The Pink Floyd Top 50 Countdown (#15-11) & This Week's Statistics

Hello, my friends, old and new! As I have already mentioned last week, since we're getting near the end, I have decided to present a few key songs from the solo careers of the Pink Floyd members. Today, it's Roger Waters' turn.

After his acrimonious departure from Pink Floyd, Roger Waters released a very good album in 1984, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. From this album, this is the title track (otherwise known as 5:01 am or part 10):

... He followed it up with Radio K.A.O.S. (1987). From this album, here's The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid):

His next solo album was released in 1992 and was called Amused To Death. A song that stands out is Perfect Sense:

Did you know that Waters collaborated with the great Ennio Morricone for the soundtrack of The Legend Of 1900 (1998)? The result of that collaboration was the song Lost Boys Calling:

Each Small Candle was released on his album In the Flesh – Live in 2000. Most of the lyrics were inspired by a news story from the Kosovo war of a Serbian soldier who saw a wounded Albanian woman, left his ranks and helped her:

Now, let's return to our Pink Floyd countdown. At #15 we find Dogs, the 17-minute epic centerpiece of Animals (1977), one of the more unforgiving songs in Floyd's oeuvre (and the only Animals track to feature Gilmour on a lead vocal), complete with Call of the Wild-meets-Wolf of Wall Street survival-of-the-fittest lyrics, extended sections of guitar-lead harmonizing, heart-racing acoustics, several tempo changes, and yes, no shortage of barking sounds from the title characters. Sounds exhausting, but it surprisingly isn't, as the song's discrete sections all stand out as individually arresting, and hand off to the next at seemingly just the right moment, with enough memorable lyrical checkpoints from Waters and Gilmour to mark time and maintain interest throughout.

The 17-minute journey of Dogs is the first warhorse conceptual piece of Animals, outlining Waters' definition of one section of the human race. According to Waters, the dogs are the cutthroat people who have to screw over anyone and everyone to survive and achieve what they want, the implication being that it's because of the aforementioned upper-crust "pigs" that they have to work so hard and reduce themselves to savages to get by. Later in the album, Waters seems to identify himself and his own group as part of the "dog" category, as alluded to in a lyric from the Animals closer Pigs on the Wing (Part 2): "So I don’t feel alone on the way to the stone / Now that I've found somewhere safe to bury my bone / And any fool knows a dog needs a home." Musically, David Gilmour's twin-guitar harmonies dominate the proceedings, providing a soaring, anthemic progression before the eerie synth-driven passage seeps in.

The song has one of Gilmour's best guitar-solos and its closing echoes the poem "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg, with the almost rhetorical repetition of "who." Both Gilmour and Waters share the vocals, with the former singing the first ¾ of the song and the latter finishing. Animals also signals when the Floyd became less about the music and more about the lyrics. This is a live version by Roger Waters in Portland, Oregon, 2000:

At #14 is a song from Wish You Were Here (1975). Have a Cigar has the distinction of being the only Pink Floyd song whose lead vocal is sung by someone who isn't a member (save Clare Torry's performance on The Great Gig in the Sky, though her vocal part functions as more of an instrument). The story goes that Roger Waters intended to sing it, but his voice was suffering from severe strain during the sessions, so they got English folk singer Roy Harper to fill in. Harper's performance dovetails beautifully with the slick, funky track that concerns the dangers of giving up creative and artistic integrity when faced with monumental success - Waters’s direct response to the watershed sales of The Dark Side of the Moon. Topped with a searing guitar solo by David Gilmour, Have a Cigar is one of Pink Floyd's most hard-driving rock tunes and emphasizes the band's sense of swagger and groove.

Roy Harper, an excellent musician, unfortunately, little-known to most, also has the distinction of being mentioned in the title of a Led Zeppelin song (Hats Off To Roy Harper). From his long and interesting solo career, When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease is my favorite song of his:

Have A Cigar is the definitive mid-tempo Floyd lurch, a sleazy quasi-funk that sets the perfect stage for the surfeit of empty promises and self-skewering ignorance ("Oh and by the way - which one's Pink?") offered by the song's music-exec narrator, portrayed with delectable vulgarity by guest singer Roy Harper. And no matter how many times you've heard it, nothing ever really prepares you for that shocking whoosh near the song's end that sonically transports the band - in the middle of one of Gilmour's all-time closing shreds - into a tinny FM radio, leaving them seemingly trapped inside the dial, as they no doubt felt they were by that point in the mid-'70s.

I love how the amiable funk laid down by the band is overwhelmed by the (impressive) electronic washes of sound in the intro, just as our lonely artiste is swamped by the industry. "Oh, by the way / Which one's Pink?" is, in Floyd legend, an actual line an industry weasel had asked the band. The soundscape here in its own way is as brutal as that of Welcome to the Machine. And it's funny all the way through. Gilmour's fantastic and the chorus is epic, and the outro to Wish You Were Here is one of the most touching pieces of studio manipulation of the era. This is an alternate version, with vocals by Waters and Gilmour:

Bob Harris, DJ and presenter, said: "I was there back at Middle Earth and UFO in 1967 – and I've been a friend and observer ever since then. Have A Cigar is certainly the one song that jumps out. Partly it's the presence of Roy Harper on lead vocals – one of the great mavericks of British music. His voice gives Floyd a real edge. The grinding, syncopated opening guitar riff establishes a really funky groove, and the lyrics are cynical but very funny. Even though they had moved away from making singles, Have A Cigar proved that they could still write strong pop songs less than five minutes long. There's no long solos or anything that detracts from the strength of the melody and the chord changes. A superb piece of music." This is a cover version by the Foo Fighters:

At #13 are two songs, Brain Damage and Eclipse, which serve as the outro to Dark Side Of The Moon (1973). It seems pointless to divide up the two closing tracks of TDSOTM. Even leaving aside the plainly spectacular Money, look at how Waters' game has improved from start to finish on Dark Side; he's got solo credit on both tracks, and both, particularly in their undeniable melodies, are high points in '70s art rock/progressive rock/space rock or whatever you want to call it. Unfolding with a guitar phrase adapted from The Beatles' Dear Prudence, Waters' careful enunciation paradoxically gives Brain Damage some of its delicacy and otherworldliness, and yet it's plain enough to fit in with the everyman cast of the rest of the album.

Besides fitting in with the vicissitudes-of-modern-life theme Waters had going, the track is another homage to Barrett. The lines "If the band you're in starts playing different tunes / I'll see you on the dark side of the moon" have a particular punch. Barrett's there too in the laughs (a reference to his first solo album) that mark the track and hark back to Speak to Me. And with an organ fanfare, another of Wright's best moments, we get to the end. Waters' Dark Side finale is almost un-unpackable; its finishing rave-up brought the album around into itself and left its buying public reasonably sated. The song continues the album's sense of dualities - personal choice, the effects on the world of the choices we do make, and a cautious optimism, nicely punctured by the quiet words as the thing ends. ("There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark.") Impressive that, 45 years on, the album's foundation and themes have only strengthened, and deepened.

These twin tracks provide the thesis statement and climax, respectively, of Pink Floyd's most famous album. Even after he expanded on themes of mental illness on Wish You Were here and parts of The Wall, Waters was never more concise about the issue than on Brain Damage. Meanwhile, the bombastic drums, dominant synths, and powerful background vocals on Eclipse showcase Floyd at an apex of their grandiosity - and yet the song’s lyrics and simple melody sound almost like a lullaby. The combination paints a masterful watercolor of the blend of chaos and comfort that constitutes both the life cycle and the cycle of Dark Side of the Moon.

Is there any album closer more climactic and emotional than the sequence of Brain Damage and Eclipse, I wonder? Bringing together all of the universal themes and questions raised during the course of The Dark Side of the Moon, the two-part piece details the ultimate danger of what can happen to the human mind when faced with all the fears and problems inherent in modern life. Not always known for being the most compassionate, Roger Waters offers a glimpse of that side here, with the central line "I'll see you on the dark side of the moon" directly relating to and empathizing with Syd Barrett's mental instability and insanity, a theme that foreshadows the subsequent tribute to Barrett, Wish You Were Here. Eclipse goes on to sum up all of the things and choices that define a person's life, building to a stunning climax.

This is what the Pulp's Jarvis Cocker had to say about it:

"I first heard Dark Side… when we used to have a babysitter come around. She used to play it and it absolutely terrified me: all those lyrics in Brain Damage, like 'The lunatic is on the grass' and 'Got to keep the loonies on the path.' When I heard that coming up through the floorboards it scared me to death. The weird thing about the record was that, until I bought it, I'd never heard the whole album. What had happened was that she'd bought it and someone had sat on the lid of her parents' radiogram while it was in there and it had snapped off the outer edge of the record. So she couldn’t play the first tracks on either side. It wasn’t until I bought it that I heard stuff like Speak To Me and Breathe."

This version is live at Earl's Court, London, 1994:

At #12 is Mother from The Wall (1979), one of the least appropriate songs to sneak its way onto Mother's Day playlists every year. "A boy's best friend is his mother." Remember who said that? Two hints: He loves wigs and showers. Still lost? Ah, forget it. With Mother, Waters paints an overprotective maternal figure who's become paranoid and delusional from the loss of her husband in the war. In a sense, she's less Norma Bates and more Margaret White, similarly possessive though without all the religious mumbo jumbo that turned her daughter, Carrie, into such a psycho hose beast. Yet, unlike those pop culture mothers that have since given child-rearing a bad name, she cares for her son, a little too much, and as Waters suggests, she's built a wall around him, one that she feels will protect him from any evils. The problem, as the song chews on, is that she's also restricted him from living a life and has stunted his growth. By pairing the haunting repetition with such chummy chord progressions, Waters eerily captures the conundrum at hand: It's a creepy situation that comes from love.

Another crucial ingredient to The Wall’s concept and a key component of the wall Pink builds around himself, Mother is a sparse, understated acoustic song that solemnly recounts the negative consequences of an overbearing mother and the sheltered upbringing that results. Waters, whose mother raised him singlehandedly, seems to blame her in part for his problems, which has led to some criticism, but there is a kernel of undeniable truth in the song. He acknowledges on the album that the mother figure of The Wall "loves her baby" and has the best intentions, but the bottom line is that such an overprotective attitude inevitably instills fear of the outside world into the impressionable mind of a child. Since the crux of The Wall’s message is that fear builds walls, it makes for a bittersweet narrative with no easy resolution, echoed in the song's final lament, "Mother, did it [the wall] need to be so high?" The film version is quite different, featuring an entirely orchestral, dramatic arrangement of the song. This is it:

The song is notable for its varied use of time signatures, such as 5/8 and 9/8. Nick Mason found these time-signature changes difficult to learn, and, with the band recording on a very tight schedule, Jeff Porcaro from Toto was brought in. The end result, this story of the complicated love between mother and son resonated with many and is one of the most popular songs on The Wall. This version is live at Earls Court, London, 1980:

Finally for today, at #11, is the band's very first single, Arnold Layne (1967). This is one of a handful of quintessential Syd Barrett songs, evidence of Barrett’s pop brilliance. The single managed to make the UK top 20, if only just. However, despite reaching #20 in the UK singles chart, the song's unusual transvestism theme attracted the ire of pirate radio station Radio London, which deemed the song was too far removed from "normal" society for its listeners, before eventually banning it from radio airplay altogether.

 The song's title character is a transvestite whose strange hobby is stealing women's clothes and undergarments from washing lines. According to Roger Waters, Arnold Layne was actually based on a real person: "Both my mother and Syd's mother had students as lodgers because there was a girls' college up the road so there were constantly great lines of bras and knickers on our washing lines and 'Arnold' or whoever he was, had bits off our washing lines." The lyrics go:

"Arnold Layne had a strange hobby
Collecting clothes
Moonshine washing line
They suit him fine
On the wall hung a tall mirror
Distorted view, see through baby blue
Oh, Arnold Layne
It's not the same, takes two to know
Two to know, two to know
Why can't you see?
Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne

Now he's caught - a nasty sort of person
They gave him time
Doors bang - chain gang - he hates it
Oh, Arnold Layne
It's not the same, takes two to know
Two to know, two to know
Why can't you see?
Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne
Don't do it again"

Let's hear from Joe Boyd, co-UFO Club founder and producer of Arnold Layne: "In the studio, Syd was a quiet leader. Roger was more vocal, but everyone deferred to Syd's opinion. He sat at the back and kept quiet most of the time, but everyone listened when he spoke. The sessions were easy and fun: record one night, mix the next. I don't recall any conflict. Roger had an ego, Syd did, too, but was more diffident and oblique. The early Floyd songs are pretty European and blue-note free. David Bowie has been quoted as saying that Syd taught him how to sing like an ordinary Englishman – no blues, no mockney accent. I think their un-Americanness is the key to Floyd's strength over the years."

This is a live version with David Gilmour, Richard Wright, and the majestic David Bowie on lead vocals:

Now, let's continue with last week's statistics; I must say, I was impressed by the love you showed to Zelim Bakaev and his tragic story. In just over two days it's already the #1 story of the week and among the month's top 10. Since it's a story close to my heart, I'm grateful to you for embracing it with such fervor.

As far as countries are concerned, there were changes; France is not ruling the roost anymore, in fact, its overall percentage was hurt the most. Italy experienced a very minor overall decrease, while the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates kept their percentage steady. The United States and Greece had strong comebacks, while Spain, Canada, Australia, Cyprus, and this week's top 10 newcomers, Sweden, also had an increased number of visits.

Here are this week's Top 10 countries.

1. the United States

2. Greece

3. the United Kingdom

4. France

5. Spain

6. Canada

7. Australia

8. Cyprus

9. Sweden

10. Germany

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Albania, Argentina, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Czechia, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, French Polynesia, FYR Of Macedonia, Gambia, Ghana, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Mozambique, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, South Sudan, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, US Virgin Islands, Vietnam, and Zambia. Happy to have you all!

And here's the all-time Top 10:

1. the United States = 31.1%

2. France = 22.7%

3. the United Kingdom = 8.6%

4. Greece = 7.9%

5. Russia = 3.4%

6. Germany = 2.4%

7. Cyprus = 1.26%

8. Italy = 1.18%

9. Canada = 1.03%

10. the United Arab Emirates = 0.43%

That's all for today, folks. Till the next one!