This article is about the Pink Floyd song. A song is a Musical composition. Songs contain vocal parts that are performed 'sung' and generally feature Words ( Lyrics) commonly followed Pink Floyd are An album or record album is a collection of related audio or Music tracks distributed to the public Meddle is an Album by English Progressive rock band Pink Floyd. Events 637 - Antioch surrenders to the Muslim forces under Rashidun Caliphate after the Battle of Iron bridge. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. Events 1499 - Publication of the Catholicon in Treguier ( Brittany) Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. Abbey Road Studios, established in November 1931 by EMI in London, England, is a Recording studio located at number 3 Abbey Road, London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. Associated Independent Recording (AIR, an independent recording company was founded in London in 1965 by Beatles producer George Martin and his partner London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Associated Independent Recording (AIR, an independent recording company was founded in London in 1965 by Beatles producer George Martin and his partner London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. Associated Independent Recording (AIR, an independent recording company was founded in London in 1965 by Beatles producer George Martin and his partner London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other Progressive rock (often shortened to " progressive " " prog " or " prog rock " is a form of Rock music that evolved Psychedelic rock is a style of Rock music that attempts to replicate the mind-altering experiences of hallucinogenic drugs. A songwriter is someone who writes the Lyrics to songs the Musical composition (chords or Melody to songs or both George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943 in Great Bookham, Surrey) is an English rock musician Richard William "Rick" Wright (28 July 1943 &ndash 15 September 2008 was a pianist and Keyboardist best known for his career with Pink Floyd Nicholas Berkeley "Nick" Mason (born 27 January 1944 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England) is the Drummer for Pink Floyd. David Jon Gilmour CBE (born 6 March 1946 is an English Musician, best known as the Lead guitarist one of the lead Singers Meddle is an Album by English Progressive rock band Pink Floyd. " Seamus " is the fifth song on Pink Floyd 's 1971 album Meddle. Echoes The Best of Pink Floyd is a compilation album by Pink Floyd. " Another Brick in the Wall " is the title of three songs set to variations of the same basic theme on Pink Floyd 's 1979 Concept album, " Hey You " is a song by the British Progressive rock band Pink Floyd. For other meanings see Echoes.

"Echoes" is a song by Pink Floyd, including lengthy instrumental passages, sound effects, and rock improvisation. Pink Floyd are Improvisation (also called extemporization) is the practice of acting singing talking and reacting of making and creating in the moment and in response to the stimulus of Written by all four members of the group (Roger Waters, Richard Wright, David Gilmour, and Nick Mason), "Echoes" provides the extended finale to Pink Floyd's album Meddle. George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943 in Great Bookham, Surrey) is an English rock musician Richard William "Rick" Wright (28 July 1943 &ndash 15 September 2008 was a pianist and Keyboardist best known for his career with Pink Floyd David Jon Gilmour CBE (born 6 March 1946 is an English Musician, best known as the Lead guitarist one of the lead Singers Nicholas Berkeley "Nick" Mason (born 27 January 1944 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England) is the Drummer for Pink Floyd. Meddle is an Album by English Progressive rock band Pink Floyd. The track has a running time of 23:31 and takes up the entire B-side of the vinyl recording. It is widely considered one of Pink Floyd's most ambitious and musically diverse compositions.

It also appears in shortened form as the fifth track on the compilation album which took its name, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd. Echoes The Best of Pink Floyd is a compilation album by Pink Floyd. "Echoes" is the third-longest song in Pink Floyd's catalogue, after Atom Heart Mother (23:44) and the combined segments of Shine On You Crazy Diamond (26:01). Pink Floyd are " Atom Heart Mother " is a six-part Suite by Progressive rock band Pink Floyd, composed by all members of the band and Ron Geesin. " Shine On You Crazy Diamond " is a nine-part Pink Floyd composition with lyrics written by Roger Waters in tribute to former band member Syd Barrett Unlike those pieces, it is not explicitly divided into separate parts; however, the composition was originally assembled from separate fragments, and was later split in two parts to serve as both the opening and closing numbers in the band's film Live At Pompeii. Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii is a 1972 film featuring Pink Floyd performing six songs at the ruins of the empty ancient Amphitheatre in Pompeii

Composition

The song begins with a single sound, a distinctive "ping" played by Wright at the grand piano. Reportedly the result of an experiment at the very beginning of the Meddle sessions, the "ping" was created by amplifying a grand piano, playing the instrument's second-highest B natural, and sending the signal through a Leslie rotating speaker. The Leslie speaker is a specially constructed amplifier/ Loudspeaker used to create special audio effects utilizing the Doppler effect. The result is a piercing yet liquid sound, somewhat reminiscent of a sonar signal. Sonar (which started as an Acronym for sound navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses Sound propagation (usually underwater to navigate

Wright continues with a piano improvisation, mostly in the instrument's upper register (and still played through the Leslie), that gradually articulates the song's home key of C♯ minor. Gilmour soon enters with a soft, restrained guitar solo, featuring extensive use of expressive string bends. Guitar solos are a melodic passage section or entire piece of music written for an Electric guitar or an Acoustic guitar. As the introduction progresses, bass enters, followed by drums and, later, Hammond organ. The electric bass guitar (also called electric bass, or simply bass; ˈbeɪs as in "base" is a Stringed instrument played primarily with the

The opening lyrics, sung in harmony by Gilmour and Wright, place the listener at an underwater location where 'everything is green and submarine'. Each verse of the song follows a pattern of three strophes in which the first two strophes have the chord progression of C♯m, G♯m, F♯m, G♯, while the third shifts to the parallel major of C♯ major. Strophe ( Greek στροφή, turn bend twist, see also Phrase) is a concept in versification which properly A chord progression (also chord sequence and harmonic progression or sequence) is a series of chords played in order In Music, the parallel minor or tonic minor of a particular major key is the minor key with the same tonic; similarly the parallel major Between verses Gilmour plays a chromatic riff that oscillates between C♯ and A.

After the second verse, the song segues into a guitar solo that incorporates many of Gilmour's trademark gestures, including use of multiple overdubbed guitars. This second solo eventually gives way to the song's first break, as the guitar solos and backing riffs are replaced by a comparatively spare drum and bass groove with an almost funk-like character. In Popular music a break is an Instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to Stop-time &ndash being Funk is an American musical style that originated in the mid- to late-1960s when African American musicians blended Soul music, Soul

Another guitar solo soon begins, making use of distortion, feedback, wah pedal and whammy bar effects; the latter technique allows for exaggerated pitch bends, resembling those of a slide guitar (Gilmour did use the slide for certain sound effects on the studio recording, and for the introduction in live performances from 1971 to 1975). A distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic of an object image sound waveform or other form of information or representation Audio Feedback (also known as the Larsen effect after the Danish scientist Søren Larsen who first discovered its principles is a special kind of Feedback A wah-wah pedal (or just wah pedal) is a type of Guitar Effects pedal that alters the tone of the signal to create a distinctive effect intended to mimic A tremolo arm or tremolo bar (also called a "whammy bar" or "wang bar" is a lever attached to the bridge and/or the Tailpiece of Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the Guitar. Wright plays brief phrases on the Hammond organ, which is double-tracked and panned hard left and right, slowly increasing in intensity. The Hammond organ is an electric organ which was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company

These organ fills, along with the bass and drum groove, begin fading away as the lead guitar gradually becomes more distant. A throbbing wind-like sound is introduced, created by Waters vibrating the strings of his bass guitar with a steel slide and feeding the signal through a Binson Echorec. Binson was an early manufacturer of Echo machines Unlike most other analog echo machines they used an analog magnetic drum recorder instead of a Tape loop. Wind sound effects then fade in as high pitched electronic 'screams' enter, resembling a distorted whale song. Whales are marine mammals which are neither Dolphins (ie members of the families Delphinidae or Platanistoidae) nor Porpoises Orcas Gilmour discovered the sound by accidentally reversing the cables to his wah pedal^[1]. (This sound was first introduced in live performances of the song "Embryo" during 1970 and the first half of 1971, and was used again eight years later as a background noise in Is There Anybody Out There? from The Wall album. " Is There Anybody Out There? " is a mostly instrumental song on the Pink Floyd album The Wall. The Wall is a Rock opera presented as a Double album by the English Progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in late ) Throughout this section harmonic "whistles" can be heard produced by Wright pulling certain drawbars in and out on the Hammond organ.

In the second half of the interlude, the screams die down to become background noises under the sound of rooks, which were added to the music from a tape archive recording (as had been done for some of the band's earlier songs, including "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun"). The Rook ( Corvus frugilegus) is a member of the Passerine order of birds and the crow family " Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun " is a song by British Psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, and is featured on their second album Eventually, the entire ensemble is faded into a sustained B minor chord on the Farfisa organ, accompanied by more of the sonar-like 'pings' from the introduction. Farfisa is a manufacturer of electronics based in Italy The Farfisa brand name is commonly associated with a series of compact Electronic organ, and later a series of multi-timbral Wright soon begins an organ solo, while Gilmour starts picking muted notes, sliding from B to F♯ to D to E. This distinctive guitar part was reportedly inspired by the Beach Boys song "Good Vibrations"^[2] where similar muted triplets are used (albeit played by cellos). The Beach Boys is an American rock band Formed in 1961 the group gained popularity for its close vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a California Youth culture " Good Vibrations " is a pop single by The Beach Boys.

Eventually, the section climaxes in a guitar riff laden with echo and distortion, before abruptly modulating back to C♯ minor, with a return to the soft vocal strains of the third verse. Unlike the previous verses, this is accompanied by intermittent guitar fills. After a final refrain, the song recedes into a tape loop of multi-tracked ascending male voice glissandos, similar to the effect of a Shepard tone. A Shepard tone, named after Roger Shepard, is a Sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by Octaves When played with the base After a brief coda for guitar and keyboards, the song gradually fades.

Early versions

The piece had its genesis in a collection of musical experiments written separately by each band member, referred to as "Nothing, Parts 1-24". Subsequent tapes of work in progress were labelled "The Son of Nothing" and "The Return of the Son of Nothing"; the latter title was eventually used to introduce the as-yet unreleased work during its first live performances in early 1971^[3].

During this stage of its development, the song's first verse had yet to be finalized. It originally referred to the meeting of two celestial bodies, but perhaps because of Waters' increasing concerns that Pink Floyd was being pigeonholed as a space rock band, the lyrics were rewritten to use underwater imagery instead. Space rock is a subgenre of Rock music; the term originally referred to a group of early mostly British 1970s Progressive rock and psychedelic

Echoes (excerpt, early version, August 1971)

The first verse (with alternate lyrics) of Pink Floyd's "Echoes", as performed in Japan on August 6, 1971 — 338 KB

Problems listening to the file? See media help.

The title "Echoes" was also subjected to significant revisions before and after the release of Meddle: Waters, a devoted football fan, proposed that the band call its new piece "We Won the Double" in celebration of Arsenal's 1971 victory, and during a 1972 tour of Germany he jovially introduced it on two consecutive nights as "Looking Through the Knothole in Granny's Wooden Leg" and "The March of the Dam Busters", respectively. Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a Team sport played between two teams of eleven players and is widely considered The Double is a term in football, which refers to winning a country's top tier division and its primary cup competition in the same season The Dam Busters is a British War film, set during the Second World War, and based on the true story of the RAF 's 617 Squadron ^[3]

Live performances

The song, then entitled "The Return of the Son of Nothing", was first performed in public on April 22, 1971 at the Lads Club in Norwich, England, with the unrevised 'planetary' lyrics. These remained in place until September of that year, when they were replaced by the more familiar 'albatross' lyrics. Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large Seabirds allied to the procellariids, Storm-petrels and Diving-petrels The song was first introduced as "Echoes" on the sixth of August, 1971, at a performance in Japan. It was a staple of Pink Floyd's live performances from then until 1975 and was also played eleven times in 1987, near the beginning of the A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. A Momentary Lapse of Reason is Pink Floyd 's 1987 Album, the band's first release after the departure of Roger Waters from the band in 1985 Most recently, David Gilmour has performed the song on his 2006 solo tour.

Unlike the Atom Heart Mother suite, it was relatively easy for Pink Floyd to reproduce "Echoes" onstage (as can be seen in the Live at Pompeii film) without requiring additional musicians, though the swapping of keyboard sounds during the piece sometimes proved problematic in live performances. Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii is a 1972 film featuring Pink Floyd performing six songs at the ruins of the empty ancient Amphitheatre in Pompeii Originally, Wright would start the song by playing his grand piano through a Leslie speaker, then switch to the Hammond organ just before the first verse, switch again to the Farfisa organ for the re-entry after the 'seagull' middle section, back to the Hammond again for the last verse, and finally to piano for the outro. This required Roger Waters to provide the piano 'pings' at their re-entry after the middle section. The Farfisa was later dropped from the band's live keyboard setup and all its parts were played on the Hammond instead. The 1987 performances had synthesizers replacing the Farfisa. Unlike Pompeii, regular live performances played the song as a whole - the bridge between "Part 1" and "Part 2" was simply done by Waters stopping the bass riff of the jam section in the former and starting to play the wind sounds of the latter. The rest of the band would just play quieter and quieter until silent. Live performances featured Roger playing his bass for the intro, rather than Gilmour's guitar.

Starting in 1974, the musical arrangement was augmented by backing vocals from Venetta Fields and Carlena Williams and saxophone solos by Dick Parry added directly after the second verse and at the song's finale. Venetta Fields is an American singer best known as session musician for leading rock and pop acts of the 1970s including Pink Floyd, Barbra Streisand, Dick Parry (born December 22, 1942 in Kentford, Suffolk, England) is an English Saxophonist. All three of these additional artists joined Pink Floyd's touring party to take the latter Dark Side of the Moon performances, and added their own parts to the remainder of the concert (largely because the former artist was reluctant to leave and re-enter the stage throughout the show). The Dark Side of the Moon (titled Dark Side of the Moon in the 1993 CD edition is a Concept album by the British Progressive ^[4] The last time the song was played by all four members of Pink Floyd was at the concert in Knebworth closing their 1975 world tour. The grounds of Knebworth House near the village of Knebworth has become a major venue for open air rock and pop concerts since During performances given by the 'three-man' Pink Floyd in 1987, "Echoes" was played in a much shorter form than usual (with Gilmour singing the higher harmonies instead of Wright and Wright singing Gilmour's original harmonies). It was ultimately dropped from the set (and replaced with "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5)") because Gilmour did not feel 'right' about singing the lyrics at the time, and his backing artists played its music without the touches of improvisation that make "Echoes" a powerfully affecting piece.

On Gilmour's 2006 tour in support of On An Island, Wright plays a key part in the touring band, performing the vocals and keyboard parts on "Echoes" (he sang in the same pitch as Gilmour originally did (this time melding with Gilmour) and Jon Carin singing the higher harmonies that Rick originally sang in 1970s performances). On an Island is the third solo album by David Gilmour, best known as a lead vocalist and guitarist for Pink Floyd. This new arrangement of the song is close to full-length (Often clocking at 22 minutes at the beginning of the tour, later performances even outlengthed the studio version by sometimes three minutes. ) It also saw the return of Rick's Farfisa organ, which was pulled out of storage and brought on tour specifically for "Echoes. " There is a full performance of Echoes on Gilmour's DVD Remember That Night, taken from the Royal Albert Hall. Remember That Night is a live concert recording of Pink Floyd Guitarist David Gilmour 's solo concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in This performance clocks in at 22:18.

Echoes and the 2001: A Space Odyssey Synchronization Rumours

It is rumoured^[5] that "Echoes" synchronizes with Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey when played concurrently with the final segment (entitled "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite"). 2001 A Space Odyssey is a 1968 Science fiction film directed by Stanley Kubrick, written by Kubrick and Arthur C

"Echoes" was released 3 years after the film and is 23 minutes and 31 seconds in length, similar to the "Infinite" segment. Sounds in the middle part of the song suggest to some listeners the feeling of travelling through an alien world. The drone vocalizations heard in the final scenes of 2001 seem to match with the discordant bass vibrations in the middle of "Echoes" as well the choral glissandos of its finale. Some argue that there are moments when the song and film soundtrack are nearly indistinguishable. Another notable link occurs during a change in scene at precisely the moment when guitar and keyboards crescendo as the lyrics re-enter for the final verse. Almost as a bonus, the early lyrics contain references to planets, which seems entirely suitable for the film's depiction of Jupiter and its moons. Adrian Maben re-created this marriage of music and image in his director's cut of Live at Pompeii using CGI. Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii is a 1972 film featuring Pink Floyd performing six songs at the ruins of the empty ancient Amphitheatre in Pompeii Computer animation Computer-generated imagery (also known as CGI) is the application of the field of Computer graphics or more specifically 3D computer graphics

Although no member of the band has ever declared the synchronization intentional and the technology to play back film in a recording studio circa 1971 would have been expensive and difficult for the band to acquire, Roger Waters is sometimes quoted as saying that the band's failure to contribute music on 2001's official score was his "greatest regret"^[5].

The 1973 George Greenough film "Crystal Voyager" concludes with a 23 minute segment in which the full length of "Echoes" accompanies a montage of images shot by Greenough from a camera mounted on his back while surfing on his kneeboard. For the geologist see George Bellas Greenough George Greenough is an innovative surfer and cinematographer from Santa Barbara California

Plagiarism

In interviews promoting Amused to Death, Waters asserted that Andrew Lloyd Webber had plagiarized themes from "Echoes" for sections of the musical The Phantom of the Opera; nevertheless, he decided not to file a lawsuit regarding the matter. Amused to Death is a concept album by former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters, released in 1992. Andrew Lloyd Webber Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948 is a British Composer of Musical theatre, the elder son of William Lloyd Webber Musical theatre is a form of Theatre combining Music, Songs spoken Dialogue and Dance. The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the book written by the French novelist Gaston Leroux

Yeah, the beginning of that bloody Phantom song is from Echoes. *DAAAA-da-da-da-da-da* [sic]. I couldn't believe it when I heard it. It's the same time signature - it's 12/8 - and it's the same structure and it's the same notes and it's the same everything. Bastard. It probably is actionable. It really is! But I think that life's too long to bother with suing Andrew fucking Lloyd Webber. ^[6]

Waters did, however, respond by adding a reference to Webber in the song "It's a Miracle" on the Amused to Death album:

We cower in our shelters, with our hands over our ears
Lloyd Webber's awful stuff runs for years and years and years
An earthquake hits the theatre, but the operetta lingers
Then the piano lid comes down and breaks his fucking fingers
It's a miracle

Parodies and Tributes

The final song ("Ooby-Scooby Doomsday Or The D-day DJ's Got The D. D. T. Blues") on the CD version of Gong's 1973 album Angel's Egg ends with an ascending glissando of male voices that is exactly like the finale of "Echoes". Gong is a progressive / Psychedelic rock band formed by Australian Musician Daevid Allen. Angel's Egg is an album by Gong, recorded and originally released in 1973 However, in Gong's rendition the glissando, beginning with "Ahhhhh", ends with "choooo", thus mimicking a long sneeze. This is only on the CD version of Angel's Egg.

The Flaming Lips song "Pompeii Am Götterdammerung" from the album At War with the Mystics seems to refer to Pink Floyd. The Flaming Lips (formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983 is an American rock band At War with the Mystics is the title of the Grammy -winning eleventh album by The Flaming Lips. The title is likely a reference to Live at Pompeii, and the song starts with a keyboard sound identical to the one at the beginning of "Echoes. "

The Beastie Boys' "Gratitude" music video reflects and tributes "Echoes" from Live at Pompeii. A music video is a Short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music most commonly a Song with lyrics "Pink Floyd London" is painted on the back of the amp when the camera rotates behind the band. There are also shots of Leslie rotating speakers. [1]

The band Between the Buried And Me released a song on their Colors album title 'The Son of Nothing,' which may be a reference to this song.

Personnel

• Richard Wright - Keyboards, sound effects, vocals
• David Gilmour - Vocals, guitars, bass guitar, sound effects
• Roger Waters - Bass guitar, sound effects
• Nick Mason - Drums, percussion

References

External links

• Did Pink Floyd Meddle with 2001?
• "Echoes" set to 2001: A Space Odyssey at YouTube