Composer Reacts to Pink Floyd - Echoes (REACTION & ANALYSIS) 

The "live at pompeii" version of this is outstanding. It's not really better or worse, just a different context. I will say though, the drum sound to my ear is SO good on the live track.

I have never heard a better vocal mixing than David Gilmour and Richard Wright. Their voices mesh SO well together, it's amazing. The world lost something special when Rick Wright died.

I've loved this song ever since I first heard it in 1972 as a 16 year old. It is one of my favourite Pink Floyd tracks.

Bryan, this was originally a piece comprised of 24 separate songs the band was working on, and was called "Nothing, Parts 1-24." I was lucky enough to see this live way back in the day, on one of the three times I saw them. This is perhaps THE iconic PF composition.

The guys from Pink Floyd had a lot of inspirations. But they were always unique and ahead of there time. Or, maybe I should say they are timeless. I don't know many other bands that created so many songs that don't age. Echoes is in this production a bit aged for me. I prefer the Gdansk version of Gilmour. As a composer you mention many important details. As I always falling into a mind cinema dream while I'm listening this song I really liked your analytical review of it. Somehow funny you expect always patterns. Pink Floyd songs can have tempo changes in it. It can change all in a Pink Floyd song. In the best Pink Floyd songs you can find the wirdest changes in all kind of musical ideas. And at the end you feel that all in all the song was created perfectly. And every change or every tone makes perfect sence. As a hint: For Pink Floyd silence is as important as the tone. Do you know what I mean? A lot of people don't like the scary middle part. But think of the contrast to the sweet start and end of the song. How boring would that song be if we would just had no scare and no drama but only the sweetness..

The lyrics are about human connection and interaction (as confirmed by Roger Waters). The last part was described by the band as communication between instruments.

this song definitely deserved the 1 hour analysis

I'm very surprised you've never heard this, it's so iconic and popular. But then again, I'm a semi-old fart. Re: the opening *ping* effect, from Wiki: "Echoes" begins with a "ping" that was produced by amplifying a grand piano and sending the signal through a Leslie speaker and a Binson Echorec unit. But you are correct that early Floyd was very much about experimenting with effects and textures. That began in 1967 where original guitarist Syd Barrett would roll ball bearings down his guitar neck. They were always doing new and interesting things in their concerts, and were early practitioners of using tapes in their live performance. And that lazy, "swing" drum pattern is a trademark of classic Pink Floyd. Nick Mason for the win.

The wailing sound is The guitar going through a Wahwah pedal, but plugged into the output and going out of the input. The volume and tone knobs can be moved to make the screaming seagull effect :)

My absolute favorite Pink Floyd song. It's just simply incredible. One of the best classic prog songs ever in my opinion. I don't know what else to say about it, it's just simply a masterpiece through and through.

I've read that the "seagull" effect was discovered by accident when Gilmour's guitar tech plugged the amp, pedals and guitar in the wrong order and the guitar ended up making this weird noise which became so iconic in this song.

Great analysis. Pink Floyd are named after two blues men Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. When Joe Bonamassa suggested to David Gilmore recently that he should make a blues album David apparently said "I've played the blues all my life, just never in a blues band". Also I implore you to watch them perform this live in Pompeii 1972. Sensational.

IMO this track is when Pink Floyd found their sound and voice. This album is a hodge podge of song styles, exploring old and new ideas (and they're all great), but the album ends with this. And then they made Dark Side. I feel like they made this, it was really ambitious, it had an ethereal but certain direction, and they looked at each other when it was done and went "few more albums of that kinda thing then?". So good. If you listen to what came before this in the whole career - psychedelia, but poppy, sometimes noise, sometimes catchy, and this whole album, and then get to this song, you'll go "whoa. So that's when the popular Pink Floyd 'sound' happened." Before Syd, their original lead singer and guitarist, left the band it was very experimental but also sometimes poppy in a weird dissonant way. When he had to leave due to heavy drug use and mental health problems David Gilmore the guitarist came in who had a heavy blues hand.. And they messed around with their sound for a couple albums and then we arrive at this.

Great review. I think Echoes was the band’s light bulb moment, when all their experimentation in their early years was pulled together into a piece that was more than the sum of its parts. It paved the way for the Dark Side of the Moon, which stayed in the album charts for a mind-boggling number of years. If you listen to their earlier albums, they came from a chaotic, but ground-breaking place. The stuff they were doing was so out if step with their contemporaries. The band’s leader Syd Barrett, burned out and left the band, which is a whole story in itself. They then picked up the pieces, and, over a few albums, re-invented themselves. Echoes was that moment of clarity, the future, for them, was clear.

Ohhhhh that's a LEGENDARY song!!! 🖤 A true MASTERPIECE!!!

For me, I always think of this song as representing the birth of life. Coming from the ocean-the sounds of whales, the wind, the birds-in the eerie and haunting section of the song. Then, life forming and human interactions subsequently from there. I think that it's been said that the song is about human connection, but I always feel it's about so much more. The echoes of past lives starting from the first origins of life. Sure, I am reading a lot into this masterpiece but that is the beauty of PF (the best band that ever was). They make you go places. Some beautiful, some sad, some peaceful-but always meaningful. I just found your channel today, Critical Reactions and I have subbed.

24:00 "Infinite loop" or Sheppard's Tone; in this case created with a slide on bass with the Binson Echorec delay machine (precursor to analog delay pedal), using a tape loop. First time in recording history in which it was done. They were wizards both in the studio and in their live setting.

For that "run" you just have to remember it was pinched by Andrew Loyd Webber for the stage show "The Phantom of the Opera" 😉 So glad you did this track! Also from the same album you might want to check out the mostly instrumental "One of these days" 😉

I always got the image of a submarine in deep ocean. That first sound is the submarine sonar beacon. The whaling sound may be from a whale and you get the sense that the submarine is in trouble and may be descending. The funky portion always gave me a sense of free floating whether in water or above the surface of the earth. The beacon returns at the end to ensure us all is well again. I can’t tie everything directly to the lyrics in the later verses but I’d be interested to hear what others think.

I'd always kind of assumed that the 'screaming and howling and chirping' in the middle section was supposed to be seabirds. The clue's in the first line of the lyrics: "Overhead the Albatross...."

I think Echoes is not a song that tells you something concrete, but rather shows you what you need to hear and feel. For me, the storytelling of this song is about emerging from daily life, that first beeping might be like a calling, a beckoning from outside your own borders, which can be either religious heaven or Lovecraftian horror, as you feel like. The moment of the first verses comes with the idea of you standing in front of that ledge, that cave, that light, and going deep (deep in, or deep out, again, as you feel like). The funky section is the delight of finding out, of acquiring knowledge, transcending and ascending on a smooth flow that could go on forever, but then it fades out, letting you know that such ecstasy is just momentary, and we need to hop off that train, leave that party, land that plane, as you wish, and face again our daily life. Then the void, the fear of going back to reality, hearing the voices of things that seem familiar but we can't quite rrecognize yet. It's up to you to freeze, or take small blind steps. Then the guitar after the void, like a beacon of light telling you it'll be alright, that you can get rid of doubt and fear, and you start getting closer to the edge. Then you take the leap, it's a giant leap, but you feel sure, you know it'll be alright, you float, soar, dive, all at your will. And at last, with the return of the lyrics you emerge back to reality, with a new and greater understanding of you and what surrounds you, and the music tells you "look, it is all the same, but you're not the same, you're wiser now, and you'll see everything still familiar but under a more clear light". And there you go on with your normal life, but now you're one with the sound, and you are one of the beckoning beeps, and see yourself in those others who went before you and those who will go after you, echoing on this light and state of calmness and peace that goes on and on...

If you listen to the lyrics at the beginning of the song,it might make more sense, how it’s more about evolution from the sea and how we evolved to the land. (IMO)

The ambient middle section makes me think of wolves or coyotes howling to each other in the foggy darkness of the woods, which is a form of echoing communication that seems consistent with the theme.

I think you ended the lyrics part close to what I understand from it, and mind you, I’ve done research, read and watched many things about this song, including an interview where Roger mentions how this song was the start of a thread that connected everything they did after. It’s about connections, human connections and empathy. Painting a timeless picture of the world that surrounds us, the words are sometimes painting that picture, sometimes more direct or more metaphorical. “I am you and what I see is me” is recognizing our own humanity in other people, making a connection and using it to communicate and help each other. For me the void section is like how society and life can take us out of our own humanity, depression, disconnection, loneliness in a crowd. But the sounds slowly become recognizable again, bringing us back to our humanity, to music, to bright light that makes us function, and back to connections. With a final self determination to stay awake, open minded, aware and connected. I could write about each line but this would be extremely long, thanks for the analysis and insights.

Andrew Lloyd Webber based a whole musical on that bass riff …. I introduced the band on an early preview of this album so it has a special place in my heart.

Great pick! Thanks once again for producing this content. Would love to see more Swans, as it was my favourite discovery of 2021! A full album reaction would be great, as their music really rises to its full potential in that format.

This was a time in the '70's when bands could experiment and fill 20 odd minutes of an LP side and create amazing music like Pink Floyd and others

Good reflections. The greatness of this band is that the musical ideas drive the soundscape and vice-versa. The relative simplicity of the conventional theory belies their musical and compositional sophistication. The ideas expand, cohere, and develop ACROSS the discography, from album to album but you have to identify them through familiarity and repeated listening. The 'sounds' often fluidly move from object to note motif and back. The simplicity of conventional musical elements facilitates this. The use of the familiar stylistic elements is the scaffolding. You need to listen to this again in silence so as not to miss the impact of background elements and how well integrated they are. "Bing" is a tape-prepared piano. Did you notice that it occurs down several octaves at the end of the 'void' section and is referenced in exact pitch on the organ in sustain at the peak of the jam section? They are able to invoke sonic memory triggers with great skill. "Bing" (as an event signifier motif) has been distilled from earlier use and appears and develops on later albums. All their use of sound is musically integral. In Sheep, the simple two-tone minor third dog whistle from side one, 'Dogs' is translated into a motif of descending diminished fading guitar chords along with the echoed repetition of the word 'stone'. This is dropped like a pebble into that key spot in the composition and the ripples echo out from it... Sonic object indeed. Musique Liquide. You are not supposed to hear a dog whistle - and it is actually hard to detect the clear motivic connection - so it is a musical pun. This is the idea of subliminal messaging in meta. - Brilliant! - ("Congratulations, you have just discovered the secret message." - "Empty Spaces", "The Wall") Floyd is deliberately very careful with its use of energetic sound and fury elements. They always have dynamic context. There is no empty sound and fury. They are the dancing wu-li masters of dispatching great intensity with nothing but a kick on 1 & 3, or a minimal suspended cymbal. Personally, I feel that the recap in "Echoes" comes out from the depths of a dark night of the soul journey that has penetrated past any false underpinnings of sanity. I am riding on the back of a powerful surfacing whale or beast emerging into a place of greater acceptance and understanding that my person, life, mind, and indeed all of existence is both more horrifying and more rich and beautiful than I knew before the journey... and that while we can share this understanding, the experience and path is ours alone and that we can only echo this to each other 'call to you across the skies'. Cosmic existential loneliness. This is Orpheus ascending with new wisdom. There are no other rock acts like them.

Echoes it‘s not an unpopular and underrated song at all, it was even published in the best of

Andrew Lloyd Webber stole that downward progression for Phantom of the Opera. This was 15 years earlier.

This song was the soundtrack of my discovery of the guitar. I spent so much time jamming to this song that it effectively was my teacher. I learnt how to sound bluesy and be thoughtful instead of throwing a stream of consciousness at the idea of a solo. I learnt that backing guitar can be something other than chords. I learnt that repetition deepens the mood. I learnt that less is more even when your song is 23 minutes long. I don't think we'll see anything quite like this again. Music has become a somewhat risk-free environment that punishes this kind of creativity. But there are still some artists that manage to buck the trend somewhat in this direction and it's what I'm constantly in search of. But part of the joy is also in finding such a rare gem :)

Big fan, and shocked you had never heard Echoes before. Have you ever considered releasing audio versions of your recordings as podcasts so one can listen while driving? Thanks!

This is the last song on Meddle. That rising note effect at the end is also used to introduce the first song on the album, One of These Days. I don’t know what it’s supposed to signify, if anything. But to me it always sounds like the wind blowing the music in and then, once they’ve accomplished what they set out to do, blowing it away again. You’ll find Pink Floyd links the beginning and ending sounds on many of their albums.

I think you will be very amazed with Bill Cobham. Jazz Fusion at it's finest. Try "Sea of Tranquility" from the Total Eclipse album.

The sound at the end of the song is called a Shepard tone, named after Roger Shepard. The auditory illusion can be either an ascending or descending pitch.

I’m also in love with the very lady ECHOES on Gilmour at Gdańsk which was the last time it was played before Rick died and is extremely special - just two old friends having a musical conversation. Rick came from a jazz background.

Great song and definitely underappreciated! Love to just let this track take me on a journey! Definitely inspired a lot of their later work

I think the chirps is actually just piano played through a leslie speaker and binson echorec. I love how the middle section doesn't have it as though communication and like the listener is lost and then it pings like sonar like you (the listener) find your way again. IDK its always how i feel listening to this.

As a schoolboy, I bought Ummagumma on the weight of the grooviness of the album cover, and was duly transformed into a difference engine. Yes, Herman Hollerith's precursor to the computer notwithstanding, I was, from that day forward, transfixed by the notion of music as a mining expedition for the imagination, into a being who sought only the strange. The only aphrodisiac was strange, and Echoes was waiting just around the corner...with gifted cousins bearing dreams.

The story for the squawking, squealing sounds was the guitar plugged into a wah pedal the wrong way around. In the middle of of the sea. Meant to sound like seabirds, the bass being played with a slide for effects rather than melody. Maybe waves of the sea. SO, you should check the “Last Performance of Echoes” 50 years later with the guitar and keys players. Gilmour and Wright. With modern tech and variations on the riffs, fills, play and response built out naturally over years of friends and musicians.

Echoes is my absolute favorite Floyd song. They don't get enough credit for how innovative they were on all their albums but this song really shows it!

This album itself was a bold and confident effort. The songs are different from each other and all have an ethereal feel to them.

The "ping" sound is a piano note put through an echo box (or whatever the technical name is).

GOAT song for me, hands down

I would say watch the live version that the band did in Pompeii.... In 1971..!!!! And you can watch Dave as he gets those screams and seagull noises from his guitar... And all the other stuff of course... now you know the piece you need to watch the live version... It's different... but the same.. This track is the essence of what Pink Floyd are all about.... Giving the music space.... I like the analogy to a rainy city scape. I'm so old I bought the album when it came out.. and it was in a gatefold sleeve so you don't get the full image on the CD.. but when you unfolded the sleeve the front and back showed you an ear under water... you can see the ripples of drops of water on the bottom edge...... And the first note we hear on the piano is like a sonar echo underwater..... Keep on Rocking

First time i ever took LSD...after a couple of hours, couldn't stand it anymore...went to bed and put Echoes on...Let me tell you ...what a trip...Those were the good old days...

Always seemed like the story of all life starting in the deep ocean, with the extensive time before humans, then the brief triumph of man. Finally rising to the end of mans time on this earth. With the message that while we are here we should be sympathetic and welcoming towards each other. We should remember we are ALL related, we are ALL family.

Personally I would've have picked this as a "deep cut." It may not be the most popular Floyd but it's far from obscure, regularly featuring in their live shows and is generally one of their most critically acclaimed tracks. In terms of Floyd's career this was really the transitional song/album from their early psychedelic pop/rock period into their late space/art/prog rock period. I've also often said that Floyd (and tracks like this in particular) really demonstrate how they were arguably the first "post-rock" band, perhaps not literally but in the sense that all the elements we think of as post-rock (the slow burns, the focus on atmosphere and texture, etc.) was very much a part of their sound. Though you can still hear echoes (hehe) of Beatles-esque psychedelia here, especially in the vocal melodies and some of the more elaborate guitar lines. Personally, I've always felt Floyd bettered this template in their later epics, but there's still a wealth of interesting (and really great in isolation) ideas here, but I've never felt it all quite cohered as well as their later masterpieces. BTW, your "magic trick" analogy is one I've used myself many times. To me, the best works of art (in any medium) tends to be those that even once you figure out the "magic trick" they don't lose their capacity to awe you.

Finally - a review worthy of this MASTERPIECE!!!! Thank you for this.

My very favorite song. I told my husband to please play it for me on my deathbed.

You asked about what were their influences might be.... As an old guy from the UK who grew up in the '60's I can assure you that Pink Floyd were a band on their own... If anything they influenced others... and as for the blues, there was a huge blues boom in the UK during the '60's and any British guitarist of note grew up with that and has a blues influence in their playing... Don't forget Jimi Hendrix blew into Britain and became a guitarist of note in amongst all this before he became big in America... Even The Beatles played blues.

Best to view Pink Floyd as 2 different bands. Band 1). With Syd Band 2) With David Gilmour Band 1) Could not copy other bands because they could not play their chosen instruments. They developed a style of elongated single notes and simple slow music ideas. Band 2) Enter Gilmour the musician and singer and the other band members were learning to play...... A totally different band still playing slow long notes, but very differently.

The first verse of singing comes in at like 4 minutes lol. I think you were talking over it.

React to Pink Floyd's - Atom Heart Mother Suite.

Pink Floyd kept very interesting musical company in their early days. The scene they were associated with at first was even more psychedelic and free-form than their American counterparts. One band that helped push them more in that direction was AMM, which were free improvisation. This eagerness to experiment would put them with other experimental types from Captain Beefheart to Frank Zappa to Soft Machine and others. But what I always find interesting about Pink Floyd is they were not above conventional forms either. Waters, Gilmour and Wright exercised their songwriting chops after Syd Barrett in various ways. But in each effort, the songs became something that only they could devise. And this is what makes them interesting. And this definitely culminated in The Dark Side of the Moon where it can be called the most popular experimental album ever =] And yes, Echoes was the key stepping stone for this. This was also a culmination of what they were developing for the past three years: long-form jam with strong ideas and a good flow through the whole thing.

If you want to see the "Metal" side of Pink Floyd, THIS album, the first track "One of these days"... From 1971, it's still a reference for many metal musicians I know.

I really enjoyed this analysis. Just really good stuff!

first time I heard this was on a reel to reel in 1972, it was a trip. it still is.

Yes, the fade-out is the "ever-rising note" illusion

Yes, that apparently constantly rising note is a well.known acoustical illusion. Very cool by Pink Floyd to use this effect. You should react to "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" by Van der Graaf Generator from their album "Pawn Hearts", which came out a month before Pink Floyd's "Meddle". Another very experimental 23 minutes song about a lighthouse keeper becoming crazy from all the shipwrecks he has to see. It has a passage where two ships collide in the fog (you can hear the two different foghorns getting closer to each other and then the collision). The song is extremely experimental with some really wild and chaotic passages.

Very good, i like your analyse 👍

Pink Floyd were masters at starting with chaos and developing a tune out of it. Equally, they could craft the most beautiful music and gradually tear it down into the most gawdawful chaos imaginable.

Peter Crawford is a California surfer and film maker who asked Pink Floyd for the rights to use Echoes in his surf film Crystal Voyager, soon after the album was released. In the film section the entire 23 minutes is devoted to slow motion ultra wide angle tube riding sequences . It's well worth a check out even though the analog film stock Crawford uses is quite grainy by todays standards. The piece for me has always been the from the prelude to the end a journey from sonar aquatic scapes to heavy involvement, to claustrophobic deep ocean alienation and finally release and rescue to the surface...kinda like a journey from innocent acquaintance to deep and sometimes dark entanglement culminating in a return to a place of relief but somehow changed. The rest of the album varies from bombastic vocal and sound sound assaults, heavy rhythms to deconstructed and reconstituted (from previous tracks) into stock but light blues, soft atmospheres and whimsical drifting ballads. I'd have to say bands like Yes, King Krimson and Uriah Heap were already experimenting with atmospheric elongated classical and progressive styles and themes in and around the time of Meddle.

The "chirping" sound is a piano, recorded through a rotating microphone in an organ I believe? I don't know anything about the technicalities there, but they talk about in a documentary about the Meddle album that is up on youtube (The Lost Pink Floyd album, or somesuch). Allegedly they didn't have much of a plan when they entered the studio to record this album, and they started out recording kitchen utensils and a lot of weird stuff, for inspiration. This chirp was one of those, and fuelled the creation of this song. Which was the first one they wrote for the album.

On vinyl, Meddle's A side is the first 5 tracks and side B is just Echoes haha - Also fun fact, the cover artwork is a rotated close-up of an ear underneath water ripples

There's that run again as you said stolen by Andrew Lloyd Webber of course for his Phantom of the Opera score! Or should I say Rodger Waters Phantom of the Opera score?? Waters actually thought of suing him but he decided it would have been too much trouble! At the end you have David Gilmour with his guitar and Rick Wright with the keyboards having a conversation musically saying goodbye to one another....

Hey Bryan, interesting critique. However, I think you could help yourself out immensely by finding a way to queue up the moments of the piece as you're trying to recall them. After all, how can you critique something you can't recall correctly. There's a good RU-vid reaction channel called JustJP; he seems to have a handy set-up to quickly find spots he wants to highlight in the music. Perhaps you could get in touch w him for some ideas about that. As far as my understanding of the meaning behind the music: I think the middle section might be an example of the feeling of someone being totally cut off, without the human connections that make us human. Lost in a dark void, with only one's own thoughts constantly muttering out a background of pink noise (no reference intended) with the occasional wail of desolate agony & despair. At the end of the lyrics, it's said, there's no one to help him close his eyes at night, so he opens his windows & calls out to the one he met earlier, to start making connections in life, to cease being in sad isolation. Cheers! 🍇

It’s a slide guitar. And this was from 1972, so there were almost zero digital modulators. They had huge analogue synth modules, though!

12:00 those r prob just synths. Does Wright do these sounds?

Please check out “Sorrow” and “Comfortably Numb” from the 1994 Pulse album.

I think this 1971 release also demonstrated great mood and musical architecture. Thank you for sharing your interesting thoughts - liked.

Pink Floyd is not afraid to take their time. And I don't think there's a wasted second in this song.

Echoes was a result of Roger Waters getting hugely influenced by a south Asian poet from Pakistan by the name of Iqbal. Poetry of Iqbal inspired the space exploration of musicality like Echoes, Set the Control to the heart of the Sun, Astronimo Domine, Inter stellar overdrive and the return of the son of nothing.

one of the main aspects in floydmusic is to listen to the lyrics. watch the same song "live at pompeii 1972" 🙂

L'effetto finale si chiama "scala Shepard"?

If you haven't already, you should check out Alan Parsons Project, he was an audio engineer for Pink Floyd and he and his band did some phenomenal stuff. If you want psychedelic Floyd, then listen to Ummagumma. David Gilmour described their music as "a journey"... that sometimes lifts you up and carries you along and others that you have to lean into, that pushes you up. Pink Floyd was one of those bands that insisted that what you got from the studio could be done live during a concert, so they didn't do much in "mixing/studio magic".

As for the meaning of the lyrics.... My take is that it's about the human species coming out of the primordial water... If you read evolution theory supposedly we started as fish who began to climb out of the water and then started to walk etc, etc.. that's the start lyrics and then the rest is about us now and how we should talk more... a perennial theme really. Simplistic yes, but my take.. as for the music, listen to it as if it's referencing water... so many water based ideas I feel... Sorry this is my third comment but I felt your detailed analysis deserved them... even if they are waffle... At least it's my waffle. Keep on Rocking.

Finally more pink floyd fuck yes 🤘🏻

Good Job on the lyric breakdown. It's also about evolution and the sun. Everythings done under the sun.

ping sound is keys. apparently Richard Wright did it once, they tried to do it again but couldn't so they used the initial ping they "accidentally" found

The Greatest band ever...

...The scary Scream/Laugh sound effect also reappears 8 Years later on "The Wall" album in the song "Is There Anybody Out There?"...

The chirp is a Steinway hooked up to a Leslie rotating speaker

They eerie atmospheric section in the middle was used many times for spook houses back when I was a kid. I know my local AOR station used it to advertise Halloween themed stuff. Pink Floyd is probably the most experimental of all the British prog rock bands.

The thing about music is what the story means to you.

Re the start..... with no apparent set timing to the “echoes” It fits perfectly to the video of Live at Pompeii. The video intro gives it meaning and purpose.

I'd say that they had supreme confidence in their Fans acceptance....they knew we'd soak it up like sponges! We're not your average listener 😵‍💫

Did PF actually parse this piece down in the same way this guy is doing as a fan listener ?

Great Reaction and Analysis 💯 I❤ Pink Floyd sooooo much!

I would guess that the chirp is very high Rhoads/electric piano running through a delay that has a very quick decay. Ot maybe they even opened it up and muted the note. But sounds to my ear like an e. piano.

Wrt the odd note that you couldn't place how it was made, look for a video titled _"David Gilmour and Rick Wright - Talking about Echoes piano intro"_.

About the chirping sound, you’re right, it is a guitar: “The middle section of the song features Waters using a slide and a Binson Echorec. Gilmour plays a high-pitched screeching noise, which was created by plugging a wah-wah pedal in back to front. Drummer Nick Mason later clarified it was an accident, and their experience with working with Ron Geesin had taught them to embrace experiments and try anything if it would work on a song” -wikipedia

Beautiful song

Highly recommend checking out Atom Heart Mother, the title track from their 1969 album. It’s a 24 minute instrumental with a live orchestra incorporated heavily. Definitely some very psychedelic Pink Floyd

🎼Masterpiece🎼

Check out the live version from Pompeii. Very interesting and intense!

This album came out less than a year after _Songs of the Humpback Whale_ became the first nature recording to go gold. I believe it was almost certainly an influence on this.

...The initial "bing" sound is David hitting the high strings with the edge of the pick, which has always, I thought, sounded like a Submarine Sonar ping. This was an eon before Eddie Van Halen did weird things like that for a purcushion effect. Also the Run is Noteworthy because Roger Waters claims that Andrew Lloyd Weber ripped Him off with "Phantom of the Opera", even calling His Work "Awful Stuff" in the lyrics of His Solo song "It's a Miracle" on the album "Amused to Death"... -In typical Roger Water's style, He fantasizes that an "....Earthquake hits the Theater...but the Operetta lingers.......the Piano Lid comes down...and Breaks His Fucking Fingers... It's A Miracle!" :D

This song is etched in my memory. Best song.

Do you know how they got a lot of their sounds . They would record different sounds and notes made from all kinds of materials and instrument . Then feed em into a key board moon synthesiser . They were the first band to use one in their music .