I think I have all of Echoes figured out.

[Stiggs]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Echoes is in my opinion Pink Floyd's best song. I did a previous post about whether or not Meddle is a concept album. While I was thinking about figuring out the album I was listening to Echoes, and then it occured to me what the squeaky sounds were. But I'm going to explain the whole song here.
If you've read the Bible, there was nnothing, then there was the word of God. That's what the single repeating distorted note is at the beginning of the song.
The word of God is heard, and then more music slowly and quietly starts to come in, more keynotes are played. That means that earth's surface is starting to form. The continents are moving, and life is beginning to form in the sea.
An albatross by definition is a bird that lives around the southern hemisphere. But an albatross can also mean an obstacle of success. Life remains under the sea "In labrynths and coral caves." But something stirs and tries to climb towards the light, meaning that life starts to move out of the sea and towards the air and earth.
"The echo of a distant tide comes willowing across the sand/"and everything is green and submarine" The meaning here is that the tide has been present through out man's evolutionary steps from the primordial ocean which reiterates the setting; it has always been "green and submarine (appearance).
"And no one called us to the land/and no one knows the where's or why's/"something stirs and something tries/starts to climb towards the light" Our evolutionary ancestors - whatever crawled from the sea - left the sea - not because there was someone to provoke them to do so. No one can tell you where it first happend (the first venture onto land) or why the left the the sea for the land.
The guitar solo of Dave's (so simple yet so awesome) I feel represents that something significant happens. Life has now appeared on land.
"Strangers passing in the street/By chance two seperate glances meet/And I am you and what I see is me." This acknowleges our common evolutionary ancestry, hat first being that crawled from the sea.
"And do I take you by the hand/And lead you through the land/And help me understand the best I can." Together, two of the same exploring this being on the land can help each other survive, and understand.
"And no one called us to the land" (reiterates that "no one" made us leave the ocean)
"and no one crosses there alive" (the irony that at one time it meant eventual death due to the non-aquatic/unusual environment (trying to exist on land)
"no one speaks and no one tries" (it's not something "spoken" of, or contemplated, yet it happend)
"no one flies around the sun" (the next evolutionary step. No one speaks of it (in 1971) or tries - but this represents the "next step" in an evolutionary sense. We can't live "around the sun" (literally - in space) just as we couldn't have lived on the land at one time)
Another great guitar solo, then a mellow part. Then some crazy guitar riffs, then begins the weird squeaky guitar sounds. I believe that this is the progress of life over time. The good guitar solo, as I mentioned earlier, is a significant event. Man/life is starting to be able to survive, and grow on land. Then the calm part of the song goes on. Life is peachy, spreading out, making new inventions, etcetera. Then the crazy guitar riffs come in. I believe that this is the beginning of turbulence between human beings, wars, jealousy, whatever you think it means. Then there is complete and utter chaos over the land (the trippy, scary squeaking sounds). It continues for quite some time, you can hear wind, which means that life is isolated and scared, lonely if you will. Ravens, or crows, vultures, whatever kind of bird of prey you think it is (seagulls don't really seem scary, do they?) are present because of the death in the air. But the fear and chaos diminish eventually. Why? That one single note is playing again. The word of God has been brought to man. At first his word brought the world into existance, but as us knowledgable people know, man did not know of God right away. His word was revealed to Abraham when God felt the time was right.
As the keynote plays, the guitar comes back in to play (cymbals are played well also). A melody that seems to say that something important is about to come. When the two guitars are being played at the same time, that signifies that something triumphant has occured. I believe that means that order has been restored to life and humans can go about their merry ways again.
"Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes" refers to the sun, which perhaps, technically speaking, we can fly around now, although no one speaks of it or tries.
"Inviting and inciting me to rise" means that the sun makes you want to get up; metaphroically speaking, "evolve."
"And through the window in the wall/come streaming in on sunlight wings/
a million bright ambassadors of morning." This is a visual metaphor. The light streaming through some blinds could be related visually to the effect of sunlight beaming through the sea, from the perspective of "something" looking up "towards the light". Addtionally, the alliteration to "angels" (wings) indicates an association of the light with a "higher being", which is attempting to be reached. Perhaps this is what drove us from the sea - as it turns out to be "no one", just the sunlight; which we later realize is *just* sunlight.
"And no one sings me lullabyes/And no one makes me close my eyes" An action I take is of my own accord.
"So I throw the windows wide/And call to you across the sky." Throwing the "windows wide" demonstrates our present state of evolution, our ability to "control the sun (light). Since "I am you and what I see is me" I'm actually calling to myself - which is an ironic statement of that self-realization, which could be considered a higher state of evolution in itself. Calling to you across the sky, pretty self explanatory.
The song begins to relax, the single note slowly fades away, meaning man has now discovered himself. The weird calling/howling sounds I believe are souls flying across the sky.
Well there you have it. My interpretation of one of the greatest songs of all time. If you have any questions, comments, possible different interpretations, please post.

PS - I didn't understand this song at first. I found one other website that explained this song in some detail, lyrics mostly. I copied most of what I read and pasted here because I didn't feel like typing everything I already knew.

[Keith Jordan]

Quite an insightful post indeed!! Thanks. What was the website you are in reference to???

[Stiggs]

The website I'm referring to is called "Bright Side Of The Moon." A rather interesting website, people discuss the meaning of specific songs or albums, but as well how Pink Floyd has touched their lives, and also how events that occured remind them of songs, etc. The weblink is:
http://www.ainet.com/eye/brightside.html

[mosespa]

That was brilliant.

I need to go listen to Echoes while I read this again.

[FloydNZ]

I agree with the above posts......very insightful......well done

but.....

sorry to be picky.....but the line.....

"and no one crosses there alive"

should read "and no one forces down our eyes"

[Furious]

thats a good find.

I have a different take, perhaps less lyrical and more musical, on the song, which i shall endevour one day to actually type up

i really should find my essay on The Dark Side of the moon that i did for English class (our teacher was a Floyd fan so he let me do it)

[Stiggs]

Sounds interesting. Do you think you can sum it up a bit? Maybe give a general idea for me to see?

[Stiggs]

Sounds interesting. Do you think you can sum it up a bit? Maybe give a general idea for me to see? I mean after all, not everyone has the same idea for the same song.

[David Smith]

What about we start a new thread, for the thread any people interested write an essay on a song they like including the meaning and context e.t.c?

What do you think, that DSOTM guy can start the thread.

[Devil man 665]

a voice from the heavens cried: RISE FROM YOUR GRAVES

and an oh so familiar theme tune played and this thread was once more

[oshta2k3]

lmao. Interesting post guys. The link didnt work though, oh well. Anybody else have any essays on albums/songs by Pink Floyd

[albatross1988]

i'm sorry but i have to disagree on this analysis.
echoes is my favorite song of all times, it's not even a song for me, i like to say its an experience. i love it so much i got it tattoed in the back of my neck.
anyways, i0m a bit tired right now to do a full analysis right now (i just did that in a jefferson airplane forum about one of their songs haha) so i just have to say that i'm pretty sure this song is about empathy. roger said this was a precursor of dsotm, which he said, and i quote, is about asking if "the human race can be humane".
echoes is obviously about empathy wth each other, even if we're strangers, because we are all in this game of life together, and if you are happy i'm happy (strangers passing...) it's also present in pigs on the wings.

[Hudini]

sorry to be picky.....but the line..... "and no one crosses there alive" should read "and no one forces down our eyes"

Depends where you have found the lyrics.

Obviously the official line goes "No one crosses there alive" but it's sung "No one forces down our eyes". Much like the line from "Breathe" that's printed on the sleeve as "Don't sit down, it's time to start another one" while Gilmour sings "dig" instead of "start", and there's another line in "Echoes" that reads "Now this is the day you fall upon my waking eyes" but it's sung "Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes".

The probable cause for this confusion is that they made changes to the lyrics while the older versions were already in print and there was no way to take them back anymore. Remember the running order on "The Wall" that was also altered in the last minute so the lyrics were printed on the sleeve in a different order than the songs actually go, and "What Shall We Do Now?" was included instead of "Empty Spaces".

[myriadsmallcreature]

You might consider another possibility.

Note the author and the date...

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.anth ... e00759000d

"To me the beauty of the AAT is that one event - the temporary isolation of a
small group of apes in a semi-aquatic environment - provides a
straightforward explanation of a host of different problems which otherwise
require a host of different hypotheses to account for them. I'm not sure the
appeal to Occam's razor is a winner in this case. It reminds me of the
Continental Drift debate. (I'm sure people are tired of hearing this trotted
out in support of every unlikely sounding theory, but here goes). Occam's
razor was, I think, frequently cited against the idea that continents moved
around. However, once it was accepted (i.e. once a feasible mechanism for it
was discovered) all of the tortuous explanations for a host of puzzling
geological and zoological correspondences simply dropped away as unneeded.
One apparent violation of Occam's Razor resulted in a much closer shave. The
AAT doesn't even require the discovery of a whole new mechanism like
tectonic plate movements. It only requires a particular circumstance within
which all the mechanisms we're familiar could get to work."

[Duckboy]

i'm sorry but i have to disagree on this analysis.
echoes is my favorite song of all times, it's not even a song for me, i like to say its an experience. i love it so much i got it tattoed in the back of my neck.
anyways, i0m a bit tired right now to do a full analysis right now (i just did that in a jefferson airplane forum about one of their songs haha) so i just have to say that i'm pretty sure this song is about empathy. roger said this was a precursor of dsotm, which he said, and i quote, is about asking if "the human race can be humane".
echoes is obviously about empathy wth each other, even if we're strangers, because we are all in this game of life together, and if you are happy i'm happy (strangers passing...) it's also present in pigs on the wings.

"i am you and what i see is me..."