I think their was a discussion about it before, but something like an earlobe came up (i dont know why), water drops, and some organ or somethin like that, but i didnt stay around long enough to actually see what it was. I found a picture of the whole cover (the album cover is only a fragment of the original picture), but it doesnt help that much more. I mightve saved it, so ill upload it if i find it.

It's a picture of Roger Waters' ear, I think. Underwater.

I got it. It was the full picture of his ear, just turn it 90º to the left and focus on the black part of his ear, take a look at the album cover, and youll see it.

[url]http://photobucket.com/albums/y208/Echoes4258/?action=view&current=MeddleFull.jpg[/url]

Post count - 1234. Sweet.

[B]Speak to Me[/B] (Mason) 1:16

"I've been mad for ****ing years, absolutely years, been
over the edge for yonks, been working me buns off for bands..."

"I've always been mad, I know I've been mad, like the
most of us...very hard to explain why you're mad, even
if you're not mad..."

(Instrumental)

[B]
Breathe[/B] (Waters, Gilmour, Wright) 2:44

Breathe, breathe in the air.
Don't be afraid to care.
Leave but don't leave me.
Look around and choose your own ground.

Long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be.

Run, rabbit run.
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don't sit down it's time to dig another one.

For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race towards an early grave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As in all later Floyd albums (Dark side and onwards), Roger set up DSOTM as a concept album. For those of you who are not able to inference the literal meaning of concept album, it means an album tied together by a singular concept thoughout all the songs.
As he usually does, Roger sets up the first song as an introduction to the album as a whole, foreshadowing everything else to come. Each line in Speak To Me and Breathe tell us something about the songs themselves and also about everything else to come. It begins with the Heartbeat.
The heartbeat brings the album to life. The album itself is about, very generally, life and madness. It begins with birth, goes through life, and ends with a descent into madness, and finally death. After that, we hear a teaser from every song: there are the bells (time), the cash register sounds (money), and finally the screams (the descent into madness; most of the second half of the album). We also hear the voices in the background, which tell us where the life brought about by the album is heading.

Breathe is essentially the lyrical half of Speak to Me. It begins once again with birth, as we breathe in air and are born, and we are immediately hit with the troubles of life. We are afraid to connect with people, we are afraid to expand (in Time: [I]Kicking around/ on a piece of ground/ in your hometown[/I].), afraid to leave. We base are lives on materiality ([I]All you touch and all you see/ is all your life will ever be[/I]). We need to take control.
We go through are lives working, and we drive ourselves without reason. This touches on Time and Money again, but also connects to the theme of madness, which we literally dig ourselves into.
The last paragraph continues on to the final end. As we push ourselves for material things, and as we keep ahead of the pack, we balance on the biggest wave, and all that really leads to is, as Roger so aptly put it, is a race towards an early grave.

[QUOTE=rippa32]Hey guys I havnt posted in here for a while. But I just had a quick question. I was sitting around listening to meddle today and then I started looking at the case. What exactly is on the cover? Is it just the surface of water or something else?[/QUOTE]

Its the inside of an ear, with some other images layered ontop of it. Storm Thorgerson (their album designer for everything after saucerful except the Wall) didn't like it and thought he did a bad job).

[B]Edit: beat, like three times[/B]

And I also don't want to be a bitch, but, for the earlier analysis of Money, I feel that this would work better, and we could combine it and make a full analysis of the album better if the analysis went a bit deeper then the literal lyrics. Yes, when Roger writes, [I]they're giving none away[/I], a boss might not give away money, but what is the real purpose of the song in the album? simply saying that your boss is selfish is a bit shallow for Floyd.

Is nobody doing Any Colour You Like?! That songs fabolous...defintaly one of my favs to play on guitar

It's instrumenal, so there is no lyrical analysis needed.

lyrical anylysis? i thought you guys were just reviewing the album as a whole, which is really the way it should be evaluated. HeavyRivas list on the top of the page with the song on it and nobodies username threw me off.

Whens it all gonna be done

[QUOTE=Distant Echoes]lyrical anylysis? i thought you guys were just reviewing the album as a whole, which is really the way it should be evaluated. HeavyRivas list on the top of the page with the song on it and nobodies username threw me off.

Whens it all gonna be done[/QUOTE]

They're evaluating the lyrical content of albums as a whole. Not the instrumental aspect.

[QUOTE=bennyl] After that, we hear a teaser from every song: there are the bells (time), the cash register sounds (money), and finally the screams (the descent into madness; most of the second half of the album). We also hear the voices in the background, which tell us where the life brought about by the album is heading.
[/QUOTE]

I never really noticed that, that's really cool.

[QUOTE=bennyl]And I also don't want to be a bitch, but, for the earlier analysis of Money, I feel that this would work better, and we could combine it and make a full analysis of the album better if the analysis went a bit deeper then the literal lyrics. Yes, when Roger writes, [I]they're giving none away[/I], a boss might not give away money, but what is the real purpose of the song in the album? simply saying that your boss is selfish is a bit shallow for Floyd.[/QUOTE]

No, it's quite common for bosses in the industry to not give the musicians their pay. Take the Beatles for example. They never got any money, just "funny paper" which was, "we'll pay you back later, just not now" and they were never paid back.

The real purpose shows how man goes mad for money.

did anyone hear the velvet revolver version of money, the singing sucked.

Hey guys, updated my original post with the new information. I'll add those analyses in a sec. I'm still mourning the loss of my original text, though I did save it. ;) (It's very historical, don't you think?)

[QUOTE=MalcolmYoungRock]No, it's quite common for bosses in the industry to not give the musicians their pay. Take the Beatles for example. They never got any money, just "funny paper" which was, "we'll pay you back later, just not now" and they were never paid back.

The real purpose shows how man goes mad for money.[/QUOTE]

I'm not saying that it isn't true. What I'm saying is that your analysis of a lot of the lines didn't get deep into the meaning of the song. You started to get at it in this post. Money is about people's shallow goals, and how to give meaning to a life, to keep it from drifting away into madness, people create pointless goals for themselve.

[QUOTE=HeavyRiva]Hey guys, updated my original post with the new information. I'll add those analyses in a sec. I'm still mourning the loss of my original text, though I did save it. ;) (It's very historical, don't you think?)[/QUOTE]

What, "What's your favorite Floyd song?"

:p

[QUOTE=bennyl]I'm not saying that it isn't true. What I'm saying is that your analysis of a lot of the lines didn't get deep into the meaning of the song. You started to get at it in this post. Money is about people's shallow goals, and how to give meaning to a life, to keep it from drifting away into madness, people create pointless goals for themselve.[/QUOTE]

I tried to approach that, but I guess you have to read it a couple times for it to make sense. The concept of DSOTM is a man's slow descent from birth to madness to eventual death, correct?

Money was placed in the middle because man was already in the process of becoming mad (which is marked by On the Run). I believe that the 3 things that Floyd describe that turn a mad man are Time, Money, and Paranoia (Us and Them).

Those three songs are just what makes a mad go insane because if you notice right after Us and Them, it breaks into the kind of psychedelic "Any Colour You Like".


Riva: I propose that we do WYWH next. I think Lunch'll agree, or he might go with PATGOD.

Definitely WYWH next. But I reckon we should wait till all of DSotM is done.

Also, I get dibs on WYWH, the song. :thumb:

Maybe, since there are only 5 songs, we can have dual analyses on each song?

Elaborate on what you mean by dual analyses.

I call dibs on Have a Cigar.

what are you guys doing?

/too lazy to find out for myself

[QUOTE=MalcolmYoungRock]Riva: I propose that we do WYWH next. I think Lunch'll agree, or he might go with PATGOD.[/QUOTE]

Uh, sure. I don't have any type of power in the Pink Floyd thread, though.

[QUOTE=lunch998]Uh, sure. I don't have any type of power in the Pink Floyd thread, though.[/QUOTE]

Actually, you do. Check out the first post in the thread.

[QUOTE=MalcolmYoungRock]Elaborate on what you mean by dual analyses.

I call dibs on Have a Cigar.[/QUOTE]

Well, two people can each do seperate analyses of the same song, simply because some albums only have 5 songs. (Animals, WYWH etc)

And lunch, I nominated you, because you are [i]THAT[/i] cool.

[B]Time[/B]


Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but you’re older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say


[B]Breathe Reprise[/B]

Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
And when I come home cold and tired
It’s good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.


_________________________________________________________


Time is one of the greatest songs in rock history. It is also probably one of the greatest lyrical preformances ever.

Time starts of the way the last song ended. A low, powerful rumble. It gently fades, and you begin to hear clocks, slowly but surely, ticking away. They tick softly, until the calm is broken by an alarm shock, it's peircing, shrill ring heard above all. More bells, gongs, and other ringing tones are struck, but fade away quickly, and the ears begin to pick up a metronome, holding together one, steady pulsing beat. About once a measure, you can hear two beats, pulsing under the metronome, just the same.

Then the music kicks in. It's starts with just a low tone, followed by some chimes. This basically repets itself, adding percussion, with only a few more minor changes. THe guitar plays a few, simple riffs and notes, the music is mostly focuusing on the drumming now. Then, the drums elevate, and the lyrics kick in:

[B]Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way[/B]

TIme has very powerdul lyrics, all sung with great meaning. The lyrics can be interpreted in many ways, and I hope I can do them justice.

This part coveys the same sort of meaning that many of the parts try and get across: Wasted time. Thos first lines talk about the actuall wasting of time, being idle, not knowing what to do. Needing to fing direction, unfortunaltley, needing someone else to do it for you. Staying in your home town, leading a boring life, eventually, to be regretted.

[B]Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun[/B]

This is the part of the song that I would consider the chorus. Within the first line, it shows more wated time, just relaxing, nothing to worry aabout. THen all of sudden, life sneaks up on you. You're old; What?!! Where did this come from?! :confused: What about all my plans. Once again, not being able to find direction, depending on other people to do it for you.

*Insert phenominal guitar solos here*
This part of the song houses th eamazing Gilmour solo. It's pretty tough to describe without hearing it, but I doubt anyone one on here has never heard this song. You can tell how passionatley he is playing throughout the solo, from high, soaring notes, to the lowest, all in a matter of seconds. Gospel singers come in at the end and reluctantly we move back into the music.

[B]And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but you’re older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death[/B]

Know, you realize you have watsted your time. Your running to follow the sun wanting daylight to never in, just to squeeze in that one more thing. You never catch it though, but from you, comes the sun again. It's still the same, but your not older, drawing ever nearer to your final breath. You're older now, It's getting harder to do things.

[B]Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say[/B]

The years are getting shorter, almost like life is closing in on you. You have less and less time to do the things you forgot to do last year. You make plans, but they just don't seem to come to surface. You just can't seem to bring them to life. You hang on though; Refuse to die, It can't be you time yet, can it? But there was so much more you had to do! I think I have to add that the last line of the song is very significant in that, by this time, you may not even remeber what you were doing. You may have forgotten why you thirsted so bad for life, a life that you wasted.

[QUOTE]Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
And when I come home cold and tired
It’s good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.[/QUOTE]

THis is the Brethe Reprise. Unlike the dramatic, epic, even sorrowful and mournful Time. This is more calming, just smoking your pipe beside the fire. HE talks about being home again, from a long journey. THis may or may not be conected with Time, it's up for your own interpretation. I beleive it is and I think that one of the most important possible connections is the home again part. "I like to be here when I can". Where is his home? HE is returining from the journey in Time, perhaps he is dead; is his home heaven? MAybew I like to be here when I can means this person has been reincarnated. THe place is comforting, returining from yet another life. Then the bell rings, possibly announcing the prescence of God. The angels and sinners alike fall to there knees, He speaks. It says spell, though it could be prayer, perhaps it could even be this man (or woman) being returned back to Earth.
I kind made that open-ended and left you with room for your own interpretaions. Any responses with what you thought about that part will be greatly appreciated.

Well, that's my reveiw, I hope it wasn't too over the top.

[QUOTE=MalcolmYoungRock]Actually, you do. Check out the first post in the thread.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=HeavyRiva]And lunch, I nominated you, because you are [i]THAT[/i] cool.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I am a Golden God!

Edit: Great job DMV.

DMV, that was good, but there I want to hear analysis of the Breathe Reprise. In all great works of art (movie, books, ALBUMS, etc.) everything that is there is absolutely necessary. If you read Hemmingway, it seems as if a bunch of random crap is mentioned about nothing, but every word is vital to the story. The same thing is present in most Floyd albums. In Dark Side, every word has a purpose, so you should try to get something figured out about Breathe Reprise.
What is the significance of the fact that time is talking about longing to get away from home, and the reprise is about being comfortable and happy at home? What about the bell, prayers and spells? What is this saying about Rogers beliefs of religion?
EDIT: I actually might do this myself... I'm getting myself thinking here.

AND: this might halp people a bit: On the Run was originally called the Travel Sequence, Us and Them was originally called the Violent Sequence, and (I'm not 100% sure on this one) Great Gig was called the mortality sequence.

and for WYWH analysis, I know someone already called it, but can I PLEASE do Welcome to the Machine AND Have a Cigar. The two songs are more connected to each other than to any other songs on the album and need to be analysed together.

All right, I'll add Breathe right now...

Everybody's a critic :p


;)

Allright, done bennyl. THanks for telling me to do more with that. I think it really improved it. THe way you asked reminded me of a teacher giving an essay though :lol: What does this say about Roger's religous beleifs? etc. :lol:

[QUOTE=bennyl]and for WYWH analysis, I know someone already called it, but can I PLEASE do Welcome to the Machine AND Have a Cigar. The two songs are more connected to each other than to any other songs on the album and need to be analysed together.[/QUOTE]

I don't think they need to be analyised together. I think MYR is capable of doing a fine job with Have a Cigar, and he already called dibs on it.

And I don't think we should get too far ahead of ourselves here. Right now while waiting for the rest of DSotM, dibs can be called on WYWH, but no more albums.

Oh my god, I can't belive this thread is still going.

Riva, if there is still some DSotM songs to be reveiwed since I think not every song was filled, I can do another.

[QUOTE=lunch998]I don't think they need to be analyised together. I think MYR is capable of doing a fine job with Have a Cigar, and he already called dibs on it.

And I don't think we should get too far ahead of ourselves here. Right now while waiting for the rest of DSotM, dibs can be called on WYWH, but no more albums.[/QUOTE]

I think he'll do fine also, but they are best done together. See, Welcome to the Machine is all about the record business, but in a more general sense, how the world creates a set path for everyone (school, university, 9-5 job, retirement). It's about how each persons life is essentially one piece moving through an assembly line in a machine, except for those who try to do something different. It ends up being about how Syd Barrett was sucked into this machine. Have a Cigar is about how the machine gets you to become a part of it. It lures you in with visions of the high life, telling you you can have it all.