scene. Great melody! Nothing Shakespearian here, though; in fact, the lyrics could have been written by Christopher Guest, not Marlowe: Apprehension creeping / Like a tube-train up your spine / Will the tightrope reach the end / Will the final couplet rhyme. (It’s one of those “creeping” subways, I guess, and what exactly was the tightrope supposed to be doing?) But it’s a focused and memorable chorus, and sung powerfully. Ends with two minutes of noodling.

UCR Ranking (62 out of 167 songs): Try as he might, Waters couldn’t match Barrett’s ability to throw together fantastical and humdrum references and reveal a psychedelic dreamscape on the other side of the tunnel. Yet this nightmare (with bongos!) lands on some memorable imagery (“a tube train up your spine”) while exposing the songwriter’s worst fears: heights and ravens, music managers and agents. Plus, as a lead singer, Gilmour’s knack for nuance was already increasing.

Billboard Ranking (37 out of 50 songs): A sublime song about a nightmare: Over sweet-sounding Farfisa organ and lush bass and bongos, Gilmour sings “The ravens all are closing in/ And there’s nowhere you can hide,” before unveiling the song’s true villains: “Your manager and agent are both busy on the phone/ Selling colored photographs to magazines back home.” Welcome to the machine, boys.

Coming up, one of @Ghost Rider 's Top 10 selections.

 

[zamboni]

Big fan of Cymballine - had it ranked #18. One of the newer additions to my Floyd favorites - has a real ethereal feel and Dave’s voice soars.

Interesting live performance at an old church in 1970. The sophisticated churchgoers probably had no idea what they were about to hear.

 

[DocHolliday]

#55-T - The Happiest Days Of Our Lives (1979)

Appeared On: 2 ballots (out of 33 . . . 12.1%)
Total Points: 26 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 3.2%)
Top Rankers: @Rand al Thor @Grace Under Pressure
Highest Ranking: 10

Demo, Another Demo, Another Demo (May be the same as one of the others), Film Version

Live Performances:i

PF: 31 (London - 1981
RW: 749 (1990, 2000, 2015, 2018)

Covers: Rafter, Sergeant Thunderhoof, Vinnie Coliauta, William Irvine

I pushed for this one to be merged with ABITW2, but it didn't end up going that way. I made ABITW1, THDOOL, and ABITW2 one track on all my devices, and THDOOL is basically a standalone fragment that doesn't make a lot of sense on its own. C'est la vie. ABITW2 is one of the most played rock songs, and it's been estimated that 40% of the time radio stations have played THDOOL in conjunction with ABITW2 . . . making Happiest Days a heavy air play song (even though it will never be played on its own).

When the complete album was played for a group of executives at Columbia’s headquarters in California, several were reportedly not impressed by what they heard. In the movie based on the album, the sound at the beginning of the song is depicted as coming from a train entering a large tunnel, rather than a helicopter heard on the album.

The song is about how the now school-age Pink sees the contempt certain teachers have for their students and the rumors “around the town” (realistically, more like between the other schoolchildren — you remember grade school) about those teachers’ dark and suppressed home life. Pink seems to take glee in the thought that the teacher is probably as miserable at home as he makes his students at school. In the DVD commentary for the movie version of The Wall, Roger Waters admits to having teachers like the one we see punishing Pink.

The Happiest Days Of Our Lives was not on Roger Waters’ original Wall demo tape and was added to the storyboard later. Roger said the idea for the album came concurrently with the idea for The Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking, "I wrote both pieces at roughly the same time. I made demo tapes of them both — and presented both demo tapes to the rest of the Floyd, and said, ‘Look, I’m going to do one of these as a solo project and we’ll do one as a band album, and you can choose."

Roger: "The idea for The Wall came from 10 years of touring, rock shows, particularly the last few years in '75 and in '77. We played to very large audiences, some of whom were our old audience who'd come to see us play, but most of whom were only there for the beer, in big stadiums, and, consequently it became rather an alienating experience doing the shows. I became very conscious of a wall between us and our audience and so this record started out as being an expression of those feelings. The story was been developed considerably since then, this was two years ago, I started to write it, and now it's partly about a live show situation — in fact the album starts off in a live show, and then it flashes back and traces a story of a character, if you like of Pink himself, whoever he may be. But initially it just stemmed from shows being horrible."

Due to the space limitations of albums, several songs were shortened and others had to be cut from the album altogether including:

What Shall I Do Now
Sexual Revolution
The Last Few Bricks (Already on the countdown)
Death Disco
Is There Anybody Out There? (Reprise) and (Another Reprise)
Overture For Comfortably Numb
It’s Never Too Late
The Final Cut (Already listed)
Teacher/ One Of The Few

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 11
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 73
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): 6
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 41
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR

Vulture Ranking (11 out of 165 songs): An absolutely awesome intro to ABITW2 and by far Waters’s greatest fragment. This is also the point at which Waters gave up and took ownership of his throttled squeak of a cartoony voice. Life isn’t fair; Waters probably deserved a voice to put across his best songs; instead he had this narrow, theatrical thing, which could at least find a place articulating the thoughts of some of the morally throttled characters in The Wall. The ending Sweeney Todd–like whistle works fabulously. ABITW2, incidentally, is one of the most-played rock songs on American radio over the past nearly 40 years; this intro is played with it about half the time, making it played on the radio more than all but a few classics from bands like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

UCR Ranking (73 out of 167 songs): Whether this reflects Pink’s or Roger’s opinions on mothers or wives, it’s troubling that there’s always a woman to blame for the mental issues explored behind The Wall. Even the bullying teachers’ behavior gets chalked up to their “fat and psychopathic wives” on this track, which is really an extended intro for “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).” But what an intro, with the sounds of ominous helicopter and vicious cackling, Waters’ poison poetry and Mason’s thunderous transition of a drum solo.

Coming up, it's high time we say goodbye to the More soundtrack.

This is a great, brief song that fits so well on the album. Love the drums. PF nailed this. It’s a home run.

 

[Anarchy99]

I was hoping for a little more engagement and participation than me just posting write ups and one or two people making a comment. Not sure how to spark some discussion in here.

 

[Dwayne Hoover]

I was hoping for a little more engagement and participation than me just posting write ups and one or two people making a comment. Not sure how to spark some discussion in here.

Been a little busy with work but really appreciate the writeups and all the different versions that you post. I've got some work to do in checking a lot of them out