Meddle...one of my favorite albums...but...

nosaj · Post by **nosaj** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 9:23 pm

Concept album no...although the subject of alienation is starting to perculate here a bit - except for seamus (maybe the old hound is mouning in a bluesy way about alienation...you gotta be crazy

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Holden Caufield · Post by **Holden Caufield** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 9:24 pm

In their music is a lot of songs which are very similar to The Beatles compositions, for example ,, The gold it's in the...'' from OBC.

Fox-Mike · Post by **Fox-Mike** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 3:34 am

Hah, Games for May, if only that concert was recorded, really interesting song titles.

I never heard of that being a concept album, but it does make sense.

David Smith · Post by **David Smith** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 5:33 pm

Sorry to change topic but what were The Man and The Journey about?

Alternative 4 · Post by **Alternative 4** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 8:20 pm

Wasnt it the day in the life of a man? Possibly a man called pink, it went through daybreak work, somethin else, nightmare and then the journey.

David Smith · Post by **David Smith** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 9:21 am

And are they on roio's around 1969 or something?

Sounds interesting

NiceJangly · Post by **NiceJangly** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 1:28 pm

It was Roger Waters' concept of arranging their concerts to represent the story of a day in the life of an average man, suggesting the cyclical routine of doing the same thing every day. It was split into 2 suites - 'The Man' and 'The Journey'.

The Man

1) Daybreak (Grantchester Meadows)
2) Work (Biding My Time)
3) Afternoon (No music - band were served tea on stage!)
4) Doing It (Drum solo representative of sex)
5) Sleep (Instrumental)
6) Nightmare (Cymbaline)
7) Daybreak (Reprise)

The Journey

1) The Beginning (Green Is The Colour)
2) Beset By Creatures Of The Deep (Careful With That Axe, Eugene)
3) The Narrow Way
4) The Pink Jungle (Pow R Toc H)
5) The Labyrinths Of Auximenes (Instrumental)
6) Behold The Temple Of Light (Instrumental)
7) The End Of The Beginning (Celestial Voices)

Some of these are very early versions of the songs in brackets and it's quite interesting to see how they evolved over the next few years.

ganaffe · Post by **ganaffe** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 2:42 pm

David Smith wrote:Sorry to change topic but what were The Man and The Journey about?

Superficially the concept of the first part (The Man) is about 24hrs in the life of a man and the second part (The Journey) is about a journey he makes.

On second thought I've always thought of it as a piece about the cycle of life and reincarnation. The fact that both parts basically consist of 7 tracks, both of them somehow beginning and ending with the same theme, points to this theme of a cycle. The difference between the two cycles is, I think, about a basic choice you have in living your life.

The first option (The Man) is the one of an easy, superficial, unrewarding life. You'll be born (Daybreak), do your job (Work), relax (Afternoon), procreate (Doing It) and in the end you go to sleep/die (Sleep). Such a life leads to nothing but the feeling you haven't really accomplished anything (Nightmare) and in the end you'll find yourselve being reborn with the task of doing it all over again (Daybreak, reprise). This is a never ending cycle, in which every daybreak is just another one without a real sense of development, unless you make the choice to view life as something that is not so much about yourself (The Man), your job, your own pleasure and your procreation, but more as something which should be viewed as a "Journey" in search of truth or meaning...

Which brings us to the second part... The Journey. The man, reborn once again, decides life should be more rewarding and takes it as a journey. This decision turns, what was supposed to be just another Daybreak, into The Beginning of a more rewarding life. This life will not be as easy as his previous life. He has to fight against evil, possible the evil in himself (Beset By Creatures Of The Deep), he has to find his own way instead of living a life which is decided upon by others (The Narrow Way), he has to resit temptations of the "flesh" (The Pink Jungle) and confusions of his "mind" (The Labyrinths Of Auximenes).
But in the end this is a rewarding life. His life doesn't end in the same "nightmare" as the first one, but he reaches some sort of "enlightnment" (Behold The Temple Of Light). When he's reborn again it's not just another Daybreak, it's not a reprise of The Beginning, but it's not the end either. It's The End Of The Beginning. His own decision to lead an uncertain, harsh life, and him trying to accomplish something more valuable than just money and offspring, results in the closing of a phase and he will be reborn as a more 'valuable' person.

It's just one of the possible views on the piece, I guess, but it always made sense to me in this way.

Fox-Mike · Post by **Fox-Mike** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 8:20 pm

1) Daybreak (Grantchester Meadows)
2) Work (Biding My Time)
3) Afternoon (No music - band were served tea on stage!)
4) Doing It (Drum solo representative of sex)
5) Sleep (Instrumental)
6) Nightmare (Cymbaline)
7) Daybreak (Reprise)

Some of that is wrong. Work is random pounding and such, afternoon is biding my time, and tea time is the point at which tea was servered on stage.

ganaffe · Post by **ganaffe** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 8:27 pm

Fox-Mike wrote:Work is random pounding and such

yep, something like The Grand Viziers Garden Party

Fox-Mike · Post by **Fox-Mike** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 8:45 pm

Nah, not as such. Doin' It is grand vizier's, work is just a random piece of music without any sutdio works to back it up.

That's an interesting look on it, ganaffe, - I thought the journey was a man's journey from childhood to adulthood. This is most clearly represented by The Narrow Way, but also has to deal with his fears while growing up, holding him back from his true potential, limiting his horizons etc.

RogerWatersGirl · Post by **RogerWatersGirl** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 3:13 pm

I think its only THE SONG that is a concept song...Roger says that they rest of the album, except for Echoes, were just songs, and that Echoes was the beginging of writing about empathy...

David Smith · Post by **David Smith** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 5:10 pm

I now need a copy of The Man or The Journey, i know how to get them and stuff but was it 69 they were toured?

Fox-Mike · Post by **Fox-Mike** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 5:42 pm

I suggest geting the 1969-08-17 Harvested Version of it if you could find it, considering it has the whole concert in the best sound quality.

The only other times the Man and the Journey were played together -

1969-04-14 (first time)
1969-06-22
1969-06-26

The journey was played 1969-08-08

The man was played (although it didn't include cymbaline or the reprisal of daybreak) 1970-01-23 (the last performance of biding my time, unless you count that 1970-11-21 blues jam as biding my time).

David Smith · Post by **David Smith** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 7:52 pm

Thanks, i'll look it out somewhere