Pink Floyd - Obscured By Clouds

[Annoying Twit]

Again, I don't think film soundtracks should be counted as concept albums. If someone creates a concept for a film, then hires someone else to create incidental music (or source music, in the case of More) to include in the film, that's very different from a songwriter or a group of musicians coming up with an original concept and creating a standalone album based on that. Of course, The Who (and later, Roger) flipped the script by creating a concept album, and then making a film version of it.

Just to make my opinion clear: I don't think soundtracks are concept albums. However, they do share some properties with concept albums. Basically not being a collection of random songs but having something that ties them all together. I was wondering if this had any effect on Roger and perhaps was one step down the road towards concept albums (which once he started, he never stopped).

Clearly concept albums were a known thing since before PF did soundtracks. But, I wondered if there was some influence there.

[space triangle]

When you watch at the La vallée film one can easily notice that there is quite a fine connection between songs that follow a central plot of the film.

[Annoying Twit]

When you watch at the La vallée film one can easily notice that there is quite a fine connection between songs that follow a central plot of the film.

Yes, but there is a connecting concept. That the music would be what the people in the film would have been listening to. I'm not saying that makes it a concept album, it's a soundtrack. But, I wonder if that had any influence on Roger going in the concept album direction.

[ZiggyZipgun]

That the music would be what the people in the film would have been listening to.

I've never watched either, but I'm pretty sure that was the case with More, but not La Vallee, correct?

I think their somewhat jazz-influenced, freeform improvisations made them an obvious choice for soundtracks, but Rick Wright was definitely pushing them to make "serious music" - Ummagumma was his idea, and he was very into avant garde composers at the time. Even when they visited the BBC Radio Workshop with Syd in 1967 and saw the VCS3 for the first time, they mentioned Jani Christou's Praxis, which Rick apparently saw live in Athens in '66.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbJU_D3Qroo

Roger's soundtrack for The Body might have been the first time it occurred to him to specifically write a concept album, lyrically, but I think Rick was already there musically by the time he recorded "Sysyphus" in early '69.

[space triangle]

I remember an interview with Roger in which he said that the album Tommy(1969) by the Who had a great influence on him. Watching that interview, it was almost as that single album by the Who sparked his interest for a concept albums.

[ZiggyZipgun]

I remember an interview with Roger in which he said that the album Tommy(1969) by the Who had a great influence on him. Watching that interview, it was almost as that single album by the Who sparked his interest in a concept albums.

Interesting to note that Tommy was released a month after The Man and The Journey tour began, while they were still working on Ummagumma, and unlike Dark Side, none of it was performed live beforehand. And sure, they made "concept albums" before The Wall, but none of them had a narrative. Dark Side and WYWH could be considered somewhat linear in a very loose sense, but it's unclear if they were ever intended to be. Roger gave up on the linear, progressive narrative after KAOS, unless you want to count Ca Ira; I know I don't.

I personally think Tommy is mostly terrible.
Quadrophenia is much more consistent, though that plot isn't particularly interesting either. The Lifehouse project is fascinating to read about, but christ - Pete really thought the band was going to um, vaporize on stage, and had a nervous breakdown when he couldn't get anyone to understand that. The songs that came out of that are brilliant, and the demos prove that he really did write everything himself, playing everything except the bass, and letting Roger Daltry and Keith Moon just learn the songs and re-record them. Contrast that with the Roger Waters home studio - which Nick and Rick laughingly said had high-quality equipment, but his demos still sounded terrible somehow - and most of his songs were far from complete when he presented them to the band.

[Annoying Twit]

Interesting posts both. Though, it risks going off-topic for this thread.

This article: https://www.guitarworld.com/features/in ... -interview discussing The Wall points out the obvious parallels between the plots of Tommy and The Wall. It also mentions that Roger was influenced by John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band album, in terms of grieving in music for a lost parent.

[DarkSideFreak]

Interesting to note that Tommy was released a month after The Man and The Journey tour began, while they were still working on Ummagumma, and unlike Dark Side, none of it was performed live beforehand.

Not really sure I get that. The Narrow Way (pt. 3 on Ummagumma) was clearly part of the Journey narrative, and so is Behold the Temple of Light, which is shortly quoted before on Ummagumma. Grantchester Meadows on the other hand feels like it's a bit shoehorned into the Journey.

[ZiggyZipgun]

Not really sure I get that.

I was responding to someone's comment that Tommy was more or less responsible for Roger's obsession with concept albums, but they were already working in that realm before it came out.

[DarkSideFreak]

@ZiggyZipgun

Gotcha. It's also often mentioned that Tommy wasn't the first rock concept album, S.F. Sorrow by The Pretty Things was an earlier one.

As we know this album was about a woman who along with a group of people travel into the remote interior of New Guineau in search of a valley that is marked on the map simply as "Obscured By Clouds". From the opening song 'Obscured by Clouds' fram to the last song 'Aabsolutely Curtains' the music and songs (thematically) accompanies a group of people in their search of that lost valley. Does this make OBC first PF's concept album?

I don't think the band thought that much about the meaning of the songs, at least when the lyrics are concerned. I haven't watched La Valée, but it's nowhere near as conceptual, lyrically speaking, as More is - there almost all of the lyrics really align with the plot.

However, there are musical ties such as the first two tracks being basically a one-two punch and "Mudmen" reprising the melody of "Burning Bridges".

In a way, if you combine the approach of OBC (short pieces with some connecting elements) and the AHM/Echoes approach (one long piece), you end up with DSOTM - a full album of shorter tracks that form a complete piece.

[FreeFour]

Nice cover of Fearless by Fish/Marillion

https://youtu.be/oWDmn0wcO6w

[Kerry King]

Nice cover of Fearless by Fish/Marillion

https://youtu.be/oWDmn0wcO6w

I believe you're looking for the Meddle thread.

[FreeFour]

Nice cover of Fearless by Fish/Marillion

https://youtu.be/oWDmn0wcO6w

I believe you're looking for the Meddle thread.

lol drops head in shame

[K2+]

It's always been one of my favorites, ever since I was kid. I would have given it 4.5, but went with 4 instead of 5 because I don't care for Free Four, and the chanting at the end of Absolutely Curtains is too long. Stay is my favorite Rick vocal performance, and Childhood's End would easily make my top 10 PF tracks. The title track, Burning Bridges, and especially Mudmen, are all great IMO.
While not one of the best album covers in the band's discography, it did always make me wonder, so it gets credit for that.

[battra]

Another one I picked up on Japanese vinyl.

I really enjoyed it and More much..uh..more on these pressings.