Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd
Trivia and Quotes


The making of this album was not particularly agreeable to the individual members of Pink Floyd, but the knowledge that all contractual obligations would be fulfilled with EMI if they proceeded, they reluctantly agreed to it.


Released on November 5, 2001 (UK), November 6, 2001 (US), the double-disc set is the first and only compilation to span the band's entire career. The twist on this collection is that the music has been arranged non-chronologically into cross-faded medleys. The Wall period rarity "When the Tigers Broke Free" has been added to the set and for the first time released on CD. Additional highlights of this definitive collection include the music mixed together as one piece of continuous music, 32 page booklet with lyrics, original art interpretation of Pink Floyd covers over the years designed by Storm Thorgerson and remastering/assembling by long time Pink Floyd producer and engineer James Guthrie.


To compile this album, the original analogue master tapes were played back on custom tape machines built by The Mastering Lab (1/4inch) and Tim de Paravinci (1/2inch). Custom valve EQ was by Esoteric Audio Research. 24 bit Analogue to Digital converters by db Technologies fed the SADiE workstation. Monitoring DACs were by dCS.


"If you take it apart, you would say Syd's lyrics were much more whimsical and freer, whereas Roger's were much more specific and dour. And yet there is a similarity between 'Piper At The Gates Of Dawn' and 'Dark Side Of The Moon.' I think it is probably an element that has to do with the technique of recording. That is part of the whole business, the change in the way records were made when we started, multi-tracking, overlaying sound, which started with Syd and has continued to the present day," [Nick Mason]


Capitol Records celebrated the release of Echoes-The Best Of Pink Floyd by flying the band's patented pig on the rooftop of its historic Tower building in Los Angeles. The 40' x 17' inflatable hog is a replica of the band's 1976 original. It required 350 total hours to construct the patterns, with eight sewing machine technicians working simultaneously to create the pig using 250 yards of material and 138 individual patterns. The pink fabric took three days for a supplier to color. An estimated 24 hours was dedicated to painting the details, including eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, snout, body and hooves.


The BBC reported that the band is undertaking the project to create enough vegetation to absorb the greenhouse gasses created by the manufacture of their new best-of CD, "Echoes." The initiative is part of the Future Forests campaign, which is attempting to get the music industry involved in combatting global warming. Deforestation reduces the number of trees that can absorb atmospherically-harmful greenhouse gasses, so planting new foliage will presumably make the production of something like "Echoes" "carbon-neutral," The BBC said.

Pink Floyd's forests will be planted in Chiapas, Mexico, Tensas River National Park in Louisiana, Bangalore, India, and Dryhope Burn in Scotland.




Storm Thorgerson begin planning his mammoth visual retrospective in April, 2001. The first photo shoot was in August - using a crew of 15, apothecary's bottles from 'A Saucerful of Secrets', and the masks from The Wall Live box set, by the river Cam in Grantchester, Cambridge.


The Tracks

When The Tigers Broke Free
The Wall The Movie
This song appeared in the "The Wall" film, in two parts: "The Enemy Bridge Was Held" and "The High Command". This is the first time it appears on Compact Disc release.


Bike
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The working title of this piece was 'The Bike Song and was written for Syd's girlfriend, Jenny Spires.


See Emily Play
This was a reworked version of 'Games For May' which was written and performed at the 'Free Games For May' event in May of 1967. It was recorded halfway through the Piper sessions. Syd laid down his most interesting slide work using a Zippo lighter.


Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
A Saucerful of Secrets
Roger Waters admits that the lyrics were "ripped off" from a book of Chinese verse. Seemingly to be cut up and simply rearranged, it was a technique possibly borrowed from author William S. Burroughs. The songs title is also found in one of Mr. Burroughs novels.


Jugband Blues
A Saucerful of Secrets
This was intended as the follow-up to Pink Floyd's second single, 'See Emily Play'. This is the only track with notable differences between the stereo and mono versions-the latter having more guitar and vocals. It exists in three official versions- UK stereo, the UK mono, and the stereo mix from the Canadian 'A Nice Pair'. The Canadian version of "Jugband" included a different stereo mix, unknown elsewhere.


High Hopes
The Division Bell
This was the first song written for the Division Bell album, but the last one finished.

Echoes Meddle Return of the Son of Nothing was played for almost a year before the Meddle album came out. One of Roger's many titles for "Echoes"

was 'We Won the Double'. This song was eventually redone and renamed "Echoes" and became the title track of Pink Floyd's latest release.

Money The Dark Side of the Moon This is the most performed piece in the band's history. Dave has performed the track for over 800 concerts.

Us and Them The Dark Side of the Moon Rick originally composed "Us and Them" as a simple piano piece for Zabriskie Point, with the working title 'The Violent Sequence'.

This song was refused by the Director and later became one of the many high lights for The Dark side of the Moon.

The Fletcher Memorial Home
The Final Cut
This was one of the four songs to be produced as a video for the Final Cut album. The main actor for these videos was played by Alex McAvoy, who portrayed the wicked School Master in the Wall Movie.


Comfortably Numb
The Wall
"Well, there were two recordings of that, which me and Roger argued about. I'd written it when I was doing my first solo album. We changed the key of the song's opening the E to B, I think. The verse stayed exactly the same. Then we had to add a little bit, because Roger wanted to do the line, "I have become comfortably numb". Other than that, it was very, very simple to write." [David Gilmour]


Sorrow
A Momentary Lapse of Reason
Sorrow was a poem David Gilmour had written as a lyric before he wrote music for the piece. On July 13, 1989, during rehearsals for their show in Venice, Italy, Pink Floyd were asked to turn the volume down because the city managers felt that the bass sounds during Sorrow would damage surrounding buildings. Pink Floyd agreed reluctantly and on the 15th started off at a reduced volume level, but slowly raised it as the show progressed.





QUOTES


Issues surrounding "Echoes" were decided by correspondence and with longtime engineer James Guthrie serving as a diplomatic intermediary, about everything-


"Best-of albums always, I think, come from the record company. Perhaps they look at their sales sheets and think: What can we do?. Having said that, I have got plenty of best-ofs in my CD collection by other people. There's nothing wrong with them." -Nick Mason

"We haven't got much other archival stuff left. We could do the not-quite-best of Pink Floyd as the next album, and then finally do the very worst of. There is a bit of a restriction on that sort of thing." -Nick Mason


"You use some people, particularly James Guthrie, who we all like and trust, and they can take a view we can all go along with. Or at least, we can find out the bits that we are arguing about, rather than just having one big fight about everything." -Nick Mason


"Our engineer chap, James Guthrie does all the actual putting-together. He talks to Roger and he talks to me and he tells me what Roger has said, and he tells Roger what I have said, and that's how we communicate. That's been going on for quite a long time. It got to the point where it was getting difficult to sort out." -David Gilmour


"James Guthrie was on the phone constantly, trying to get me involved. James Guthrie is the guy who's actually compiled it and put it together, with the segue ways and so on and so forth. I resisted being involved at all for a long time, its very frustrating being involved in something you have no power in, and I have no power in that. The decisions about what goes on a best of Pink Floyd record are nothing to do with me, cause the power resides in a company called Pink Floyd Music Limited and there are a number of shares and a number of votes, like there are four votes and I only get one, well if I only get one, there must be three others, so I have no power, so, you know, I have nothing really, I don't have any seriously negative feelings about that." -Roger Waters


"If Roger and I had been able to reach an agreement then that would have been fine. But Roger was being his usual self and being difficult about certain things, mentioning tracks that really didn't seem to me representative. Of course, all our views are bound to be subjective, but I had views on what I thought were popular and iconic tracks and should have been included." -David Gilmour


"I've had very little involvement, and "Best Of" of course is always a subjective view, and erghhhhh and I don't know, and I guess by and large you could say its Dave's view more than mine, but its ok. I'm sure a lot of fans of Pink Floyd will be happy they can go and buy it." -Roger Waters


"I would prefer the work I did wasn't mixed up with the work they did after I left, I cant resist saying that, but that's only personal preference of mine." -Roger Waters


"I should say it is unfortunately like a lot of group relationships. There is a fair amount of angst about the whole thing. At the end of the day, we have to find some way to work together, even with the ones we have fallen out with, or who have fallen out with each other." -Nick Mason


"I sent a letter with a list of every track on every album, and my reasons for what I thought should be on the record, and I sent copies of this letter to Rick Wright and Nick Mason. We then set ourselves to voting because time was running out. We are four shareholders and directors of a company that is Pink Floyd." -David Gilmour


"What is perhaps interesting in this one is we tried, not to take a different view, but we had serious, fairly lengthy discussions on whether to run it in chronological order, whether to do any editing, and whether to do any cross-fading. All of which we did do in the end." -Nick Mason


"It is curious the band has kept a surprisingly strong musical identity, despite having three strong musical protagonists. It might be a similarity to Fleetwood Mac; you go through enormous changes in personnel, but there is a style adopted." -Nick Mason


"It is very much more that thing of someone else taking over and continuing. It sounds very British to say 'taking over the tradition,' but they were already steeped in it when Dave took over or Roger took over. They were really continuing something they understood and were involved with." -Nick Mason


"If you're a Floyd fan you'll enjoy it - spot the thingy, make the connection." -Storm Thorgerson about the Best of album cover


When asked if this was going to be Pink Floyd's 'last gasp' Storm Thorgerson said: "It's entirely possible, but then again, it might not be."





Nick Mason's reflections on a few key tracks from "Echoes"


"Arnold Layne"
(1st single - 1967) "It was our first real recording session. We had been in a studio and we were familiar with recording, but it was that thing of having a proper producer (Joe Boyd) that definitely made a difference."
"When we were working with Syd doing the first songs, Syd was not the crazy diamond that he is now perceived to be. He was perfectly capable of assembling a track as a record, rather than a 15 minute piece. We were not trying to curb him in at all. He understood the medium and just got on with it." "Astronomy Domine"
(The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn - 1967)

"It is a great piece to play. It is a great energy song, really. But also, it is abstract enough that it still works. The songs that we found more difficult were songs like 'Echoes,' which lyrically are more, I don't know, they are more part of '60s thinking. 'Astronomy' is wacky, too lightweight. The lyrics are abstract, the way they tumble around. It is a song that still works, and that is the test. You can't put your finger on it, but it is okay. It's scary, it is almost eternal."


"Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun"
(A Saucerful Of Secrets - 1968)

"That is one of the tracks I did listen to again, and I thought had lasted well. I don't know why. I look back on that now, and I just remember being influenced by (drummer) Chico Hamilton from (the Newport Jazz Festival concert film) 'Jazz On A Summer's Day.' I remember seeing that when I was a kid and going YES! That is good. And having the chance to do something that was vaguely related. Chico Hamilton was a little more advanced than I technically, but I suppose this comes through influences. You can pick up an influence without being able to do a quarter of what that influence does."


"Jugband Blues"
(A Saucerful Of Secrets - 1968)

"That was a good example of something that was discussed at some length. But the feeling was it was such a powerful farewell from Syd. The lyrics there stop being abstract and become as sad and down and wistful as anything Roger wrote, very personal again. In a way, what one wanted to do was to put across a bit of the range of Syd's writing. 'Jugband' is a wonderfully tragic piece. It is very poignant, that is the word I am looking for."
"Money"
(Dark Side Of The Moon - 1973)

"By then we had developed a style of using natural sounds rather than musical notes for everything. I just remember searching for sounds to make that rhythm track with. In some cases, we were taking sound effects, in others we were creating them ourselves."


"It is easy to sample something, but sampling can take forever to find the right sample. On 'Wish You Were Here,' there is the sound of a door opening and closing. We could have gone around searching for the right door. But what we did is record a fridge door at EMI. It sounded right. It was right there, it took no longer than sampling. You put it down and it is there. You get quite good at it."


"You also get hidebound, of course. We made the transition to digital editing two years later than everyone else, because we got used to working with razor blades."


"Us And Them"
(Dark Side Of The Moon - 1973)
"Surprising that 'Dark Side' did so much better than 'Saucerful Of Secrets.' It is a better album, but I'm not sure it is 10 times better, if you get what I mean."


"I think 'Us And Them' and 'Great Gig In The Sky,' probably owe a lot to the non-Pink Floyd element, i.e., Dick Parry, who played saxophone, and Claire Torry, who did the major part of the singing. It sort of lifted up and above what the band have done. For me, the interest is the bit that isn't the band. It adds that extra element to make them as strong as they are."


On claims that "Dark Side Of The Moon" was written to sync up to visual cues in "The Wizard Of Oz" -

"I haven't (tried it). But I hope someone else will do it when I'm there. I can never quite be bothered to do it. I can assure you we never worked with the film when we were working on the track. That would be so convoluted a way of making a record."


Shine On You Crazy Diamond"
(Wish You Were Here - 1975)

"I think it was never intended to be a concept album, say the way 'Dark Side' was. 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' became a Syd-related thing. I'm sure you've heard the story of Syd just appearing in the studio, some of us not having seen him for years, literally. It is one of those very, very strange things that happened and helped us crystallize the idea that it was about absence."


"Sheep"
(Animals - 1977)
"'Animals' was done in our own studio in London and was fun to make. It was a much more domestic operation."

"We didn't have a view of any ("Animals") track being stronger than the other. Time constraints. I think it was a bit of a tough toss-up as to which would go on ('Echoes'). As far as I can remember, it could have been 'Sheep,' could have been 'Dogs.' If it had been the other way around, there would be discussion about why 'Dogs' and not 'Sheep.'"


"Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)"
(The Wall - 1979)

"I think 'The Wall' was such a big magnum opus, really. It sort of took various lessons of 'Dark Side' and took them further. It was the most thought-out, and it brought in extra expertise with (producer) Bob Ezrin, (string arranger) Michael Kamen, (engineer) James Guthrie. We brought everything we could to it."


"It took the most work of anything we'd ever done, and contained the most work. It is not necessarily the hardest, but it contained so much thinking about how to do stuff. And the shows were such a development. They were everything we had learned over 20 years, put together properly."


"Even if you are involved in the most dreadful punch-ups with your colleagues, there is enormous satisfaction in making a record. There is bad stuff, but the simple fact that you made it, and it is there, is a good thing. And it is there. Despite the punch-ups, just listening to it is a reward."


"When The Tigers Broke Free"
(outtake from "The Wall" sessions)

"We were lucky to have that one track lurking around. I think we just didn't have room (on 'The Wall' originally). We had put everything and the kitchen sink on, so it got left off. There are probably other albums where bits got left off - particularly the soundtrack album ones, but not anything that could make a piece in its own right."


"Learning To Fly"
(A Momentary Lapse Of Reason - 1987)

"Before the '87 tour, we were all in Toronto for two or three months. We rehearsed at the airport, which was a great arrangement. We had a big hangar to rehearse in. And we like airplanes."


"For me, the nicest thing with 'Learning To Fly' was the background noise of take-off, which is myself and the guy teaching me to fly at the time recording it all. Because there was that flying thing, we did something with MTV where they gave an airplane, a small aircraft away, to a prize-winner, along with a set of flying lessons."


"Keep Talking"
(The Division Bell - 1994)

"With 'The Division Bell,' most of the concept was set down in the writing. It's like U2; by the time pop stars are getting in advancing years, they become less connected with the problems of teenage love, except for their children's problems. And so consequently, inevitably, they are going to move on to other subjects and things that capture their imagination."