MEDDLE

Meddle was the first pink Floyd album I listened to in totality for myself after being subjected to constant plays of Dark Side Of The Moon over and over at strange and dirty apartments and flats that had a party raging on into the very small hours. Of course this would only come on when everybody was completely zoned out and would annoy the fuck out of me no end. Watching the sun come up while my eyes are several shades of purple and my mouth feels like an ashtray is no comfort when "Money" is thrown in the equation and my wallet seems to be lost and my liver has abandoned me due to neglect. Now, I have never been to keen on DSOTM (you don't say?) and it's commercial leanings, mainly because over time I have noticed that the majority people who own DSOTM have little else by Pink Floyd except for perhaps The Wall or The New York Philharmonic does DSOTM or something to that effect in the most extreme of cases. You know the people who might have Harvest, Hysteria, Thriller, Celine Dion's Greatest Hits and what ever mullet man Michael Bolton did in their collections. Basically the safe multi platinum options. I spoke to a guy about Meddle one time and claiming to a HUGE Pink Floyd album had never ever heard Meddle! And gave me an odd look. I dared not mention Syd Barrett's name.

I do enjoy the Meddle album even though it's inconsistent and the sound mix is actually very low, which is a pity as this lessens the sonic blast of "One Of These Days" which should have been ripping. Floyd have never attempted to recreate a song with the ambition and creative yet stoned quality of a song like "One Of These Days", but remember, this is coming from a Dark Side.. and The Wall hater so please forgive me. "Pillow Of Winds" is decidedly dreamy with a very flowing rhythm and though "Seamus" sounds barking mad , it's worth it's place but the highlight and obvious center piece of the whole affair has to be the schizoid mood of "Echoes", which starts out melancholic and emotive which for a second threatens to be sweet but builds big walls (ahem) of brooding darkness and freakiness that only druggies could come up with but is a song of epic proportions. I have a friend who works as a mortician and he tells me that there is nothing he likes better than to have a spliff, go in to work, play "Echoes" and fuck around with a few corpses for the day. Needless to say, I don't envy him.