1979: Pink Floyd in a very disco way

[Marcio**]

Transcribed from Mojo December '99
(I believe :lol: )



ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL PART II


WATERS -- On the demo I made it was just me singing to an acoustic guitar.

GILMOUR -- It wasn"t my idea to do disco music, it was Bob"s. He said to me, "Go to a couple of clubs and listen to what"s happening with disco music," so I forced myself out and listened to loud, four-to-the-bar bass drums and stuff and thought, "Gawd awful!" Then we went back and tried to turn one of the "Another Brick In The Wall" parts into one of those so it would be catchy. We did the same exercise on "Run Like Hell."

EZRIN -- I"d just done a session in New York and Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were in the next studio. I heard this drum beat and went "Wow, would that ever work great with rock "n" roll!" When I got to England a few months later and I started listening to "Another Brick...," that beat kept playing through my head.

MASON -- I don"t remember anyone complaining. There is a standard speed for a disco track and we followed that to the letter. It was recorded in a very disco way -- drums and bass put down on their own and everything added gradually on top.

EZRIN -- The most important thing I did for the song was insist it be more than just one verse and one chorus long, which it was when Roger wrote it. When we played with the disco beat I said, "Man, this is a hit! But it"s one minute 20, it"s not going to play. We need two verses and two choruses." And they said, "Well you"re not bloody getting them. We don"t do singles, so **** you." So I said, "OK fine," and they left. And because of our two machine set-up, while they weren"t around we were able to copy the first verse and chorus, take one of the drum fills, put them inbetween and extend the chorus.

Then the question is, what do you do with the second verse, which is the same? And, having been the guy who made 'School"s Out,' I"ve got this thing about kids on a record and it "is" about kids after all. So while we were in America, we sent Nick Griffiths to a school near to the Floyd studios [in Islington]. I said, I want Cockney, I want posh, fill "em up" -- and I put them on the song. I called Roger into the room, and when the kids came in on the second verse there was a total softening of his face and you just knew that he knew it was going to be an important record.

WATERS -- It was great -- exactly the thing I expected from a collaborator.

GILMOUR -- And it doesn"t in the end not sound like Pink Floyd.





the end :P

[Videoskooter]

At that time I really wasn't into the Floyd-stuff. I found it weird, boring music. I remember the day when the single "Another brick..." was released. I was stunned. It was catchy, even danceable and I liked it. Then I bought the album ...and I liked it. The slower songs, and certainly "Run like hell".

Now I own the whole catalogue and I enjoy almost all their albums.

My favourites: "Money", "Sheep" and my absolute darling "One of these days".

[Nano]

Certainly "ABITWP2" was not only a big radio hit, but a disco hit in the clubs down here.
A couple of years later they poked fun at this when they released a greatest hits pack called "A collection of great dance songs". The cover featured a couple in a traditional dance pose, only there were like a hundred threads sticking them to the ground.
Nice story, Marcio.

[Paulo]

Now forgive my ignorance, but being a foreigner and not having contact with english language (other than that learnt in school in my teens), there are some slang which is not familiar:

When Gilmour says "Gawd awful"... what's "gawd" mean?? Good? or God?

So "gawd awful" stands for something horrible and worthless ... is it?

[Anonymous]

East London vernacular for 'god' or 'terribly' awful.
8)
Blimey.

[Videoskooter]

East London vernacular for 'god' or 'terribly' awful.
8)
Blimey.

Bernie, I'm sure this mysterious guest is Michael Caine :)

This topic reminds me that the Floyd's "Brick" was sampled last year for Hot Coffee presents Pink Coffee "Another brick in the wall". Big clubhit here in Europe. Nothing is sacred for the Sampler Generation :cry:

[Paulo]

Thank you Guest.

Then Gilmour's thougths are predictable for people coming from ROCK.

He forced himself out to a club "and listened to loud, four-to-the-bar bass drums and stuff and thought: Gawd awful!"

So... to Gilmour disco is just a drum beat. I think he forgot all the rest: the orchestral arrangements, the horn interventions, the energy, the keyboard playing... He simply just forgot to mention some 70% of the rest.

Oh, but being who he is and doing the music he does he wouldn't pay attention to the string arrangements when he heard "Make That Feeling Come Again". He could never think: "Wow, this is far better than our strings on ATOM HEART MOTHER".

He wouldn't admit when he heard the energy and emotion on "Manhathan Love Song": "Wow, why can't my band record something with that strengh? Why do we only record cold, slow, boring avant-garde pieces like those on UMMAGUMMA and pretend we're so clever?

He wouldn't admit when he heard the different chord progressions on Cocomotion: "Wow, why can't our keyboard player RICHARD WRIGHT dare to do something different like that? Why can't he just stop sticking to C, A minor, F, G and back to C?

And finally, he should think: "Why do we have so many fans, when there are so many people who make better music than us?"

[djnotech]

have you guys got the Rose Bud cover of Money, and have a cigar? 79' i think.

It's good! Have a cigar has a nice vocoder synth break, and money is a bit slower with a nice synthy bass line.