My iPod #129: Pink Floyd - Brain Damage

...... Okay.

"Brain Damage" is the penultimate tune from Pink Floyd seminal 1973 album "The Dark Side of the Moon". I first listened to "The Moon" in 2009, when I randomly started downloading albums for fun from weird dutch websites.

When I became interested in Pink Floyd, I was more of a guy who was into "The Wall" more than anything. "Another Brick in the Wall" was the band's video that played on the TV when I was much younger and freaked me out a bit. I have the feeling I've told this story before. I think it was in the post for "Any Colour You Like". Check that out too. That's another song on this album.

I digress. "Dark Side" was an album that I always knew existed, but all the comments and acclaim about it made me think that it couldn't be that good. It is a really cool album; I guess I should have been born in the 50s or so to really understand how extraordinary this album is, but I'm not complaining.

I am also a mega fan of albums where the songs segue into one another, so The Dark Side was heaven for me. It irks me when I download an album and there's a click or a sudden stop between songs which are meant to flow into each other. "Brain Damage" ends quite abruptly because it does this into the next song. I would have included that song in this post, but that's a bit of a cheat.

"Brain Damage" was the song that stayed in my head for some time after I listened to the album in 2009. The calm verses are quite hypnotizing with Roger Waters' cool vocals until they eventually build in intensity for the choruses where the title of the album is mentioned. The album's overall theme is madness, and the individual songs are on a subject that apparently lead all human beings to madness (time, money, death etc.) so "Brain Damage" along with "Eclipse" is the climax that the whole album has been leading towards.

It's also a small tribute to former lead singer Syd Barrett, who went a bit mad.

I thought I would have a hard time with this post. I've enjoyed it though, I hope you like it.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #44: Pink Floyd - Any Colour You Like

In 2009, I became a Pink Floyd fan.

I don't particularly know why or how. As a child I saw the video for 'Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)' on the TV. The band wasn't in it, and it only showed clips of children running around in a playground interspersed with the walking hammers that are seen in the film. Of course I had no idea what I had just witnessed, and was left quite confused by the whole thing.

I watched the movie for 'The Wall' when I was 13, and I guess I was just hooked from then. Bob Geldof was actually a good actor, the concept behind the album was enthralling and obviously the music played a big part. I ended up getting the double album for my fourteenth birthday.

'The Wall' is up there for being one of Pink Floyd's most popular albums. However, 'The Dark Side of the Moon' is the one that most people agree on for being their finest piece of work and one of the greatest albums ever.

'Any Colour You Like' starts rather abruptly; the song before it named 'Us and Them' segues right into it. There are no lyrics as it is an instrumental, but it's really funky and upbeat. David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright wrote the song, making it one out of three tracks that Waters did not contribute on.

The first minute or so is a synthesiser played by Wright, panning and echoing from one channel to the other. That then segues into a guitar solo, and the whole band joins in with additional scat singing.

I would think that most people would skip this song, but please reconsider. If you have this album, where the songs segue into each other (except one time), and you don't have this song... Well then, that just messes everything up doesn't it? It's also very important in the album's overall concept. Pink Floyd had a thing for concept albums.

Until next time.

Jamie.