Year: 1971
Country: United Kingdom
Running time: 23 mins. 29 secs.
YouTube link
In 1971, Pink Floyd was in the middle of things. The genius Syd Barrett was long gone, and the great success of The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) was still a couple of years ahead. What could be even more significant, the clash of egos within the group was still a thing of the future. On later albums, Roger Waters and David Gilmour did most of the composing, and still later, Waters seemed to do everything by himself, until the group had no other choice but to break up.
This was not the situation with Meddle. It was one of the last real group efforts, where all the members contributed, in particular to lyrics. Following the lacklustre Atom Heart Mother (1970), Pink Floyd was uncertain about the next direction they should take. Between January and August 1971, they started experimenting and one of the major results was this 23 and a half minute composition that fills the B side of the vinyl release.
Echoes is a fine example of a situation where a group of extremely talented musicians end up creating a masterpiece simply by a series of experiments, even though they start working without any concrete idea of where they should be going. The track starts with a sound effect that was a result of one of these experiments. The keyboardist Richard Wright fed a single note through a Leslie speaker, which resulted in a very submarine-like ping, and which is used as the opening for the composition. This is then combined with Gilmour's guitar, and we are on our way.
Structure-wise, Echoes is not particularly complicated. Following the introduction, there are rather simple, typically Pink Floydian verses which are followed by an instrumental sequence deeply rooted in rhythm & blues, with a strong percussion. Wright's organ and Gilmour's guitar keep the atmosphere decidedly ominous, maybe even slightly threatening. For this reason, what follows comes as no big surprise and here's where the group's genius really starts shining through.
For several minutes, there is no music at all - in the traditional sense, anyway. Instead, we are drawn into the world of Echoes by an atmospheric sound effects sequence, possibly the best of its kind ever recorded on a progressive rock album. It sounds like we have entered an enormous cave, with low wind howling and crows croaking. There are occasional other sound effects that sound like whistles, but most of the sequence comprises of wind and croaking.
Following this, we start ascending back to ground level, and once we emerge, we are greeted by the absolutely greatest sequence of electric guitar riffs ever played. If there ever was a doubt that David Gilmour wasn't a worthy successor to Syd Barrett, after hearing this, it is long gone. Even when we resume the temporarily discontinued main theme, the goosebumps simply won't go away. And when we close the track to another series of slightly scary sound effects, there is no doubt that what we have just heard is a true masterwork and easily worth a place in the top 20 of all time.
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