Random Music Thoughts

[Dr. Briggs]

Ummagumma's studio disk is a concept album. After the end of the bleakest song (Richard Wright's section "Sisyphus") come Roger Waters' songs. The opening to "Grantchester Meadows" is: "Icy wind of night begone, this is not your domain," which serves as a stark contrast and perhaps rejection of the gloom of the first songs. The Waters section ends with the line "...and the wind cried back," as if to say that the forthcoming section by David Gilmour is what "the wind cried." Gilmour's song, "The Narrow Way" seems to me to be about cherishing life when fearing death, containing such lines as "And if you want to stay for a little bit, Rest your aching limbs for a little bit, Before you the night is beckoning, And you know you can't delay..." To me, the final group of songs by Nick Mason (entitled "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" seem to signify one's final joy before passing on.

The whole album can be seen as a concept in and of itself: the album is called Ummagumma (slang for sex) after all, and is divided into a a Pink Floyd live album and the aforementioned studio album made up of sections of solo projects. The studio album represents individual talent, whereas the live album (containing lots of rhythmic sections and ending with a long moan-like vocal showcase) has said individual talents coming together for a "musical orgy"