by Mott the Dog
2 1/2 Stars
This album could also have been called “Muddle” or
“The Best And The Worst Of Pink Floyd”.
This becomes apparent after one listen, the first and
sixth tracks on “Meddle” are superb; the other four aren’t.
The album opens with “One Of These Days” with
whistling wind and then both Gilmour and Waters break in. Lovely vibrant
bass lines. The double bass carries on through out the song giving it a
very heavy feel. The only words spoken are “One of these days, I’m
going to cut you into little pieces”.
The song was dedicated to Jimmy Young, the British
Radio D.J., who the band had been having a running battle of words with
for several years. The song reaches a dramatic climax with Gilmour laying
down some of the greatest slide guitar work he was ever to put down in the
studio, skipping straight onto the sixth song on the album, “Echoes”.
Originally it had taken up the whole of side two of the vinyl “Meddle”
released in 1971, clocking in at twenty three minutes and thirty seconds.
From the opening submarine type radar echoes you know that Floyd have
combined to give us a real classic. Each musician excels in his own
department, Nick Mason changes the role that percussions would be seen in
from here on out in rock music. The drums are not just used as a way of
keeping time with the song, but actually as a lead instrument. To this end
Mason comes out of this song with great kudos (if you get the chance to
see the movie “Pink Floyd Live At Pompey” you can see what a
devastating effort Mason had both sonically and visually on this song).
“One
Of These Days” is the oldest song to remain in the Pink Floyd live set
list, right up to their last tour.
Roger Waters laid down a solid bottom end to the song,
never letting the weirdness get totally out of control. Rick Wright’s
keyboards caught him at a creative peak and his psychedelic solo in the
middle has often been copied but never bettered.
The vocals were handled by duets between Gilmour and
Wright which suit the song wonderfully, although lyrically it’s just
gobbledygook. However, it’s the guitar playing of a young David Gilmour
that really catches your attention as he rings every ounce of emotion from
his six strings, reaching higher and higher as each passing section of the
song progresses, at the same time both violent and controlled.
“Echoes” was to remain in Pink Floyd live set for
many a year before “The Wall” took over the whole show. It was even
dusted off and brought out for the commencement of “The Momentary Lapse
Of Reason” tour (the first Pink Floyd Tour without Roger Waters) before
it had to make way for newer material.
Compared to these two wonderful pieces of music the
other four songs on the album are horrible. Of the two worst offenders is
“Fearless”, which, after meandering listlessly for seven minutes,
finishes with “The Kop”. At Anfield, the headquarters of Liverpool
football club, singing “You’ll never walk alone” and then chanting
“Liverpool” is all very well if you’re a scouser of the red
persuasion, but a bit of a bore to the rest of the world. Worse is to
follow with “Seamus”. Nearly three minutes of nonsense with David
Gilmour stumbling along on acoustic guitar, mumbling some lyrics, whilst
Steve Marriot’s dog howls and yelps over the top of it. Truly
embarrassing to listen to. It’s what you might imagine Manuel from
Fawlty Towers to come up with if you left him in a recording studio.
So my advice would be to get hold of a copy of
“Meddle”, cue your CD player to programme tracks 1 and 6, and forget
the rest.
Musicians
David Gilmour - Guitar & Vocals
Roger Waters - Bass & Vocals
Rick Wright - Keyboards
Nick Mason - Drums
Track Listing
1. One Of These Days
2. A Pillow Of Winds
3. Fearless
4. San Tropez
5. Seamus
6. Echoes
The
first tale of the Old Man and the Boy takes you straight into the despair
that can be Esarn. The Moonmouth Dam, the misappropriation of lands, the
physical brutality wreaked upon the displaced farmers and their families,
all contrasted against the acceptance of their lot as part of their belief
in karma. It is not surprising that the farang mind is shocked by such
treatment of Thais by other Thais. That a Thai, such as Pira Sudham, would
write about this is even more amazing. And perhaps also brave.
While
investigating a seemingly routine crime, Agent J (Will Smith) uncovers a
diabolical plot masterminded by Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle), an evil
Kylothian monster who disguises herself as a glamorous model of sexy
underwear. When Serleena takes the entire MIB building hostage, there is
only one person left J can turn to - his former MIB partner, Agent K
(Tommy Lee Jones), who now has a boring desk job in another large
government office, the U.S. postal service, and prefers simple pleasures,
like eating his wife’s cookies, over battles with mammoth alien insects.
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