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- CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE
WEEK
- Pink Floyd "Meddle" 1971 (UK)
Now
this is some classic psychedelic & progressive rock. The Floyds
were on the cutting edge of the psychedelic revolution in swinging
London in 1966-67, but then floundered for a direction after sacking
their eccentric lead singer/songwriter guitarist Roger "Syd" Barrett
for his old school chum David Gilmour. Eventually he and bassist Roger
Waters would helm the Pink starship through a period of tremendous
success in the middle-to-late 1970's, along with the iconic (yet somehow always
gloriously anonymous) Rick Wright on prog pillow keyboards and Nick
Mason on tribal cosmic orchestra drums. The glory of Floyd during this period is that they created
their own meticulous all-enveloping soundworld: nobody else sounds like
them, they occupied a niche that was not quite like the Beatles nor Yes
or any of their other contemporaries,and generations continue to get
lost in the hypnotic majesty of their music. Released a couple of years
before global superstardom, Meddle
is certainly the most unsung album in the group's discography, and
perhaps my favorite of their releases. One side feaures a perfect 23
minute song ("Echoes") about underwater flying saucers (I think! Also there's an albatross in there somewhere),
and the other a collection of a groove rocker ("One Of These Days"), a
ballad ("Pillow Of Winds"), a countrified life-affirming anthem
("Fearless"), and even sailboat jazz ("San Tropez") and a blues jam
with a dog ("Seamus")! |
