Features 1
All things time will mend
Time for "Childhood's End"
It begins with a droning "E". Overdubbed keyboards tentatively outline a minor tonality. Roger Waters begins playing a "tick-tock" rhythm on muted bass strings. The music lays down a funk-rock groove while the lyrics describe the melancholy of a life wasted while waiting for it to begin... even comparing life to a song.
"Time"?
No.
"Childhood's End".
A song I don't remember hearing even on the six-hour "Floyd Overkill" program sponsored by a (now defunct) radio station, I'd never heard "Childhood's End" until just a few years ago. I had avoided buying Obscured By Clouds chiefly because I had (incorrectly) assumed that all film soundtracks consisted of instrumental music meant to accompany images on a screen. The notion that there might be actual songs on this album was something I didn't care to contemplate until I had read Nicholas Schaffner's Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey a few times.
Admittedly, titles like "Wot's... uh the Deal?" and "The Gold It's in the..." sparked my curiosity. Just not enough to buy an album that I'd never heard anything from. Besides, in Paducah, Kentucky in the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Obscured By Clouds was not regularly stocked, and so had to be special ordered. Naively assuming that Pink Floyd hadn't really done anything of interested before Meddle, I avoided anything pre-1971; completely failing to notice that "Obscured By Clouds was the last album before The Dark Side of the Moon, and not Meddle.
I finally bought the album a few years ago, my curiosity finally getting the better of me after several people on a web board I frequent insisted that I should give it a listen.
So I popped the album in my CD player while on a rural drive one fine spring morning a couple of years ago (something I highly recommend, as Obscured By Clouds goes really well with passing green meadows and yellow flowers pushing up from them). As I listened, I began to notice that "Childhood's End" reminded me of "Time", though not really in any way I could put my finger on.
Having learned how to play the song for the purposes of this article, I found that "Childhood's End", while sharing some of the same chords as "Time", is in a totally different key. So it's not really tonality that bears comparison here, despite the similarities of the opening minute or so (which do sound like a dry run for "Time".)
It took another spring drive (about three hours ago, in fact) to really drive the similarities home.
Although chiefly in the second verse, "Childhood's End" explores a thematic and lyrical territory similar to that explored in "Time": the realization that life is already underway and threatening to totally leave one in the procrastinatory dust. This is a notion that Roger Waters touched upon when he said that "Time" was inspired by the realization that life wasn't a period of preparation followed by an actual event, but rather that one could take the reins at any time and begin guiding. By the time he'd realized this, he'd already "wasted" some twenty-six or so years.
But what of the other two verses to the song? There was still something familiar about them...
You shout in your sleep
Perhaps the price is just too steep
'The price of what?' I wondered. It almost sounded like a reference to selling one's soul. This notion is supported by the lines that follow:
Is your conscience at rest
If once put to the test?
The rest of the first verse seems to suggest a person who once had a wealth of some sort, but has lost it all.
The references to "selling out" and to material gains (although ultimately lost), I began to realize, seemed to recall the (admittedly more sarcastic) lyrics of "Money". The second verse, as already described, as well as the final line, in which the ending of a life is compared to the ending of a song, mirror "Time". The final verse, with its references to war and peace and other divisions amongst people, seems to shadow "Us and Them".
It would seem that Gilmour set out to encapsulate the major themes of The Dark Side of the Moon (which they were performing live at this point in time) within the space of a single song. Kind of a simplified version--a Cliff's Notes (or, in this case, Dave's Notes) version, if you will.
Oddly enough, this is not where comparisons end, as this is not the first time that Gilmour composed an "answer" to a work of Roger's. "Fat Old Sun" from Atom Heart Mother seems to be a sort of answer song to Waters' "Grantchester Meadows" from Ummagumma, exploring similar themes from their Cambridge childhoods. Whether this is intentional or not remains to be seen, but it is an interesting point of note.
The Beatles had already done something along these lines when Paul McCartney composed "Penny Lane" as a companion piece to John Lennon's "Strawberry Fields Forever." This is not to suggest, however, that Waters and Gilmour were intentionally copying the Beatles. Each Floydian piece is separated from its "companion" by months, at the very least, if not years, while the Beatles' pieces were released simultaneously.
Perhaps more interesting is the notion that the lyrics might even be interpreted as being aimed at Roger Waters. "Childhood End" addresses a man who, it would seem, feels some guilt at betraying certain values in the interest of material gain (which will always crumble to dust eventually) who awoke from his dreams (of stardom?) to find that the reality of the situation was quite a different thing indeed.
It has been suggested that the title "Childhood's End" was inspired by a story of the same name by Arthur C. Clarke. Although it would seem that this is not the case, its interesting to note that Gilmour's (perhaps unintended) summation of the themes of The Dark Side of the Moon should also bear a title that relates to such cosmic imagery.
Astronomy Domine, indeed.
Prop up my mortal remains
The recurring use of inflatables in Floyd concerts
Pink Floyd are big fans of recycling, and not just in their music and artwork. Their live shows, ever innovative and ground-breaking, often have a common thread that links certain visual props as well.
Even before the emphasized theatrics of The Wall, the band used to employ bizarre antics and unconventional (lacking a better term) stage acts in an effort to tie the music's atmosphere with some loose plot or 'narrative' (in the early days), or complement the lyrical themes with appropriate visual accompaniments. From oil slides to lasers, Pink Floyd, in all of their incarnations offered audiences around the world an experience that would always entail something 'extra', some element of visual surprise.
Such odd on-stage surprises included, among others, the following:
Wood sawing / "Work" (1969)
On April 14, 1969 Pink Floyd presented their "More Furious Madness From The Massed Gadgets Of Auximines" concert at Royal Albert Hall. Among other theatrics (including a man in a gorilla suit running through the audience) the band enacted a 'working' exercise on stage, by cutting wood (with sawing noises incorporated as sound effects coming through the PA).
Tea break / "Afternoon" (1969) & K.A.O.S. Tour (1987)
After working, came the 'afternoon', where the band took a break, with roadies serving tea on stage. Roger repeated the exercise during his K.A.O.S. tour (1987).
Band 'sleeping' on stage / "Sleeping" (1969)
During "Sleeping" (1969) the band (except Rick, who performed most of the track) pretended to fall asleep on stage.
Band cooking breakfast on stage / "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" (1970)
During "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" (1970) the band was served 'breakfast' by the roadies, thereby producing some of the 'kitchen' noises of the studio track. It did not take them long before they decided to drop the tune from the live set altogether.
Band disappearing from the stage / "On The Run" (1987-89)
The band withdrew from stage, as the synthesizer (with red spotlights pointing at it) played the sequence 'on its own.
Band playing cards / "Dogs" (live 1999-2000 / 2002)
When Roger & his 7-man (and 3-woman) band performed "Dogs" in 1999-2000, Jon Carin was shown handling the synthesizer parts and Graham Broad kept the pace with his ride cymbal and bass drum in the middle section. Meanwhile, the rest of the band played a game of cards on a specially prepared table. The female backing singers sat on chairs next to them.
Other famous Floyd props include the famous circular 'Mr. Screen', the reflective mirror ball, flying planes above the auditorium, flying model aeroplanes crashing on stage, flying beds crashing on stage, animated video sequences, multi-layered projections... the list goes on and on, and most of these have appeared numerous times in Floyd concerts and tours. However, there is a particular feature in the props domain that has been recycled time and again in Floyd's career: inflatables.
Inflatable props of various kinds have been an integral aspect of Pink Floyd's live shows. And the pig was just one of them. Here are some of the inflatables that have been staples of their live shows:
Inflatable Octopus (Crystal Palace, 1971)
Floyd's first use of an inflatable visual prop was as early as 1971, in their Crystal Palace Garden Party gig, where they employed a giant inflatable octopus, in the lake.
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Giant Inflatable Octopus, Crystal Palace (1971) Photo from Rob Ellis' photo collection. |
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Inflatable Pyramid (Atlanta, 1975)
Following the Dark Side prism/pyramid visual theme, the band decided to employ a giant helium-filled pyramid in their 1975 American tour. The inflatable pyramid was supposed to have a dual purpose: to cover the entire stage and serve as protection in the event of rain, and also be a stunning visual prop, when hoisted several hundreds of feet above the stage. The new item in their set design did not prove to be quite the success they were hoping, though. According to Phil Taylor, the band's backline technician, "as the pyramid rose up above the walls of the stadium, the wind took hold and it was blown into the car park whereupon a group of frenzied fans ripped it into pieces. That was the end of our roof for that tour!". The pyramid made its ill-fated debut (and, hence, finale too) in the first open-air gig in Fulton County Stadium, Atlanta, 7 June 1975.
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Inflatable Pig (sow) for Animals cover photo (1976)
The pig is, hands-down, the most famous of Floyd's inflatables, if not the most famous of the band's props, period. The first pig made for the band was a rather innocent-looking sow and was used for the photo shoot of the Animals album. The launch took place in December 1976 and the story is a well-known one. The 30ft x 20ft inflatable pig broke loose, wrecking havoc among aeroplane pilots in the English skies, until the wind drove it to a farm in Kent. The surreal image of a 'pig on the wing' passing over the Battersea Power Station was a powerful statement at the time and the use of that building was not short of sociological significance. Since then, Floyd's cover has made the building historical and it would not be an exaggeration to say that the Power Station has been associated in the public's mind with the image of 'the pig'.
On a slightly different--but relevant--note, many train lines offer a very close view of the Battersea Power Station while approaching London's Victoria Station (one of London's largest stations). For the last few years I have been commuting by train from Victoria to Canterbury, Kent (spot the reference here: the inflatable pig deflated and landed in Kent). As one would expect, I often have it planned so that "Pigs (three different ones)" is on my MiniDisc and I can listen to it on the train, in perfect timing while approaching Victoria station.
What I discovered during these trips, however, made for an even more interesting coincidence: Not far away from the Battersea (Power) Station, there is, unsurprisingly, a Battersea (Rail) Station. On the train platform there are signs with the name of the station. On these signs one can read: 'Battersea--Home of the Battersea Dogs' --the "Battersea Dogs" being a registered charity for dogs! "Any fool knows a dog needs a home", indeed! ;-)
The following pictures are from the pig launch in Battersea, London, December 1976.
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Pictures from the pig launch in Battersea, London, December 1976 |
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Inflatable 'Family' (Europe '77 / In The Flesh 1977 Tours)
Having established the inflatable pig idea would form part of the Animals concept (and show--see below), Floyd appointed the creation of an inflatable 'family', to represent the 'nuclear family' with the dad, mom and one-kid-and-a-half (as the statistics went) launched during "Dogs", as well as TV sets, Cadillacs, and an array of other inflatables, glimpses of which can be seen in the pictures below.
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The inflatables of the 1977 Tour |
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Pink Inflatable Pig (sow) (Europe '77 / In The Flesh 1977 Tours)
In addition to the inflatables above, the pink pig also made its appearance during "Pigs (Three Different Ones)", hovering over the audience, it was to become a trademark and kept appearing on every Floyd tour since then.
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Black Inflatable Pig (Sow) with hammer logo (The Wall Performed Live 1980-81)
A rather more sinister piggy, this time in the colours of The Wall uniform (black with the marching hammers logo on the side) also appeared during "Run Like Hell" hovering over the audience as in the 1977 tour.
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Inflatable Gerald Scarfe Puppets (The Wall Performed Live 1980-81)
Gerald Scarfe's designs, animations and puppets played a crucial role in the theatrical presentation of The Wall (live 1980-81).
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Gerald Scarfe's inflatable puppets in The Wall Live shows (1980-81) |
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Inflatable Bed promoting Momentary Lapse Of Reason Tour (1988)
What more appropriate way to advertise a new Floyd tour (the first in 6 years and among rumours of disbandment) than to use an inflatable prop? In a public place? In England? Over the river Thames? On 28 January 1988 a giant inflatable bed was floated down the Thames past the Houses of Parliament, promoting Floyd's tour. Pink balloons that had 'Floyd' written on them were also employed.
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Inflatable Porker (Momentary Lapse Of Reason / Another Lapse Of Reason Tours 1987-89)
Following the acrimonious conclusion of the Waters vs. Gilmour/Mason legal wrangle, Floyd retained their name, while Roger retained his Wall and the copyright for certain concepts, including that of the pig. Enter Pink Floyd (1987) Ltd.'s new porker. With big gonads. Floyd's pig was not a sow anymore, it was a male pig and wasn't afraid to show it. Still, the subtle credit "Original Pig Concept by R.Waters" was there on both the Delicate Sound Of Thunder and p.u.l.s.e. videos. And Roger's lawyers felt the need to sue Gilmour and Mason because the latter failed to pay Waters 'pig royalty' for the 1989 dates.
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Pink Floyd's new, genetically modified porker (live 1987-89) |
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Berlin Wall pig (The Wall Live in Berlin, 21 July 1990)
A rather mean-looking pig (with teeth) made its appearance during the customary "Run Like Hell" spot during Roger Waters' staging of The Wall live in Berlin, in July 21, 1990.
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Pink Floyd blimp ('The Division Belle') The Division Bell launch (1994)
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In typical Floydian fashion, the press launch of The Division Bell had to break some sort of record, so the album was promoted by flying the world's largest Zeppelin airship, "The Division Belle" emblazoned in fluorescent orange, green and blue and sporting the forthcoming album's artwork. On top of that, It was the first airship to cross the continent in winter, flying against the jet stream. Two airships were made, one for Europe and one for the US. On March 21, 1994, the European one also passed over Battersea Power Station. Contrary to the famous pig, the blimp carried on flying in the skies.
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Two Inflatable Pigs (1994 World Tour)
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For the 1994 World Tour, Floyd seemed to make a conscious decision to improve on every single detail. The inclusion of the flying pig in the Momentary Lapse tours was a question of including a well-known trademark. This time round, they introduced not only one but two pigs! Moreover, rather than letting the pigs afloat, hovering, they gave them some purpose: they appeared, during "One Of These Days", over the two big towers situated at the two corners of the stage, and they were dancing in sync with the song. Whether this 'revamped' pig presentation means that the new pigs were exempt to Waters' trademark or not is not known. The readers should rest assured that, should Floyd ever decide to go on tour again, the pigs will be there. And, chances are, they are not just going to fly.
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