Umm....
I'm not confused at all. I told you that Richard Wright was not a front man. There's no Richard Wright's Pink Floyd. He's not the team leader or manager or anything, he was just the only one with ideas that they could actually accomplish at the time. It turned out that halfway through he regretted making it a no-cooperation endeavor just like the other three didn't enjoy it, but for good or bad it's their 4th album.
Pink Floyd makes concept albums. Real concept albums. The act of making the album is explicitly their conception of what album they should make. Some of them are movies, some of them are statements, this one is a double album about 4 guys living two simultaneous double lives as performers, recording artists, members of a famous band, and people with real lives that may or may not cross over those boundaries. And the soundtrack for Gigi is relevant. It is, go look up the plot of that movie and you'll see why Nick Mason's wife and Roger Waters's girlfriend are here.
Totally cool thing about this boxed set: the Ummagumma labels are on the wrong discs. Now before you go all "don't buy this cheap gimmick garbage because that only encourages them," (yes that what the internet trolls really say about this boxed set) think about everything i've ever told you. Every single original album in my collection has the tracks listed out of order (because they had to start printing before the track order was actually finalized to meet the release deadline), this is published by EMI not some skanky 4th floor knock off label, it was manufactured in Holland because that's what the Dutch had for a dowry when they entered the EU (made in Holland is a sign of higher quality and actual money being invested in their working class sector). Of course the packaging is a gimmick, but what the hell would YOU sell if you needed to generate new revenue quickly? It's 2007 and nobody even knows if Pink Floyd is going to do anything else. 7 years later they made an album that i haven't even heard yet, but i certainly wasn't gonna go through the hassle of finding every album at full price. 14 x 16 is a hundred more than i paid for this and it's a handsome box on your favorite bookshelf. My point is you're all mad about the wrong thing. These big labels spending real money to make and distribute albums is the good part. EMI owning the band's music and giving them a sliver of the real profits while every Carl at the office makes more is the nasty part. Musicians don't become producers because they love mentoring young artists, they get paid whether that artist makes a hit or not. That's how it works in the pyramids; 4 for me, 1 for you, got any more songs you'd like Carl to record?
Where was i? Oh, the live half is over. Time for the solo sides by each member of Pink Floyd without any help from the other three.
Ummagumma was a made up word one of their roadies used as a euphemism for sex, and Gigi is about a lady who refuses to be anyone's mistress. Not as cool a story as Head East's Teletubby themed christening, but London is already east of Turville (the actual town where the Vicar of Dibley was filmed). Alice loved the Teletubbies. Do i have to explain everything?
Richard Wright and his 4 movement keyboard extravaganza, go! Timpani and synth strings, check. Piano tremolos and stereo panned cymbal twiddles, check. Percussive nonsense, check. Slow weird thing that would be right at home on one of my stupid albuHOLY SHIT! I peed a little at that fade out to complete cacophony. I forgot the 4th movement does that. It's quite a jolt. Eternal punishment for self-aggrandizing craftiness and decietfulness, indeed.
What's Roger Waters and his plus one have in store for us? Ostinato of bird sounds, a lovely little folk song followed by his stethescopian approach to chaotic music concrete, devolving into a kind of poetic rant in a strange and almost highlander dialect. It's just a couple standard Roger Waters tracks. They could have been on any Pink Floyd album 'cause that's just what he does when left to his own devices.
Now, understanding David Gilmour's contribution requires you to do a little pantomime. First have your name constantly spelled wrong on your band's albums, then bend your elbow so your right forearm is parallel the floor, palm up, half way make a fist, and shake it side to side. He thought this whole concept was dumb. He asked Richard to please write some good lyrics for his music, Richard said no, so he recorded 1) a lovely acoustic guitar track with wanky wailing high pitched noises and background oohs and aaahs, 2) an ominous electric guitar track with Waters style random noisy bloops and blips, and 3) a song about wishing he could either fly away or be a kid again with like 27 lackadaisical vocal overdubs run through Abbey Road's least enjoyable reverb catacomb speaker/mic combo. I actually kind of like it.
Nick Mason cheated. His wife was an actual flautist, and he's a real percussionist. Gilmour tried, but Ringo he ain't, and Wright and Rogers didn't even bother; two timpani and a ride doesn't count. It's not exactly the kind of party i want to attend, but Grand Viziers aren't exactly the garden party kind of people in the first place.
It's still a worthwhile album, though. If nothing else, you get to really hear which parts of your favorite Floydian slips come from which ego. No, it's not in the top 13 as far as Pink Floyd albums go, but every institution has its Rincewind, and Ummagumma is very clearly the looking glass version of A Saucerful of Secrets. Looking glass, Alice, Terry Pratchett, subconscious connections centered around my familiarity with English arts and entertainment, are you starting to see how these things are born from the primordial ooze inside my brain? If so, then please don't tell me, 'cause i don't wanna know (hello Refreshments reference, long time no see). I'm more surprised than ever at how intricately connected these improvised essays are getting, and i literally just noticed that my original completely unintentional choice to mention that my copy of The Carpenters was fading to pink in between two Pink Floyd albums happened.
So to recap: i'm insane, Pink Floyd only works when they freely mingle with each other, and tomorrow morning we get a good look at the backside of a cow.
Solid work bottle, i'm impressed.
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