Maps of Music

Meddle (1971)

Where the lyrics of Meddle take you, and where it was really made.

Storm Thorgerson, who designed the cover, later said he thought Meddle was a much better album than its cover.

Key places

Where the sessions began (1971)

Recording site Abbey Road Studios — Pink Floyd started work on the new material at EMI Studios, now Abbey Road Studios, in early 1971. The studio then had only eight-track equipment. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Jubilee line to St John's Wood station, then about a 5-minute walk.

Where the band moved for 16-track tape (1971)

Recording site AIR Studios — The band moved its best efforts to smaller London studios, AIR and Morgan, to record on 16-track tape. The mix of Echoes was almost exclusively done at AIR Studios. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

A smaller London studio for minor work (1971)

Recording site Morgan Studios — Morgan Studios in West Hampstead handled minor work on Meddle, and the band moved some of its recordings there for 16-track tape. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Meddle is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd
• Released by Harvest Records on 30 October 1971 in the United States and 5 November 1971 in the United Kingdom
• Produced between the band's touring commitments, from January to August 1971
• Recorded at several London locations, including EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) and Morgan Studios
• Considered a transitional album between the Syd Barrett-influenced 1960s group and the Waters-led 1970s era
• Signature track 'Echoes' came out of a series of experiments made when the band had no material and no clear direction
• The title is a play on words: a medal, and to interfere

Background

• Recording began after the band's tours across America and England in support of Atom Heart Mother
• Recording was fitted between concert dates, so production stretched over a long period
• Early experiments were called Nothings, followed by Son of Nothings and Return of the Son of Nothings
• The first performance of the piece that became 'Echoes' took place on 22 April 1971 in Norwich

Recording

• Work began at EMI Studios in London, which had only eight-track equipment
• The band moved its best material to 16-track tape at smaller London studios, AIR and Morgan in West Hampstead
• John Leckie and Peter Bown engineered the main EMI and AIR sessions; Rob Black and Roger Quested handled minor work at Morgan
• One experiment had each member play on a separate track without knowing what the others were doing
• Tempo was random within an agreed chord structure, and each recorded section was given a mood name
• 'Echoes' began with a Richard Wright piano note sent through a Leslie speaker, and it took about three months across three studios
• The finished 23-minute piece fills the entire second side of the album

Cover

• Hipgnosis designed the cover; Storm Thorgerson had first proposed a close-up of a baboon's anus
• The band rejected that idea by telephone from Japan and asked for an ear underwater instead
• The photograph was taken by Bob Dowling, with ripples in the water representing collected sound waves
• Thorgerson later said he disliked the cover and considered it his least favourite Pink Floyd sleeve

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in 1965 by Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright; David Gilmour joined in 1967.
• Among the first British psychedelic groups, gaining an early underground following at the UFO Club.
• Known for extended compositions, sonic experiments, philosophical lyrics and elaborate live shows.

Members

• Nick Mason on drums (1965–present).
• Roger Waters on bass and vocals (1965–1985), becoming the primary lyricist after Barrett's departure in 1968.
• Richard Wright on keyboards (1965–1981, 1987–2008), who died in 2008.
• Syd Barrett on vocals and guitar (1965–1968), who died in 2006.
• David Gilmour on guitar and vocals (1967–present).

Career

• Concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979) made them one of the best-selling acts of all time.
• Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982) won two BAFTAs.
• Reunited with Waters for Live 8 in 2005; the last studio album The Endless River came out in 2014.
• Released 'Hey, Hey, Rise Up!' in 2022 in protest of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• Sold over 250 million records; inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2008.

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone's Jean-Charles Costa wrote that Meddle 'confirms lead guitarist David Gilmour's emergence as a real shaping force with the group'
• The NME called it 'an exceptionally good album'
• Steve Peterson of Hit Parader named 'Fearless' its best song
• Ed Kelleher of Circus called it 'another masterpiece by a masterful group'
• Melody Maker was more reserved, calling it 'a soundtrack to a non-existent movie'

Reappraisal

• Robert Christgau in Christgau's Record Guide (1981) called it a fairly good progression over the group's previous work
• Christgau criticised the lyrics to 'A Pillow of Winds'
• Daryl Easlea of the BBC called it a more consistent and tuneful version of Atom Heart Mother
• Rob Sheffield in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) said 'Echoes' showed a more developed group than before
• Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called Meddle the best album from the band's transitional years before The Dark Side of the Moon
• The album was voted number 255 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000)

Records

• Reached number three on the UK Albums Chart
• Lacklustre publicity from Capitol Records led to weak US sales
• Number 70 on the Billboard 200
• Certified gold by the RIAA on 29 October 1973
• Certified double platinum by the RIAA on 11 March 1994

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The title is a pun on 'medal' and 'meddle', meaning to interfere.
• The band overruled Thorgerson's baboon idea by telephone from a tour in Japan and asked for an ear underwater on the cover.
• The bassline of 'One of These Days' was built from an ostinato fed through a Binson Echorec.
• 'Seamus' features Steve Marriott's dog Seamus howling along to the music, while Gilmour was dog-sitting him.
• The 2001 compilation Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd took its name from the album's title track.
• Some unused Meddle material later became 'Brain Damage' on The Dark Side of the Moon.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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