Pink Floyd - Soundtrack From The Film More

 

Released in 1969, "The Soundtrack From The Film More" was the third album by Pink Floyd. "More" was a debut film from director Barbet Schroeder, and when I acquired the album in the mid 1970s the only thing I knew about Schroeder was that he had also been the director of the 1972 film "La Vallee", for which Floyd had also produced the soundtrack.

Schroeder went on to achieve wider recognition for being the director of "Single White Female" and had a cameo as the French President in the file "Mars Attacks".

The stars of "More" were Mimsi Farmer and Klaus Grunberg. I'd not heard of them at the time and still have no idea who they are, apart from Farmer was American and Grunberg was German.

I have not seen "More" and it is not something I have ever seen in the UK TV schedules, although I can now see it is on YouTube to watch if I want to.

Wikipedia reports that the film was in English and set in Ibiza and Paris, with the main theme being about heroin addiction and with the main character committing suicide at the end of the film by a drug overdose after discovering his lover had been cheating on him with her ex-boyfriend.

The album cover I have was from EMI Italiana SPA and lists the band as The Pink Floyd rather than just Pink Floyd.

Prior to buying the album I was aware of "Cirrus Minor" and "The Nile Song", as both songs were on the "Relics" compilation which I already had. At the time I thought "Green Is The Colour" and "Cymbaline" were fantastic songs  and showcased the growing maturity of Roger Waters' lyrics. However, I thought side two was mostly awful and was probably played it only a handful of times. Apart from the four songs mentioned above I had no recollection of any of the other tracks.

Dave Gilmour sings the lead vocal on all songs. "More" is the only album where this happens until Roger Waters left the band.

The album opens with "Cirrus Minor", with birds tweeting for nearly a minute for the intro, before a gentle acoustic guitar and psychedelic organ come in. The slow and dreamy pastoral ballad finishes with a lengthy choral organ outro very similar to the final section of "A Saucerful Of Secrets". The track doesn't have any drumming or percussion, and I have no what the song is about !

"The Nile Song" comes as a bit of a shock as Floyd do their best Black Sabbath heavy metal impression, and if it had been released 20 years later it might have been called grunge ! There is an insane guitar solo and manic drumming. Gilmour’s gruff vocal is very much in contrast to some of the tender singing on other tracks. You would never guess this was Pink Floyd.......

The mood reverts back to dreamy and pastoral with "The Crying Song" with the return of slow acoustic guitar and keyboards giving the song a lullaby feel, before a slide guitar outro. Floyd were ahead of Mott The Hoople as Gilmour sings “We roll and roll, help me roll away the stones"!

The instrumental "Up The Khyber" features drumming very similar to the second section of "A Saucerful Of Secrets" and some jazz piano as if a cat was walking across the keyboard, before some psychedelic organ. I can't say I like it very much.

"Green Is The Colour" is  beautiful song with a nice plucked acoustic guitar intro and tin whistle, not played particularly well by Nick Mason’s wife. Gilmour provides another tender vocal over Richard Wright's tinkling of the ivories, before a lovely piano dominated outro."Green is the colour of her kind, quickness of the eye deceives the mind. Envy is the bond between the hopeful and the damned".

The Carole King style piano again underpins the playing of "Cymbaline", which is the most sophisticated song on the album. I love the the lengthy organ outro. "Your manager and agent are both busy on the phone, selling coloured photographs to magazines back home".

Side one closes with "Party Sequence" an instrumental just over a minute long, being mostly a drum solo with the tin whistle making another appearance.

There is only one proper song on side two, with "Ibiza Bar" being virtually "Nile Song 2". The barely a minute long "A Spanish Piece" is quite interesting with flamenco style guitar and Gilmour speaking with a dreadful Spaghetti Western Mexican accent. "Pass The Tequilla, Manuel" and "Laugh at my lisp and I kill you !"

The best of the four remaining instrumentals is "Main Theme", with gongs/cymbals to begin with, then a psychedelic organ before a Kraftwerk style motif on organ. It was probably a decade ahead of its time.

As it says on the tin, "More Blues" is a blues instrumental with just guitar and light drums, with the guitar lines hinting at the guitar to come in 1975 on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".

"Dramatic Theme" is mostly forgettable psychedelic guitar whilst the dreadful seven minute long "Quicksilver" is mostly a repeat of the first part of "A Saucerful of Secrets".

The instrumentals on More are mostly filler, and whilst they are probably suitable as background noise to the drama in the film, most of them don't stand up on their own. The notable exception was "Main Theme" which surprised me by how good it sounds now. 

"Green Is The Colour" and "Cymbaline" remain important songs in the Pink Floyd back catalogue.

Track Listing :

Side One :

1. Cirrus Minor
2. The Nile Song
3. Crying Song
4. Up The Khyber
5. Green Is The Colour
6. Cymbaline
7. Party Sequence

Side Two :

1. Main Theme
2. Ibiza Bar
3. More Blues
4. Quicksilver
5. A Spanish Piece
6. Dramatic Theme

Released 1969
UK Chart Position : 9

Pink Floyd - A Saucerful Of Secrets

 

"A Saucerful Of Secrets" was the second album from Pink Floyd. As described in the review of "Piper At The Gates Of Dawn", I sold my copy after purchasing the double compilation album " A Nice Pair", which was cheaper than a single copy of Piper.

Whilst I quite liked the album, I thought it to be a mismash of styles, with Floyd clearly not knowing what direction to take after the departure of Syd Barrett, previously their main song-writer, singer and guitarist, and being replaced by David Gilmour.

The album had three lengthy tracks to re-enforce their space cadet credentials, two piano dominated melodic songs from keyboard player Richard Wright, a lightweight almost fun song from Roger Walters, and "Jugband Blues", the final contribution from Syd, which shone a bright light on his ongoing mental decay, and is by far and away the most interesting song on the album.

I had been aware of three of the tracks on the album prior to buying it. "Remember A Day" had been included on the "Relics" compiliation, whilst live versions of "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" and A Saucerful Of Secrets" were on "Ummagumma".

The album begins with "Let There Be More Light" which has a throbbing bass and swirling keyboards for the intro, before leading into a slow, repetitive verse sung by Wright, then Gilmour sings the rising refrain. The keyboards somehow remind me a little of Procol Harem and there is some psychedelic guitar for the lengthy outro. The lyrics seem to be about an alien spaceship landing at the Mildenhall Air Force Base in Suffolk but there is also a reference to The Beatles and LSD with line "Lucy In The Sky !". It sounded much better than I remembered.

"Remember A Day", written and sung by Richard Wright, has a dreamy feel to it. Syd Barrett contributes on the slide guitar but the ivory playing dominates, although the pounding drums are significant.

"Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" has a dominant bass riff, but there is also tribal drums, crashing cymbals and eerie keyboards.

The Beatles like "Corporal Clegg" closes side one and is sung by Nick Mason, with Gilmour and Wright signing the dreamy chorus. It is perhaps most notably for its Kazoo solo played by drummer Mason.

"A Saucerful Of Secrets" takes up most of side two, being a 12 minute long instrumental in four parts. The opening section reminds me of the music from the Clangers, the second section is basically a drum solo with some random poundings on a piano and distorted guitar sounds. The third part has some funeral style keyboards before moving into an uplifting organ piece with a choir singing a wordless chorus. Listening to it now it sounds a mess, and for me the final section is the only part worth listening to again. I always thought the live version was better, we will see if that is still the case when I get around to playing "Ummagumma" again !

"See-Saw" is dreamy piano ballad written and sung by Richard Wright, who also plays the organ, mellotron and xylophone. It does sound very 1960s but is another track that was better than I remembered.

The album finishes with "Jugband Blues". Despite his ongoing Schizophrenia, it shows that Barrett was aware that he was being forced out of the band. "It’s awfully considerate of you to think of me here, and I’m most obliged to you for making it clear that I’m not here". The song has a jaunty brass section before submerging into sounds of The Salvation Army playing as if they were marching in the street. The song powerfully ends with just a faintly strummed guitar and the vocal of "And the sea isn’t green, and I love the Queen. And what exactly is a dream? And what exactly is a joke?"

In summary, "A Saucerful Of Secrets" is a much better album than many people give credit to, although I could do away with the title track.

Track Listing :

Side One :

1. Let there Be More Light
2. Remember A Day
3. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
4. Corporal Clegg

Side One :

1. A Saucerful Of Secrets
2. See-Saw
3. Jugband Blues

Released 1968
UK Chart Position : 9