You can't catch the words they say

by Mike McInnis

"Isn't it amusing," staffer Sean Ellis wrote, "that none of us have anything to say about Instrumental Floyd?"

Ironic indeed.

There is something vaguely appropriate to the fact that, when assigned a topic as wide-open as the instrumental compositions of Pink Floyd, the writing staff of Spare Bricks found itself quite lost for words. Maybe its because instrumentals such as "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" or "Marooned", while certainly capable of stirring up powerful emotions, can't really be approached in terms of meaning and thematic content the way that you might approach The Wall or Animals.

Maybe it's because compositions like "Sysyphus" or "Up the Khyber" or even "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" are the products of a band that was leaning on experimentation and novelty to rather than structured songwriting ability. And while many fans come to appreciate and genuinely enjoy these tunes, they usually aren't kind of thing that drew us to the Floyd in the first place.

Maybe it's because tracks like "More Blues" or "Absolutely Curtains" or "Cluster One", despite their simple, instrumental beauty, really seem to amount to little more than filler.

Or maybe it's because, as someone once said, writing about music is like dancing about architecture. No amount of words can convey the magnificence of a great piece music as effectively as listening to it, any more than any number of pirouettes and Electric Slides can describe the Sydney Opera House or the Empire State Building.

Nonetheless, we have tried to capture some of the essence of the Floyd's grand instrumental tradition--songs like "A Saucerful of Secrets", "Interstellar Overdrive", "Mudmen", "Atom Heart Mother", and "The Great Gig in the Sky"--in this issue of Spare Bricks. We hope you enjoy it.

Mike McInnis is the editor of Spare Bricks.