| Meddle | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 5 November 1971 | |||
| Recorded | 4 January – 11 September 1971[1] | |||
| Studio | AIR,EMI, andMorgan, London | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 46:47 | |||
| Label | Harvest | |||
| Producer | Pink Floyd | |||
| Pink Floyd chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Meddle | ||||
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Meddle is the sixth studio album by the English rock bandPink Floyd, released byHarvest Records on 5 November 1971 in the United Kingdom.[3] The album was produced between the band's touring commitments, from January to August 1971 at a series of locations around London, including EMI Studios (nowAbbey Road Studios) andMorgan Studios.
With no material to work with and no clear idea of the album's direction, the band devised a series of novel experiments which eventually inspired the album's signature track "Echoes". Although the band's later albums would be unified by a central theme chosen byRoger Waters, and thematically consistent lyrics written entirely by Waters,Meddle was a group effort with Waters contributing primarily to the lyrics and the bass. It is considered a transitional album between theSyd Barrett-influenced group of the 1960s and the Waters-led era of the 1970s.[4] Fans often refer to this album, especially "Echoes", as the first instance of the group achieving their musical potential.
As with several previous albums, the cover was designed byHipgnosis, and has been explained by its creatorStorm Thorgerson – who was unhappy with the final result – to be an ear underwater. The album was well received by critics upon its release, and was commercially successful in the United Kingdom, but lacklustre publicity on the part of the band's American labelCapitol Records led to poor sales in the US upon initial release.
Returning from a series of tours across America and England in support ofAtom Heart Mother, at the start of 1971Pink Floyd commenced work on new material at EMI Studios (nowAbbey Road Studios) in London.[5] At the time, EMI was equipped only with eight-trackmultitrack recording facilities, which the band found insufficient for the increasing technical demands of their project. They transferred their best efforts, including the opening of what became "Echoes", to 16-track tape at smaller studios in London (namelyAIR, andMorgan inWest Hampstead) and resumed work with the advantage of more flexible recording equipment. EngineersJohn Leckie andPeter Bown recorded the main EMI and AIR sessions, while for minor work at Morgan, Rob Black and Roger Quested handled the engineering duties.[6]
Lacking a central theme for the project, the band used several experimental methods in an attempt to spur the creative process. One exercise involved each member playing on a separate track, with no reference to what the other members were doing. The tempo was entirely random while the band played around an agreed chord structure, and moods such as "first two minutes romantic, next two up tempo". Each recorded section was named, but the process was largely unproductive; after several weeks, no complete songs had been created.[7]
Leckie had worked on albums such asGeorge Harrison'sAll Things Must Pass andRingo Starr'sSentimental Journey both in 1970, and was employed as a tape-operator onMeddle, partly for his proclivity for working into the early hours of the morning. He has said that Pink Floyd's sessions would often begin in the afternoon, and end early the next morning, "during which time nothing would get done. There was no record company contact whatsoever, except when their label manager would show up now and again with a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of joints."[8] The band would apparently spend long periods of time working on simple sounds, or a particular guitar riff. They also spent several days at AIR attempting to create music using a variety of household objects, a project which would be revisited between their next albums,The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) andWish You Were Here (1975).[9]
Following these early experiments – calledNothings – the band developedSon of Nothings, which was followed byReturn of the Son of Nothings as the working title of the new album, which ultimately evolved into "Echoes".[7]
Meddle was recorded between the band's various concert commitments, and therefore its production was spread over a considerable period of time.[6] The band recorded in the first half of April 1971, but in the latter half played atDoncaster andNorwich before returning to record at the end of the month. In May they split their time between sessions at EMI, and rehearsals and concerts in London,Lancaster,Stirling, Edinburgh,Glasgow andNottingham. June and July were spent mainly performing at venues across Europe.[6][10] August was spent in the far east and Australia, September in Europe, and October to November in the US.[6] In the same period, the group also producedRelics, a compilation album of some of Pink Floyd's earlier works.[11] A mix of the album was prepared at Command Studios on 21 and 26 September.[12] New 2016 stereo and 5.1 mixes of the album were inadvertently released as hidden tracks on theReverber/ationBlu-ray disc inThe Early Years 1965–1972 box set.[13]
Although the tracks possess a variety of moods,Meddle is generally considered more cohesive than its 1970 predecessor,Atom Heart Mother.[14] The largely instrumental "One of These Days" is followed by "A Pillow of Winds", which is distinguished by being one of the fewquiet,acoustic love songs in the Pink Floyd catalogue. These two songs segue into each other across windy sound effects, anticipating the technique that would later be used onWish You Were Here. The title of "A Pillow of Winds" was inspired by the games ofMahjong thatRoger Waters,Nick Mason, and their wivesJudith Trim and Lindy Rutter played while in the south of France.[15]
"One of These Days" was developed around anostinatobassline created by Roger Waters, by feeding the output through aBinson Echorec. The bassline was performed by Waters andDavid Gilmour using two bass guitars, one on old strings. Drummer Nick Mason's abstruse "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces" vocal line was recorded at double speed using afalsetto voice, and replayed at normal speed.[16]
The song "Fearless" includesfield recordings ofLiverpool F.C. fans in theAnfieldKop singing club anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone", which brings the song to an end in a heavilyreverberatedfade-out. "San Tropez", by contrast, is ajazz-inflected pop song with ashuffle tempo, written by Waters in his increasingly deployed style of breezy, off-the-cuff songwriting. The song was inspired by the band's trip to the south of France in 1970. Pink Floyd uncharacteristically displayed their sense of humour with "Seamus", a pseudo-blues novelty track featuringSteve Marriott's dog Seamus (whom Gilmour was dog-sitting) howling along to the music.[15][nb 1] Although "Seamus" often tops polls of the worst songs Pink Floyd ever created, the band would use animal sounds again on the 1977 albumAnimals (albeit as part of the concept of the album).[17]
The final song on the album is the 23-minute "Echoes". First performed as "Return of the Son of Nothing" on 22 April 1971 in Norwich,[18] the band spent about three months on the track in three studios (Morgan, AIR and EMI).[19] "Echoes" began with a studio experiment involvingRichard Wright's piano. Wright had fed a single note through aLeslie speaker, producing a submarine-likeping. The band tried repeatedly to recreate this sound in the studio but were unsuccessful, and so the demo version was used on what would later become "Echoes",[7] mixed almost exclusively at AIR Studios.[20] Combined with David Gilmour's guitar, the band were able to develop the track further, experimenting with accidentalsound effects, such as Gilmour's guitar being plugged into awah-wah pedal back to front (connecting the guitar to the pedal's output and the pedal's input to the amplifier), an effect they used live from 1970 for the central section of “Embryo”. Unlike withAtom Heart Mother, the new multi-track capabilities of the studio enabled them to create the track in stages, rather than performing it in a single take. The final, 23-minute piece would eventually take up the entire second side of the album.[21]
"Echoes" also gave its name to the 2001 compilation albumEchoes: The Best of Pink Floyd, on which a much-edited version of the title track was included. On the compilation, multiple edits throughout the entire song cut the running length of the piece down by some seven minutes. Some of the material composed during the creation ofMeddle was not used; however, one song would eventually become "Brain Damage", onThe Dark Side of the Moon.[14][22]
The album's titleMeddle is a play on words: a medal, and to interfere.[17]Storm Thorgerson of the art-design groupHipgnosis originally suggested a close-up shot of a baboon's anus for the album cover photograph. He was overruled by the band, who informed him via an intercontinental telephone call while on tour in Japan that they would rather have "an ear underwater".[23] The cover image was photographed by Bob Dowling. The image represents an ear, underwater, collecting waves of sound (represented by ripples in the water).[17] Thorgerson later expressed dissatisfaction with the cover, claiming it to be his least favourite Pink Floyd album sleeve: "I thinkMeddle is a much better album than its cover".[24] Thorgerson's colleagueAubrey Powell shared his sentiments, saying: "Meddle was a mess. I hated that cover. I don't think we did them justice with that at all; it's half-hearted."[25] Thegatefold contains a group photograph of the band, which would be their last until 1987'sA Momentary Lapse of Reason.[24]
Meddle was released on 5 November 1971.[26] It was later released as anLP byMobile Fidelity Sound Lab,[27] and in April 1989 on their "Ultradisc" gold CD format.[28] The album was included as part of the box setShine On on 2 November 1992.[nb 2][30]
It reached number three on theUK Albums Chart, but lacklustre publicity on the part ofCapitol Records led to weak sales in the US, and a chart position of number 70 on theBillboard 200.[31][32] "Pink Floyd had a strong following in the UK and other parts of Europe," recalledRupert Perry, then head ofA&R at Capitol. "But they needed to be bigger in the United States, where they were only doing 200,000 units. They were very much an album act – no singles – which was bad news for us. They had a high credibility factor without the sales."[33]
On 29 November 1971, "One of These Days" was released as a7-inch single in the US, with "Fearless" on the B-side.[34] "One of These Days" and "Echoes" were performed in the 1972 concert filmLive at Pompeii (the latter in two parts) and also on theBBC's 1971In Concert.[35][36]Meddle was certifiedgold by theRIAA on 29 October 1973 and then double platinum on 11 March 1994, following the added attention garnered by the band's later successes in the United States.[37]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [38] |
| Christgau's Record Guide | B−[39] |
| The Daily Telegraph |  [40] |
| MusicHound Rock | 3/5[41] |
| Paste | 8.8/10[42] |
| Pitchfork | 9.0/10[43] |
| Q | [44] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [45] |
On release,Meddle received generally positive reviews frommusic critics.[46]Rolling Stone's Jean-Charles Costa wrote: "Meddle not only confirms lead guitarist David Gilmour's emergence as a real shaping force with the group, it states forcefully and accurately that the group is well into the growth track again",[47] and theNME called it "an exceptionally good album".[48] Steve Peterson ofHit Parader cited "Fearless" as its best song and said of the album, "This has got to be their best ever."[46] Ed Kelleher ofCircus called it "another masterpiece by a masterful group", noting "Fearless" as "fascinating" and praising "Echoes" as "atone poem that allows all four band members much time to stretch their muscles".[46] However,Melody Maker was more reserved, describing the album as "a soundtrack to a non-existent movie".[48]
InChristgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981),Robert Christgau saidMeddle was a fairly good progression over the group's previous work and featuredfolk songs highlighted by unique melodies, although he lamented the lyrics to "A Pillow of Winds": "The word 'behold' should never cross their filters again". In his critique of "Echoes", he believed the vocal melody imitates "Across the Universe" bythe Beatles but over 23 minutes of music that flows with a "timeless calm" similar to "Interstellar Overdrive".[39] Daryl Easlea of the BBC felt it was a similar, but more consistent and tuneful version ofAtom Heart Mother, highlighted by "Echoes", which he said "dominates the entire work" and is "everything right aboutprogressive rock; engaging, intelligent and compelling".[49] InThe New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004),Rob Sheffield said "Echoes" showed Pink Floyd to be a more developed group than before, "coloring the slow guitar ripples with deep-in-the-studio sonic details that only the truly baked would notice, much less appreciate."[45] Writing forAllMusic, editorStephen Thomas Erlewine calledMeddle the best album from their transitional years leading up toThe Dark Side of the Moon, as it "spends most of its time with sonic textures and elongated compositions, most notably on its epic closer, 'Echoes'". He noted a "uniform tone", but not song structure, and wrote of the album's significance in the band's catalogue: "Pink Floyd were nothing if not masters of texture, andMeddle is one of their greatest excursions into little details, pointing the way to the measured brilliance of[The] Dark Side of the Moon and the entire Roger Waters era."[38]
The album was voted number 255 in the third edition ofColin Larkin'sAll Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).[50]
A short concert tour ran from October to November 1971 to promote the album in the United States and Canada, which was the most extensive tour the group had done to that point. The tour was booked by Allen Frey, who continued to organise North American tours for the group throughout the 1970s.[12]
Some of the album's material had been played in earlier shows and the practice of playing songs before their official release later became a tradition for the group. The set list on the tour was varied, with the band playing material from their previous albumsA Saucerful of Secrets,More, andAtom Heart Mother, plus the new album. The tour was the final time "Embryo", "Fat Old Sun" and "Cymbaline" were played live by the band.[51]
All lead vocals byDavid Gilmour, except where noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "One of These Days" | instrumental[nb 3] | 5:57 | |
| 2. | "A Pillow of Winds" |
| 5:13 | |
| 3. | "Fearless" (including "You'll Never Walk Alone") |
| 6:08 | |
| 4. | "San Tropez" | Waters | Waters | 3:44 |
| 5. | "Seamus" |
| 2:15 | |
| Total length: | 23:17 | |||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6. | "Echoes" |
| Gilmour and Wright | 23:30 |
| Total length: | 23:30 (46:47) | |||
Credits adapted from sleeve notes.[53] Track numbers noted in parentheses below are based on CD track numbering.
| Chart (1971) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[56] | 24 |
| Belgian Albums (HUMO)[57] | 10 |
| Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[58] | 51 |
| Danish Albums (IFPI)[57] | 6 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen Virallinen)[59] | 22 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[60] | 2 |
| Italian Albums (Discografia Internazionale)[57] | 11 |
| Spanish Albums (AFE)[61] | 21 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[62] | 3 |
| USBillboard 200[63] | 70 |
| Chart (1972) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Albums[64] | 4 |
| French Albums (D'Information et de Documentation Du Disque)[64] | 7 |
| Italian Albums (Discografia Internazionale)[64] | 7 |
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| French Albums (SNEP)[65] | 69 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[66] | 76 |
| Chart (2016) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[67] | 36 |
| Chart (2019) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Polish Albums (ZPAV)[68] | 34 |
| Chart (1972) | Position |
|---|---|
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[69] | 19 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| France (SNEP)[70] | 2× Gold | 200,000* |
| Germany (BVMI)[71] | Gold | 250,000^ |
| Italy (FIMI)[72] | Gold | 25,000* |
| Japan | — | 70,000[73] |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[74] 1993 release | Gold | 100,000^ |
| United States (RIAA)[75] | 2× Platinum | 2,000,000^ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
The four were at their most collectively prolific at this time …
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