I really like the way you walk through this album, with sharp observations, man! Thank you for that. I think a lot of the texts are referring to the experience of war. The wars in the 70's were different ones, but the effects are the same. At least the song On the run, it seems, is very actual considering the fugitives leaving Ukrain .. the sound effects seem to create the sounds of bombing airplanes and choppers, with a big explosion at the end.
'Us and them' has direct references to war but the theme for 'On the run', to me, is the stress of the pace of modern life, the swirling doppler effect on the synth is more like rushing traffic. It's also clearly an airport departure lounge when the announcer says..“…collect your hand baggage, have your passports ready, and follow the green line to customs and then to emigration. BA215 to Rome, Cairo, Lagos. May I have your attention, please, here is an announcement for BOAC passengers on BA255 to Rome, Cairo, Lagos. Will you, please, collect your hand baggage, have your passports ready, and follow…” You could I suppose imagine they are fleeing a war, but there's nothing stating that. The whole album covers various stressful themes and I believe it's simply the everyday person rushing to catch a plane. This reflects the hectic touring lifestyle for Pink Floyd and Waters fear of flying. It ends with maniacal laughter and a plane crash, but the running feet can still be heard, so it's more likely a personal nightmare or even a metaphor for a mental breakdown. 'Us and them' however does have a direct anti-war refence, and touches on Waters loss of his father in WW2.
I love the way you're handling this DSOTM reaction, man. It's brilliantly insightful and perfectly constructed for a PInk Floyd album. It's truly the way ALL Pink Floyd albums should be done and I sincerely hope you'll continue this style for each album moving forward. The albums Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall, and The Final Cut, especially. To a lesser extent, this would also lend itself well to A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, The Division Bell, The Endless River, Meddle, and Obscured By Clouds. Great job on these Syed! Top, top marks!!
By the time of The Wall the vision of this band had darkened considerably. Interestingly so. The later album is also a work worthy of t his sort of analysis
I'd say, this album and 4 next albums (WYWH, Animals, The Wall, The Final Cut) are all worth this kind of break down, especially The Final Cut as for me it is most underrated of all of them
I always felt this song's meaning was that every conflict/problem boiled down to inequity - with - without. Someone has something, and others want to take it. Those with power start wars to take what they want and those without power have to fight to get the powerful thier desire. Also when you are one of the haves, it destroys your empathy for other people. The rich and powerful believe the poor/powerless become merely tools to use or obstacles to shove out of the way.
You are rapidly becoming my favorite reaction channel. Pink Floyd are an endless well that you can listen to over and over, and you will even start to hear new things that take on new meanings as you get older.
This is my favorite Pink Floyd song. Everything about it is perfection. Lyrics 🔥 Sax 🔥 Piano 🔥 background vocals 🔥The lead up to the battle cry 🔥I love running to this song.
Great job! Appreciate your jaw drops and “turn it up”! Keep diving deep into lyrics! Your differentiating yourself amongst all the reaction channels. We’ll done!
This album really set the bar and framework for what the highest levels of a concept album is. The ability to communicate a meta narrative over the course of the full album with smaller stories being each track, but blending the tracks together so it is perceived as one continuous experience....is really the height of what music and creating soundscapes is all about.
This album has so many clever little details added that reward multiple listens. Inevitably your ear will always catch something you missed before. Eg, I love that in the line "With, without.." there is no echo used when the word 'without' is sung. It's just a little punctuation mark, but it's subtle and adds to the experience.
This is such a classic album. I had just finished high school when it came out. I was just playing it a few days back. It gets played more than any of my Floyd albums. It is just so relaxing and takes me back to great memories as a kid.
I'M REALLY ENJOYING YOUR PERSPECTIVE AND INTERPRETATION OF THIS ALBUM!! I'M GETTING IDEAS ABOUT IT THAT I HAVE NOT EVER CONSIDERED!! THE COMMENT ABOUT THE HARSH PARENTING BEING A RESULT OF WAR TRAUMA EXPERIENCED BY MOSTLY THE FATHERS WAS VERY POSSIBLE!! IT REMINDS ME OF THE FILM HACKSAW RIDGE WHERE THE FATHER WAS A MEAN DRUNK BECAUSE OF WW1 TRAUMA!! GREAT REACTION!!!
Saw Division Bell. First show of the tour. Miami Joe Robbie stadium. Helicopters with music of the wall. FULL size pink, Pink Floyd blimp. Light misting rain during the concert. Best concert ever and I've seen alot.
I had this album on vinyl record back in the 70's. Talking about the transitions, on this album when you look at the spaces between the songs, there is a space between each song and on this album, there is a single groove that carries the record player stylus from one song to the next, and it was still playing music as it traveled along the single groove. The only time there was really any period of silence was when you flipped the record from the A Side to Side B.
Great reaction to the greatest band ever! I’ve been listening to PF since I was 12 and I’m 60 now. Every time I listen to their music I feel something new. Lyrics are important but music gives you the chills and Guilmour’s guitar makes you go outer space. It’s a hell of a journey. You should react to the live Pulse concert, you’ll enter another dimension. Love from Portugal.
After you’ve listened to the whole album watch Classic Albums episode on the making of Dark Side,not only will it give you a background to the songs and album artwork,it’ll also answer your question about what the meaning of the voices are that you’re hearing occasionally..really enjoying the ride with you👍👍👍👊👊👊😁😁😁
Thank you very much for taking the time to analyze the lyrics of this album. Because if the music, the transitions and the sound effects are special, the lyrics are just as special on this album. There is enough to do a deep analysis of the lyrics, even a doctoral thesis. The end of this album deserves as much attention as the introduction which dazzles us with the accuracy of its lyrics. Once again, thank you very much for paying so much attention to this. You certainly have this ability to understand the meaning of the lyrics, without dissociating a song from all the other songs that make up this album. Your reaction is very similar to the one I have, but I have known this album since its release in 1973, and yet it never ceases to amaze me with the accuracy and relevance of its lyrics, even if these texts were written almost 50 years ago now.
The "thought" that pops up before the sax solo towards the end ("short, sharp shock"...etc) is from a series of interviews the band conducted with road crew and studio staff. They asked them the same set of questions and recorded their answers. They have then sprinkled some of these recordings throughout the album. Some of the questions were; "Are you afraid of dying?", "when was the last time you hit someone?", followed by "Were you in the right?" 😁
Pink Floyd were really tapped into something. Really good review, yet again. I like how you're handling the album. These guys had a magic of being a cohesive unit. The transitions really are genius. Well done!
I'm really enjoying this process of taking in the album again. First heard it with a girlfriend in grade 12. Good going, mate! Learning, listening, liking it.
If you've never seen "Band of Brothers" you should give it a watch. 10 one hour episodes. They interview WWw vets about whom the series was made. One said that under different circumstances, he might have been friends with that German soldier. Might have had a lot in common. But they were each trying to do what they had to do, which translated to trying to kill each other.
My take on this song was a commentary on the things that divide us, like wealth (money) or power. The singer wonders why there should be so much conflict, which in its ultimate form is war, when we are pretty much the same, just "ordinary men." And how those behind these conflicts--those with wealth and power--are not accountable ("forward he cried / from the rear"). Switching gears, there is a recurring theme of the effects of war in the works of Pink Floyd, especially WW II. You will find this theme in The Wall in which the protagonist lost his father who was a pilot in WW II.
This song reminds me of a very clever quote I read years ago: "There are two kinds of people in the world -- those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don't." I am one of the latter, which creates a paradox. When anyone who is attempting to be a leader or an influencer of some sort begins to divide people into "us" and "them," that's my cue to disregard them.
Lyricist Roger Waters' father and grandfather were both killed in World War I and World War II respectively. It affected Roger deeply. Thus references to the tragedy of war are sprinkled throughout Pink Floyd's material. Particularly their other masterpiece "The Wall". And also "The Final Cut" album.
Great job again with your reaction, Syed, what else is new? You are a rapidly rising star in the firmament of RU-vid music reactors!! My request to you is that whenever you get around to reacting to the English band Queen, do NOT listen to the masses who will want you to react to "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Somebody To Love", "Live Aid concert 1985", "We Will Rock You", "Another One Bites The Dust" and so on. They are all correct you should react to them, but before you do, please take the time to react to the first three LP's, Queen I, Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack! Few people do since the band did not get famous until the fourth LP, but each is worthy of the thoughtful reactions you bring, and each is a treasure in their own right, setting the stage for the greater hits to come later. In fact, I would argue many of their best songs are on those early albums. Just my two cents! Peace,
FYI, Waters (the lyricist) on this song: “The first verse is about going to war, how in the front line we don’t get much chance to communicate with each another, because someone else has decided that we shouldn’t. I was always taken with those stories of ‘the First Christmas’ in 1914, when [the soldiers] all wandered out into no-man’s land, had a cigarette, shook hands and then carried on the next day … The second verse is about civil liberties, racism and colour prejudice. The last verse is about passing a tramp in the street and not helping.”
@@samuelalexander558 LOL, my assertion? I was quoting the author. But don't bother telling me, you should contact Waters and tell him how you've improved on his "assertion" because you're "more insightful" than he is.
@@psbarrow The author? I don't ever remember a lyricist being described as an author or I have heard or read Waters describe the lyrics in such simplistic terms. Maybe you could send me a link to the quotes.
I enjoyed listening to your reactions to the whole album by pink floyd. Intelligent thoughts and insightful on the lyrics. Best reaction I've seen and I see a lot. Thanks .
You have to remember these are post WWll kids they grew up on classical music, jazz and blues and in the age of rock n roll this is what they gave us . They are musical geniuses..thank God for the British invasion of rock n roll ..your welcome
Remember that during both the Great Wars, a man may have been fighting his cousin or at worst, brother. After both wars, all of Europe had to rebuild - especially after WW2. The members of Pink Floyd grew up with rationing even a decade or more after the war. Their fathers were significantly impacted, some more some less. But Waters, the main lyricist, has talked at length about growing up in England in the 50’s and 60’s and struggles faced by the common folk. As a child he played in the rubble of homes bombed and not yet rebuilt. So yeah, warfare was a central concept to much of their music.
The lollipop boys start this set of lyrics with dance. It's great! Then the three little girls finish with "after all we are ordinary men" hilarious and brilliant! Black and blue of course are shots of the bad witch dressed in black (first appearance) and Dorothy in blue. And who knows which is witch and who is who...get it. Up and down... Dorothy's house landed on another witch and killed her. Round and round... Dorothy models the red slippers (one of my favorites, with echoes and twisting motion, it's fucking genius or mad!). The talking is the munchkins. The fighting is all about Toto the dog.
Syed I'm an absolute Pink Floyd and Roger Waters fanatical fan, but who can dent that Pink Floyd are the Greatest Band in History..!! Anyways Syed your reactions and insights to Floyd's music is so far above everyone else's opinions and thoughts..!! Their is a well known phrase about Pink Floyd saying "You either know or you don't " which in layman's terms means you either get it or you never will understand how deep and thought provoking their bands music is and Roger's lyrics are..!! Well Syed they way you explain and disect their music compares to no other so Thank You So Much and keep up the INCREDIBLE WORK Thanks Martin 🫶✌️👍🏻🐖🐕🐑
The next three songs (Any Coulor Your Like, Brain Damage and Eclipse) I recommend you, listening together in the same video. It will be amazing! The three pieces are the same song practically. Greeting from Argentine!
Syed, the spoken word section you were describing isn't a childhood memory or anything to do with Syd Barrett, it's actually one of the many interview clips scattered throughout the album, which were responses to a series of flash card questions Waters had made. This one is a response from the band's road manager to the card “When was the last time you thumped someone? Why did you do it? Did you think you were in the right? Do you still think you were in the right?” Other responses from various interviewees to the same question can be heard in the closing section of the previous track 'Money'. There's an error in the transcription you were looking at though, where it says 'freight' eleven, it's actually 'fader 11', and spoken by Chris Adamson, one of the band's roadies, who is referring to a channel of a mixing desk. Some of the interview clips don't always have a direct relationship to the song they're placed in, other than I believe they are all aspects of the overarching themes of the album, the various frustrations and concerns of life and how some people cope, or don't, with those pressures. The verses of 'Us and them' alternate their mood from a weary and resigned POV, to the total reverse with an outburst of anger and frustration.
Basically Dark Side of the Moon is all about the trials and tribulations of life from start to finish of your life..!! The concept is just so far ahead of anything or anyone that has come before or since Pink Floyd doesn't even come close to the brilliance of Pink Floyd and their deep lyrics and mind-blowing music..
Hey, I am chagrined to tell you I had never been able to understand all of the words in this song and never got the full meaning and impact of it. If I had done as you do and looked up the actual words then, yeah, I'd have seen a more complete picture. Thank you so much for your work with this important, in my opinion, music. I am sorry for what happened to Sid, but I truly believe that adding David Gilmour to the mix of talent is what allowed Pink Floyd and their compositions to become great.
Roger Waters was five months old when his father was killed in WWII. The British Rock Invasion was born out of the kids being born into War in England. Ginger Baker talked about the concussive sound of the Germans bombing London when he was one year old.
Roger Waters Grandfather was killed in action in WW1 and his Father was killed in action in WW2 which gives some context to some of Floyds songs and Lyrics especially Us and Them - Forward He Cried From the rear and the front ranked dies etc
you should really check out the album 'Arthur or The decline snd fall of the British Empire' or at least the second and third tracks 'yes sir no sir and 'some mothers son' by The Kinks they're about WW1
Some other themed or concept album ideas: P Floyd---Animals Rush---2112 The Who--Tommy Tool---Fear Innoculum(possibly thematic, who knows) Bowie---Ziggy Stardust Beach Boys---Pet Sounds Dylan---Blood on the Tracks. NOBODY on RU-vid is doing those last two. Be a trendsetter. Don't know if you noticed that reaction content producers majically discover the exact same 50 year old songs at exactly the same time.
I would love love love if you could react to Dire Straits, the song Brothers in Arms. Love your channel.. best reactor on RU-vid in my opinion. You clearly have a talent for metaphorical thought.
Sorry to write a 2nd comment right away. But you absolutely have to know the sequel that is coming: What's to come is not just a few more songs to close this album, but the conclusions of the previous reflections. In this album, it's impossible to isolate a song from the previous ones, or from the following ones, since they are linked to each other. Even the musical tracks have a message to impart. But they require more knowledge of the overall message of the album to understand them. This will be my commentary for the next track, (Brain Damage). See you soon...
You should React to the best solo floyd album amused to death by Roger Waters from 1992. Remixed in 2015. They are pretty similar though. You shouldn’t miss that album. At least better than all but two floyd albums.
most of their albums are about the record industry rip off executives, like Zappa {- who was one of their favorite inspirations (Greggory Peccary) is a great Zappa magnificent use of tape manipulation, remember no protools, only extraordinary musicians and 8 - 16 track tape and all mostly concept albums
