Imagine the conversation when this album was pitched to the record company: "The opening track starts with flight announcements for the signs of the Zodiac, then it becomes a study of the existential terror of cosmic loneliness and how our subconscious minds use metaphor and symbolism to cope with it. The second song is about someone's cat."
Did it two times and it was great. Nick and his not-so-young friends play with enthusiasm as if they were fighting for their first record deal. So much fun!
When I heard the news of Syd's passing, I went into mild shock. I went downstairs to the studio and grabbed the Gretsch Peppermint Twist and turned up REAL loud. I just began playing a medly of Astronomy Domine, Interstellar Overdrive and Set The Controls For the Heart of the Sun.... over and over until I couldn't play anymore. When they opened their show in the mid 90's with it, my head exploded. I've almost recovered. 🤘🧙♂🤘
I think Ummagumma is the band's most underrated album. Of course there is "Dark Side", "Wish You Were Here" and "The Wall" but "Ummagumma" shows what a raw diamond the band was in the early years. The first two live sides show how creatively the band worked out their studio work. “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” is the best example of this. Prog-rock and experimental rock reign supreme on the studio-sides. Me and my bird always loved "Grantchester Meadows". My bird (a bugdie) began chirping when I played that song.
When I saw you were reviewing this, I thought "Man oh man, he's gonna go nuts over those chord progressions/changes". 🤔 You didn't disappoint! 😇😀 Great show today!!
@@arthurdent1045 the EP one predates it actually, and is recorded in one take together without overdubs or time constraints so it's much more representative of their live output despite being recorded in a studio still
Omg, I love it! The first time I heard this song was in the early 80s. I was tripping on shrooms! Syd was the driving force then. He had brilliant ideas but was overwhelmed by them. Careful with that Ax Eugene is worth a listen.
People who dislike Ummagumma are those who don't know a lot outside The Wall and DSOTM. Ummagumma studio album is all but easy listening, but I don't understand why discounting a masterpiece like The Narrow Way. To me the earliest albums pre-DSOM are Pink Floyd's best work. Change my mind.
A trip to London and Paris I took as a high school student in 1978, when the trans-Atlantic portions of the flights--both on Air France--had Ummagumma as one of the music channels! I think I listened to a total of 18 hours of that album playing over and over.
I am happy you tackled a little more from 'Ummagumms', the live track is worth it. Two other studio tracks that are worth it is "Grandchester Meadows" and "The Narrow Way". Fascinating stuff.
Growing? there was no growing from perfection, and when they lost Syd, they had to re-start the whole thing again. Growing would've been if Syd could've had the opportunity of developing his musical ideas and the rest would've followed him, as it was supposed to be from the beginning
The thing is, just playing the song on Guitar or Bass is so satisfying, just doing a vamp off it is so fun, the whole structure just puts you into a trance like state as a player. Great piece to learn.
Colonel Les Claypool, the Zappa of the 90s (saving the distance), another genius. With The Claypool Lennon Delirium they also covered some, at least 2 come to my mind now, King Crimson songs (In the Court of the Crimson King and Thela Hum Ginjeet). Doug would have to honor the many facets of Colonel Claypool.
I'm pretty sure, if memory serves, that the live version was the first Pink Floyd song I ever heard. I bought Ummagumma from a neighbor's garage sale when I was a kid, having no idea who Pink Floyd were. I just liked the cover and the song titles. That album still holds a special place in my heart, and "Astronomy Domine" set the stage (so to speak). Rick Wright's organ solo still gives me chills. It somehow always makes me think of the cold, lonely desolation of a barren heavenly body or a little astronaut in a little spaceship silently hurtling through the cosmos. It's such an evocative piece of music.
Hi Doug from England i love love love your reactions and analysis on my favorite band i am 70 years old and was introduced to Pink Floyd in 1973, the first album i bought was dark side. From then to date i have been to see them live at least 10 concerts and never been disappointed with their performance. I am hoping to go to Earls Court London to see David play his newest album luck and strange this October 2024, Keep up the great work.
I can still remember back in 1969 when I was in junior high school and there was a "head shop". It was dark inside and mysterious. They had black light posters everywhere and sold pot paraphernalia, jewelry, posters, and incense among other "hippie" things. There was always music playing. The place was my first exposure to Floyd.
Musical analysis is really much, much more than harmonic root movement analysis. We know Doug has perfect pitch and quickly identify changes, but really, we can easily look the progressions up elsewhere if need be. So much valuable musical analysis wizzes past him while he is preoccupied with whatever the chords are doing.
Roger Waters fans will probably go for my jugular, but Pink Floyd's special, spacey sound (with everything that has meant since the '70s) was built on David Gilmour's guitar and Rick Wright's keyboards (plus the vocals of David and also Wright and Waters), the lyrics and concepts of Roger Waters (with input from the other members of the band). Recently, Waters made a personal cover of the album Dark Side of the Moon, listening to what he did allows us to fully appreciate what Gilmour and Wright's contribution meant and means to make Pink Floyd what it was and what it still is. Conversely, Gilmour's solo work and post-Waters Pink Floyd, being quite far from the conceptual and lyrical richness of Pink Floyd in its splendor (which, for me, is the period from 'Echoes' (which closes the Meddle album) to The Wall - with Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Where Here being the band's masterpieces) is more than respectable and Pulse (the concert footage) a delight for the eyes and ears. Richard Wright was never underestimated by the old Pink Floyd fans, in fact (as one of them since the mid-70s), I always had him in very high esteem. His synth intro on Shine on You Crazy Diamond parts VI-IX always gave me a deep thrill and still gives me goosebumps when I listen to it. The atmospheres that characterized Pink Floyd's sound would never have existed without the magic of Rick Wright's keyboards.
I might go for your jugular: David wasn’t in the band when they developed that sound. Don’t know which members were responsible for it, but the band was renowned for it before Piper (I remember reading reviews of their performances at UFO).
@@richardlovell4713 I am referring to the definitive Pink Floyd sound that is prefigured in Echoes and continues in The Dark Side of the Moon and subsequent albums. In the purely psychedelic stage, the name of the band and the style were defined by Syd Barrett. In The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, almost all the songs are by Barrett (except two signed by the 4 members of the band and one signed by Waters). In Pink Floyd's second album, A Saucerful of Secrets, David Gilmour already appears (playing in the style of that time of the band) in many of the songs (Syd Barrett only writes and sings 'Jugband Blues'). Then comes the purely experimental stage with Waters increasingly occupying the role of leader, which over time caused more and more short circuits with the other members, especially Gilmour and Wright (who he even expelled from the band). Personally, I believe that, just as Barrett's mind and psyche collapsed, Waters' ego became enormously inflated, he despised his peers and believed himself to be the owner of Pink Floyd and, as such, wanted the band to cease to exist. ..
On a recent Spotify exclusive Roger Waters openly says that they were horrified because of what happened to their friend and song writer. He had to fill for him whole his life but never replaced.
As a teenager when this came out, it feels I have to remind some people that this was Psychedelia - what we used to call "underground" music (substance-fuelled) and was not meant to follow established music theory. The whole point was THE SOUND. Man!! Thanks for having a go, though! Oh, btw, Birmingham, UK is pronounced "Birming-um" but no biggie...
This song has a special place for me as it was the opening track when I saw Pink Floyd live in 1994. I can still picture the lighting of the stage everytime I hear it.
@@rjlchristie As far as I am aware, on the second album 'A Saucerful', Syd was only involved on 'Set the Controls' and 'Jug band Blues', the song writing on other tracks apart from the title track the last track on the album was mainly Roger Waters and also Rick Wright.
One of the most difficult things for those today is to realise how groundbreaking this music was when it was released. This was definitely not mainstream music then: Pink Floyd were considered leaders of an Underground Psychedelic movement which threatened conventional popular music. There’s an interview with them at this time on RU-vid where the interviewer is quite open at how disturbed he was by their music. “This is Nuts !” That’s undoubtedly Syd Barrett’s influence. The band changed direction after he was (probably rightly) ejected from the band. His subsequent solo work was somewhat ‘nuts’ too.
Space rock at its best. Pink Floyd during its very quirky early years. Rick Wright showcasing amazing skills regarding unique composition and tonality.
Enjoyed your video! I agree I loved the live version of this song. It is amazing to me that Pink Floyd uses these major chords to make a masterpiece. Take Care!
Umma Gumma was my intro to Pink Floyd in 1970, so I would favour the live version. Their live performance of this masterpiece in 1969 was a sign of things to come, culminating in their Pulse tour. At the end of everything, for me it always comes back to Pink Floyd.
There are two bands within Pink Floyd. The first founded by the brilliant Rogers (Barrett and Waters), who created a unique dissonant style, unlike anything before or since. They influenced everyone from the Beatles on their psychedelic album to geniuses like David Bowie. The other band is a little less sparkling, but maintained its own style and produced sharp albums, with a strong humanist content and political criticism of the capitalist model that tries to mold people like robots, in the family, at school, at church and at work, targets more constant in his lyrics. Pink Floyd was an avant garde band, which reflected the feelings of their time for eternity.
At least four distinct eras. 1967-8 (Barrett). 1969-71( struggling to find a voice sometimes very pretentiously), 1971/2-1976 (findingmaturity and triumph), 1977 onward (perhaps after Waters left can be counted as a separate phase as well, but imo the band had long become a corpse). They really ceased being a band in 1975 with the completion of Wish You Were Here,. After that Wright was sidelined and it was a commercial enterprise consisting of competing egos.
Some Pink Floyd songs have not been, for me, very accessible. Your enthusiasm and knowledge teach me greatly to appreciate these songs as well. Thank you very much for that.
This was the very first album I every heard from Pink Floyd back in 1970. A friend of mine invited my over to his house and we smoked some hash. He gave me a set of headphones and put this album on. I laid there from star to finish and was hooked forever on Pink Floyd.
Nice video. What i have to say is that Rick Wright was responsible for the Psychedelic sound of Pink Foyd more than any other member. He was the colour of the Psychelelic sound of the band and also made the songs more atmospheric.
If you want some "Intense Avant Garde Piano/Organ listen to Richard's Sysyphus 1,2,3,4 and "Awesome Wild Space Guitar" from David on his Narrow Way 1,2,3 from Ummagumma!
Love love love the wonder you bring to listening to music!!! And especially love when you talk some of the theory going on. So insightful and inspiring! Thank you! 😊😊
I am too young to have had the honour to have experienced Pink Floyd perform this masterpiece. But I have experienced Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, and will do again. Awesome stuff.
Domine means Lord/lord. It's the vocative case in Latin, used for addressing the Lord/lord, but I'm guessing that Pink Floyd may just have liked the combination of the words and the way they sound together.
Hardly surprisingly the Floyd start their recording career (an album anyway) with a revolutionary chord sequence or 2! Arnold Layne was a single, as was See Emily Play, (another must-listen) before the album. 1967 tis sort of stuff was in the charts!
11:30 When Syd played that chord, he just diminished the fifth, tonic, and major third on strings 5-3, keeping the open Es and open B, making it an effective Em(maj7)b5. Gives me somewhat half-whole diminished scale vibes, save for that major 7. Bu you're right, it is devilishly enchanting; at least it was to me when I first heard it in high school c. 2006.
In the early days, Pink Floyd was not what many considered 'main stream'. They were a progressive, space rock band that had an audience, but nothing that could be considered FM material until Dark Side came out and that was after Sid left. Roger Waters and David Gilmore have said that it was Sid's influence that kept them in the space rock genre. David himself, said he was tired of doing the 'noodling' with music and was looking for something with focus.
In case you don't see the comment I just made on one of your Maiden vid's from a few years ago, I love seeing you listen to this type of music, especially the heavy stuff. Traditionally educated, listening with an ear that usually resides within the rules and structure of traditional music frame work. So much fun seeing you react to the unusual and out of the box writing of musicians that often have little to no music education. Their writing based on gut and ear and experimentation being appreciated by you is great to see. I'd be interested if it's influenced your work and outlook and pushed you to break the rules set out by your formal education? Granted, it's always hard to tell for ones self if it has. Laid up for a time and will enjoy a binge sesh of your vid's. Thanks! Bert the Weldor
Pink Floyd was never "mainstream" Doug, At least when it came out. lol Glad you fixed the shaker as well! Please keep naming the key. It's helping my ear.
I saw Floyd live several times during this era, they were constantly on tour and absolutely amazing. I'll never forget them sitting down on the stage, a roadie brought on a tray of tea and they sat drinking it while going into Grantchester Meadows. Magical!
My first album by Pink Floyd was Umma Gumma (heard on a McIntosh 5100 amp/pre-amp with Altec Lansing speakers the first time). My second album was The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. What I had for a Pink Floyd experience was the BBC special with them on the Beach--that's all I can remember. "See Emily Play".
Pink Floyd were a good example of 'Hard' psychedelia in the sixties. Their performances were tied in with LSD much like The Grateful Dead in America. It was important that the young concert goers were all on the same drugs for the experience of the trip to be shared, the venues would iideally afford the listeners the opportunity to lie on pillows anf lodr themselves in the trip. But after losing Syd and shifting into tbe 70s, they knew that iff they wanted to survive and succeed that they would have to somehow reach beyond the fans who were 'turned on' and bring some elements of these epic musical journeys to a broader audience, and it seemed that 'Meddle' was the moment when they first achieved that creative breakthrough by establishing longer arrangements that can take us on a journey for 20 minutes as a composition and not necessarily just an extended jam, which was the psychedelic formula up until then. Very few psychedelic bands survived the transition into the new era. I am glad that at least one did.
Three things I want to mention about this song: 1) There is an excellent verion (my favorite) of this from their 90s live album Pulse 2) My old band Ziusudra used to play this song live at every show (and you can find it on Spotify and other places) 3) That weird Eb chord is what you get if you play an open E chord on the guitar, but move the 3 stopped strings down 1 fret, leaving the two E strings and the B string to ring out as well. Thanks for listening to this, it's a wild one, isn't it?
Pink Floyd played this live for a BBC arts programme back in 1967 after which Roger Waters and Syd Barrett were interviewed by a music critic and violinist, I think his name was Hans Keller or something similar, who was not impressed at all, but at the end of the interview he says , well I don't like it but they have an audience and anyone with an audience deserves to be heard. The clip is still around on U Tube I think. I loved all the experimental stuff Floyd did when it came out, but it was an acquired taste and most people didn't like it at all. It was Richard Wright's keyboards that got me into Pink Floyd in the first place, always seemed to remind me of 1950s and early 60s sci-fi movies and TV shows. The song Astronomie Domine makes reference to British comic book hero, Dan Dare, from the late fifties and early sixties. He was a spaceship captain who like all great spaceship pilots of the time battled aliens, space pirates and other nefarious characters. The talking at the beginning of the studio version was I believe Peter Jenner calling out the names of planets, constellations and moons.
I prefer the Syd Barrett version. The playing is more nuanced and complex, and there’s a bootleg live version floating around from the Syd era performed in Copenhagen that serves as a better comparison between the Syd and post-Syd eras, as they are both live performances. The Syd era performance is far more energetic, and features guitar improv through the entire 9 minutes or however long it was. The versions with Gilmour have him taking a step back during the middle section. Gilmour does play a heavy mean riff at the beginning and end, since the band upgraded their equipment to sound louder, so that’s really the only reason people like it better. It gives off a more proto-metal feel. But in my mind, no one plays a Syd Barrett song better than the man himself. Gilmour is best at being himself.
And here is VOIVOD's cover of "Astronomy Domine." Story went that David Gilmour heard this version, and decided to start playing the song again in concert. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bvXaLZZ6M3M.html
Really shows the genius and originality of Syd Barrett.,early Pink Floyd really pushed the envelope. He was probably the most original composer/ songwriter to come along since Raymond Scott.
The pink floyd i love start with the early singles and the piper at the gates of dawn, and end with live at pompei. After that, they dramatically changed their sound, leaving behind that dreamy but occasionally dramatic psychedelia that i love so much. In beetween lots of underappreciate gems like More, saucerful of secrets, ummagumma live album and a lot of material on atom heart mother (summer of '68 is a unique blend of beach boys, morricone and pink floyd themselves). There are also a lot of great non-album tracks (i reccomend you to take a listen to one of the '70 live versions of embryo, or to the simple but amazing julia dream).
When I first heard this in the 1960s I thought it was great, and that music this good would always be getting made. Shows you what I know about anything. 🫣
5:45 Those voices are alot better mixed in the mono version as is the Organ, which sadly often is missing completely in the stereo version of Piper. (also there's a ssshhh sound Roger makes at 7:11 that is completely missing in this version as well) This is because back then they recorded this they just started with stereo recordings/mixing, so while they spent a few days on the mixing of the mono version the stereo version was finished in only a few hours or so. Both versions are an experience still! (so with Ummagumma its basically three versions)
Unfortunately, Floyd's American label wasn't quite up to the advanced level of the band -- IIRC, they left "Astronomy Domine" off the original release in favor of something else, " See Emily Play", I think. I didn't get it until the A Nice Pair double repackaging of the first two albums years later. I heard the Ummagumma version first. I don't have the religious background to say with any certainty, but I have always assumed that the whispering at the beginning of the original is supposed to sound like a Latin mass done over a NASA communication link. I could very easily be wrong. The other big difference I hear is the number of effect pedals the band has gotten their hands on.
Doug, you need to listen to the version by the Canadian metal band Voivod, from their breakout album, Nothingface… Actually, you need to listen to the whole album, Prog Metal at its best…
I love it. One of my absolute Floyd faves. Umma Gumma is a pretty challenging album, so is Piper, but it’s really wild to hear how much they changed, and how quickly.
I listened to this song , & album-Ummaguma- around the time came out. I was c.17. Blew me away! I like the live version too best, but the studio recording is good. Thanks for putting on Doug!
I first heard the song when a friend was playing *A Nice Pair*, a double album that basically consisted of PIPER and SAUCERFUL, reissued. Except that, oddly enough, the version of Astronomy Domine was the Ummagumma version. So I assumed I knew Piper at the Gates of Dawn, but the original Piper had a different Astronomy Domine.
It was on the USA release of the Album. The record companies in the USA had the annoying habit of putting single releases on albums, happened with the Beatles as well.
