This Gordawfull dics gets NO medal from me, it's just plane ludicroux!!don't you think so?



Stewart Hottenscheier III

This album is as good as Floyd classics, but never gets mentioned the same breath as Dark Side of the Moon or the ones that followed it. It's an extraordinarily well made album, brilliantly sequenced, written, and performed. It's also a true Floyd album, with all band members contributing to the songwriting. It starts with the amazing, scary One of These Days. The next song, A Pillow of Winds, is one of Floyd's most beautiful ballads. San Tropez is cute and beautiful, and Seamus, which sounds like a throwaway, nevertheless is good. The best song is the side long, epic Echoes (here in its full length 23 minute version. The version on the greatest hits CD Echoes has been edited!). It's an amazing song, with some of Waters's best lyrics and beautiful vocals from Gilmour and Wright (who, honestly, sang better than Waters ever did, but didn't write lyrics like he could). Many people love to say you should get stoned while listening to this song, I say no. Stay sober and get stoned by the song. Echoes is a great epic track, as good as anything put out by Yes, King Crimson, or ELP. This is an unjustly underrated album in Floyd's catalog, and is actually one of their best.

Pink Floyd has had many sounds and styles over the years. There is the Barret-era, the pre-Darkside era, as well as the Darkside-era and the post-Darkside era. Each gives insight into the happenings of the band, the creative leaders, and the battles for power.

Meddle was somewhere in the middle. It sports of the refinement that would make Darkside of the Moon one of the best albums ever. It glimpses that architectural, perfectly choreographed style that shot Pink Floyd into the history books. However, it also contains elements of the style that made them famous. Long, organic rivers of textures and melodies that blended seamlessly.

Meddle is the fulcrum point of this change; it displays the meeting of the pre-Darkside and the post-Darkside era. If Darkside is too structured, or Atom Heart Mother to jam-oriented, Meddle is the perfect compromise, mixing structure and smoothness in a perfect way.

Though often overshadowed by The Wall or Dark Side, this is a magnificent album. This is my favorite earlier Floyd album, even though it doesn't get the airplay of the others, it is truly a masterpiece.

I saw this on sale and I thought to myself, I'll come back again and if it's still there, I think I'll get it. It was and I did. And let me tell you, reader, it's great. This '71 release doesn't sound dated, and it stands up strong to Led Zeppelin IV and Who's Next, among others. It's just as good as DSOTM and WYWH. Go get it, and there's no need to get hight to it.

The music on this album flows seamlessly from the beginning track to the epic 20 min.+ "Echoes". In my opinion the greatest Pink Floyd album of all time, I absolutely trip out to this album, the feeling is 100% euphoria. Best enjoyed with high quality headphones on. Get "up" there, sit back and enjoy the trip.

This album is tied (for me) with wish you were here and Animals for the best Pink Floyd album. I am mainly a metal/hard rock fan. However, I love Pink Floyd more than any band, why? That is because of the lgreat voice of David Gilmour with his lyrical guitar playing and Richard Wright pounding on the keyboards while Nick Mason is doing solid drumming while Waters is on the bass. This album is where Pink Floyd started to sound like...well Pink Floyd. That probably doesn't make sense since their first CD was Piper at the Gates of Dawn and they should sound like that, however I started with the wall, then Dark Side of the moon, then the rest of the CD's. This CD has the gem, Echoes, on it. This is where their true sound started to shine through. In the middle is swans calling or something which is...interesting and if it wasn't Pink Floyd it would be stupid and silly, however that is Pink Floyd. This song is 23 minutes long and is a collaboration of everything awesome about Pink Floyd.
*sorry for any wrong spellings

Man this is a boring album. There's nothing offensively bad about it's just all so achingly soulless.

One Of These Days. Oh! It's actually moderately catchy! For the first minute or so that is. Dum badum badum badum badum badum etc... (and etc etc etc, and even etc) I remember churning out something like this on the bass string of my guitar when I was 13. I didn't leave the tape running though I didn't make millions from it. Darn.

Pillow Of Winds/ Fearless. I just don't get these boring acoustic squeaky voiced bits of fluff. Inoffensive and fairly pleasant, but they're the type of songs your grandparents would approve of.

Saint Tropez/ Seamus. Other than hinting at a future prediliction for luxury yachts in the Mediterrean these songs are...well nothing, basically.

Echoes. Oh! Duuuuude! A Floydian soundscape! Whooooaaaa! *toke* *toke* Well there were dozens of bands around this era who were doing better, bolder and stranger soundscapes and made PF's sonic wankery sound like Perry Como in comparison. Tangerine Dream were much better at this and also didn't have a vocalist trying to sound like a choirboy trying to please his music teacher.

So overall it's hard to know what to make of this album. It's not melodic enough to be good pop, it definitely does not rock and as prog rock/ pyschedelia it's mediocre too. But still, you're not buying it for the music anyway but for the cool factor associated with this band. :p

If you were going to buy just one Pink Floyd CD, you'd have to go with Dark Side of the Moon, simply because it's one of the most unique and undeniably great rock albums ever made. But if you are going to buy another, Meddle is the one to get. It's the band's finest *musical* effort in which the lyrics, pioneering aural effects, and musicianship balance each other without one or two dominating the way they do on all the other albums. Ticking clocks and beating hearts, perfectly suited as they are to DSOTM, aren't music. And the increasingly sardonic lyrics in their subsequent albums became more famous - and overbearing - than the tunes.

Meddle, as other reviewers have pointed out, lay at the turning point of Pink Floyd's musical development. They shook off the excessive avant-garde noises from the Syd Barrett era but kept the sense of experimentation, disciplining their electronic toys to stay within conventional musical formats. There are shades of the earlier space rock (the opening track, "One of These Days", ties into Ummagumma's "Careful With That Axe Eugene" with the same musical buildup and single lyric near the end). And the "Echoes" suite at the end hints at the album-length explorations so astonishingly perfected on Dark Side of the Moon.

Everything on Meddle is music, with thoughtful (and playful) lyrics, and the occasional sonic effect that sets the mood of the pieces without overwhelming the song itself. So buy this album to hear what Pink Floyd could do when they realized just how talented a band they actually were and didn't (yet) have to try and live up to a masterpiece.

When I was a teenager I first listened to this band. I discovered new sounds, and my perception of music became more acute. Pink Floyd let out Meddle: what an album! All songs seemed to blend together in a perfect package destined to awaken feelings in the listeners.
The last song of the album, incredibly long for the time, has always been a special treat for me. I have never gotten tired of listening to it. Beautiful special effects from the synthesizer, eerie and dreamy sounds from the guitar all blending in superbly with the drums, bass and voices give this song a superior level of quality.
I recommend this album to everyone, as it is and will always be a true mastepiece!

A very strong album, closing with what many think is their best track, "Echoes," which comes in at over 23 minutes in length. We're really starting to see a more cohesive Pink Floyd at this point. David Gilmour has really found his own voice, with his guitar playing, Roger Waters's writing is settling into that sound that is easily definable as being Pink Floyd, and the band is, generally, in very good form. A great album that you won't likely hear on classic rock radio.

This 1971 release is my favorite album from the group and presents a further realization of the Pink Floyd sound. That is, while the album features the psychedelic tendencies of their late 1960s output, the blueprint for albums like Wish You Were Here (1975) was reasonably well defined. Meddle presents a nice mixture of individually penned tracks and excellent group efforts including the lengthy centerpiece of the album, Echoes and the instrumental track One of these Days.

The lineup at this point included David Gilmour (electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar on One of These Days, vocals), Roger Waters (electric bass and vocals); Rick Wright (Hammond organ, VCS3 synthesizer, piano, vocals), and Nick Mason (drums and percussion). I think that the group was in top form on this album and really pulled out the stops with respect to experimentation in the studio, especially on Echoes.

The tracks on the album range from the band's "inside joke" Seamus (2:15), which is a blues piece played on an acoustic guitar with a slide and that features a howling dog as a soloist, to the magnificent space rock epic Echoes (23:27). Echoes itself was patched together from bits and pieces contributed by all of the band members and is an especially fine large-scale work that features a soft and drifting vocal introductory section and a middle section that takes the concept of space rock to a new level. Specifically, the middle section is more or less structureless and features various sound effects generated on their instruments and found sounds. The neat thing about the arrangement on Echoes is that it seems to suspend time...while days pass in your head before reaching the closing vocal section (which restates opening themes), only twenty minutes or so pass by in "real time".

Other great tracks include the thunderous, bass heavy instrumental One of These Days, which opens with Dave and Roger on "dueling" basses. Based upon what I have read, the differences in the tone of the two basses at the introduction (one trebly; one dull sounding) is attributable to the fact that one bass had new strings and the other did not. Other neat things about the track include a bass guitar part played through a Binson echo unit. I guess it is worth noting that Nick Mason speaks the phrase "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces" on this track and the "wind" effect at the introduction of One of these Days was achieved with a white noise oscillator. One of my personal favorites, the soft and spacey Pillow of Winds is a fairly romantic song for the band and utilizes acoustic textures nicely. In general, although the overall mood of the album is dark and gloomy (with the exception of Seamus), San Tropez is a lighter track by Roger that presents a nice contrast.

All in all, this is an exceptional album from a much neglected period in the overall career of Pink Floyd. Highly recommended along with The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967); A Saucerful of Secrets (1968); Ummagumma (1969); More (1969); Atom Heart Mother (1970); the compilation album Relics (1971), and Obscured By Clouds (1972).

Pink Floyd's seventh album Meddle was released in October of 1971 in the US and November of 1971 in the UK.
Meddle was once again produced by the four Floyd members and was recorded at Morgan Studios, Air Studios and Abbey Road throughout early to mid 1971 as the latter two studios first equipped 16-track recording studios to record more parts with ease.
Meddle kicks off with the classic instrumental "One of These Days" (which would remain a live staple until 1973 and was resurrected for both post-Waters Floyd tours) with the double tracked bass guitars from bass player/singer Roger Waters and guitarist/singer David Gilmour (whom also added some great slide and regular guitar work on this track), organ swirls from keyboard player Rick Wright and the notorious vocal phrase from drummer Nick Mason (this is his most famous vocal appearance, he had sung Corporal Clegg on A Saucerful of Secrets but David and Nick are embarrased about Clegg). The next track, the Waters/Gilmour penned "A Pillow of Winds sounds like an outtake from Wish You Were Here. "Fearless (Interpolating "You'll Never Walk Alone)" is next and I first heard this track on the 1983 Floyd collection Works which I got in 1985 on tape and introduced me to the early pre-Dark Side Floyd. "San Tropez" follows and sounds like the father of Free Four musically. Then "Seamus" was a funny blues that ended the first half of the album which then was reworked as Mademoiselle Nobs on the Live at Pompeii film.
The second half of the album is the reason to buy this album and it is the 23 and a half minute tour-de-force entitled "Echoes" which was originally called when performed live as either "Nothing (Parts 1-23)" or "Return of the Son of Nothing" or "How We Won the Double" among other proto-titles. This epic of a song features a classic double harmony lead vocal performance from Wright and Gilmour, excellent solos from Wright and Gilmour on organ and guitar respectively, a trippy middle section and great musicianship from the band and an ending where you sound like you are flying off to space.
However, when Meddle was initially released (I didn't get my first copy until November of 1987 on cassette as a gift from my father when my Floyd obsession went into overdrive), the album was a big time commercial failure in the States peaking at #70 because most Americans at the time were not quite ready for Floyd and were too busy focusing on forgettable artists like The Carpenters, Carole King, James Taylor and other Johnny come latelys. Those aforementioned groups and artists (save James Taylor) have gone the way of the 8-track tape since then. Meddle did eventually go Gold (in October, 1973 in the wake of Dark Side of the Moon's success) and Double Platinum (in March of 1994) with two million in US sales to date.
I recommend Meddle, especially this repackaged/remastered version released by Capitol in April of 1995, to all Floyd fans.
This album was the stepping stone towards The Dark Side of the Moon and is my fourth all time favorite Floyd album after Wish You Were Here, The Dark Side of the Moon and The Division Bell.

This has always been an odd Floyd album for me. Although I own "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" and albums like that. I have to say that something is bothering me. The album cover for example...what does the picture represent? There's only 6 songs and one of them is more than 23 minute long. Well, "Echoes" is a brilliant song. "One of These Days" is a briallint, almost instrumental track (there's only one sentence). "Fearless" has some great riffs. I also like "A Pillow of Winds" and "San Tropez" but "Seamus" is not even a song. It's one of the worst "songs" I've ever heard. There's just a dog howling. It's terrible. Thank God it only lasts about 2 minutes. I would say that this is a great album if you listen to the whole album, not just a song or two. Pink Floyd is one of the greatest rock bands ever and this is their most underrated album after "Saucerful of Secrets".
Stars: Echoes, One of These Days

As of 1971 Pink Floyd were more musically mature which is to say their music begun to get that sound they would stick with for the rest of their carrer,
1. One Of These Days, a great heavy opener to the album it may be instrumental but its a standout on the album and its one of the only songs on this album that remained part of Pink Floyds set thru the late years 88-95, 5/5 stars
2. A Pilliow Of Winds, okay what else is there to say, 3/5 stars
3. Fearless, another great Pink Floyd song, it also appears on Works anyways this is a great song it has a nice upbeat feel to it great beat cool vocals great song, 5/5 stars
4. San Tropez, i like the steady beat this song has yet again another upbeat song its pretty good but this has never been regarded as one of Pink Floyds classic songs, 4/5 stars
5. Seamus, i like this one all it is is a dog barking its really cool how they recorded a 'talking' dog, 5/5 stars
6. Echoes, this shows that Pink Floyd is the true space age rock band of the 70s it is a very long 26 min jam very cool song to listen thru, 5/5 stars
all in all this is a great album and is essential to have access to

This album is in the "Top 5" of my favorite Pink Floyd albums. Whilst everyone is hooked on "Dark Side of the Moon", this one is even better (but that's just me). It starts off just right with "One of These Days" and concludes with the 23 1/2 minute long "Echoes". An old English teacher gave me an old BBC bootleg tape of theirs from back in 71' and it had "rough-take" early versions of the 2 songs mentioned and I was like "Yeah I definitely need this one"! I bought the album a few hours later and loved every song! If you're a "Floyd" fan, pick one up and enjoy!

Luis Mejia (son) - Pink Floyd First True era between the late '60s and the '70s are clearly defined by a more approached psychedia, in between this are the big first base The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, the later, same style A Saucerful Of Secrets, the more updated but still confusing Unmmagumma, and the most closely related to Atom Heart Mother, Meddle is an album which represents a new era in Pink Floyd's music, a more serious, commercial, modern and elegant one. While Meddle keeps some strong characteristics with Atom Heart Mother, the music displayed in Meddle is precisely light years from Atom Heart Mother Music, while a group of similarities can be easily detected, like the fact that Meddle, along with Atom Heart Mother and Wish You Were Here keep much of a very close structure. Still, despite their similarities, Meddle is much more cohersive and significant, while Atom Heart Mother is much of a frenetic display of musical talent but going nowhere and without being an accessible release, while Meddle approaches a lot more into a delightful comprehension, still cerebral but recognizable and appreciateable, and much more focused, it can be sayed that its their truly first album without a slight trace of frantic psychedelia or spaced out, freaked out movements toward its music, instead, is a much more laid back, accessible, solid but still undertaking album.

Into the boundaries of its music, it possesses their first true firm base into a much more reflective, patient and much more melodic style, its still an underground, undertaking album with very few commercial treats, while its notorious their ambition grew higher on this release, only the more slightly famous, recognizable "One Of These Days" stands as their higher commercial success on the album, being a rythmical, easy instrumental piece with certain remarkable characteristics, mainly the introducing and fading wind in the song got to be pretty notorious, while also its echoing instrumentation. Trough a more sensitive and easy sound, they are present three fine compositions still with an undertaking style just as seen in Atom Heart Mother, these three capture a much more melodic and much lesser (or none) of a freaked out, once meaningful style, these are the sensitive, acoustic guitar penned, melodic "A Pillow Of Winds", which, oddly enough for Pink Floyd, deals with love themes, while the slow paced, soft and slightly mellow "Fearless" stands with one of their most memorable style, and the oddly joyful, uncompromising, light style of "San Tropez" stands as a highlight.

At this point of their career, Meddle contains a music style where their compositions, both musically and in their lyrics was starting to really make sense, a cerebral and still awkward sense, but sense after all, and while most of the compositions in the album stand with a more laid back structure, these still are very powerful and reflective among the classic Pink Floyd's style. Although this album is a truly cohersive and accessible work, these facts are mildly throw away when the album gets to the song "Seamus" much more of an incoherent and misplaced composition but not dull at all, it keeps its sense as its only a 2 minutes song, if it would've been released in Atom Heart Mother I'm sure it would've been extended to 11 minutes or more, so this is their very slight and mild trace of a persistent psychedelia. Although the rest of its songs, all Meddle's material and main point is resumed in the huge, epic "Echoes", it went famous among Pink Floyd's releases as "Echoes" among with the Wish You Were Here' "Shine On You Crazy Diammond" are respectfuly placed as their most recognizable, epic and most important songs among their superb long compositions, Echoes possesses much more of a poetical scent with a dramatic perception, the 22 minutes long masterpiece is yet the more profound composition in the album, with its distractive lyrics, more simple but complex musical approaches with its instrumentation changes and unique performance, swifting through dramatic, melodic moments, through overwhelming guitar-penned moments, through characteristic musical movements, it stands as a bombastic, fierceful, undertaking but still accessible composition.

Pink Floyd's compositions and more recognizable musical style is formed with a firm base on Meddle, still its successful variation of moods were truly comforting for the band, so their later approaches like Animals and The Dark Side Of The Moon keeps a more firm and confident structure, making Meddle another one of their most own influential releases.

If you were to disect echoes, you would hear pieces of Wish you were Here -the album, Dark Side And The Wall already...That this album was pinacle for the band is an understatement. So much of their jamming was incohesive and sporadic before this point that it wasn't connecting to the listener or even themselves. Here in Echoes is an introduction to everything that would follow that was good. That they magnified and took the themes to new directions was a work of genius...most bands would not be able to do what they did from this point, but the rest is history. In Echoes you can hear Breath, Shine and so many other pieces of work...how incredible to discover this album, after the fact. Of course i heard it after everything else was said and done, but it's worth a listen. Obscured by clouds is good too. I think Obscured has some very intense spacial moments that they would also captialize on, but here is Echoes and Meddle....the real beginnig of this band.

As a complete fan of all incarnations of Pink Floyd, which definitely begins with the beginning and Syd Barrett, if I were forced to pick a favorite, not that I really could pick just one. . . this album probably would be first on my list . . .

As the author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent" and a former radio disc-jockey, I am often asked to write and or discuss various music supplies and recordings from the 60's and 70's.

November 11, 1971 saw Pink Floyd's "Meddle" commandeer us for a forty-six minute journey through uncharted space destinations.

The beauty of the album is age doesn't tarnish it only escalates an already stellar reputation. When the LP first hit the record store shelves many a consumer concentrated on side 2 ("Echoes") and all twenty-three minutes of the musical enlightenment. Eventually side 1 would get its turn to solidify its rightful place on the rock pedestal.

"One Of These Days" strikes without warning. Roger Waters bass is a blowtorch as the momentum builds each second. A truly legendary opener for a rock record. "A Pillow Of Winds" may be the most forgotten song on the recording but that only shows you what the competition is. The soft approach with the haunting instrumentation is breathtaking. "Fearless" deserves such accolades the rest of the album could be blank and it would still deserve to be proudly displayed in any collection. The perfect synergy of Gilmour's guitar and the vocal inflection show the craftsmanship of a tremendous composition. "San Tropez" could take a spot on a Kinks release from the mid to late sixties. It certainly is a departure from the theme thus far but sometimes opposites attract and that analogy is proper here. "Seamus" throws the kitchen sink at us and if you ducked in time you can appreciate the results. Gilmour plays a bit of the blues, the animals are out of the barn, and the piano holds it together very well. Did anyone have advanced warning of what would happen next? "Echoes" gives the feeling you are on some interplanetary voyage. The term "Space Rock" has been used as frequently as the population grows but maybe it is the best choice. The entire journey that takes up almost half the record is never dull and you are not concentrating on the clock but the finale as the record raises the bar to a crescendo. If memory serves me well the saga we call "Meddle" needed four engineers to help make everything worthy for takeoff.


Enjoy the music and be well,
Craig Fenton
Author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent"

Meddle is magic, pure and simple. Although the greater, more commercially successful releases from the band during the 1970s are more popular, concluding with "The Wall", Meddle is still a treat unto it's own. A splendid mix of psychedelic, progressive rock, blues and folk all intertwine to create a dreamy and sometimes dark album that rips through several moods. A launching pad for future stardom, Meddle is one of the most underrated works by the band and should not go unnoticed.

This 1971 release was a foreshadowing of good things to come for Pink Floyd. They were always known for composing and recording long tracks that painted a grand musical portrait. One Of These Days is one of their best known compositions favored by audiences worldwide. Nick Mason in the middle of the track says 'one of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces' in case you didn't know. But the track that really stands out is Echoes which takes up all of Side 2 on the cassette version. If I had to choose which Pink Floyd song was the best ever recorded it would be Echoes. The song best exemplifies the outstanding musicianship that Pink Floyd is known for. Probably the weakest track on the album is Seamus which features a bluesy David Gilmour playing to the background of a howling dog. Fearless has a sound sample of a crowd chanting and clapping at a soccer match. Meddle has all the ingredients of the music and sound samples that would come to define their best-seller Dark Side Of The Moon.

Pink Floyd's "Meddle" is a classic Rock album, not by the worn-out standards of what one might conjure up, as being 'trademark' perhaps 'wrapped in flames' of 'greatness'. Yet it is because "Meddle" Breaks the 'standards of greatness' with it's ingenuity and creativity, especially considered within the age and times it was written. Heavy-metal was on the verge of becoming 'King' of Radio, Circuit Concerts, and Album Sales. Groups from Grand Funk Railroad, BloodRock, Atomic Rooster, Led Zepplin, and Artists coming into their own Eric Clapton, Ted Nugent, Alvin Lee, all were producing themselves as Rock Icons, if not Legends because of finding a unique Niche into the Listener's ever growing list of preferences. Yet "Meddle" stands out in its own uniqueness because of several different styles of music being integrated and merged. The album moves from the Blues 'Shamus' cannine assisted, to the real-life ballards done with amazing diverse instrumentation, and finally progresses into the in-comparable ozone production of Rock-heavy imagery interspersed between layers of electric variations alluring visions of pre-historic travel dodging the Pteradactals through the mist, while being enticed into the sounds of ducks on a foggy pond, and finishes with the crescendo of signature "Floyd" guitar climax. "Meddle" is a compilation of superb creative variations of songs not obviously connected by theme, melody or structure, but there is an un-deniable thread of "Floyd" DNA which creates this project as one which is very unique even within the repertoire of Pink FLoyd. It precludes "Dark side of moon", and "Animals" with somewhat of a premonition of the greatness there, not by an easily placed clue of song patterns, but by the undercurrent progession genius. An album which seems to emulate "Meddle", was "Arc of a Diver" by Steve Winwood, another genius of diverse progression himself. Listen to them and see if they arent complimentary.

Back in the days of vinyl I loved echoes but hadn't really connected with side one. Too acoustic. Too silly. And except for track one, too mellow. Now decades later I'm rediscovering Meddle. It's a lot better than I remember. Tuneful and melodious. Varied and interesting. Highly recommended here not for its role in the Pink Floyd cannon, but rather for the lasting quality of its songs.

This won't be confused with Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall, but this early effort shows Floyd growing into the musical geniuses they became.
"One of these days" remains a Floyd classic, and "Echoes" becomes better and better with each listen.

A great work. New release is remastered well.
Climax in "Echoes" never fails to send chills
down the spine. Every cut is good.

Heard this as a young man when it was new, and having heard the previous recordings from the 60's, knew this was a departure. "Echoes" filled one side of the vinyl album and it was instantly a signature song for youthful psychedelic experiences. I now look back and find "Fearless" my fav Floyd song but that the overall feel is a precursor for just about everything they produced afterward, especially the "Dark Side of The Moon". If you like all things Pink Floyd, you should have this. It is sooo different from their first 4 albums though. Most early fans would say Roger Waters took them into the large mainstream market for rock in the day. A tragedy ? Hardly.

There were a lot of very good albums released by Pink Floyd prior to this but this marks the very peak of their career in my opinion. The press has decided to mark DSOTM as Floyd's initial peak, but actually it occured here. Echoes is a phenomenal composition as showcases David Gilmour's creative guitar playing. One Of These Days is a great jam and concert piece. San Tropez shows us Roger Water's trite and simple writing style that is very uplifting and charming.

A must have for any rock music fan!

Many have said this is where it all started, and they are right. A brilliant album top to bottom. If you just getting into Pink Floyd and you like DSOTM and the Wall, this is as far back as you need to go. This is where the sound that they became in the 70's started taking full form.

Why this is not recognized as Pink Floyd's chef d'oeuvre is beyond me. There is more in the 45 minutes of this album to justify the Floyd's enshrinement in the pantheon of rock godhood than all of their subsequent output combined.

To begin with, there is "One of These Days." The doubled bass tracks (Echo-plexed and stereo-tracked to swirl from left-to-right and back) anticipate much electronic music -- witness ABBA, Morcheeba, Massive Attack, Moby, Oakenfold, Radiohead, Zoot Woman, etc.

"A Pillow of Winds" showcases the dreamy Hammond organ stylings of Rick Wright and the acoustic guitar part-writing of Dave Gilmour. If this track does not stand as tall as the rest of the album, it is only because it is an oak amongst redwoods.

"Fearless" is the first great demonstration of Roger Waters's obsession with insanity, self-regard, and schizophrenia, later to become de rigeur on "Animals," "The Wall", and "The Final Cut." Its creepiness is bolstered by the crawling octave figures in Dave Gilmour's guitar part, which seem to illustrate, in musical terms, the narrator's growing paranoia and dissociation from the world around him. "You'll never walk alone," indeed. Actually, you may walk alone over the cliff of madness, but at least your precipitation therefrom will be accompanied by a Gilmour guitar-figure.

"San Tropez" follows on insanity of "Fearless", and actually turns out to be its reiteration and intensification. The reprieve from Watersian dissociation is merely a hazy, cocktail-inflected hour of jazz.

"Seamus" diverts from the atmosphere of dreariness which has begun to take root. The stage is now clear for the quasi-symphonic titan which concludes this album.

The hydrophone pings which begin "Echoes" bely its outer-space origins -- the starting couplet of which originally went "Planets meeting face to face/Hang motionless upon the air." The opening, in a sort of Handelian French-overture dotted rhythm, eventually gives way to an extended funk-rock workout (with much bending and releasing from the ever-fertile Gilmour and chopping and draw-bar manipulation from the Hammond-frying Wright).

In all, "Echoes" moves strength to strength, proving itself to be the reason for buying "Meddle", pushing 70s progressive rock from the realm of curiosity (or straight classical paraphrase) to actual direct musical expression.

When you have finished the album, the feeling is one of accomplishment, or that of having flown over a large, wide-horizoned vista.

For Floyd fans who are also prog heads it doesn't get better than Meddle. "Echoes" is worth the price of admission alone and is often overlooked in the "prog epic masterpiece" stakes next to pieces like "Supper's Ready" or "Close to the Edge" (It pre-dates both). The band's more pastoral side shines brilliantly in "A Pillow of Winds" and "Fearless" while "One of These Days" must be one of rock's greatest album openers -- a scorching tour de force instrumental that shows off David Gilmour's slide guitar mastery. The sort of blending of pop, prog and space rock that was hinted at on Atom Heart Mother is far better demonstrated here and Gilmour and co. have been playing out this formula ever since.

It must have taken me a good five years until it dawned on me that yes, Meddle is a really good Pink Floyd album. Maybe not their best (that would be either Obscured by Clouds or Saucerful of Secrets) but entirely worth listening to over and over.

The first three songs are tunes that ANY one who likes Pink Floyd would admire, while "echoes" is the really lengthy tune that's sort of like a mellow space rock journey. There's a reason this song has become one of Pink Floyd's most underrated songs. Listen to this whole album over and over. You will find that the overall beauty of the music is really something special.

I bought this for a friend who doesn't have internet access.... it made me feel powerful. :-)

In my humble esteem, having been a fan of Pink Floyd since I was old enough to comprehend their lyrics, Meddle is as close to musical perfection as any album has ever come. The six songs on this album each transcend reality, taking the listener to secret places where tunes literally bleed, commanding emotional responses from the listener, which vary from peaceful bliss, to gnashing sorrow. Each track is masterfully mixed, and the twangs of rock brilliance are evident with every chord.
The journey begins with ONE OF THESE DAYS; a break-neck jam which drags you along kicking and screaming, with super-tight ups and downs flowing toward and over you like a raging, seething flood. Next, A PILLOW OF WINDS; delves into the recess of the mind, a smooth dream which takes you to the beautiful places you've only seen in your best dreams. From there, FEARLESS thrusts you into a soulful ballad full of longing and promise, a seamless translation of pure human longing to musical notes, wreathed in the baleful chanting of an arena full of people. SAN TROPEZ is a lazy hymnal, a vision of serene vistas set to tight, jazzy bass lines. SEAMUS sidles in next, taking the sting out of the previous tracks and lulling you into a hazy backwood confidence, leaving you calmed in the familiar waters of any simple front-porch knee slapper. If you've never listened to MEDDLE before, SEAMUS leaves you utterly unprepared for what is to come next...
ECHOES;
A tranquil ping, like drops of water in a peaceful lake, the drops begin to take form, and give way to the mournful gropes of the guitar and bass,when suddenly, drums peek over the horizon of dreams like a setting sun. From there, the song delves out into the abyss of reality, leaving you free falling through every imaginable horror and and beautiful thing you've ever known. For twenty three minutes and twenty eight seconds you're trapped in an Elysian chasm of raging musical genius, the likes of which no band after Floyd has managed to breech, and assuredly, no band ever will again.

This is probably the most popular, and arguably the best, of Pink Floyd's pre-Dark Side albums. (Possible exception for Piper, depending on your tastes.) The band's sound started coming together on Atom Heart Mother, but things really clicked on (parts) of Meddle.

The album opens with the fierce (mostly) instrumental rocker, "One of the These Days". A live favorite both before and after Roger Waters's departure from the band, it contains a classic bassline, some naaasty wailing by Dave Gilmour on guitar, and a rare vocal by Nick Mason threatening to cut you into little pieces.

The album closes with what may be the best track of Pink Floyd's career, the epic "Echoes". Starting with a ghostly "ping", it contains several lengthy instrumental sections and some haunting singing by Gilmour and Rick Wright. The music fades into a "noise" section, then comes back to life in a fantastic, explosive climax. It's more raw and loose than Floyd's later studio-perfect work, but If you like Pink Floyd's instrumental side you will definitely enjoy it.

The four tracks in the middle of the album range from OK to good, but are really inconsequential compared to the first and last tracks. "Fearless" is a nice upbeat track, "A Pillow of Winds" is a pleasant love ballad, "San Tropez" is a cheerful (with vocals by Waters, of all people) vaguely jazzy tune, and "Seamus" is a blues with a barking dog solo. It's almost like the band had to lighten the mood and intensity before and after the two best tracks.

If you consider Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here to be the best of Pink Floyd's studio albums, then this album is an absolute must. It contains some of their finest work -- the four band members working perfectly as a unit with their egos in check.