Part 9 in our series covering the music history of Pink Floyd, like parts 3 and 7, has not been aired live on our “How Music Changed” series on WHPC, as it has already been aired for our “Alternative Top 40” series. Rather than be redundant, we are placing that show here as an entry to this series, exclusive to the website.

Subsequently overlooked by history as a mere ‘trial run’ for “Dark Side of the Moon,” ‘Meddle’ deserved better. If looked at in terms of the band’s chronology, this album was like a coming out party. After the sad departure of Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd dabbled heavily in arcane psychedelia, which did little to hide the fact that nobody in the band was prepared to take Barrett’s place as a songwriter of vision.

Song titles like “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict” or “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” are promising until you dedicate a portion of your life listening to this nonsense. Despite having really cool covers, Pink Floyd’s post-Barrett albums meandered tediously, until “Meddle.”

Suddenly the songs had a semblance of structure and most shockingly, melody. For that reason, it’s interesting to note that virtually the entire album was constructed as a group effort, and much of it due to spontaneous scheming.

The album opens with “One of These Days,” a spacious, bass-driven instrumental (save for the once uttered title) that proves that these guys had learned quite a bit about the potential use of recording studios. It fades into “A Pillow of Winds,” a love song (!) that would not have sounded out of place on a Nick Drake album. “Fearless” is particularly notable – and particularly “Floyd-ian” – in its use of a large soccer crowd singing and chanting in unison over an atmospheric guitar riff that climbs with a casual strength similar to that suggested by the song lyrics. “San Tropez” and “Seamus” are slight in comparison, but nonetheless entertaining. 

By virtue of its length (23:31), “Echoes” is both the album’s centerpiece and its closing statement. The song is built around a ‘ping’ sound that resembles a submarine sonar unit, with a middle section that could be considered to represent “Several Species of Aquatic Beings Gathered Together and Grooving in an Ocean”. Due partially to its length, “Echoes” suggests a feeling of timeless infinity that might set in while on an extended underwater voyage, or perhaps some other type of ‘trip’.

By going deep, Pink Floyd moved a segment of rock and roll’s audience to the final frontier, and psychedelic music now had its own subgenre, known as ‘space rock’.