EchoesFrom the album Meddle (1971)

As performed by Pink Floyd

(Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour) 23:31http://www.blogspot.com

Progressive Rock

Beginning as an underground movement in London

in the early 1960's, Progressive Rock (otherwise

known as Prog Rock) flourished and developed

throughout the 1960's and '70s. The idea of Prog

Rock was to turn Rock and Roll music into a more

sophisticated 'art', more associable with classical

music. Critics at the time scoffed at and despised

the music, but nevertheless it ruled underground

Europe until the implementation of Punk in the

mid '80s.

Pink Floyd

• Founded in 1965 by Syd Barrett

(guitar/vocals), Roger Waters (bass

guitar), Richard Wright (piano), and

Nick Mason (percussion)

• First album (Piper at the Gates of

Dawn, 1967)

• After Barrett's losing drug battle

caused him to be removed from the

band, the remaining members

enlisted David Gilmour (guitar/vocals)

• Meddle: sixth studio album, released

in 1971

Discography:1967 - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn1968 - A Saucerful of Secrets1969 - More (Soundtrack)1969 - Ummagumma1970 - Atom Heart Mother1971 - Meddle1972 - Obscured by Clouds 1973 - The Dark Side of the Moon1975 - Wish You Were Here1977 - Animals1979 - The Wall1983 - The Final Cut - A Requiem for the Post War Dream1987 - A Momentary Lapse of Reason1988 - Delicate Sound of Thunder1994 - The Division Bell

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Meddle"Echoes" was the B-side of the studio album Meddle. It

encompassed the entire side of the LP at an astounding 23:31 in length. The piece was considered the predecessor for the 1973 chart-topper, The Dark Side of the Moon. Meddle was the turning point for the band. Waters was unhappy with the band's new label as a 'Space' band, and shifted the focus of the music to social issues and people's internal struggles. "Echoes" is one such piece.

http://www.pinkfloyd.com

Speaker

The speaker of the piece could be anyone. Part of the beauty of the music is that the speaker is just someone pondering the existence of life and humanity. The point of view switches back and forth between present day and the beginning of life. There is a blur. The piece is a calling to those who are too caught up in what they are told by others to simply step back and enjoy the common heritage of all people. At the beginning of time, no one knew the "Where's and Why's" of the world. It was simple.

Literary Devices

Personification-"And through the window in the wall / Come

streaming in on sunlight wings / A million bright ambassadors of morning"

Here, the speaker is giving the sunlight human qualities by talking about how the motes in the sunlight come into his home on wings of sunlight, when really they are just floating down with gravity.

Literary Devices

Imagery- "Overhead the albatross / Hangs motionless upon

the air / And deep beneath the rolling waves / in labyrinths of coral caves / The echo of a distant time / Comes willowing across the sand / And

everything is green and submarine"Here, the speaker is describing the landscape

where he first begins to think about the idea of the birth of life.

Literary Devices

Mood- "And no one sings me lullabies / And no one

makes me close my eyes / So I throw the windows wide / And call to you across the sky"

Here, the mood appears joyful. The piece itself lends to a contemplative mood, but at the end, the speaker is overjoyed that there is no one to limit his thoughts, and so he calls out to others across the cloudless sky.

http://vimeo.com/5255919

The piece was found some time later to line up almost perfectly with the events in the last 25 minutes of Stanley Kubrick's 1968

film 2001: A Space Odyssey; although in later interviews, the band claimed this was not planned.

The film tells the story of the expedition sent to the Moon after a mysterious object arrives on it's surface. With the help of

H.A.L. 9000 (a supercomputer), Humanity sends a spaceship to the Moon to investigate.

http://www.imdb.com

2001: A Space OdysseyApart from the strange timing of the track and the end of the

movie, both works resonate with the same idea: that the beginning of life is a mystery. In "Echoes", the speaker ponders the origins of life and comes to the conclusion that there is no limit on what he can think about the subject, and he can turn (or not turn) to whatever higher power he chooses.

2001: lends itself to this theme in a similar way. Kubrick stated in an interview with Rolling Stone that: "...the film's plot symbolizes the search for God, and it finally

postulates what is little less than a scientific definition of God...The film revolves around this metaphysical conception[,] and the realistic hardware and the documentary feelings about everything were necessary in order to undermine your built-in

resistance to the poetical concept."

In short, the film was meant to be questioned by all who watched it, and to shake off the common idea of the origins of life.

2001: A Space Odyssey

• Bowman is all alone on the Discovery, and exits the ship in a pod. This same type of vehicle killed Poole (his fellow pilot), but Bowman uses one of them to survive.

• He approaches the Jupiter monolith, and is subjected to an experience that draws him away from Jupiter. He may (or may not) have been brought to other planets, star clusters, and galaxies.

• Bowman and the Pod are suddenly no longer in space, but in an ornate room; Bowman is shaken severely, possibly in shock.

• Bowman ages, experiencing the rest of his quiet, calm life in this suite of rooms. (He may experience this himself or see it happening from the outside. This aging may happen in the time it takes for a human being, or it may be sped-up. The film is ambiguous on these points, as on many others. Note that viewpoints are a theme running throughout the film.)

• The monolith appears in Bowman's room as he dies, and it either witnesses or causes his transfiguration into an embryo. The embryo leaves the room for space, symbolizing the birth of new life headed to Earth.

Why "Echoes"?

I chose "Echoes" as my presentation piece due to some personal reasons. I do not come from a very religious family, and my younger brother has recently mentioned that he often thinks about the origins of life, and whether or not he believes in a higher power. The lyrics and instrumental sections of "Echoes" lend themselves well to this theme, so I chose it to perhaps better help him and better help myself understand that no matter our origin or our beliefs, we are all human.

Works Cited

Kubrick, Stanley, dir. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Perf. Keir Dullea. MGM,

1968. Film.