A Pillow Of Winds Sounds Like...Brain Damage

[RogerWatersGirl]

I have no idea wether this has been talked about...but, I came to the conclusion that the guitar on Pillow of Winds is the same as Brain Damage...And, Pilliow came about before Brain Damage...I wonder if that's where they got the guitar for Brain Damage...
Anyway, I 've noticed a lot of Dark Side like stuff in albums like OBscured By Clouds and early ones like that...its really rather interesting...

[Pugs on the Wing]

This might sound really stupid because I'm not a musician and don't know how to express myself about it technically. Please forgive.

I know what you mean about the way the the notes sound, more in terms of the "beat" of tne guitar notes...how long or short they are, and the direction they move on the scale? POW sounds more like it's in a minor key, but BD sounds more major key. Am I wrong about this? I prefer minor keys usually, but in this case I prefer BD. It sounds more inviting, whereas the guitar in POW is almost disonnant. I still love it though!

[Useful Idiot]

I had never noticed that before. Coolness...

[mosespa]

This might sound really stupid because I'm not a musician and don't know how to express myself about it technically. Please forgive.

I know what you mean about the way the the notes sound, more in terms of the "beat" of tne guitar notes...how long or short they are, and the direction they move on the scale? POW sounds more like it's in a minor key, but BD sounds more major key. Am I wrong about this? I prefer minor keys usually, but in this case I prefer BD. It sounds more inviting, whereas the guitar in POW is almost disonnant. I still love it though!

You are correct. The chords in POW (mind you, it's been a long time, so I'm not going to get very specific) are made up of more-or-less minor chords that are playing along with a sustained A root note...this technique is called a "pedal tone," and another example of it is the guitar bit at the end of ITAOT...The lowest note is an A during the entire run. The pedal tone technique adds a certain "tension" to a piece because one naturally expects the root note to ascend or descend along with the rest of the chords, but it doesn't.

Brain Damage, on the other hand IS in a major key (D major, in fact) and while it includes what is known as "minor seventh" chords, the minor seventh still doesn't sound quite as melancholy as a "natural minor" chord...in fact, to me, it lends more of a pensive air to a piece...an air of aniticipation. The term "minor seventh" is also a bit of a misnomer as, if my knowledge is correct, the "minor seventh" and the just plain old "seventh" are the same thing. The only reason for calling it a "minor seventh" is to differentiate it from a "major seventh" which is a half step higher.

I could be mistaken on that, although I don't think I am.

Now...as for the similarities between the two...I have a couple of notions.

Number one is the fact that in both instances, the guitar parts are playing what are called "arpeggiated" chords. What this means is that instead of just strumming the chords, they are being played one note at a time.

Another (albeit far fetched) possibility is this...Gilmour has on occasion referred to the guitar sound in Brain Damage as the "Dear Prudence" guitar sound because the guitar effect in the Beatles song is basically the same effect used on the guitars in Brain Damage. Using two tape machines and playing one slightly behind the other creates what Gilmour calls the "wobbly" effect. Apparently he had yet to discover the term "Flanger." However, to me, A Pillow Of Winds sounds more like Dear Prudence that Brain Damage does...so it's a bit of a Six Degrees Of Pink Floyd theory...but, hey, it COULD happen.

[SaintCrest]

plus there was suppose to be alot of stuff from dark side that was originally planned to be on meddle...

[Spinoza]

I have a ROIO here called "More Relics" and there is a different version of "The Narrow way" on it. The opening guitarrif is the same as "Brain Damage"

I have split the file so that the intro is large enough to be send as an attachment, so if anybody is interested...

[x-rays]

You know that Floyd's music for Zabriskie Point didn't really satisfy Antonioni who engages numerous other bands afterwards (such as the Kaleidoscope, Garcia & The Grateful Deads) therefore there are a lot of PF's tapes that were not used in the film. Although, the band didn't waste his work since a song called "Riot Scene" (I don't know if this figures in a RoIO, do you ?) as sounds effects in "Us and Them".
Can a specialist give his point of view?
(I must admit that I've neve listened to "Riot Scene")

[mosespa]

"The Violence Sequence" (as it was called) IS "Us And Them"...there's very little difference. In it's original form, it's a bit shorter, since there are no vocals...the verse sections are about half as long as on DSOTM.

As best as I've been able to figure, there was nothing from DSOTM that was originally meant for Meddle.

Roger DID write Brain Damage around this time...but he knew that it was going to be part of something else and didn't want it used.

It has been suggested that "Breathe" is more or less a rewrite of "Breathe In The Air" from The Body soundtrack...but I've heard The Body soundtrack and the only similarity is that first line.

I think that pretty much takes care of any pre-existing material.

As for why Antonioni didn't use their music, the Schaffner book states that Antonioni would come in and hear a piece and say "It's too sad," or "It's too strong," and they would fix whatever was wrong. Then he would come back and still wouldn't like it.

The guys didn't really care...they still got paid.

And in the end, they got some really useful material out of it.