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Rating: A vast green expanse in the countryside where my gaze would get lost. I remember seeing this, at just four years old (!), sitting in the back seat of the car while heading who knows where, listening to Pink Floyd. I was in love with this album (cassette tape, of course), I wanted to listen to it continuously and putting it in the stereo was the first thing I asked for when I got in the car.
I didn't know who they were, I didn't know anything, much less was I aware that this “A Collection of Great Dance Songs” was some sort of scarce and useless Best of from the “Meddle”-”The Wall” period (which then remained for me their best period: probably not by chance), but the music it contained... Gosh, the music it contained was something that struck my mind and imagination from the very first notes of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”: mysterious, imaginative, dark, bright, spacious, space-like, stimulating, exciting, fascinating, adult. Yes, adult, because the feeling I experienced as a child was also that of listening to something “for grown-ups”, something “forbidden for kids”, “restricted for minors” in some way. I also remember often looking at that strange and fascinating cover, with those two motionless guys tied to the ground with ropes, while dancing, in the middle of a field with a house in the distance, in an undefined atmosphere that could be both a sunrise and a sunset: it was an image that evoked something I couldn't define as a child, because I perceived it as both mysterious and reassuring, and in some way, this impression confirmed the idea I had formed about their music.
“Shine On You Crazy Diamond” was the brightest dark night I had ever listened to (and seen; because their visionary and cinematic power had already sent my imagination on free journeys), “Wish You Were Here” was the sunny day stretched out on a meadow that disappeared as far as the eye could see, “Sheep” was simultaneously light and darkness. And then the inexplicable, contrasting sensations that the sounds and obsessiveness of “One Of These Days” conveyed to me, the majesty of “Another Brick In The Wall part 2”, and the noises that heavily characterized “Money”. Everything on that album to my ears sounded perfectly unusual and extraterrestrial, despite somehow feeling familiar, making me experience sensations I had never felt before and reaching my ears and imagination as a single instrumental stream of consciousness: for years, in fact, I remained convinced that Pink Floyd was a “strange” band (without even remotely imagining the impact they had had on the history of rock) and fundamentally instrumental, rarely allowing themselves some sung parts. This reached a child who was captivated by that music that to his ears sounded so different, particular, original, and at the same time extremely captivating.
The cassette was lost over the years in the house's nooks and for a long time I didn't listen to them anymore, apart from the Venice concert, which left me very disappointed: I knew nothing of Waters and Gilmour, let alone Barrett, but I didn't rediscover the atmospheres that had fascinated me so many years ago (except for the opening with the very first, splendid part of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”), the rest, to tell the truth, I didn't like it at all and didn't even finish watching it (ah, the voice of innocence... Not by chance, the pieces performed immediately after the opening were all part of “A Momentary Lapse Of Reason”, which I still consider their worst album).
Years passed and I made many other musical discoveries that deeply influenced me; then I decided, almost eighteen by then, to seek out the albums of that “strange and magnificent instrumental group” (starting from that strange album with the dark cover, with a pyramid crossed by a beam of light turning into a rainbow without even song titles or band name: all elements that contributed to its charm, in my eyes) that I had fallen in love with so many years before and I understood many things about their music and their history, falling in love with them for the second time: every time I listen to them, in a sense, my eyes return to scan those vast green expanses I had already traveled through, not only physically, as a child.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 One of These Days (05:51)
One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces.
02 Money (06:49)
Money, get away.
Get a good job with more pay and you're okay.
Money, it's a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I'll buy me a football team.
Money, get back.
I'm all right Jack keep your hands off of my stack.
Money, it's a hit.
But Don't give me that do goody good bullshit.
I'm in the high-fidelity first class traveling set
And I think I need a Lear jet.
Money, it's a crime.
Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie.
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today.
But if you ask for a raise it's no surprise that they're giving none away.
''{spoken} HuHuh! I was in the right!
Yes, absolutely in the right!
I certainly was in the right!
You was definitely in the right. That geezer was cruising for a bruising!
Yeah!
Why does anyone do anything?
I don't know, I was really drunk at the time!
I was just telling him, he couldn't get into number 2. He was asking why he wasn't coming up on freely, after I was yelling and screaming and telling him why he wasn't coming up on freely.
It came as a heavy blow, but we sorted the matter out.''
03 Sheep (10:19)
Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away
Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air
You better watch out
There may be dogs about
I've looked over Jordan and I have seen
Things are not what they seem
What do you get for pretending the danger's not real
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
Down well-trodden corridors into the valley of steel
What a surprise!
A look of terminal shock in your eyes
Now things are really what they seem
No, this is not a bad dream
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want
He makes me down to lie
Through pastures green he leadeth me the silent waters by
With bright knives he releaseth my soul
He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places
He converteth me to lamb cutlets
For lo, he hath great power, and great hunger
When cometh the day we lowly ones
Through quiet reflection and great dedication
Master the art of karate
Lo, we shall rise up
And then we'll make the bugger's eyes water
Bleating and babbling we fell on his neck with a scream
Wave upon wave of demented avengers
March cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream
Have you heard the news?
The dogs are dead!
You better stay home
And do as you're told
Get out of the road if you want to grow old
05 Wish You Were Here (05:10)
So, so you think you can tell heaven from hell?
Blue skies from pain?
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year
Running over the same old ground
What have we found?
The same old fears
Wish you were here
06 Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 (03:51)
The opening quote is from the 1933 light heavyweight boxing match between Max Baer and Max Schmeling
We don't need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave the kids alone
Hey! Teacher! Leave us kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
We don't need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave the kids alone
Hey! Teacher! Leave us kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
Spoken:
'Wrong, Do it again!
Wrong, Do it again!
If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding.
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?
You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddie!'
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By chawlanka
His life was never the same again!
Thinking of the blonde millionaire guitarist entering the studio alone to re-record a track written years earlier by his (already) enemy Waters is truly sad.
