The cover, dancers who cannot dance, was a favorite of Storm
Thorgerson's. Following the problems between Rick and Roger
during the Wall period, Storm Thorgerson also fell from Waters'
graces. After creating the bands universally acclaimed album
artwork for 11 years, Storm was suddenly left in the dark when
his lifelong friend Roger would barely speak to him, let alone
allow him any part in the Wall cover design. David Gilmour
intervened for Storm and secured him for the cover of ACOGDS.
ACOGDS reached #37 on U.K. charts after a ten week stay. The album debuted in the U.S. at #63 before reaching it's final #31 position and spent seven weeks on the Billboard Top 40.
"Life Could Be A Dream" was a 27-minute documentary by Mike
Shackleton profiling Nick Mason ('84-'85). It featured a 1972
Pompeii performance of OOTD. Under the title a 10-minute edit
of the film would be circulated as an in-flight supporting
feature
The 1987-1989 tour sent an inflatable pig out over the audience during OOTD while the 1994 Division Bell tour used two pigs at the top of the speaker towers at each side of the stage for OOTD.
The single promo version of 'Money' released in the U.S. had the word 'bullshit' edited out.
For the re-recorded version of 'Money', David Gilmour played
every part except for saxophone (Dick Parry). The cash
register sound effects were used from the original version.
The original 'Money' version could not be released in the U.S.
for contractual reasons, though one would have to listen very
carefully to hear the differences in the re-recorded version for
ACOGDS.
During the 'Animals' tour in '77, sheep were constructed from tea-bag paper in a way that provided a parachute effect. They were shot from mortars over the audience during the song 'Sheep'.
The original title for 'Sheep' was 'Raving and Drooling'.
'Raving and Drooling' was one of 3 pieces initially written
('74) to supplement 'Dark Side of the Moon' on a mid-1974 mini
tour of France. [SOYCD and Gotta Be Crazy, were the other two
pieces]
With Roger's lyrics, Rick's and David's music, SOYCD became Pink Floyd's epic tribute to Syd Barrett.
It was in June, 1975 at Abbey Road Studios that Syd Barrett
showed up as the band was trying to finish up a final mix of
SOYCD. When the band asked for the track to be played one
more time, Syd interrupted with "Why bother? You've heard it
once already."
WYWH originated as a Roger Waters poem that David Gilmour then set to music.
As 'Welcome to the Machine' addressed the mechanical nature of the sessions, WYWH was related to both Syd and the lack of commitment at that point in time, although Roger has also stated that most of it is about the 'battling elements' within his own contradictory character.
After 1968's 'Point Me at the Sky', Pink Floyd would not record a song specifically for single release. In Britain, no LP track, not even 'Money', would be produced in 45-rpm format until ABITW Pt. 2 11 years later.
Nick Griffiths, the bands recording engineer, recruited 23
students (along with their teacher) from Islington Green School
to do some singing for ABITW Pt. 2
ABITW Pt.2 was adopted by protesters in South Africa as the anthem of their nationwide school boycott. The government's directorate of publications retaliated by prohibiting the single and albums sale or broadcast.
Another Brick In The Wall was also changed a little.
Contracts and record company politics lead to the result
that different versions were released in Europe and America.
Money was actually re-recorded and edited for the American edition.
The phenomenal success of the ABITW single has been credited
for boosting sales of The Wall when it was released.
"Roger wasn't interested in that compilation [ACOGDS] so he actually let me get on with it. It was a fun cover, the couple 'dancing but not dancing'; I liked it a lot. Roger never liked it, but by that time I don't think he would have liked anything I would have done - which seems so silly, 'cause the covers he had were so fucking awful. There are plenty of people who do good covers; why he didn't get any of them to work for him, I have no idea." - S. Thorgerson
"It couldn't have happened without him [Syd] but on the other hand it couldn't have gone on *with* him." -R. Waters about WYWH, SOYCD
"I wanted to get it [SOYCD] as close as possible to what I felt -that sort of indefinable, inevitable melancholy about the disappearance of Syd. Because he's left, withdrawn so far away that, as far as we're concerned, he's no longer there." -R. Waters
"I actually do think that they are masters of evoking a mood in an auditorium with about two notes. The beginning of 'Shine On' is only about two notes and it just works a treat. It is very moody and atmospheric, and it has this sense of wide-open spaces of inner mind, or of some unknown terrain. Most of my pictures reflect that." -S. Thorgerson
"I leapt up and down getting the kids in the right spirit, and everyone had a whale of a time. It wasn't something I'd thought about beforehand; a lot of the best things happen that way. It took just half an hour to do; then I tracked the voices about a dozen times." - Nick Griffiths about ABITW Pt. 2
"So we wound up copying the tape [Griffith's tape of the students singing] and mixing it twice - once with me and Roger singing, and one with the kids; the backing is the same. And we edited them together." -D. Gilmour about ABITW Pt.2
The whole ending part of ABITW 2..."he [Roger] didn't write the
guitar solo or the chords in that section. He didn't make up the
drum parts, the rhythm. I'm not going to abandon something I've
worked really hard on, or feel I had something major to do with,
just because it says Roger wrote it. Life is too short."
-D. Gilmour about ABITW Pt. 2