Post by gnat on Dec 7, 2012 7:46:30 GMT -7
I remember wandering through the dorm hall smelling the pot wafting from under a door here and there and being struck by this strange music coming from Pete Boydocks room. Now Pete was a Straight Arrow and was a member of the UT 's marching band. I knocked on the door and sat down to some very melodic sounds with lyrics about foxes gone to ground. Thats how I heard Ummagumma for the first time. I had of course heard" Switched on Bach" by Walter/Wendy Carlos and kind of liked it. Pink Floyds use of the Synthesizer was all together something else. I bought the album the next day and began sharing it with friends.
Up until Ummagumma came out I wasn't aware that there was a band called Pink Floyd ( I wasn't to discover the origin of the name until many years passed by) So when their next album came out I jumped on it but was disappointed and then they came out with Meddle which was a lot better than Atom Heart Mother but still not that good to me in fact they felt what today would be called Bipolar. So my interest waned. Although I felt that "Echoes" was a great tune and kept it on a compilation tape for a longtime.
Then a small war got in the way and I pretty much went back to Meat and Potato R&R as my main diet. With a growing love of Southern Hard blues oriented sounds like the Allmans and others. Then I went back to Knoxville having renewed a relationship with a girl I had known from 1969-1970. She was a huge music fan whose tastes ran more to the more melodic rather than more beat and crashing sounds that I was in love with. She played it for me the first time.
Dark Side of the Moon totally smacked me in the head. Waters lyrics, Gilmores guitar and punctuated by Nick Masons drumming it was heads up the best thing I had heard in a longtime. I realized I think that my tastes had changed to eclectic rather than Meat and potatoes. It was at this time that I began to listen to Jazz and Classical. So I could make the case that DSotM sophisticated me.
Which brings me to today some 40 years after the fact and 50 million album sales later. I still like it. I like it a lot. Insanity and Death as a theme for an albums was revolutionary when most concept albums were about loves gain or loss. Particularly good and much more relevant now is "Time" and the hauntingly beautiful voice of Clare Torry on "The Great Gig in the Sky" and then "Money" which almost but not quite didn't seem to fit. And "Us and Them" which made me think of the fox going to ground from Ummagumma.
Their next outting "Wish You Were Here" and then later "The Wall" I liked a lot but nothing can supplant Dark Side for me. A total tour de force is the only thing I can say.
You should give it a listen today.
Gnat
Up until Ummagumma came out I wasn't aware that there was a band called Pink Floyd ( I wasn't to discover the origin of the name until many years passed by) So when their next album came out I jumped on it but was disappointed and then they came out with Meddle which was a lot better than Atom Heart Mother but still not that good to me in fact they felt what today would be called Bipolar. So my interest waned. Although I felt that "Echoes" was a great tune and kept it on a compilation tape for a longtime.
Then a small war got in the way and I pretty much went back to Meat and Potato R&R as my main diet. With a growing love of Southern Hard blues oriented sounds like the Allmans and others. Then I went back to Knoxville having renewed a relationship with a girl I had known from 1969-1970. She was a huge music fan whose tastes ran more to the more melodic rather than more beat and crashing sounds that I was in love with. She played it for me the first time.
Dark Side of the Moon totally smacked me in the head. Waters lyrics, Gilmores guitar and punctuated by Nick Masons drumming it was heads up the best thing I had heard in a longtime. I realized I think that my tastes had changed to eclectic rather than Meat and potatoes. It was at this time that I began to listen to Jazz and Classical. So I could make the case that DSotM sophisticated me.
Which brings me to today some 40 years after the fact and 50 million album sales later. I still like it. I like it a lot. Insanity and Death as a theme for an albums was revolutionary when most concept albums were about loves gain or loss. Particularly good and much more relevant now is "Time" and the hauntingly beautiful voice of Clare Torry on "The Great Gig in the Sky" and then "Money" which almost but not quite didn't seem to fit. And "Us and Them" which made me think of the fox going to ground from Ummagumma.
Their next outting "Wish You Were Here" and then later "The Wall" I liked a lot but nothing can supplant Dark Side for me. A total tour de force is the only thing I can say.
You should give it a listen today.
Gnat
