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Rating: The suite "Echoes", despite being the main track of "Meddle," is placed at the closing of the album (in the LP, it covers the entire second side with its 23 minutes): it's fitting, too effective and immediately captivating, "One Of These Days" to not put it in pole position on "Meddle."
Historically, it is a suite, in the sense that it originated from distinct musical "pieces" that the Floyds then endeavored to unite; however, they succeeded so well that with no abrupt changes in atmosphere or rhythm, but rather continuous evolutions, musically it should be considered a song, albeit stretched to the extreme. It is 1971, and the Floyds have been trying for years (after the phantasmagoric debut in 1967 with "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn," an absolute masterpiece of psychedelia) to give themselves a musical direction suitable to the fact that Syd Barrett and his peculiar musical vision are no longer there.
Through a second album of clear transition ("A Saucerful Of Secrets") with still several ideas and performances by Barrett, a soundtrack ("More," excellent) as the third, a self-indulgent and somewhat tedious fourth double album half-live and half-studio ("Ummagumma"), a fifth in the "let's do it weird" series where brilliance (the cover with the Holstein, the piece "If", some passages of the suite) is freely mixed with forced elements (people frying two eggs in the kitchen, brass fanfares à la Morricone, Gilmour ashamed of singing the first lyrics he composed, doing it in a ridiculous way...) they finally arrive at the musical form that suits them best and will make them billionaires: the atmospheric spatial piece in slow tempo, good for musicians, rock intellectuals, the crazed, but also for the distracted, the superficial, the poppy. It seems like criticism but it is a merit, absolute.
Try making simple, quiet or rather you could say sluggish music seasoned with effects big and small, and manage to get it across to EVERYONE, even my mom. "Echoes" lacks one component to consider it an integral part of the golden era of Pink Floyd: a valid text. Waters had not yet sharpened his poetic vein; the suite talks about underwater landscapes... fantasy indeed and even coarse, nothing to do with the perfect distillations of anger, irony, realism, and visionariness that will thrive in the subsequent "Dark Side Of The Moon."
"Echoes" starts with an electric piano sound filtered by the rotating horn amplifier "Leslie," soon joined by a bed of organ and Gilmour's slide, inaugurating a type of sequence that the Floyd will end up abusing: even today Gilmour, for the beginning of his latest "On An Island," hasn't found anything better: guitar with effects on a "spatial" backdrop, a combination that peaked with "Shine On You Crazy Diamond." After the intro, Wright's vocals arrive, harmonized with Gilmour, beautiful. Unlike the overused intro style I mentioned earlier, this vocal combination will not be repeated in the later, famous works of Pink Floyd, which will see alternate the sweet and full tone of Gilmour or the often wrenching, hoarse scream of Waters. It is a sort of "atmospheric ballad" in which Gilmour's Stratocaster works well and does even better when the piece evolves into a syncopated jam session. The guitarist solos pentatonic, accompanied by the inimitable timbre of the Hammond organ for a few minutes of... Pink Floyd-style blues.
The whole thing progressively, plunges into a well, rather an abyss of effects in keeping with the theme of the lyrics, with Gilmour producing effective seagull cry imitations by moving his piece of metal along the Strato strings, but then "returns," as the instruments played normally resume, joined by a large drone of Synt VCS3, culminating in a gigantic fanfare of arpeggiated electric guitars (four guitars) that lead to the repetition of the vocals by the same Wright/Gilmour duo. Two words about Nick Mason: I've never heard a drummer "hold back" more than him, yet even his limited style is an essential part of the Pink Floyd sound and charm. After this, still evocative, poignant guitar notes, progressively sinking into the tide of effects that "mounts" to close the piece.
For the lovers of Floyd (the majority, myself included) "Echoes" is a blast, perhaps the favorite piece. For the detractors, a notable boredom.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Astronomy Domine (04:10)
Lime and limpid green, a second scene
A fight between the blue you once knew.
Floating down, the sound resounds
Around the icy waters underground.
Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda
And Titania, Neptune, Titan.
Stars can frighten.
Blinding signs flap,
Flicker, flicker, flicker blam. Pow, pow.
Stairway scare Dan Dare who's there?
Lime and limpid green
The sounds surrounds the icy waters underground
Lime and limpid green
The sounds surrounds the icy waters underground.
02 See Emily Play (02:47)
Emily tries but misunderstands, ah ooh
She often inclined to borrow somebody's dreams till tomorrow
There is no other day
Let's try it another way
You'll lose your mind and play
Free games for may
See Emily play
Soon after dark Emily cries, ah ooh
Gazing through trees in sorrow hardly a sound till tomorrow
There is no other day
Let's try it another way
You'll lose your mind and play
Free games for may
See Emily play
Put on a gown that touches the ground, ah ooh
Float on a river forever and ever, Emily
There is no other day
Let's try it another way
You'll lose your mind and play
Free games for may
See Emily play
04 Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 (04:01)
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!'
05 Echoes (16:30)
Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air
And deep beneath the rolling waves
In labyrinths of coral caves
The echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine
And no-one showed us to the land
And no-one knows the where or whys
But something stirs and something tries
And starts to climb towards the light
Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me
And do I take you by the hand
And lead you through the land
And help me understand the best I can
And no one calls us to move on
And no one forces down our eyes
And no one speaks and no one tries
And no one flies around the sun
Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes
Inviting and inciting me to rise
And through the window in the wall
Come streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning
And no-one sings me lullabies
And no-one makes me close my eyes
so I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky
06 Hey You (04:39)
Hey you! Out there in the cold
Getting lonely, getting old, can you feel me?
Hey you! Standing in the aisles
With itchy feet and fading smiles, can you feel me?
Hey you! Don't help them to bury the light
Don't give in without a fight.
Hey you! Out there on your own
Sitting naked by the phone, would you touch me?
Hey you! With your ear against the wall
Waiting for someone to call out, would you touch me?
Hey you! Would you help me to carry the stone?
Open your heart, I'm coming home
But it was only a fantasy
The wall was too high as you can see
No matter how he tried he could not break free
And the worms ate into his brain.
Hey you! Out there on the road
Always doing what you're told, can you help me?
Hey you! Out there beyond the wall
Breaking bottles in the hall, can you help me?
Hey you! Don't tell me there's no hope at all
Together we stand, divided we fall.
''{spoken} [Click of TV being turned on]
Well, only got an hour of daylight left. Better get started.
Isn't it unsafe to travel at night?
It'll be a lot less safe to stay here. You're father's gunna pick up our trail before long
Can Loca ride?
Yeah, I can ride... Magaret, time to go! Maigret, thank you for everything.
Goodbye Chenga.
Goodbye miss...
I'll be back''
08 The Great Gig in the Sky (04:40)
''{spoken} And I am not frightened of dying, any time will do, I don't mind. Why should I be frightened of dying? There's no reason for it, you've gotta go sometime.
I never said I was frightened of dying.
{the rest of this song is an instrumental}''
09 Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (05:20)
Little by little the night turns around
Counting the leaves which tremble at dawn
Lotuses lean on each other in yearning
Under the eaves a swallow is resting
Set the controls for the heart of the sun
Over the mountain watching the watcher
Breaking the darkness waking the grapevine
One inch of love is one inch of shadow
Love is the chateau that ripens the wine
Set the controls for the heart of the sun
The heart of the sun...
Witness the man who raves at the wall
Making the shape of his question to heaven
Whether the sun will fall in the evening
Will he remember the lesson of giving?
Set the controls for the heart of the sun
The heart of the sun...
10 Money (06:29)
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.''
11 Keep Talking (05:57)
For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals
Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination
We learned to talk
There's a silence surrounding me
I can't seem to think straight
I'll sit in the corner
No one can bother me
I think I should speak now
I can't seem to speak now
My words won't come out right
I feel like I'm drowning
I'm feeling weak now
But I can't show my weakness
I sometimes wonder
Where do we go from here
It doesn't have to be like this
All we need to do is make sure we keep talking
Why won't you talk to me
You never talk to me
What are you thinking
What are you feeling
Why won't you talk to me
You never talk to me
What are you thinking
Where do we go from here
It doesn't have to be like this
All we need to do is make sure we keep talking
Why won't you talk to me
You never talk to me
What are you thinking
What are you feeling
Why won't you talk to me
You never talk to me
What are you thinking
What are you feeling
I feel like I'm drowning
You know I can't breathe now
We're going nowhere
We're going nowhere
12 Sheep (09:46)
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
13 Sorrow (08:45)
The sweet smell of a great sorrow lies over the land
Plumes of smoke rise and merge into the leaden sky:
A man lies and dreams of green fields and rivers,
But awakes to a morning with no reason for waking
He's haunted by the memory of a lost paradise
In his youth or a dream, he can't be precise
He's chained forever to a world that's departed
It's not enough, it's not enough
His blood has frozen & curdled with fright
His knees have trembled & given way in the night
His hand has weakened at the moment of truth
His step has faltered
One world, one soul
Time pass, the river rolls
And he talks to the river of lost love and dedication
And silent replies that swirl invitation
Flow dark and troubled to an oily sea
A grim intimation of what is to be
There's an unceasing wind that blows through this night
And there's dust in my eyes, that blinds my sight
And silence that speaks so much louder that words,
Of promises broken
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Other reviews
By MeddleForRock
I don’t like the track order: ... jumping from the Syd Barrett era immediately to the much later Roger Waters period, before jumping eight years back.
It seems very unfair to cut 'Marooned' from 5 minutes to 2 minutes (!).
By Il Tarantiniano
It’s impossible to come across a perfect Greatest Hits, also because anyone can criticize the absence of essential tracks from an artist’s career.
'Echoes' is a best of that can undeniably be a starting point for those wanting to get interested in this band, but I highly recommend studying the tracks you are listening to before pressing play.
