1

Pink Floyds Meddle (1971)

Meddle is the sixth studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd,
released on 30 October 1971 by Harvest Records. It was produced between the band's
touring commitments, from January to August 1971. The album was recorded at a
series of locations around London, including Abbey Road Studiosand Morgan Studios.
With no material to work with and no clear idea of the album's direction, the band
devised a series of novel experiments which eventually inspired the album's signature
track, "Echoes". Although many of the group's later albums would be unified by a
central theme with lyrics written mainly by Roger Waters, Meddle was a group effort
with lyrical contributions from each member. The cover, incorporating a close-up shot
of an ear underwater was, as with several previous albums, designed by Hipgnosis,
though Storm Thorgerson was unhappy with the final result.
The album was well received by music critics upon its release. However, despite being
commercially successful in the United Kingdom, lacklustre publicity on the part of
their United States-based label led to poor sales there.
Recording
Returning from a series of tours of Atom Heart Mother across America and England,
at the start of 1971 the band started work on new material at Abbey Road.
[1]
At the
time, Abbey Road was equipped only with eight-track multitrack recording facilities,
which Pink Floyd found insufficient for the increasing technical demands of their
project. They transferred their best efforts, including the opening of "Echoes", to 16-
track tape at smaller studios in London (namely AIR, and Morgan in West
Hampstead) and resumed work with the advantage of more flexible recording
equipment. Engineers John Leckie and Peter Bown recorded the main Abbey Road
and AIR sessions, while for minor work at Morgan studios in West Hampstead Rob
Black and Roger Quested handled the engineering duties.
[2]

Lacking a central theme for the project, the band used several experimental methods in
an attempt to spur the creative process. One exercise involved each member playing
on a separate track, with no reference to what the other members were doing. The
tempo was entirely random while the band played around an agreed chord structure,
and moods such as 'first two minutes romantic, next two up tempo'. Each recorded
section was named, but the process was largely unproductive; after several weeks no
complete songs had been created.
[3]

John Leckie had worked on albums such as George Harrison's All Things Must
Pass and Ringo Starr's Sentimental Journey, and was employed as a tape-operator
on Meddle, partly for his proclivity for working into the early hours of the morning.
Pink Floyd's sessions would often begin in the afternoon, and end early the next
morning, "...during which time nothing would get done. There was no record company
2

contact whatsoever, except when their label manager would show up now and again
with a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of joints."
[4]
The band would apparently
spend long periods of time working on simple sounds, or a particular guitar riff. They
also spent several days at Air Studios, attempting to create music using a variety of
household objects, a project which would be revisited between their next albums, The
Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.
[5]

Following these early experimentscalled "Nothings"the band developed "Son of
Nothings", which was followed by "Return of the Son of Nothings"the working title
of the new album. One of these early works involved the use of Richard Wright's
piano. Wright had fed a single note through a Leslie speaker, producing a submarine-
like ping. The band tried repeatedly to recreate this sound in the studio but were
unsuccessful, and so the demo version was used on what would later become
"Echoes",
[3]
mixed almost exclusively at Air Studios.
[6]
Combined with David
Gilmour's guitar, the band were able to develop the track further, experimenting with
accidental sound effects (such as Gilmour's guitar being plugged into a wah-wah pedal
back to front). Unlike Atom Heart Mother the new multi-track capabilities of the
studio enabled them to create the track in stages, rather than performing it in a single
take. The final 23-minute piece would eventually take up the entire second side of the
album.
[7]

"One of These Days" was developed around an ostinato bassline created byRoger
Waters, by feeding the output through a Binson Echorec. The bass line was performed
by Waters and David Gilmour using two bass guitars, one on old strings. Nick
Mason's abstruse "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces" line was
recorded at double speed using a falsetto voice, and replayed at normal speed.
[8]

Meddle was recorded between the band's various concert commitments, and therefore
its production was spread over a considerable period of time.
[2]
The band recorded in
the first half of April, but in the latter half played at Doncaster and Norwich before
returning to record at the end of the month. In May they split their time between
sessions at Abbey Road, and rehearsals and concerts in London, Lancaster, Stirling,
Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Nottingham. June and July were spent mainly performing at
venues across Europe.
[2][9]
August was spent in the far east and Australia, September in
Europe, and October to November in the US.
[2]
In the same period the band also
produced Relics, a compilation album of some of Pink Floyd's earlier
works.
[10]
A quadraphonic mix of the album was prepared at Command Studios on 21
and 26 September, but remains unreleased.
[11][12]

Composition
Though the tracks possess a variety of moods, Meddle is generally considered more
cohesive than its 1970 predecessor Atom Heart Mother.
[13]
The largely instrumental
"One of These Days" is followed by "A Pillow of Winds", which is distinguished by
being one of the few quiet,acoustic love songs in the Pink Floyd catalogue. These two
songs segue into each other across windy sound effects, anticipating the technique that
3

would later be used on Wish You Were Here. The title of "A Pillow of Winds" was
inspired by the games of Mahjong that Waters and Mason, and their wives, played
while in the south of France.
[14]

The song "Fearless" employs field recordings of the Liverpool F.C. Kop choir singing
"You'll Never Walk Alone", their anthem, which brings the song to an end in a
heavily reverberated fade-out. "San Tropez", by contrast, is a jazz-inflected pop
song with a shuffle tempo, composed by Waters in his increasingly deployed style of
breezy, off-the-cuff song-writing. The song was inspired by the band's trip to the south
of France in 1970. Pink Floyd uncharacteristically displayed their sense of humour
with "Seamus", a pseudo-blues novelty track featuring Steve Marriott's dog (which
Gilmour was looking after) howling along to the music.
[14][nb 1]
"Seamus" often tops
polls as the worst song Pink Floyd ever created, but the band would later use animal
sounds again, in Animals.
[15]

The final song on the album is the 23-minute "Echoes". First performed as "Return of
the Son of Nothing" on 22 April 1971 in Norwich,
[16]
the band spent about six months
on the track in three studios (Morgan, Air, and Abbey Road).
[12]
The track opens with
Richard Wright's 'ping'. "Echoes" was recorded almost entirely at Air Studios,
[6]
and
completed in July 1971.
[12]
"Echoes" also gave its name to the compilation
album Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd, on which a much-edited version of the title
track was included. In the compilation, multiple edits throughout the entire song cut
the running length of the piece down by some seven minutes. Some of the material
composed during creation of Meddle was not used; however, one song would
eventually become "Brain Damage", on The Dark Side of the Moon.
[13][17]

Packaging
The album's title Meddle is a play on words; a medal, and to interfere.
[15]
Storm
Thorgerson originally suggested a close-up shot of a baboon's anusfor the album
cover photograph. He was overruled by the band, who informed him via an inter-
continental telephone call while on tour in Japan that they would rather have "an ear
underwater".
[18]
The cover image was photographed by Bob Dowling. The image
represents an ear, underwater, collecting waves of sound (represented by ripples in the
water).
[15]
Thorgerson has expressed dissatisfaction with the cover, claiming it to be his
least favourite Pink Floyd album sleeve: "I think Meddle is a much better album than
its cover".
[19]
Aubrey Powell (Thorgerson's colleague) shares his sentiments
"Meddle was a mess. I hated that cover. I don't think we did them justice with that at
all; it's half-hearted."
[20]
The gatefold contains a group photograph of the band (Floyd's
last until 1987's A Momentary Lapse of Reason).
[19]

Release and reception
Meddle was released on 30 October 1971 in the US, and 13 November in the UK.
[nb
2]
Meddle was later released as a remastered LPby Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab,
[29]
and
4

in April 1989 on their "Ultradisc" gold CD format.
[30]
The album was included as part
of the box set Shine On on 2 November 1992.
[nb 3][32]

Although in the UK it reached number three, lacklustre publicity on the part of Capitol
Records led to weak sales in the US, and a chart position of number 70.
[27][33]
On 29
November 1971, "One of These Days" was released as a 7-inch single in the US, with
"Fearless" on the B-side.
[34]
"One of These Days" and "Echoes" were performed
during Live At Pompeii (the latter in two parts) and also on the BBC's 1971 In
Concert.
[35][36]
Meddle was later certified gold by the RIAA on 29 October 1973 and
then double platinum on 11 March 1994, following the added attention garnered by
the band's later successes in the United States.
[37]

Critical response
Upon its release, Meddle received generally positive reviews from music
critics.
[38]
Rolling Stone 's Jean-Charles Costa wrote: "Meddle not only confirms lead
guitarist David Gilmour's emergence as a real shaping force with the group, it states
forcefully and accurately that the group is well into the growth track
again",
[39]
and NME called it "an exceptionally good album".
[40]
Steve Peterson of Hit
Parader cited "Fearless" as its best song and said of the album, "This has got to be
their best ever."
[38]
Ed Kelleher of Circus called it "another masterpiece by a masterful
group", noting "Fearless" as "fascinating" and praising "Echoes" as "a tone poem that
allows all four group members much time to stretch their
muscles."
[38]
However, Melody Maker was more reserved, claiming that it is "...a
soundtrack to a non-existent movie".
[40]
In his consumer guide for The Village
Voice, Robert Christgau called it "not bad", commenting that "Echoes" "moves
through 23:21 of 'Across the Universe' cop with the timeless calm of interstellar
overdrive, and the acoustic-type folk songs boast their very own
melodies."
[23]
Referring to the lyrics of "A Pillow of Winds", Christgau quipped, "The
word 'behold' should never cross their filters again, but this is definitely an
improvement: one eensy-weensy step for humanity, one giant step for Pink Floyd."
[23]

In a retrospective review, Daryl Easlea of BBC wrote of the album in comparison
to Atom Heart Mother, "In many respects, Meddle, released a little over a year later, is
the same again, only with much, much, better tunes and less clutter."
[41]
Easlea
commented that "Echoes" "dominates the entire work", calling it "everything right
about progressive rock; engaging, intelligent and compelling."
[41]
In The New Rolling
Stone Album Guide (2004), music journalist Rob Sheffield gave the album three-and-
a-half out of five stars and stated, "Meddle introduced the Floyd's mature style in the
23-minute instrumental 'Echoes,' coloring the slow guitar ripples with deep-in-the-
studio sonic details that only the truly baked would notice, much less
appreciate."
[25]
Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine commented that the album
"spends most of its time with sonic textures and elongated compositions, most notably
on its epic closer, 'Echoes.'" He noted a "uniform tone", but not song structure, and
wrote the album's significance in the group's catalogue, "Pink Floyd were nothing if
5

not masters of texture, and Meddle is one of their greatest excursions into little details,
pointing the way to the measured brilliance of Dark Side of the Moon and the entire
Roger Waters era [...] [T]he album is one of the Floyd's most consistent explorations
of mood, especially from their time at Harvest, and it stands as the strongest record
they released between Syd's departure and Dark Side."
[21]

Track listing
Side one

No. Title Music Lead vocals Length

1. "One of These Days" Waters, Wright, Mason,
Gilmour
Instrumental
[nb 4]
5:57

2. "A Pillow of Winds" Waters, Gilmour Gilmour 5:10

3. "Fearless" (including "You'll
Never Walk Alone")
Waters, Gilmour(including Rodgers,
Hammerstein II)
Gilmour 6:08

4. "San Tropez" Waters Waters 3:43

5. "Seamus" Waters, Wright, Mason,
Gilmour
Gilmour 2:16

Side two

No. Title Music Lead vocals Length

1. "Echoes" Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour Gilmour and Wright 23:29

Sales chart performance
Year Chart Position
1971 UK Albums Chart 3
[12][43]

1971 Billboard Pop Albums 70
[44]




6

Personnel
Credits taken from sleeve notes.
[45]

Pink Floyd
David Gilmour guitar, bass on "One of These Days", lead vocals, harmonica on
"Seamus"
Roger Waters bass, lead vocals and acoustic guitar on "San Tropez"
Richard Wright Hammond organ, piano, vocals on "Echoes"
Nick Mason drums, percussion, vocal phrase on "One of These Days"

Additional personnel
Rob Black engineering (Morgan Studio)
Peter Bown engineering (Air and EMI Studios)
Peter Curzon design on album remaster
Bob Dowling outer sleeve photos
James Guthrie remastering
Hipgnosis band photo
John Leckie engineering (Air and EMI Studios)
Tony May inner sleeve photos
Pink Floyd album cover design
Roger Quested engineering (Morgan Studio)
Doug Sax remastering
Seamus the Dog vocals on "Seamus"
Storm Thorgerson design on album remaster
References
Notes
1. Jump up^ "Seamus" was remade as "Mademoiselle Nobs", featuring a
different dog and no lyrics, in the film Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii.
[14]

2. Jump up^ Povey (2007) suggests that the UK release date was 5
November,
[26]
but Mabbett (1995) and Pink Floyd's official website both state
13 November. All sources agree on the US release date.
[27][28]

3. Jump up^ UK - EMI PFBOX 1, US - Columbia CXK 53180 S1
[31]

4. Jump up^ The song is entirely instrumental, except for a spoken line by Nick
Mason.
[42]


Footnotes
1. Jump up^ Mason 2005, pp. 152153
7

2. ^ Jump up to:
a

b

c

d
Mason 2005, p. 157
3. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Mason 2005, p. 153
4. Jump up^ Harris 2006, p. 62
5. Jump up^ Harris 2006, pp. 6364
6. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Mabbett 1995, p. 42
7. Jump up^ Mason 2005, pp. 153154
8. Jump up^ Mason 2005, p. 155
9. Jump up^ Povey 2007, pp. 142144
10. Jump up^ Mason 2005, p. 158
11. Jump up^ Povey 2007, p. 148
12. ^ Jump up to:
a

b

c

d
Snider 2008, p. 103
13. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Schaffner 1991, p. 160
14. ^ Jump up to:
a

b

c
Mason 2005, p. 156
15. ^ Jump up to:
a

b

c
Schaffner 1991, p. 155
16. Jump up^ Harris 2006, p. 64
17. Jump up^ Povey 2007, p. 155
18. Jump up^ Mason 2005, p. 160
19. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Blake 2007, p. 166
20. Jump up^ Harris 2006, pp. 142143
21. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Erlewine, Stephen Thomas, Meddle: Overview, Allmusic,
retrieved 6 September 2009
22. Jump up^ Twist, Carlo, Meddle - Blender, blender.com, retrieved 20 August
2009
[dead link]

23. ^ Jump up to:
a

b

c
Christgau, Robert, Pink Floyd: Meddle, robertchristgau.com,
retrieved 20 August 2009
24. Jump up^ Q, October 1995: 137, "3 Stars - Good - "...The four were at their
most collectively prolific at this time...""
25. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Sheffield, Rob (2 November 2004). "Pink Floyd: Album
Guide". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media, Fireside Books. Retrieved 24 September
2011.
26. Jump up^ Povey 2007, p. 150
27. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Mabbett 1995, p. 39
28. Jump up^ Pink Floyd - Echoes (click Echoes image link), pinkfloyd.co.uk,
retrieved 22 August 2009
29. Jump up^ MFSL Out of Print Archive - Original Master Recording LP,
mofi.com, retrieved 3 August 2009
30. Jump up^ MFSL Out of Print Archive - Ultradisc II Gold CD, mofi.com,
retrieved 3 August 2009
31. Jump up^ Povey 2007, p. N/A
32. Jump up^ Eder, Bruce, Shine On - Review, allmusic.com, retrieved 15 August
2009
8

33. Jump up^ Harris 2006, pp. 158161
34. Jump up^ Povey 2007, p. 344
35. Jump up^ Mabbett 1995, p. 43
36. Jump up^ Harris 2006, p. 67
37. Jump up^ US Certifications Database, riaa.com, retrieved 22 August 2009
38. ^ Jump up to:
a

b

c
Pink Floyd - Meddle, Billboard, 1972, retrieved 6 September
2009
39. Jump up^ Costa, Jean-Charles (6 January 1972), Pink Floyd: Meddle,
rollingstone.com, retrieved 19 August 2009
40. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Schaffner 1991, pp. 155156
41. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Easlea, Daryl (17 April 2007), Pink Floyd Meddle Review,
bbc.co.uk, retrieved 20 August 2009
42. Jump up^ Ruhlmann, William. "One of These Days". Allmusic. Retrieved 19
February 2010.
43. Jump up^ "Pink Floyd UK Chart History". Official Charts Company.
Retrieved 30 July 2013.
44. Jump up^ Pink Floyd - Charts & Awards - Billboard Albums, allmusic.com,
retrieved 19 August 2009
45. Jump up^ Meddle (sleeve). Pink Floyd. Harvest Records.

Bibliography
Blake, Mark (2007), Comfortably Numb - The Inside Story of Pink Floyd,
Thunder's Mouth Press, ISBN 1-56858-383-4
Harris, John (2006), The Dark Side of the Moon (Third ed.), Harper
Perennial,ISBN 978-0-00-779090-6
Mabbett, Andy (1995), The complete guide to the music of Pink Floyd(Illustrated
ed.), Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-4301-X
Mason, Nick (2005), Philip Dodd, ed., Inside Out - A Personal History of Pink
Floyd (Paperback ed.), Phoenix, ISBN 0-7538-1906-6
Povey, Glenn (2007), Echoes, Mind Head Publishing, ISBN 0-9554624-0-1
Schaffner, Nicholas (1991), Saucerful of Secrets (First ed.), London : Sidgwick &
Jackson, ISBN 0-283-06127-8
Snider, Charles (2008), The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock,
Lulu.com, ISBN 0-615-17566-X

Further reading
Reising, Russell (2005), Speak to Me, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, ISBN 0-7546-
4019-1