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Meddle by  Released31 October 1971RecordedJanuary–August 1971Studio, , and  in LondonLength46:48Pink Floyd chronology
(1970)Meddle
(1971)
(1972) from Meddle "" / ""
Released: 29 November 1971

Meddle is the sixth studio album by English  band , released on 31 October 1971 by . The album was produced between the band's touring commitments, from January to August 1971 at a series of locations around , including  and .

With no material to work with and no clear idea of the album's direction, the band devised a series of novel experiments which eventually inspired the album's signature track "". Although the band's later albums would be unified by a central theme with lyrics written entirely by , Meddle was a group effort with lyrical contributions from each member, and is considered a transitional album between the -influenced group of the late 1960s and the emerging Pink Floyd. The cover has been explained by its creator  to be an ear underwater; as with several previous albums designed by , though, Thorgerson was unhappy with the final result.

The album was well-received by critics upon its release, and was commercially successful in the United Kingdom, but lacklustre publicity on the part of the band's American label  led to poor sales there upon initial release.

Recording

Returning from a series of tours across America and England in support of , at the start of 1971  commenced work on new material at  in London. At the time, Abbey Road was equipped only with eight-track  facilities, which the band found insufficient for the increasing technical demands of their project. They transferred their best efforts, including the opening of what became "", to 16-track tape at smaller studios in London (namely , and  in ) and resumed work with the advantage of more flexible recording equipment. Engineers  and Peter Bown recorded the main Abbey Road and AIR sessions, while for minor work at Morgan, Rob Black and Roger Quested handled the engineering duties.

Lacking a central theme for the project, the band used several experimental methods in an attempt to spur the creative process. One exercise involved each member playing on a separate track, with no reference to what the other members were doing. The tempo was entirely random while the band played around an agreed chord structure, and moods such as "first two minutes romantic, next two up tempo". Each recorded section was named, but the process was largely unproductive; after several weeks, no complete songs had been created.

Leckie had worked on albums such as 's  and 's , and was employed as a tape-operator on Meddle, partly for his proclivity for working into the early hours of the morning. He has said that Pink Floyd's sessions would often begin in the afternoon, and end early the next morning, "during which time nothing would get done. There was no record company contact whatsoever, except when their label manager would show up now and again with a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of joints." The band would apparently spend long periods of time working on simple sounds, or a particular guitar riff. They also spent several days at AIR attempting to create music using a variety of household objects, a project which would be revisited between their next albums,  and .

Following these early experiments – called Nothings – the band developed Son of Nothings, which was followed by Return of the Son of Nothings as the working title of the new album. One of these early works involved the use of 's piano. Wright had fed a single note through a , producing a submarine-like . The band tried repeatedly to recreate this sound in the studio but were unsuccessful, and so the demo version was used on what would later become "Echoes", mixed almost exclusively at AIR Studios. Combined with 's guitar, the band were able to develop the track further, experimenting with accidental  (such as Gilmour's guitar being plugged into a  back to front, an effect they used live from 1970 for the central section of “”). Unlike with Atom Heart Mother, the new multi-track capabilities of the studio enabled them to create the track in stages, rather than performing it in a single take. The final, 23-minute piece would eventually take up the entire second side of the album.

"" was developed around an   created by , by feeding the output through a  Echorec. The bassline was performed by Waters and Gilmour using two bass guitars, one on old strings. Drummer 's abstruse "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces" vocal line was recorded at double speed using a  voice, and replayed at normal speed.

Meddle was recorded between the band's various concert commitments, and therefore its production was spread over a considerable period of time. The band recorded in the first half of April 1971, but in the latter half played at Doncaster and Norwich before returning to record at the end of the month. In May they split their time between sessions at Abbey Road, and rehearsals and concerts in London, Lancaster, Stirling, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Nottingham. June and July were spent mainly performing at venues across Europe. August was spent in the far east and Australia, September in Europe, and October to November in the US. In the same period, the group also produced , a compilation album of some of Pink Floyd's earlier works. A  mix of the album was prepared at Command Studios on 21 and 26 September, but remains unreleased. New 2016 stereo and 5.1 mixes of the album were inadvertently released as hidden tracks on the Reverberation Blu-ray disc in The Early Years box set.

Composition MENU 0:00 "Echoes" may best demonstrate the band's change in style from psychedelic to progressive rock.[] Problems playing this file? See .

Although the tracks possess a variety of moods, Meddle is generally considered more cohesive than its 1970 predecessor, Atom Heart Mother. The largely instrumental "One of These Days" is followed by "", which is distinguished by being one of the few ,  love songs in the Pink Floyd catalogue. These two songs segue into each other across windy sound effects, anticipating the technique that would later be used on Wish You Were Here. The title of "A Pillow of Winds" was inspired by the games of  that Waters, Mason, and their wives played while in the south of France.

The song "" includes  of the   singing "", their anthem, which brings the song to an end in a heavily  . "", by contrast, is a -inflected  with a , composed by Waters in his increasingly deployed style of breezy, off-the-cuff songwriting. The song was inspired by the band's trip to the south of France in 1970. Pink Floyd uncharacteristically displayed their sense of humour with "", a pseudo- novelty track featuring 's dog (which Gilmour was looking after) howling along to the music. Although "Seamus" often tops polls of the worst songs Pink Floyd ever created, the band would use animal sounds again on .

The final song on the album is the 23-minute "Echoes". First performed as "Return of the Son of Nothing" on 22 April 1971 in Norwich, the band spent about six months on the track in three studios (Morgan, AIR and Abbey Road). The track opens with Wright's "ping". "Echoes" was recorded almost entirely at AIR Studios, and completed in July 1971. In the background of the track a  can be heard. "Echoes" also gave its name to the compilation album , on which a much-edited version of the title track was included. On the compilation, multiple edits throughout the entire song cut the running length of the piece down by some seven minutes. Some of the material composed during the creation of Meddle was not used; however, one song would eventually become "", on The Dark Side of the Moon.

Packaging Roger Waters, Nick Mason, David Gilmour and Richard Wright, 1971, Meddle inside cover

The album's title Meddle is a play on words: a , and to interfere.  of the art-design group  originally suggested a close-up shot of a 's  for the  photograph. He was overruled by the band, who informed him via an intercontinental telephone call while on tour in  that they would rather have "an ear underwater". The cover image was photographed by Bob Dowling. The image represents an ear, underwater, collecting waves of sound (represented by ripples in the water). Thorgerson later expressed dissatisfaction with the cover, claiming it to be his least favourite Pink Floyd album sleeve: "I think Meddle is a much better album than its cover". Thorgerson's colleague  shared his sentiments, saying: "Meddle was a mess. I hated that cover. I don't think we did them justice with that at all; it's half-hearted." The  contains a group photograph of the band (Floyd's last until 1987's ).

Release

Meddle was released on 31 October 1971 in the US, and 13 November in the UK. Meddle was later released as a remastered  by , and in April 1989 on their "Ultradisc" gold CD format. The album was included as part of the box set  on 2 November 1992.

Although in the UK it reached number three, lacklustre publicity on the part of Capitol Records led to weak sales in the US, and a chart position of number 70. "Pink Floyd had a strong following in the UK and other parts of Europe," recalled , then head of  at Capitol. "But they needed to be bigger in the United States, where they were only doing 200,000 units. They were very much an album act – no singles – which was bad news for us. They had a high credibility factor without the sales."

On 29 November 1971, "One of These Days" was released as a  in the US, with "Fearless" on the B-side. "One of These Days" and "Echoes" were performed during Live At Pompeii (the latter in two parts) and also on the BBC's 1971 In Concert. Meddle was later certified  by the  on 29 October 1973 and then double platinum on 11 March 1994, following the added attention garnered by the band's later successes in the United States.

Critical reception Retrospective professional ratingsReview scoresSourceRatingB−8/103/58.8/10

On release, Meddle received generally positive reviews from . 's Jean-Charles Costa wrote: "Meddle not only confirms lead guitarist David Gilmour's emergence as a real shaping force with the group, it states forcefully and accurately that the group is well into the growth track again", and the  called it "an exceptionally good album". Steve Peterson of  cited "Fearless" as its best song and said of the album, "This has got to be their best ever." Ed Kelleher of  called it "another masterpiece by a masterful group", noting "Fearless" as "fascinating" and praising "Echoes" as "a tone poem that allows all four group members much time to stretch their muscles". However,  was more reserved, describing it as "a soundtrack to a non-existent movie".

In  (1981),  said Meddle was a fairly good progression over the group's previous work and featured  songs highlighted by unique melodies, although he lamented the lyrics to "A Pillow of Winds": "The word 'behold' should never cross their filters again". In his critique of "Echoes", he believed the lyrics imitate "" by  but over 23 minutes of music that flows with a "timeless calm" similar to "". Daryl Easlea of  felt it was a similar, but more consistent and tuneful version of Atom Heart Mother highlighted by "Echoes", which he said "dominates the entire work" and is "everything right about progressive rock; engaging, intelligent and compelling". In  (2004),  said "Echoes" showed Pink Floyd to be a more developed group than before, "coloring the slow guitar ripples with deep-in-the-studio sonic details that only the truly baked would notice, much less appreciate." Writing for , editor  called Meddle the best album from their transitional years leading up to The Dark Side of the Moon, as it "spends most of its time with sonic textures and elongated compositions, most notably on its epic closer, 'Echoes'". He noted a "uniform tone", but not song structure, and wrote of the album's significance in the group's catalogue: "Pink Floyd were nothing if not masters of texture, and Meddle is one of their greatest excursions into little details, pointing the way to the measured brilliance of Dark Side of the Moon and the entire Roger Waters era."

It was voted number 255 in the third edition of 's  (2000).

Track listing Side oneNo.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength1."" Gilmour Waters Wright Mason instrumental5:572."" Gilmour Waters Gilmour5:133."" (including "") Gilmour Waters (including , )Gilmour6:084.""WatersWaters3:445."" Gilmour Waters Wright Mason Gilmour2:15Total length:23:17Side twoNo.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength1."" Waters Wright Gilmour Mason Gilmour and Wright23:31Total length:23:31