Pink Floyd - Ibiza Bar (1969)

As far as Pink Floyd’s discography goes, there may not have been a more diverse effort than their third studio album, More. Released in 1969, More was a soundtrack for the eponymous movie released that same year. The soundtrack, composed entirely by Pink Floyd, ranged from acoustic folk songs to heavy grunge and psychedelia. And because it was meant to be played over the film, more than half of its tracks were instrumentals. More was the first album to be released by the band without their original front-man Syd Barrett. As such, the album is often viewed as the birth of what would later become the iconic Pink Floyd style and sound.

Written by Roger Waters, the song below is primarily known as being the ninth track on the More album. However, before the More album was released in June 1969, the song was first released as the B-Side to a March 1969 single, backing Floyd’s other hard rocker, “The Nile Song,” as its A-Side.



Pink Floyd - Ibiza Bar (1969)

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Lyrics:

I'm so afraid of mistakes that I've made
Shaking every time that I awake
I feel like a cardboard cut-out man
So build me a time
When the characters rhyme
And the storyline is kind

I've aged and aged since the first page
I've lived every line that you wrote
Take me down, take me down
From the shelf above your head
And build me a time
When the characters rhyme
And the storyline is kind

I live where I'm left
On the shelf like the rest
And the epilogue reads like a sad song
Please, pick up your camera
And use me again
And build me a time
When the characters rhyme
And the storyline is kind

Yeah!

Pink Floyd - Pigs on the Wing (8-Track Version) (1977)

Pink Floyd’s tenth studio album, Animals, was recorded in London, 1976 at the band’s newly constructed recording studio, Britannia Row Studios. Akin to George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the album was a collection of songs named after animals satirizing different social classes in 1970s England. The categories people were lumped into included pigs, dogs, and sheep; or, those in power, those who do the bidding, and those who sit idly by, respectively. The album was also meant to steer in a slightly new direction for the band, as they had recently become the victim of many jokes in the newly thriving punk rock movement. Considered “dinosaur rock” by younger people, Pink Floyd wanted to create an album a little harsher sounding than their previous works. Having been certified four times platinum, the album was a huge success on both sides of the Atlantic.

Besides the animal-related songs which made up the majority of the album, Animals also began and ended with the front and back halves of a love song written by Roger Waters about his new wife, Carolyne Christie, the ex-wife of Grateful Dead manager Rock Scully. Christie had gained Waters affections by being one of the few, if not only, people who could win an argument with Waters. As it was arranged, royalties for the album were given to the songwriters based on the total number of songs written and not their total length. Since this “song” was split apart on the album as two completely separate tracks, it created a bigger piece of the royalty pie for their author, Roger Waters. This didn’t sit well with the band’s David Gilmour, who had contributed a seventeen minute song, “Dogs.” This, among other frictions during the recording of Animals, proved to be the starting point for the strife that would eventually split the band apart.

At one point during the recording of the album, Roger Waters and Nick Mason accidentally erased a guitar solo by David Gilmour, recorded as the link between “Pigs on the Wing (Part I)” and “Pigs on the Wing (Part II),” which was still being treated as one song. Thinking they needed to replace it, the band asked non-Pink Floyd-member Snowy White to record a replacement guitar solo. Ultimately, it was decided that the song would be split apart for the beginning and ending of the album, as it’s now known. Because of this separation, the guitar solo became superfluous, omitted, and never appeared on the final version of the vinyl release. However, for unknown reasons, the album’s 8-track release not only kept the songs together, appearing as the opening track, but also kept the guitar solo by Snowy White. Below, you will hear the alternate 8-track version of the songs, back to back as one, with the inclusion of Snowy White’s rare guitar solo.



Pink Floyd - Pigs on the Wing (8-Track Version) (1977)

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Lyrics:

If you didn't care
What happened to me
And I didn't care
For you
We would zig zag our way
Through the boredom and pain
Occasionally glancing up through the rain
Wondering which of the buggers to blame
And watching for pigs on the wing

You know that I care
What happens to you
And I know that you care
For me, too
So, I don't feel alone
Or the weight of the stone
Now that I've found somewhere safe
To bury my bone
And any fool knows a dog needs a home
A shelter from pigs on the wing

Roger Waters - 4:30 AM (Apparently They Were Travelling Abroad) & 4:33 AM (Running Shoes) (1984)

Born in Surrey, England in 1943, this rock legend was a founding member of the band Pink Floyd, in which he primarily played bass and shared the lead vocals with bandmate David Gilmour (who had joined the band later). Although the band had initially been under the psychedelic leadership of Syd Barrett, 1968 saw the departure of Barrett from the band due to mental illness and the rise of this man as the band’s leader and primary lyricist. Waters went on to write the lyrics and lead the band musically on albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall, and The Final Cut, with each of them reaching the number one spot in multiple countries around the world. In the mid-1980s, spawning from creative differences and a power struggle with David Gilmour over direction, Waters left Pink Floyd and sued to keep them from using the "Pink Floyd" name. An out-of-court settlement was finally achieved in 1987, but Waters didn’t play with the band again for another eighteen years. In September 2010, Waters began to take The Wall album on the road and backed it with a sixty-million dollar stage act to feature on tour. Currently, although the tour has periodic breaks, it is scheduled to continue throughout 2013.

In 1977, Waters came up with two ideas for concept albums. The first idea was titled Bricks in the Wall and the second was called The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. Waters recorded some demos and played them for the other members of Pink Floyd, telling them that they could choose which one they could record as a band. He also informed them that whichever one they didn’t choose, he would release as a solo album. The band’s manager at the time, Steve O’Rourke, thought that Pros and Cons was a better concept; David Gilmour thought that Pros and Cons was better musically-speaking, too; but the band eventually decided that they would record Bricks in the Wall, eventually having it renamed to The Wall and released it in 1979.

Finally, in 1983, after Waters’ departure from Pink Floyd, he had the time to record his other visualized concept album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. Featuring the conductor Michael Kamen on piano and legendary guitarist Eric Clapton, the album was stylistically reminiscent of The Wall, but failed to achieve the same commercial success. The titles of the tracks on the album are noted for being named after a particular time of day, with two songs heard below, "4:30 AM" and "4:33 AM," being the opening tracks. If you were to start the album at exactly 4:30 AM, real-time, the titles of each passing song would correspond with the actual time of day. There were even a few extra seconds added after the last song of the first side, so to allow the listener time to flip the record (or cassette) over.

If you enjoy The Wall and these two opening tracks of Pros and Cons, I highly recommend you purchase the album so that you can hear the album in its entirety.



Roger Waters - 4:30 AM (Apparently They Were Travelling Abroad) & 4:33 AM (Running Shoes) (1984)

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"4:30 AM" Lyrics:

Apparently they were travelling abroad and they picked up some hitchhikers.

Drill.

Jade: "Oh God!"
Wife: "Wake up, you're dreaming."
Jade: "What?"
Wife: "You're dreaming."
Jade: "We were moving away from the border."
Wife: "Huh, what border?"

Jade: "Have a nice day."
Wife: "Huh?"
Jade: "Have a nice day."

We were moving away from the border
Looking for somewhere to sleep
The two of us sharing the driving
Two hitchhikers slumped in the back seat

Woman: "Hello."

I sneaked a quick look in the mirror
She gave me a smile
I said, “Is anyone hungry?”
“Should we stop for a while?”

So we pulled off into a layby
Her dress blew up over her head
I said, “Would you like to come with me?”
She said something foreign under her breath
And the sun shone down on her lovely young limbs
I thought to myself, “She's much too good for you”
I lay down beside her with tears in my eyes
She said

"4:33 AM" Lyrics:

So I stood by the roadside
The soles of my running shoes gripping
The tarmac like gunmetal magnets

Fixed on the front of her Fassbinder face
Was the kind of a smile
That only a rather dull child could have drawn

While attempting a graveyard in the moonlight
But she was impressed
You could see that she thought I looked fine

And when she turned sweeter
The reason, between you and me, was
She'd just seen my green Lamborghini

I think it was the Lamborghini

So we went for a spin in the country
To feel the wind in our hair
To feel the power of my engine
To feel the thrill of desire

And then in the trees, I heard a twig snap
Warning lights flashed on my map
I opened my eyes and to my surprise
There were Arabs with knives at the front of the bed
Right at the front of the bed

Oh, my God, how did they get in here?
I thought we were safe, home in England
She said, “Come on now, kid, it was wrong what ya did”
“You've got to admit it was wrong what ya did”
“You've got to admit it was wrong”

Jade: "Oh god! Jesus..."

Syd Barrett - Bob Dylan Blues (1970)

Born in 1946, this man was the original frontman for the legendary group Pink Floyd. Not only did he start the group in 1965, but he was also the group’s primary songwriter, lead vocalist, and lead guitarist for their first few years. Pink Floyd’s early sound was psychedelic primarily because of his imagination. Sadly, years of drug use aided his mental health to deteriorate and he left the group in April 1968. After a couple solo albums, he decided to leave the public eye permanently and put himself in a self-imposed seclusion. Pink Floyd, without him, would go on to enormous success and recorded several tributes to him, most notably their 1975 album Wish You Were Here. On July 7th, 2006, after more than thirty years of seclusion, he fell victim to his pancreatic cancer and died in his home in Cambridge.

In 1964, Bob Dylan released “My Back Pages,” which mocked his own early political image. (You can hear The Byrds’ cover version of the song here.) But before Dylan was able to mock himself, Barrett had beaten him to the punch with this song. Written in 1963 after Barrett had seen Dylan in concert, this song both gently lampoons Dylan’s early political persona as well as pays an honoring tribute to him. Coming out of David Gilmour’s personal collection for the album The Best of Syd Barrett: Wouldn't You Miss Me? released in 2001, it was originally recorded in 1970.



Syd Barrett - Bob Dylan Blues (1970)

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Lyrics:

Got the Bob Dylan blues
And the Bob Dylan shoes
And my clothes and my hair's in a mess
But, you know, I just couldn't care less

Gonna write me a song
'bout what's right and what's wrong
Got God and my girl and all that
Quiet while I make like a cat

‘cause I'm a poet, don’t’cha know it?
And the wind? You can blow it
‘cause I'm Mr. Dylan, the king
And I'm free as a bird on the wing

Roam from town to town
Guess I get people down
But I don't care too much about that
‘cause my gut and my wallet are fat

Make a whole lot of dough
But I deserve it, though
I got soul and a good heart of gold
So I'll sing about war in the Cold

‘cause I'm a poet, don’t’cha know it?
And the wind? You can blow it
‘cause I'm Mr. Dylan, the king
And I'm free as a bird on the wing

Well I sings about dreams
And I rhymes it with seams
‘cause it seems that my dream always means
That I can prophesy all kinds of things

Well the guy that digs me
Should try hard to see
That he buys all my discs in a hat
And when I'm in town, go see that

‘cause I'm a poet, don’t’cha know it?
And the wind? You can blow it
‘cause I'm Mr. Dylan, the king
And I'm free as a bird on the wing

Pink Floyd - The Gnome (1967)

Founded in 1965, this band was originally led by Syd Barrett, who guided the group toward their first taste of success in the late ‘60s through psychedelic rock. Shortly after the addition of bassist David Gilmour, Barrett’s deteriorating mental health led to him parting with the band. The remaining members went on to be one of the most commercially successful bands of all time, releasing timeless progressive rock albums such as The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), and The Wall (1979).

This song comes from the group’s debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), which was also the group’s only album released under Barrett’s direct leadership. Much like the other songs on the album, Barrett’s lyrics are very imaginative and the music is very psychedelic. If you’re only familiar with the group’s later progressive rock hits, this is nothing like you’d expect to hear.



Pink Floyd - The Gnome (1967)

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Lyrics:

I want to tell you a story
'bout a little man, if I can
A gnome named “Grimble Gromble”
And little gnomes stay in their homes
Eating, sleeping, drinking their wine

He wore a scarlet tunic
A blue-green hood; it looked quite good
He had a big adventure
Amidst the grass; fresh air at last
Wining, dining, biding his time

And then one day
“Hooray!”; another way for gnomes to say
“Ooh, my”

Look at the sky; look at the river
Isn't it good?
Look at the sky; look at the river
Isn't it good?

Winding, finding places to go

And then one day
“Hooray!”; another way for gnomes to say
“Ooh, my”

“Ooh, my”